Toy Soldier Central is a firm owned and operated by Luciano Castellani. It got into the toy soldier business in early 2023 as a pioneer of 3D printed toy soldiers. It's range of figures includes a good selection of WW2 guys as well as other genres such as Space Troopers, Halo, Star Wars, and a few other modern sets, like police, frogmen, etc. TSC got its start as a licensee of 3D designs, primarily from Kozak Miniatures, which were printed on demand when customers placed orders through the web site. Over time TSC has evolved towards being a design/sculpting collaborator, as was the case with the Plastic General, and it seems that TSC is headed in the direction of designing its own figures, which is why I am now giving it a dedicated page in the blog. One of TSC's claims to fame is that it has developed a new type of resin which is a lot less brittle than other types used in the industry. TSC is also very customer oriented. It provides great customer service, the pricing is fair, the shipping is prompt, and Luciano always welcomes customer feedback and tries to incorporate it back into the products. For instance, the recent improvements that TSC has made to the bases of its figures makes them a lot more usable. Before you would have to request bases and spend time gluing them to heels and toes that sometimes wouldn't have much surface area to apply glue to. Now you can request the figures with bases that come attached to them, and the shape of the bases is tighter which allows you to place the men closer to each other if needed. This is particularly important for figures like artillery, mortar, or MG crews. Firms that listen to their customers will always do much better than those that don't. We look forward to TSC's continued success and expanding range of WW2 figures. In the meantime, let's check out some of its sets!
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army by TS Central - Part I
Here we have an 18-figure set of B8A guys. In terms of poses, this is really generous. I might be wrong, but I don't recall another set as big as this one since the Conte GIs were released about 20 years back. Anyhow, when it comes to 3D printing, given the volume of figures available, I am realizing that I may not be able to pursue completeness anymore. However I do want to have at least one set of 3D printed figures for each service branch and I still had that gap for the B8A. BTW, I really like that they have packaged all these figures as a set because it is pretty hard to track and buy them individually. In terms of these first 6 guys, not much to comment other than getting two poses of what's essentially the same officer figure just with different head gear seems like a missed opportunity to have crafted some better pose, but with an 18-figure set I guess they can afford that luxury.
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army by TS Central - Part II
In terms of the actual figures, I find them just OK. As I've pointed out with other Kozak figures, I find the posing of these guys a bit too stiff. I would prefer to see more bending of the knees, hunching of the back, ducking to avoid projectiles and flying debris, or running faster to find cover. These guys lack a sense of urgency, even the ones who are 'running'. Out of the first two pics, I think the Bickers machine gunner is probably my favorite. Perhaps because he is the one who requires the least intensity to appear to be doing his job well. I do have to say that the variety of weapons is welcome. Having said that, it would have been nice to issue a weapon to the grenade man on the left, perhaps slung across his back? Else he's going to need a lot more grenades!
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army by TS Central - Part III
This is where the set gets better. The kneeling guys and the prone guys are definitely much better than their standing counter parts. One of the prone guys is firing a Bren gun and the other one seems to be firing a Boys anti tank rifle, aka 'elephant gun', which is a nice choice of weapon. The two kneeling guys in the middle look very similar, but they have different webbing/pouches, and one has a scope on his rifle so that he can snipe better at those DAK guys. One interesting bit is that the bases are not designed by Kozak, but rather provided by the vendor. In this case, they issue circular bases, and if you pay attention you will notice that some of them have a larger diameter than others. You get to glue them yourself, so I allocated the larger ones to the kneeling guys.
Kozak Miniatures Soviet Paratroops by TS Central - Part I
These guys get extra points for being the first Soviet Airborne troops that were released, as far as I know. Plastic Platoon just released theirs and I've already placed my order for them as I write this post on March, 2025. The other good thing about these guys is that all of them (or 5 out of 6?) are in poses that can be used in a battle scenes. These guys are outfitted with jumpsuits, including the padded helmet used for jumping. I am not sure that they would have kept them on after the jump, but when it comes to toy soldiers, I think it gives them more character and it makes them more recognizable as airborne troops. In terms of weaponry, 4 of them have machine guns, and two of them are rifle men. Given that they are all on an airborne mission, I would have left out the rifles and issued them all automatic weapons. I am also not super excited about their upright postures, but that's been the case with all other Kozak sculpts, so I won't spend much time dwelling on that.
