Product Review - 28mm Pith Helmets with Gas Masks by Ramshackle Games

Ramshackle Games, based in Nottingham in the UK released a set of Resin 28mm Pith Helmets with Gas Mask's some time ago, I was fortunate enough that I recieved a sample of the heads which is what I'm basing this product review on.

The heads are supplied in random sets of 10, on first inspection they are slightly shiny which indicates as with ALL resin models it's a good idea to give them a clean with a mild detergant to remove any remanent of the release agent.



The heads themselves vary in design with some fairly simple and others more complex, the detail is quite fine, though not I would say on a par with Forgeworld, though at £3.00 a set your certainly not paying Forgeworld prices. They do suffer from some small air bubbles, most of the heads in my sample would require a little filling with your chosen putty, this is easily done however and they are not micro air bubbles so it's not too fidley to do and the overal surface quality is good. Also there is very little if any flash on any of the heads, and I really can't pick out any obvious mold lines, definately can't complain about that!

Enough of my observations and onto using them.

I guess the most obvious place to use them is of course on something like the Cadian plastics, I've made up three models below, one (a Sergeant) uses one of my own resin torso's, another a standard armoured cadian and one a tank torso. Some work is needed to fit them to each of these torso's, obviously they wer'nt designed with such a use specifically in mind and to get the best out of them will require a little sculpting to give you a collar and or fit them to the neck joint properly. It also has to be said that they are closer to true scale 28mm rather then the larger heroic scale that GW currently uses, that boils down to the heads being a little smaller then would be ideal, though not so small that they look silly, this I think thanks to the gas masks bulking them out.





A quick, and I do mean quick, paint job later and you get more of the final effect, which overal I think is good, especially when compaired to a stock GW Praetorian Guardsman.



After all said and done I only have two minor gripes with them.

Firstly is the size as I talked about earlier, they're not an ideal fit for current GW models, I'm left thinking they may infact work better for converting Mordians to Praetorians as the different between these is smaller or even just adding variety to regular Praetorian models. That said I've a suspicion they could also work really well on Forgeworlds Death Korps of Krieg models, it's an expensive thought, but the gas masks would definately work well with the greatcoats for Praetorians fighting over no mans land.

My second gripe is the variation, I quite like my armies uniform when it comes to equipment, and these Gas Mask's don't do that brilliants as there are several different designs, I'd have preferred a single one I think, though it would be quite possible to kit out individual squads with single one I suppose if buying in bulk, that is a personal preference of mine though.

I'd have to conclude overal that I'd definately rate them as a solid, if not excellent, way of raising a 40k Praetorian IG force - or indeed Steampunk 'Colonial' forces. The sculpts & cast's are are good, the price is excellent and the contact I've had personally with Ramshackle has been spot on, can't say I've heard any complaints from anyone regarding this company.

Ramshakles Pith Helmets with Gas Mask's are available from their online store at the below address.

Ramshackle Games