Raging Heroes Unboxing – Big Attitude In Small Packages

Hello, TechRaptor readers! This article is going to be a bit different. We'll be taking a look at one of the Toughest Girls of the Galaxy models graciously provided by Raging Heroes. This will be half review and half unboxing, as it were.

Raging Heroes is a small miniatures company based in southern France specializing in creating amazing boutique models for tabletop games, primarily focusing on making female models bristling with weapons, beauty, and raw attitude by the bucketload. The company garnered serious attention in the tabletop gaming world with the launch of their first Toughest Girls of the Galaxy Kickstarter in 2013, bringing us Germanic art-deco inspired Iron Empire, Soviet-themed Kurganova Shock Troops, and the Tank Girl punk-rock inspired Jailbirds. The company continued their efforts last year with their second Kickstarter, bringing us five new forces in both fantasy and sci-fi flavors. The demonic Lust Elves, sadistic Void and Dark Elves, and the religious Sisters of Eternal Mercy were funded and recently began shipping to backers. We’ll be taking a closer look at them in the coming months, once my Kickstarter backer rewards begin arriving.

What really stands out in regards to this company was my wife’s reaction to seeing the Raging Heroes line for the first time. I’ve slowly been trying to wean her away from board games and move more into wargaming, with very limited success. The biggest barrier for her are the models. Nothing had caught her eye enough to make her forget about Ticket to Ride long enough to seriously think about my little part of the tabletop world. Until she saw me idly perusing some of the TGG2 Kickstarter images, that is. She promptly kicked me off my computer, pored over the images, and proudly proclaimed that the Lust Elves freebies I’d be getting were now hers. She was also instrumental in picking out the particular model I’d be looking at for this article.

For this pseudo-review, we’ll be taking a look at One-Shot Blondie, a marksman for the Jailbirds. In the overall game lore, Blondie is an emotionless, cold-hearted sniper who apparently has a soft spot for the ragtag group of orphans known as the Lulus. She makes sure they’re fed, have a place to sleep, and don’t get hurt on the battlefield. It’ll be interesting to see just how she and the Lulus interact with each other and everyone else in the game once Raging Heroes releases their rule set.

My first impression upon opening up the blister pack and seeing the resin model was surprise and appreciation for the level of detail and care that went into her design. Blondie is a perfect balance of tough, no-nonsense attitude and feminine beauty. The model has lots of finely crafted detail plainly visible, showing off the talent of the sculptors. The model does feel rather delicate, even for resin, which made me extra cautious when washing it off to ensure any mould release agent was removed before priming and painting.

I did notice one thing that was off: the model pictured on the blister pack didn’t quite match up with the contents of the blister itself. The weapon on the painted model on the blister comes with a bipod attached to the barrel, which was oddly missing from the model in the package itself. A minor quibble and most likely a casting issue that doesn’t detract from the overall quality a great deal, but it did cause me to do a double-take when painting.

Blondie comes in two separate pieces, which had minimal flash and mould lines. After experiences with ridiculously difficult to remove mould lines on resin models in the past (anyone who’s tried to remove them from ribbed areas like Games Workshop’s resin Drazhar will know what I’m referring to). Assembly was a breeze and after a quick coat of grey primer, I was off to bring her to life as best I could.

For such a detailed model, Blondie painted up quite quickly. I did my best to duplicate the studio paint job, with passable results. Personally, I’ve never gotten the knack for painting non-metallic metals, so I went with a more traditional method for her rifle. And as you can see from the results below, my final paint job turned out rather OK. I know I’ll never win a Golden Demon, but I wouldn’t feel the least bit self-conscious about putting her down on the tabletop for a game.

If you’re looking for a way to spice up your current forces, or if you’re tired of waiting for Games Workshop to finally get around to revamping their current Sisters of Battle model range, I highly recommend taking serious look at Raging Heroes’ model lines. While they may not be for everyone, the company’s quality and dedication to their craft has brought forth some truly beautiful and kick-ass miniatures that can stand toe-to-toe with the works created by the biggest and most popular names in tabletop gaming today.