Kozak Miniatures Soviet Paratroops by TS Central - Part II
These are the same 6 poses as the ones above, with the only difference being that they are wearing a field cap, instead of the padded jump helmet. This cap used to be sky blue in real life. Other than that, I also took the opportunity to position the kneeling man so that the first picture lets you see the rucksack which all of them are wearing, and the second picture lets you see the front of the man. I got these guys from Toy Soldier Central, and got them in 1/30 size so that they fit better with the upcoming Plastic Platoon figures. All figures come without bases, but you can ask for them and glue them yourself. I chose to leave the kneeling men without bases as that allows me to place them closer to obstacles or on uneven terrain where bases would make them stand at odd angles.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops Set 1 by TS Central - Part I
A nice set of 14 US paras to expand my ranks even if 5 of them seem to be repeated from the WW23D set. The scale is pretty much spot on 1/32 so they will complement the previous set and the Airfix guys quite well. In addition to the figures, you also get a couple of steel obstacles (Czech Hedgehogs) and a sandbag position to protect your guys. The detail on the poses is crisp and the uniforms have a good amount of gear. My only wish is that the poses were a bit more dynamic. I still feel that most of the poses are too 'vertical' even though they are firing, allegedly under enemy fire, but they are either standing or walking. I suspect that this is a design choice because the figures are not guaranteed to be printed with a base, so this makes it easier to get them to stand, but I would prefer if they were to impose a base on their figures if that allowed them to be more fluid in their movements. Of the seven guys in this first picture, the kneeling guy is my favorite, precisely because he is not standing. The prone guy is second.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops Set 1 by TS Central - Part II
These guys are a bit better. Most of them are marching and their stance seems adequate for it. The guy on the far left who is about to throw a grenade is the exception. He seems too relaxed to be holding something about to blow up in his hand. But at least we have one guy running in this batch. That's progress. As far as the material in which they are printed, I found it pretty good. Better than some of the other more brittle resins. Speaking of breaking, an unfortunate thing that happened is that the sandbags appear to have been broken and glued back together. That left a white line of glue residue. Of course, that is something to do with the vendor and not Kozak and once I paint them it won't be noticeable.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops Set 2 by TS Central - Part I
When I saw that there was a second set of Kozak US Paras for sale, I assumed that many of the poses would be duplicates from Set 1, as both sets contain 14 poses. After careful examination I realized that all the figures in set 2 are new poses, so I went ahead and got them. As you can tell in this first pic, this set has a few more men in more dynamic poses. In fact, perhaps my two favorite poses in the set are the second and third guys from the right. They remind me of a scene in Band of Brothers in which Lt Speirs runs through the German-occupied town of Foy in the midst of a battle to relay an order to one of Easy company's platoons - and then runs back! The two other guys firing on the go are also good additions.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops Set 2 by TS Central - Part II
Here we have a few less dynamic poses. The two men on the left are almost identical, except for their sub machinegun. I placed them next to each other so that you can compare them. And then you also have the most officer-looking figure, assessing the situation through his binoculars. This set comes with two small sandbag walls. If you already have other sandbag walls, like the ones that came with the FOV figures, or some 21C toys sets, let's just say that these sandbags are not the reason to buy this set.
Here we have 5 other poses in various firing poses. Most interesting to me are the bazooka man, and the machine gunner, although I am having a hard time determining what exact model of MG that is. As far as I know, the only belt-fed MG that the US Paras used was the M1919 Browning MG, but the barrel is lacking the cooling perforations. Perhaps that was a simplification required in order to make them via 3D printing? Another interesting bit about this picture is that for some reason, the second guy from the right is about a head taller than the guy next to him. In the end I actually prefer this as it represents better what happens in real life. In terms of dynamism, the guy on the far right takes the prize. He just needs a log or a small wall to scoot around to fire.
