UK based Pig Iron Productions have three main lines available, a heavy vehicle, medium tech SF troops and the Kolony range which is the topic of my article.
http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/
(The site is not well designed. You can find the full list of Kolony figures and images in the How to order page.)
Why Pig Iron?
I have been interested in the Kolony figures for at least a year. The original lineup was the basic infantry pack, which though attractive was not so useful by itself. Once heavy weapons and command figures were produced, I decided to take the plunge.
The attraction of these figures is the combination of retro and SF design elements which make them useable for a variety of scenarios.
Design and Aesthetic
The helmet, greatcoat, baggy trousers, and boots with gaiters have a WW2 look, and the hardshell backpack and breathmask add SF styling.
The basic weapons are chunky and sufficiently generic to look like a near future assault rifle, lasgun, light boltgun, or Aliens pulse rifle, without being oversized.
Kolony Militia Basic Infantry
The heavy weapon units include a missile launcher/recoilless rifle, heavy support weapon, sniper rifle, flamer, and a heavy laser. Again, these are designed so as to offer flexible interpretation as grenade launchers, heavy and light MGs and so on.
Sniper and Heavy Laser
Flamer and Support Weapon
Missile teams
Flexible and Useful for Proxies
By counting the greatcoat as a kevlar armour, or the backpack as a personal shield unit for example, the figures can be proxied into nearly any SF background. For example:
- Pulp era superscience troops.
- Modern day zombie suppression squad.
- Imperial Guard.
- Far future militia, fighting alongside power armour troops.
- Altered humans like the Helghast from Killzone.
These variations can easily be enhanced by the style of painting and insignia used. You could paint them up drab like WW2, or in camo, or in heraldic colours as a special purpose unit. Unlike GW figures, there are no insignia moulded into the figures so you can add whatever you like with painting or decals. The coats have a wrist cuff which you could paint as a facing colour (see the painted officer on the Pig Iron site) or as part of a heavy gauntlet.
Kolony Militia HQ -- the Kaptain has red facings on his coat
Casting Quality
Most of the figures are cast as a single piece with separate head.
The sergeants are cast with separate hand/weapon combos consisting of a mace-like weapon or baton, and a heavy pistol/SMG in the left hand. If Pig Iron would produce some alternative weapon sprues for these figures, it would be an added bonus.
Kolony Sergeants -- also shows the covered helmet design
A variety of heads is available, including the various Kolony heads, or the more hi-tech looking heads from the other Pig Iron range could also be used. The standard packs come with the basic bare Kolony helmet. The Command pack comes with a special head sprue. Pig Iron would probably oblige by swapping these out for a different design if you ask when ordering.
Alternative Kolony head sprue
(As an aside, the Pig Iron heads are available separately for use in conversions, and work well with SM figures.)
The figures are designed to fill in the obvious gaps under the arms, etc. with ammo pouches or heavy magazines. Thus, despite the single piece casting, no drilling or cutting is needed to make them look realistic.
Assembly
The castings are good and clean, requiring almost no clean-up.
Cutting the heads off the sprues and filing them to fit is a little bit fiddly because of their size, however a blob of epoxy cement into the neck hole makes them sit nicely and hides the sprue cut.
The Sergeants' hands are fiddlier to fix on, since they are too small to easily drill for pinning. I dealt with this by drilling the cuff hole a bit deeper and leaving a long stub on the wrist. I used Araldite to cement the parts, holding them in place with Blutack. The resulting joins feel like they will stand up to ordinary handling.
Variations
There is a good variation of poses in shooting, kneeling, crouching and trotting positions. The basic infantry unit comes with eight or nine different poses, and more variation is possible with the separate heads.
Altogether, an entire unit can easily be made in which every figure is different, and they make a coherent looking whole. The men at the front can be kneeling or firing, while troops coming up behind can be moving.
Basing
Some troops are slightly leaning and require a bit of care in basing to make them stand upright. The bases are small and flat like traditional wargame figures, and can easily be cemented onto whatever base you want. Game bases must be bought separately from GW, Hasslefree, Litko or another source.
I made my leaning guys stand up straight just by snipping a bit of thin plasticard (0.25mm) and gluing it to the slottabase in a position that let the figure stand up without falling over. I cemented the figure to the base with Araldite.
Size
In terms of size, the figures are very compatible with GW and Hasslefree, being the same height though slightly chunkier -- which is excused by the greatcoats -- and noticeably smaller than SMs.
Pricing
Pricing is excellent. My unit of 10 troops, four heavy weapons, three sergeants and a command group for a total of 21 figures cost £35.
Images
Once I have a few painted up I will do some size comparison shots with some other figures to give an idea of compatibility.
The Verdict
Buy lots now! You can’t go wrong.