Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company

1/48th Scale Ultramodern Figures

by Bill Rutherford

HLBS produces a wide range of 25mm and 1/48th scale figures for gaming. Just in is pack RU9, NVD/Spetsnaz. This consists of a team of four figures, three with AK74s (one with grenade launcher) and one with a BA sniper rifle. These fellows weigh in at Barrett 37M from soles to eyeballs. Detailing is quite good – in this scale it’s possible to include all sorts of fine detail and HLBS do. The equipment and weapons details leave little to the imagination and “look” right. Poses are quite restrained. The four are basically standing there, waiting to move out. The fellow with the sniper rifle has the blast shield on his helmet up (it looks like a welder’s mask). The leader is pointing something out, and the other two figures are just starting to shuffle forward. All weapons but the sniper’s are separate pieces and are well done.

Proportions are good; if I picked a nit, it would be that one of the shuffler’s heads was just on the large side – it looked OK on its own but next to its mate it seemed a bit big. I don’t game in this scale but I’ve a feeling these four will wind up painted, on a vignette base in due course… HLBS makes 65 different packs (each generally with four different figures) of modern Europeans (US, USSR, UK, France, Germany, Poland, Balkans), as well as seven packs of Africans and three packs of Taliban. At $10 per pack, you’re getting decent value for your money – especially considering the figures’ quality – and the variety there! These figures are available from RLBPS, 4825 Treeview terrace, Rockford, IL 61109 rlbps@earthlink,net or www.rlbps.com in England go to www.hlbs.co.uk

If you game moderns in this scale, recommended! If you don’t, take a look at them anyway; you might enjoy painting them for there own sake.

More Reviews

Back to Table of Contents -- Courier # 89
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2003 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com