Kozak Miniatures Australian Infantry by TS Central - Part I
This is another generous set in terms of the number of poses. Several of them resemble the figures in the British 8th army set with the main difference being the headgear. Speaking of headgear, I bought these guys as Australian infantry, but later I read something about the brim folding on the left side for New Zealanders, and the right side for Australians (at least in Tasmania and Victoria). If that's true, then these guys could also be from New Zealand if you ignore the fact that their hat is not as pointy as it should be for New Zealanders. In terms of the poses in this picture, I would prefer to see more action in them. These are the guys showing the most movement in the set and only one guy has a foot off the ground. Whether they are attacking or defending, it's going to be hard to overrun the enemy or find cover when you are moving at that pace!
Here's a group of mostly firing poses. Better suited for combat, but again, not very dynamic. But I suppose you can place them behind sandbags or some other protective rampart and they would do just fine. Among this guys, I tend to like the guys with the submachine guns better than the rifle men. Of course, the guy who is advancing would have to abandon his defensive position and venture out into the open. But hey, he could be firing behind a Matilda tank as they advance! BTW, I should also point out that based on their short sleeves and short trousers, I decided that these guys would be deployed to the North African theater of operations.
Kozak Miniatures Australian Infantry by TS Central - Part III
And here you have the kneeling and prone firing poses. The same that we got with the B8A set. As you can tell, two of them on the left are identical, except for the fact that one of them has a scope on his rifle, so we got ourselves a sniper. In terms of the prone men, one of them is firing a Bren gun, while the other one aims his Boys anti-tank rifle at some unsuspecting Panzer III. Speaking of the Boys AT rifle, the armor of later Panzer IIIs and subsequent Panzer IVs proved too thick for this weapon, and you also had to be within 300 yards. Then again, that's nothing compared to how close you had to get with a panzerfaust, but in the open desert I bet that could be easier said than done.
Kozak Miniatures US Marines by TS Central - Part I
This Marine set contains a generous 16 poses. I like that many of them are wearing cammo cover on their helmets and most are wearing their trousers untucked and have rolled up their sleeves as they'd do in the jungle weather of the pacific. In this first picture I included the shooters. I find 4 out of the 5 guys pretty good. Can you guess which one I am less excited about? Yes, the second man from the left. For some odd reason he is standing with his feet parallel to each other and facing the same direction as his rifle. I prefer firing poses that look more like the guy in the middle.
These next 5 guys are the ones standing or advancing quite cautiously. Again, I find 4 out of these 5 guys fairly acceptable. The one who feels a bit odd is the man on the right. He seems about to hug his rifle. Not the most useful pose. The other 4 guys would be very useful when placed around a Japanese bunker, or cave, waiting for anyone to come out while another one of their buddies throws a grenade into it. The guy with the BAR certainly could do some damage.
And in this batch we have what may be the most interesting poses. One of them is the grenade thrower that we were just talking about. And we also have the 2 most dynamic poses in the set rushing forward with intense facial expressions. One guy even has to hold his helmet! We also have a couple other poses that every squad needs: an officer and a radio man. The officer feels a bit stiff. Less of a combat pose and more like the stance that he would have if he were threatening someone. Maybe keeping a prisoner in check? The radio man is a nice solid pose, although I wonder why he is carrying that equipment in the back if he is speaking into a walkie-talkie. And to round off the set we also have a prone shooter. Not much special about him. Just a nice useful combat pose.
Kozak Miniatures US M116 75mm Howitzer and Crew by TS Central
There aren't that many artillery pieces and crews around so when I saw this set I didn't think twice about getting it. The howitzer itself is nicely done and I am impressed that it came as a single piece. I guess that's the kind of magic that you can achieve with 3D printing. In terms of the men, I like all the poses, but I feel that the sitting guy does not go well with the other five. I'd expect the crew to be either hard at work, or relaxing, but not doing both simultaneously. I also found the outfits a bit mismatched. A couple of the guys are shirtless, two of them have rolled up sleeves, and then you have a couple of them wearing pullovers. All this led me to place them in the North African desert where the temperatures do drop at night. Or maybe they could also be in the Italian mountains? In any case, a good addition to the US forces!
