The miniature that we are going to review today I’m sure you all are very familiar with it already. It has been seen many times in contests lately, and has been object of some very cool versions. We are talking about Ch n-Han, sculpted by Diego Rossetti, a miniature that you most probably remember by the first version, beautifully painted by Italian master Mirko Cavalloni. Ch n-Han was the start of a prominent project called ‘The Five Cyclones‘, by the Italian company Modelland.
The initiative gathers a series of 75mm miniature monks inspired by Eastern and Buddhist-like iconography, characters from a magical world of Oriental inspiration and wizards of elemental powers. The Five Cyclones project has been launched via Kickstarter, and the campaign is running towards its end in a few days. We have been able to put our hands on a copy of Ch n-Han and we are going to show you in detail what the first model of the campaign looks like in real life.
REVIEW CH N-HAN – THE FIVE CYCLONES
The model comes in one of those hard plastic blisters that we are quite used to seeing in showcase miniature companies lately. Certainly, proper packaging that offers great protection, sturdy and spartan. No decorations required.
Stuck on the front of the blister we get a printed picture of the original box art version of Ch n-Han, by Mirko Cavalloni. There’s quite a lot of details in this miniature as we can see in the picture. Let’s dive right in to checking out the pieces of this kit.
The blister contains a resealable plastic bag that inside contains another two smaller plastic bags. The bigger one has the main three pieces that compose the body. The smaller one has a lot of smaller pieces, details and gear for Ch n-Han. Also, there is a brass rod that comes in the blister, which basically serves as the pole of Ch n-Han’s staff. This is great news because the rod is very resilient, will take heavy damage during shipment and won’t break easily at all during preparation or painting. The only question now is how to attach the brass rod to the hand that holds the staff. We’ll take a look at that in a bit. First, the pieces that compose the body.
The material is a high quality resin. The casting is very good, and we can see that some mold lines have been removed during production. This is great news as it shows attention and care during manufacturing.
The miniature on a closer look clearly reveals that the model has been digitally sculpted. The structure of the face is very smooth, which is a quite common characteristic of 3D sculptures. This will be great for skilled painters as it will open up a lot of possibilities for volume interpretation. The print is very good, we don’t see any lines because of the resolution of the printer. This suggests that either the printer was very fine or the miniature was properly cleaned before making the productions molds.
The smaller pieces add up to be quite a lot of them. There’s a lot of possibilities with these details, since the model actually works quite well without the extra pieces.
The right hand is a great detail. It has the fingers posed in such a way that would suggest that the character is casting some kind of magic. This is both cool and inspirational. Lots of options to play with ideas!
The assembly is very well thought. Pieces attach together easily, even in those parts where the union would be very problematic, such as the lower cape at the back. You can see how there is a small notch indicating and ensuring a proper union.
The complicated detail is the attachment of the brass rod to the hand that holds the staff. Here we can see that the hand is actually holding something already. Basically, the hand is sculpted holding a cylinder, so that it resembles the staff rod. We can think of two options here: either we drill a hole top to bottom and insert the rod through it, or we very carefully trim the resin cylinder off the hand to make space for the rod.
The first option is easier, but will leave the overlapping cylinder visible. The second option is better, but only for those gifted with dexterity. The risk of trimming off a finger is very high!
CONCLUSIONS
Ch n-Han is a great model. We can think of many ideas and environments for this wizard monk. Proper material and decent assembly, requiring some putty to fill the gaps in the most difficult unions. Great for modelers who like the eastern-like appeal of the character.
PROS
- Great 3D sculpting, soft volumes, great surfaces with huge potential for painters.
- Proper material, high quality resin and already cleaned of mold lines.
- Solid versatility, with many pieces that open up a plethora of options for modelers.
CONS
- Attaching the brass rod to the hand that holds the staff might be tricky, only for skilled modelers.
Here you can find links to The Five Cyclones crowdfunding campaign in Kickstarter and to their Facebook site.
We also have some exclusive extra pictures of early copies of the other members of the Five Cyclones. Here you can see what they are preparing for the others:
In the Kickstarter campaign site you will find pictures of the other models that make up the Five Cyclones. You can also visit them in their website Modelland.it.
