Review: Across the Dead Earth miniatures

A while ago I received these figures from Rich at Dead Earth Games. It's Aysha and Nisha for their Across the Dead Earth post-apocalyptic skirmish game which was kickstartered in 2014.





Across the Dead Earth deals with skirmish combat between gangs of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world after a zombie apocalypse. Wait, don't run away, there's a twist to it - it takes place in Britain rather than a nondescript area which always is the United States. ;)

I have to admit that I have not played the game yet, so I can't say much about the rules themselves, but if you want to get an idea of how the game works and how it came to be I strongly suggest giving the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast Ep.122 a listen in which Rich, the mastermind behind Dead Earth Games, explains the game.

Disclaimer: As mentioned above I got the miniatures supplied by Dead Earth Games, I did not buy those myself. Thanks, Rich!

Packaging

This is how I received the miniatures. They are both one-piece casts in a plastic baggy along with a rather sturdy piece of foam. Perfectly suitable for these figures. With more fragile models it may require more padding and separate packs.

A closer look at the Models

This is what the models look out of the bag:

The first impression is really good. Sturdy models, not too flimsy things sticking out, not overdesigned. One of the two sisters is crouching on the ground, observing the area with what looks like a short AK-47 variant with a reflex sight, the other sister is standing up, holding a single-barrel shotgun at the ready.

Assembly

No assembly required, just some washing as usual. The casting is very clean with little in the way of mold lines. The models are supplied without any bases and are cast onto ca. 1.5mm thick standy things (it's a technical term; not everybody has heard of it, but everybody in the know uses it).

To make the figures fit the rest of my post-apoc / zombie apocalypse collection I had to file/cut off the standy things and mount the models on round 25mm bases I took from a Wargames Factory kit:

It didn't require all too much work and the time I spent on filing I'll save on base modelling, because I just drybrush the bases for a pavement look. Rather cheap, but quick and it looks the part I think.

 Painting

So after gluing the models to the bases (the standing one I pinned for safety), I also added some grit to the bases and off to priming they went.

I kinda made the colour schemes up as I went along. Halfway through I pondered what colour I should paint the crouching sister's shirt and realized that I made her look like Kim Possible, so I gave the other sister a shirt which is kinda reminiscent of Ron Stoppable. Because I'm lazy like that.

When wearing a red sports shirt in a combat situation you'll want to somehow camouflage yourself, hence the rain cape like thing is painted in a camouflage pattern. Both figures are wearing kevlar vests in the front, which, along with the heavy armament, implies that these two have been around in this hostile environment for a while and indend to hang around.

Verdict

Now what do I make of these two figures?

The sculpting is rather nice (hey are traditionally sculpted, by the way). They look like proper and believable characters who have a story to tell, which I believe is an important thing for a setting such as this. They are rather heavily armed, but still sombre and not over-equipped with hand-grenades, extra ammo, a ton of pouches or unnecessary gimmicks. The standing model carries a pistol in a holster and both have a few additional small pouches here and there, but that's about it. 

A very cool little detail I found is what I believe is a carabiner hook hanging from the standing model's belt. 

The assault rifle/carbine the crouching one is holding is a bit thick on the barrel, which I don't have much of a problem with. On the shotgun this isn't an issue anyway. The faces are alright. Not the greatest, but I like them. The poses are natural looking. I'm not sure if it's just me and my askewed expectations of what a 28mm figure looks like, but the standing model may be ever so slightly flat when looked at from the side, but it's barely noticeable.

Now for the size, because this is a rather interesting one. Here they are next to a GW Space Marine and a Corvus Belli Fusilier. For this size comparison I put the sisters on extra spacers to make the bases  close to being equally tall as the bses on the big boys:

You can see that these two are 'proper' 28mm (foot to eye, not counting the standy things I filed off) figures. Here they are along with Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors:

As you can see, those mix rather well as the WGF models as well as the Dead Earth ones are realistically proportioned. They got along really well too. The moment I turned my back they went off to kill zombies!

You can order the figures directly from Dead Earth Games here. At a price of GBP 6.00 you'll get two really nice and believable apocalypse survivors.

So why would you get these instead of Wargames Factory's Female Apocalypse Survivors? Well, first they are characterful, and mix well with the WGF figures, so why not get them in addition? The WGF set, now sold by Warlord Games at an increased price point, has 10 figures, and let's be honest - they are mostly on the rather cartoonish side. These two ladies here by Dead Earth Games are much more believable in terms of outfit and proportions. Don't get me wrong. I like the WGF set a lot, but it's also great that there are these figures here around which are more on the sensible side of things. They certainly wouldn't look out of place with The Dicebag Lady's miniatures range of believable women.

This I feel is the biggest strength of these figures here - they look like proper characters. The technical quality of the sculpts is really nice and the price is absolutely okay. Considering Across the Dead Earth is basically a squad-level skirmish game and considering the prices they charge for minis they are even very good value for money.

So yes - I like them. :-)

I hope that you enjoyed this review, found it interesting, enjoyed the painting and so on. If you have any questions, comments or indeed commission inquiries, feel free to let me know via the comments section, the Battle Brush Studios Facebook page or via e-mail.