The major toy soldier companies seem to be waking up to the market for 28mm wargame figures. Italieri are offering Warlord Games WWII infantry under their own brand for inclusion with their new 1/56 range.
HaT have chosen to rescale some of their 1/72 range as '28mm'. This is not done by scaling up a 1/72 figure but by scaling down from the original large sculpts. So these figures look just like the 1/72 models.
So the miniatures are scale miniatures with a model of a man being 28mm high. Now this is different to most 28mm figures which are not sculpted to scale. They are usually bigger than 28mm and have bodies which are way out of proportion to real human shapes. 28mm wargames miniatures are too fat, their heads and hands are usually too big and their weapons are exaggerated in bulk.
That is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you need to change proportions when changing scales to make the figure 'look right'. And wargame miniatures have to be robust to stand handling and travel.
1. So the first point to make is that the HaT range is 28mm to scale figures rather than the usual wargame style. I don't think that matters particularly and would be happy to use these models on the wargame table with traditional 28mm. However, if you are a bit autistic and OCD about scale this might be an issue.
2. The models are hard plastic, polystyrene, so are stuck together with normal plastic cement. One point is that spears are thin and rather brittle. They break rather easily.
There will be three El Cid armies: Spanish Christian, Almoravid Berber and Andalusian. Each consists of four different boxes: heavy infantry, light infantry, heavy cavalry and light cavalry.
I chose to start with the heavy infantry from the Almoravid range.
The models are wonderful value for money with 32 infantry in the box for around a tenner.
They paint up fine - see above.
I think I will get a box for every unit in the El Cid Range which I intend to use for skirmish games - by far the normal type of warfare in Medieval Spain.
£120 will buy three complete armies for Lionheart or similar.
Recommended if you can cope with a slightly different 'look' to your armies.