Kozak Miniatures US Heavy Weapons Teams by TS Central
Heavy weapons are always a welcome addition to strengthen your infantry units. I know many of us may not think of a sniper team as part of a heavy weapons unit, but if you use it to take out key targets I suppose it could pack a heavy punch! One thing to be aware of with this mortar team is that since you have to add the bases to the men, they won't let them get close enough to the mortar, so you will need to place the mortar on top of the bases as well. This will give it a bit of a higher angle, but not too much. That's also why I left the bases off the machine gun team. They would have kept the two men from being sufficiently close enough to feed the ammo belt into the gun. Luckily, the MG guys can stand fine without it. A good thing about this set is that these guys can probably pass for troopers in any theater of operation since they are wearing the standard US army uniform and have not adjusted their attire to any specific local conditions. I have to point out though that when I first took the picture I mistook the flamethrower for a Marine as I tend to think of them as a weapon mainly used in the Pacific.
The Plastic General German Waffen SS in winter uniforms
This is the first and long awaited set from the Plastic General. If you look closely, what is unique about this set is that they are wearing long coats and on top of them they are wearing cammo jackets and helmet covers. Previous manufacturers of winter German troops had given us one or the other, but not both. Given that these guys are late war guys -think Battle of the Bulge period- they are also equipped with weapons of the period, a couple MP40s, a couple Stg44s, and you also get a machine gunner and a rifle man with a panzerfaust on his back to round up the set. The poses address all the core poses that you want in combat unit. No odd poses or fancy weapons. A good, solid basic initial set. The sculpting is fairly nice, with good level of detail, which Toy Soldier Central helped polish. Notice how these guys are wearing scarfs and anything else they can wrap themselves in for the tough winter campaigns. These guys come printed in flexible resin, so they are very sturdy. If there's anything to improve, I would have liked to see the figures display a bit more dynamism. For example, the grenade man could have a bit more range of motion if he really wants to throw that potato masher farther than a few yards. But hey, let's not get nitpicky.
Kozak Miniatures British Paras with 6-Pounder Anti Tank Gun by TS Central
This is a nice set. It gets two thumbs up from me for its uniqueness as well as the execution. The gun and the figures are both nicely sculpted. Good poses and good level of detail. The crew includes a kneeling loader, a standing ammo handler, the gun operator, the commander observing and directing the fire, and an additional guy plugging his ears :-) I am not sure what his job was meant to be, but he adds some realism to the scene. I got these figures from TS Central which has developed a flexible, softer resin for 3D printing. The figures are now so flexible that I had to use the hot/cold water trick to straighten out the gun's barrel!
Kozak Miniatures British Paras with 75mm Pack Howitzer by TS Central
These are the same five poses that come with the 6-Pounder AT Gun. Besides the fact this crew is operating a different artillery piece -the 75mm Pack Howitzer- the other difference is that these paras come equipped with helmets, most of them with a bit of cammo attached to them. After I took the pictures I realized that I swapped the crews and the guns. The guys with the berets are the ones who originally came with the howitzer. But I think I like them better this way. I like to think that the guys with the berets are probably a bit more settled after their jump and have adopted a defensive position with the AT Gun, whereas the crew with the helmet just landed, assembled their howitzer, and started a fire support mission, without time to change their head gear. Both pieces and crews are great additions to my British Airborne troops!
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army Light Artillery Crew by TS Central
These are the same five poses as the British Para Artillery crews above. They are just dressed in desert uniforms with short sleeves and short trousers. A couple of them are wearing netting on their helmets. In terms of poses you get a loader, an ammo handler, the guy operating/firing the gun, an observer and a guy just trying to preserve his hearing. I labeled them 'light' artillery because they are holding smaller shells as compared to another B8A crew shown a couple of pictures below.
Kozak Miniatures British Army Light Artillery Crew by TS Central
Again, these are the same five poses as the British Paras and British 8A gun crews above, now dressed in full British infantry uniform. It would be nice to have more variety in the poses across sets, but I guess they will never be displayed side by side. Most of the kneeling guys are quite stable without a base, except for the man with the binoculars. I had a tricky time stabilizing him. Then I realized that he has some excess resin on the sole of his front foot. I removed some of it and that helped. I will probably sand off the rest to make it even and that will stabilize him for good.
