A recent set of purchases included these four white metal figures by EK-Castings from Studio Siberia. There's an ongoing new release thread in the figure news section here. I was intrigued enough by the apparent quality and decided to have a look at what was on offer. It turns out there is actually quite a lot of interesting stuff to choose from in various scales, genres and so on. I almost did a double take when I saw the prices, I have no idea how they manage to keep the costs down to this degree! I ordered two Vikings and two WW2 Russian figures for a whopping total of just under $17 plus postage. On to the figures...

First up are the Vikings










And the Russians
















These are rather incredibly detailed, well sculpted and cast as single pieces. There are very faint mold seams to clean up and the bottoms of the bases have been ground flat and clean, which is a real nice touch. The sculpts are more in the classic vein as opposed to the hyper realistic style seen with most resin figures. This doesn't detract from the figures at all, and I think it actually gives them more character. I haven't done any prep work on them, the photos show the figures as they came in the box. Speaking of; they were well packed in paper, and boxed inside cardboard toothpaste tube packages. An interesting choice of packaging, but reuse is always a good idea, and everything was well protected. Postage costs were reasonable too.


The short and sweet version is that I'm super impressed and will be ordering more at some point. If you're looking for inexpensive pieces to practice on with sufficient character and detail, I doubt you'll find a better alternative. If you like to collect white metal figures, these will certainly fit that bill too. And I think these will also please the more discriminating painters out there as well.

Kimmo

They look alright to me! I particularly like the Soviet Traffic Lady. Just checked their site and boy, do they do some stuff! I'll order something and report back.
Thanks for the heads-up Kimmo!


Phil

I have around 40 of these figures and have painted a few. They are great value for money and although some clean up is required paint up very well.

They have a huge variety of subjects many of which are out of the mainstream and frankly boring reworking of the same old subjects from many European suppliers.

Keith

I can endorse what everyone’s saying about EK Castings. I’ve painted 8 of their Napoleonics, with another 6 in the pipeline. What particularly appeals to me (apart from the price) is that there’s no fiddling about with tiny pieces of kit which, in my ham-fisted old age, can be a bit of a challenge. Basically, a bit of clean-up, spray your base coat and away to go. The Napoleonic figures available cover many different nations, which is very welcome. Siberia Miniatures also supply St George Cross figures. I’ve finished one – Gouvion St. Cyr and it’s superb. Recommended.

Jeff

There's a whole range of such figs (seem to be several, perhaps related? manufacturers). Of course, shipping to UK doubles (or more) the price.

С. К. ''Новый век'' (skw.su)

Grèce :: EK CASTINGS : PASSION HISTOIRE

I know that CK is actively looking for a UK distributor if anyone would like to take him on (PM me- I have his details).

Neil

Cheers all! Nice to see these getting some well deserved attention. I do look forward to painting them, although that may take a while.

Kimmo

Just ordered four, mixed periods but ones I thought would paint up well. Watch this space.

Phil

Once again, I think these figures are the best you can buy for the best quality-price ratio. I usually paint them, and I have noted that there are two periods, in the initial one the figures are pretty good but from 2016 I think it was, the moment that the level went to better, and actually even better and finest.

Military miniatures painted by Eduardo Garcia