Here are the three Freebooter minis I have painted so far: The Huntress, the Demoness, and the female archeologist (which kind of reminds me of someone named Lara).

At the moment, there are about 30 different figures available from Freebooter. Most of them are chicks, but there are also a few guys as well as some orcs and goblins. In this review, I will be focusing on the chicks, since I haven't found the guys or the orcs interesting enough to buy. I do like the goblins a lot though. They are very characterful.

The Design:

Werner has long been one of my favorite sculptors. I really admire the figures he has done for Reaper and Dark Age. They are always quite detailed and very well sculpted. Some of the figures in his own line have even more details on them. I must admit, that it gets a bit too much for me sometimes. While it does look nice painted, it's not always very fun to paint.

My favorite part of Werner's sculpts are always the faces. I know some people think they are too similar, but I just love them. They are very well defined which makes it easy to get a good result painting them.

Something that separates the Freebooter minis from the minis Werner has done for other companies is the way the minis are put together. While Reaper are Dark Age minis often are in one pieces, the Freebooter minis (except the limited edition ones) are made up of many pieces.

This does allow for more dynamic poses, but it's a pain to put together, especially since many of the thinner parts cannot be pinned. This makes quite a few of the minis more fragile than average, and it also seems to make them more expensive.

Where Reaper and Dark Age figures are meant and made for gaming, Freebooter minis are more for display. Both the number of pieces and the level of detail means that these minis are more suited for a collector's display cabinet than to hang out with the rank and file types on the battlefield. Of course some of the minis could be used for gaming too like the Demoness and the Chaos Sorceress.

Many of the figures are very imaginative. My personal favorite is the Chaos Sorceress summoning a demon (painted by Jennifer Haley):

I don't know if Werner gets the ideas himself or he just has some really good concept artists.

Casting Quality:

Because each mini consists of so many parts, it's very important that the casting quality is good. Fortunately, all the Freebooter minis I own, have been well cast. The demoness needed a little work since some excess metal had to be removed from her thighs, but the others were quite easy.

All the minis are made of lead free pewter. The quality seems good and the surfaces are smooth.

The Bases:

All Freebooter minis (again except the limited edition ones) come with a metal base in two pieces designed for that figure. This means that all the minis have bases which fit their theme: The Demoness has skulls, Lara has an old temple floor, and the Huntress has a dirt base with a bear's footprint (that one is probably my favorite). I think the bases are very well thought out which means that I don't have to think so much (always a good thing!)

Unfortunately the paint chips a lot easier on metal bases than on plastic ones. This means that the metal bases probably aren't ideal for gaming. If I was going to use any of the figs for gaming, I would probably put them on a plastic base instead. Something that is a litte annoying about these bases is that you can't interchange them without a bit of work. There are holes in the base which fit the minis that's supposed to stand on it, and those holes don't fit any of the other minis. I haven't yet been in a situation where I would want to swap bases, but if I had to, I would probably fill the holes with greenstuff, cut the tabs of the mini's feet, and pin it to the base instead.

The Price:

The standard Freebooter minis cost from 6 Euro (the orcs and the goblins) to 15 Euro (the 54mm demoness). This is a bit more expensive than most other minis, and certainly more expensive that Reaper figures, but I think it's because of the number of parts as well as the detailed metal bases. You can buy bits from Freebooter's site. I find that a very nice feature. The limited edition figures (often 200 or 250 are made) usually cost 10Euro even though they are only one piece and don't have a cool base like the other ones. That seems a bit expensive to me, but I guess it's because they are limited.

Conclusion:

I know this review might sound a little more harsh than what I usually write. This doesn't mean that I don't like these figures. Actually I have at least one of all the female ones, and I think I might buy some of the goblins too.

Because of the number of parts and the level of detail, I wouldn't recommend Freebooter minis for beginners. They are simply too difficult to put together and paint. For more experienced painters and collectors, they might be exactly what you have been looking for. They are well sculpted, well designed, well cast, and I highly recommend them.

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