Kozak Miniatures British 8th Army Heavy Artillery Crew by TS Central
This is a second artillery crew for the B8A guys. I labeled them heavy artillery because they are holding larger ammo shells. Maybe for a 17 pounder gun? It comes with seven poses, of which five are new compared to the other gun crew set. The loader and the ammo handler are the two repeated poses. the only minor difference is the size of the shell they are holding. This time the operator, the observer(s) and the man covering his ears are all standing. There is an additional guy sitting on the gun carriage or the wheel. I don't think I will have much use for him as that would be a very odd thing to do while the gun is being fired. In terms of the observers, I would have preferred to get a different pose instead of having two that are almost identical. The main difference is the head gear. I suppose they could be used as the officer and his second in command who are discussing what to do based on their observations. But most likely I will set up the crew using one or the other. The other guy can be assigned to a mortar or MG team!
Kozak Miniatures British Army Heavy Artillery Crew by TS Central
And these are the same seven guys as above, just dressed in regular British infantry uniforms. Since they are all the same poses as the previous picture, I am not going to repeat my observations. One thing to comment though is that I initially meant to photograph these crews with the 6 pounder anti tank gun that I also got from TSC. Unfortunately one of the trails was a bent about half an inch off the ground and when I tried to straighten it for the picture, I broke it. And that's despite the fact that it is printed with a very nice, flexible resin. I think the problem is that I stored my figures in a room in the basement that is not well insulated and with the cold weather the resin got a bit stiff and was not ready to be bent. So a word of caution. The material of these items is the best resin I have seen so far in terms of flexibility but even so, at cold temperatures, it might break if you are not careful about warming it up first.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops Set 3 by TS Central - Part I
This is to date the best set from Kozak Miniatures/Toy Soldier Central. Not just the best set of US Paras -the third one so far- but across all their WW2 sets. They finally gave us poses that are a lot more dynamic and not just standing/walking/kneeling. I really like how the men now show wider stances, more bending of the knees, rotation at the waist and arm movement. All that makes a big difference. Besides the poses, the detail is good, the proportions are good. The weapons for example are slightly thick, which should further prevent breakage (beyond the fact that they are made out of that nice flexible resin). The set contains 17 men, although a couple of poses are just small variations of others. For example, the two men on the left with the mohawk hair cut. The only difference is the weapon they are firing. The one on the far left seems to be holding a Thompson Sub MG and the other one a Garand Rifle. Out of this first batch, the four on the right are certainly my favorites.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops Set 3 by TS Central - Part II
These next five are also good action poses. The two on the right definitely convey a sense of urgency, as one man is dragging the other wounded guy to safety. One thing to note about these two is that when you order them, you can choose to get them with a base. If you do that, the man doing the dragging will be a bit taller than when it was originally sculpted, which means that his hand now does not line up as well with the backpack strap of the man he is trying to help. I think this could be solved if the man being dragged also had a narrow base to even out the height. The man jumping over the wall is definitely a cool piece. It takes a little playing around to get him to find his balance, but it is a fun guy to have in the unit. The last two guys are again just a small variation of each other. This time it is just the head gear that sets them apart.
Kozak Miniatures US Paratroops Set 3 by TS Central - Part III
The remaining figures are all dead or wounded guys. I prefer the two who just got hit as they are a bit more versatile when setting up scenes since they are still 'in action'. My favorite guy here is the one in the middle. He reminds me a lot of one of the Conte British Paratroopers. If that's meant to be the case, excellent choice drawing inspiration from them! The guy who is supposed to be hanging from a tree or a building is OK, but he presents a challenge in terms of how to display him realistically. So for now, I just propped him upright against the wall. Lastly, the guys on the ground are OK. I prefer the one who has his mouth closed. The other two appear to be screaming, even though their body language suggests they are dead. But I know I am nitpicking a bit. Overall, this is a great set. Seventeen nice action poses for 35 bucks. What's not to like about that!
Comments
Post a Comment