Friday, December 6, 2013

Russian Alternative: The Dwarves of Fire Canyon Reviewed!


Today, we will take a look at one of the newer releases from Russian Alternative, the Dwarves of Fire Canyon Unit. These chaos dwarfs were sculpted by Rozenberg Rozmax Maxim and can be bought in a unit deal as we will review. The chaos dwarf range over at Russian Alternative also contains a command group and hero which are sculpted by the same sculptor so they match exactly in both size and quality. If your looking for some nice chaos dwarfs then read on as these are real gems.

The box

The miniatures were shipped alongside the previously reviewed orc girls but if you haven't managed to read that review yet here's the information regarding the packaging and service. As always we will first take a look at the delivery and the packaging of the miniatures. The chaos dwarfs along with some more miniatures came packed in a sturdy cartonboard box further packed with extra padding making sure the boxes could not move in the container. If that wasn't enough each set of miniatures is packed in a nicely decorated cartonboard container padded with two sheet of foam and a small leaflet stating who packed the order. I have added some pictures of the cartonboard box and the content when opening the box. I would surely recommend this company as the miniatures were shipped for free from Russia and arrived in pristine condition within a week and a half in Belgium!


The box content as received

The boxed sets contains enough pieces to make 10 heroic sized chaos dwarfs. As you can see in the picture supplied above, the miniatures are supplied in several metal  parts. The boxed set contains five different body variants which are single casts and were supplied loose. The set also contains two head sprues with ten different heads (some with closed helmet others with open helmet) and two metal sprues with weapons and shields. 

The 10 bodies in five different variants

The two weapon sprues packed with unique axes


All of the shields and weapons are supplied unique and really add chracter to the unit as a whole. If I recall correctly there are five dwarfs which handle their weapons with their right hand and five which handle their weapons with their left hand, this further enchances the look of the unit and doesn't look like a bunch of clones. The boxed set doesn't include plastic bases which wasn't the case with the orc girls of the previous review. The detail of these miniatures is superb and each of these miniatures is created in a dynamic pose full of character.

The two shield sprues filled with unique shields with excellent decorations

The two head sprues and one loose head (my personal favorite)

The assembly

The assembly of these 28mm white metal miniatures was very easy as most parts fit well but as always some mouldlines and flash need to be removed from the metal miniatures. You also have to remove the heads, weapons and shields from the sprues and clean them up a bit. But not major which can't be solved with a stanley knife, pliers and vile. Here are the assembled miniatures of the fire canyon!






Scale comparison

I have added these hopefully useful pictures of the reviewed dwarfs alongside some miniatures of other manufacturers as with the orcs I don't own much heroic sized fantasy miniatures so I have added some smaller miniatures.

Russian Alternative Dwarf - Games Workshop Goblin - CP Models Goblin

Russian Alternative Dwarf - Games Workshop Radagast and Catachan

Russian Alternative Dwarf - Games Workshop Gimli - Russian Alternative Orc Girl

The conclusion

As you can see the quality of Russian Alternative is very consisting throughout their miniatures. This boxed set will allow you to field a fierce force of ten chaos dwarf to be used for popular mass-fantasy rulesets or smaller skirmish games. The price for this boxed set is around €24,00 and can be bought at their Ebay approved webshop with free postage!


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