The 4 regular minis. I like how you can see bits of their chainmail armour sticking out from their uniform.

The heroes: Okita Soji, Saito Hajime, Kondo Isami, Hijikata Toshizo

Check out the detail on the back and stay tuned for when these boys in blue are painted up!

















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Hi all,So recently I saw a post online that featured some amazing Shinsengumi minis. I was instantly enamoured as these minis were exactly what I were looking for to represent a Koryu sword school in Ronin or a Renegade list in Test of Honour.After some research I found that they were available from Bac Ninh Minatures based in Portugal. Web: http://bacninhminiatures.blogspot.com These 28mm minis come in three sets and are priced as 8.50€ for a pack of 4 and 3€ for a single character. Pretty good prices I thought for what seems to be a very small supplier. The models work out to be just over two euros per model!I ended up buying one pack of the basic Shinsengumi members and one pack of the heroes.My knowledge on the Shinsengumi is somewhat limited but they were a force of ultra conservative Samurai who were drawn from sword schools in Edo. They existed for a short period at the end of the Samurai's rein and were instrumental in some battles during the Boshin war. They were essentially a special police force working on behalf of the Shogun and enforced the various strict laws against foreigners and anybody the Shogun didn't like... which I imagine was a lengthy list during that troubled time! Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinsengumi So with the minis themselves, no mould lines are visible and I can see that there has been a bit of post-cast touching up here and there. I really appreciate the care taken to do this as some other manufactures who charge a lot more for their minis quite often supply their minis quite raw with mould lines and bits of metal sticking out where it shouldn't. These minis will require minimalprep before painting.The minis are very nicely proportioned and don't suffer from overly big heads/hands etc.. that you sometimes see. They measure up to be around 28-31mm in height and will fit in quite nicely among my other samurai minis. I will say however that I am not a massive fan of their swords as they are too chunky and short to properly represent katana. I will work on these with some greenstuff and files to see if I can slim them down and add a bit of length.The minis don't come with bases, which is a shame but basic round bases are easy to come by and I have a few spare that I can use.Aside from those two very minor quibbles I am absolutely delighted with these Shinsengumi as the dynamic poses are fantastic and they are quite unique. I can't wait to paint them in their distinctive white and blue uniforms and use them on the battlefield!