Hello to all ,

The last year was certainly a interesting time in the hobby , new company's ones coming into the market amongst them was Altores Studio , based in Russia they certainly hit the ground running releasing many figures and busts during 2016 the last of the busts is the subject of this review



It was announced here on PF and in Social media

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/altores-studio.81748/

As you can see the subject is a Spanish Conquistador , the name derived from the Latin meaning to conquer , say the name and most will say Cortes ( the leader of the expedition) and Aztec , the people who suffered so much not only by war but by disease that virtually wiped out the civilisation including Typhus , smallpox etc with one of Cortes' men contracting the disease.

When they returned, the Aztec army quickly overwhelmed the Spanish, killing many and causing the rest to retreat. The soldier was killed, and, likely when his body was looted, an Aztec caught the disease.

Quickly, smallpox spread among the population. The people had no resistance and no idea how to treat it. In many cases, everyone in a house died. With no time to bury so many people, houses were simply demolished over the bodies.

During the siege of Tenochtitlán in 1520, the population was not only low on food but dying of smallpox. 25% of the empire is said to have been lost to the disease alone. But more importantly, the Aztec chain of command was in ruins. The emperor, Cuitláhuac, died of smallpox, along with many of the leaders of the army.

Another aim was to bring back to Spain the riches from the new world including amazing gold pieces.

The soldiers some wearing full armour on horseback ( never seen before by the Inca ) , some wearing front and back armour and a helmet armed with good quality swords , these men were fighting against a very determined enemy.

References and historical reading are available here are a few you might like to look at

Lets have some information on the release

What are we looking at:

Title: Conquistador

Reference: B030

Scale: 1/10th

Material: Gray resin

No of parts: 10

Sculptor: Alexander Deryabin (see below)

Box Art: None available at Review

Its good to see a member of PF as the sculptor is none other than user name Zippo

As with previous releases from Altores Studio we have the parts in a white box , yellow text , strong , with the parts sandwiched between 2 thick foam layers in addition to them being in bags as welL

Parts consist of the main torso , 2 arms ( 1 with hand ) , the other hand, head , helmet , scarf/bandana end , sword blade, and the hand protection ( x 2 pieces)




Note : Not in picture above is the scarf/bandana my apologies to Altores

Continued in next post

Nap

Let rumble with the resin now

Prep

Main Torso ...Casting excess on underside
Head... Sand small amount of resin on the underside of neck and on top
Arms...Sand fitment points and test fit arms to torso
Hand .....Remove small casting pieces from sword handle and on cuff
Helmet..2 small casting remnants at back
Scarf/bandana end ...Casting bar to cut away and fit
Sword pieces ...fit blade and 2 hilt pieces

Note the helmet fits where the 2 casting remnants were at the rear .

We will look at the Main torso , the arms , and hand in this part

All parts were unblemished and very smooth on all surfaces

Main Torso

Apart from being the main piece Altores have chosen to give the rear a cut back with the area reduced up to just below the middle back , I actually quite like this presentation. on the underside there is a small round piece I presume this is where you fit your chosen post for displaying .




Our soldier wears a front and back cuirass the front being shaped in 2 points upwards very nicely indeed , the retaining straps on the front and sides and shoulder are very good and sharply defined , undercuts on these and the cross belt are the same with the round buckle well shaped , the end of the belt slightly turned up and the belt surface showing wear as well ..nice touch and a good eye for detail.
At the neck we see a fold down collar sitting naturally on the armour , the neck area has a cut out that matches the neck when fitting perfectly .
At the sides there are the areas for the arms have a cutout and a pin to match up very easily .






Arms

These are extremely well sculpted , wearing the sleeves being buttoned down on the insides as was the fashion, the left has the hand with it , the right not.

Clothing has been well executed in respect the folds , naturally worked at the bend in the arm , buttons are well done slightly pulling at the sleeve itself , a nice touch is the open cuffs , these are in scale and looks the part ..be careful not to knock the corners though !!! the hand that is sculpted to the arm is excellent in shape and details .



The right arm has the same quality details but with a locating lug for the separate hand .

On both the shoulder area is good in shape with the fit being accurate , there are small shoulder protection on each one.

Hand

This is the sword hand and it is gripping the handle tightly the fingers pushing into the inside palm, the splayed cuff has been cast onto the wrist with the fit being as expected ..very good.



Continued in next post


Nap

On now to the remaining pieces

Head

After seeing the previous bust releases my expectation was going to be high to say the least ...well were these met .....YES an emphatic YES, the face is in full action pose , screaming wildly mouth wide open teeth and tongue very nicely done , the teeth are well defined ( both top and bottom are sculpted , the nose is pushed up with the facial movement , lifting the brow with the eyes being sharply worked .
He wears a beard ....straggly and the individual strand being in place , the same quality work continued onto the hair , very natural looking.

Fit to the torso is spot on again with the hair sitting in place with no need for any filler whatsoever

This is one of the best I have seen especially in such a young company ...WELL DONE Altores Studio

Helmet

This is the one area that needed to be good and again it was , well shaped from all angle a morrion type combed helmet , with a band of decoration around the lower edge , the comb itself and the brim are a really good bit of work both in sculpting scale and in the casting .
Fit to the head is again no concern whatsoever and no filler needed .


Head scarf/Bandana

A flowing piece of material in keeping with the movement of the main sculpt, nice folds again with the ends being edged with long strands , fit is in a cutout at the back of the head.




Sword

I was happy that the sword blade was carefully packed at the bottom of the box so no damage and a perfectly straight piece of resin , the hilt consist of the 2 parts easy to fit into place , the actual guard has a design sculpted into it



Final Thoughts

Altores have certainly made a good impression with all their many releases , the busts are particularly well done , full of character , excellent casting , well thought out ...and good interesting subjects . The pieces are quite a large 1/10th and make for a very imposing display piece .

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to all

Lets have a couple more pictures of the built but unpainted bust ...enjoy




For details on this and more from them :

E-mail: altoress@mail.ru

Website: www.altores.com

They are also a member of FaceBook and the forum here on PF

Thanks to for the review piece

And to you all for looking in

Happy Modelling

Nap