Ahketon

20mm Spanish Civil War

review by Nick Nascati

Ahketon is an English-based company with its roots in the states. Designer and owner Craig Acheson started out several years ago producing high quality terrain items for wargames. During the past two years, he has begun producing a range of extremely different figures, aimed at the gamer looking for something unusual. To date, the largest range is a line of 20mm WWI figures that covers all the major armies of the war. In addition to that, there is a brand new line of 25mm figures for the Texas War of Independence, focusing on the Alamo. This review, however, will focus on the first release in the new Spanish Civil War range. Being an aficianado of the period, and tiring of conversions, I was more than a little excited when I heard of Craig's plans to produce a range of 20mm figures for this little gamed period. Having already completed a unit of French WWI troop sto be used as Republican regulars, I was happy to see that the new figures would be in the same scale. Be forewarned however, Ahketon Figures are NOT FOR EVERYONE! The figures are highly animated and stylized almost to the point of caricature. They look like no others, but they are quite impressive when painted. I received for review the following figures:

NATIONALISTS

    NAT1 Civil Guard kneeling firing
    NAT2 Civil Guard standing firing
    NAT3 Civil Guard marching
    NAT4 Civil Guard advancing
    NAT5 Civil Guard officer
    NAT6 Civil Guard throwing grenade

REPUBLICANS

    REP14 Assault Guard standing firing
    REP16 Assault Guard marching
    REP17 Assault Guard advancing
    REP19 Assault Guard throwing grenade

In a word, the figures are gems! The Civil Guard, who actually fought on both sides, wear the picturesque Spanish bicorne, and the figure throwing a grenade actually has the correct type of grenade for the Nationalist forces. The Assault Guards, who started out as a local version of the Civil Guard, wear the common "police" type cap, and are dressed in the mono, the one piece, denim overall worn by most of the paramilitary Republican forces. The faces on the figures are superb, full of life and expression. The figures are cleanly cast, with no filing work needed before painting. They are heavily undercut, which makes shading with washes quite easy. In fact, I have found that a wash of greyish- black (panzer grey) is excellent for bringing out the details in this scale. While they are advertised as 20mm, the figures are really closer to 25mm, and might not look out of place against say, MiniFigs. My only criticism of the figures is the poor quality of the weapons. This is not so evident on the advancing and marching figures, but the firing figures look as if they are holding lengths of pipe. Pistols however are well done, as are the heavy machine guns, currently available only in the WWI range.

Once the line is complete, the range will offer everything the gamer needs to reproduce this conflict. It will include all the needed figures, as well as guns and vehicles. Combining this range with the WWI offerings will allow the enterprising gamer to recreate virtually any conflict of the period 1920-1940. The only problem at present, is time. Craig has come out with so many different items in different periods, that there is no telling when the SCW will be completed. Originally available only from England, Craig's brother Tim, who lives in New York State, is now importing and selling the figures from here. Eventually, he plans to have molds and actually do some casting here. Figures cost about .55 each, with a machine gun and crew about $1.50, apparently fluctuating with the pound. By no means cheap, the figures are high quality, and more than worth a look if you are thinking about a different period. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! AHKETON MINIATURES U.S.A., RD. #1, Box 125, Philadelphia, NY 13673

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