A large number of 3mm tanks, trucks and Helos arrived the other day: the core of my ADF strike group. Rather than just showing some finished models I’m going to show some pictures of how they arrive and provide some thoughts on Odzial Osmy’s (O8) miniatures. The numbers in brackets are the O8 product codes.

The first remarkable thing about these miniatures is the metal they’re cast from. It’s quite unlike any other miniatures I’ve ever come across. Rather than a soft pewter or lead that can be bent or dented, O8’s miniatures are cast from an alloy that doesn’t bend or deform at all. If you supply sufficient force it will snap, but that’s typically quite a force. Barrels and the like will snap off, but it’s not hard to avoid breaking them if you’re careful. I suspect this has been done to preserve what are typically very small and fine details (particularly the gun barrels and tails of helicopters.

The first miniature is a Tiger ARH helicopter (BW-628). This model is quite a nice rendition of this helicopter. The windscreen is nice and visible and all the corners are very crisp. There’s a little bit of excess metal and roughness in the tail assembly. However, on the Tiger this is a fairly complex area so it’s not unexpected. Mold lines and excess metal take a little bit to take off O8 miniatures: typically you do need to use files. However due to the strength of the material it’s pretty easy to avoid breaking anything and nothing will bend.Next we have the MRH-90 Taipan (MN-621). While the deployment of the actual helicopters doesn’t seem to have gone particularly well, again O8 have done a good job of rendering it in 3mm. It’s a pretty simple beast with the smooth exterior not leaving a heap of detail. However the windows and other details are nice and crisp, and while there are a couple of mold lines they’re not in bad spots so they shouldn’t be a problem to clean up.Next up we have the UH-60 Black Hawk (US-636). Almost as famous for crashing as flying, the model gives that instantly recognizable shape. This model isn’t quite as good as the others: there’s a fairly pronounced misalignment of the two mold halves. So these ones will take a bit more work to clean up, but should still come up very nicely.The CH-47D Chinook (US-637) is another cargo helicopter used by the ADF. This model is probably my least favorite of the ones I’m reviewing here. The dimensions don’t quite look right. I think it’s the bottom skirt that is just a bit too big relative to the airframe. There’s also an obvious mold line running along the skirt, but due to the location that will be very easy to remove. I think I’ll be doing some work on these to reduce the size of the skirt and get them in line with the rest of the model.Next we have the F/A-18E Super Hornet (US-654). The only model O8 have is of the Hornet which is slightly smaller, but basically the same shape as the Super Hornet. As such, it’s not a huge deal to substitute. This scale is very forgiving in terms of not having the right variant of a model. You can often just use what you can get/have and that’s what I’ve done here. I really like this model, I’ve already got a few in my USMC force. There’s some mold lines around the base, but nothing that’s too touch to remove.Next we have the OH-58C Kiowa (US-612), while not currently flown by the ADF it was up until recently. I’ve got a couple of these to add if I feel like running something a little less high-tech. This is one of the tiniest models I’ve got, and it’s another really good one: instantly recognizable. There’s hardly any cleanup required at all on this one.Lastly we have another historical ADF helicopter: the UH-1D Huey (US-613). Another classic helicopter that’s been faithfully created by O8. This is another quality cast with not much flash to clean up.Lastly I’ve got an Apache AH-64A (US-629) which has never been flown by the ADF. These guys are here to help make the strike group Hind Commander legal and give a little more back bone. The Tigers are a recon helicopter, but to make a legal list some attack helicopters: an attachment of US Army Apaches will do that nicely. Again this is another nice O8 sculpt. There’s a little bit of mess to clean up, but it’s still got the Apache look.That’s the air component of the Strike Group. I’m quite happy with the O8 models: there’s a little work to do to some of them. However these are all small issues and you could be quite happy just painting them as is and not worrying about it. The images here are significantly zoomed in: the largest of these helicopters is about 25mm long – 1 inch and the smallest quite a bit smaller. It’s quite easy to miss mold lines when painting and they often only show up in the sort of macro photos I post up here.