02 September 2013

What's in the box? ClearHorizon Miniatures Drop Pods


It seems like just a few weeks ago that Mr Harold came out with the concept for these Drop Pods. My first reaction was, like many people I assume, "how come nobody thought about filling that particular obvious gap in 15mm sci fi minis?" My second and close reaction was "ooooh, shiny; me want; me need!"

So a quick paypal-fu move and just 15 days waiting later, 5 of those babies show up in the mail!


After a couple of disapointements (here, here and here) with resin molding, this model does indeed restore my thrust in that medium/process! While Old Crow Models is still my personnal champion for sheer surface texture, those pods really have incredibly crisp details; bravo zulu to the caster! If anything, my picture doesn't do justice to the level of detail!


If I have just one qualm about this model, it's the hydraulic cylinders that seem very thin and fragile (one of them actually showed up broken; no big deal I intend to mount one pod closed anyway and I might actually just replace all cylinders by wire, trading some detailing for some strudiness).





They come as a body, 3 doors, 3 two-parts langing foots and 3 (I forgot one on the picture) three-cylinders sprue (for 6 door ones and 3 foot ones). A half-a-letter-page colour assembly guide and 5" by 3" Gruntz grayscale stat card are also included.

As far as scale goes, they stand just under 30mm tall and the inner hatches are 18mm high by 19mm wide. Looks pretty good to me (now of course drop pods having few real life equivalent, they offer more scaling wiggle room than, say, building or cars). Random minis (AA Rusk, Khurasan not-arab and Brigade PA) for scale.

Bottom line, I've very happy about those, unlike lots of 15mm I bought they are both very nice and not functionnaly equivalent to something else I already own. I see them as a nice insertion option for my chronicaly unfinished (but that might just change) Terran Marine Corps.

Good job, Harold (and whoever drawed, sclupted and cast those minis); keep them coming!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the great review! Please let me know if you want a replacement piston and ill sens some your way, I have extras for exactly that reason :)

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  2. Thanks for proposing, but as I said I'll follow your lead and make one a closed escape pod, and paying postage for a spare piston would be quite silly.

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