[Open-Box Review] Rifleman Jess and Secret Agent Aida by Jason Martin

These figures turned up in their sturdy, dark blue boxes, each adorned with the boxart painted by Ki Yeol Yoon and are part of the ever growing Trigger series.

As always parts are contained within ziplock bags and nestled between layers of foam. These are 75mm (1/24 scale) miniatures digitally sculpted by Joo Heum Yoon and cast in high quality polyurethane resin.

SCULPT AND CAST

LOTS OF TEXTURED DETAILING

Firstly, sculpt and cast is amazing. Both miniatures are full of intricate and crisp detailing and the cast is faultless. There are several casting plugs across both kits that will need removing and filing smooth.

There are some mild moldlines to remove which is no issue at all, there are no major defects that I can see such as slippages, air bubble holes etc.

Another thing I always notice with these releases is that there are never (certainly in my experience to date)any damage or breakages to the kits, almost definitely down to the quality of the packaging.

Rifleman Jess: consists of a two part terrain piece, a set of spent rounds and eleven other parts. The kit comes with two left arm options, one clutching a rifle magazine the other a set of binoculars.

The main piece which includes torso, head and legs and shows great detailing with buttons, seams, creases, folds and sharp undercuts to straps and ammo belt/pouches. The arms attach via a square plug and socket assembly and dry fitting shows there’s no need for gap filling.

There’s a nice duffle bag that attaches to the lower back with slits to either side that will receive the two short lengths of strap that then connects to the straps sculpted to the torso. This may prove to be a little fiddly.

On first inspection the rifle looks nice and detailed but the more closely I look the more I’m not overly keen on it. The details are a little fuzzy and the cast in my opinion lacks the same sharpness as the other parts.

The rifle is slightly warped but can be corrected with warm water or a hair-dryer, just take care. The hand holding the rifle fits snugly to the wrist and the stock of the rifle has been nicely sculpted sitting slightly into the inside arm.

The scenery piece is very nice, displaying part of a ruined wall and damaged walkway which will provide a nice backdrop for our rifleman.

Aida is a six part miniature and comes with a section of cobbled roadway. The sculpt depicts in my opinion a confident, highly trained female agent. Her slender form and gait suggests she is athletic and alert.

AIDA – MANGA INSPIRED?

The delicate features of her face (including high cheek bones) and the choppy style of her haircut suggests to me a Manga influence.

The jacket has a wealth of creases and folds that will offer a great opportunity for blended transitions and sharp contrasts.

There are some great details and again belts and such like have sharp undercuts. The coats belt is undone and “flaps” naturally to the side.

The torso and legs fit tightly and snugly, waist nestling inside the coat fold, the wrist fits perfectly to the trouser of the pocket, so when attached shows her hand in the pocket (nice design and casting solution). There are nice creases and seams to the trousers and the ankle boots have delicately sculpted zips, great attention to detail.

AIDA FULL KIT

Her left arm fitted once more via a square peg assembly, is casually hanging down by her side, holding what books lie a semi automatic machine gun.

There’s nice texture to the cobbled base tho I’m surprised there’s no pre molded slots to the base to attach the figure. This means you will be required to pin her yourself, take care and time drilling her feet as they are slender, misplacing your hole could result in damaging the foot or even drilling through the thinnest part.

DESIGN AND ORIGINALITY

This particular series is quite interesting when you delve below the surface, it has the feel of a sci fi/civilian crossover. These figures don’t have bionics, or special armour or fancy contraptions, these are grounded in reality but you cant help but picture them at some near future point.

NICE SOLUTION FOR ATTACHING TORSO TO LEGS

These could easily be characters from a post apocalyptic nightmare or maybe rebel fighters against a futuristic regime or humanities last saviours against a machine up rising. The design is really well considered and offers a great alternative to the usual genres of sci fi and fantasy, as such I believe these are quite original sculpts.

DESIRABILITY

NutsPlanet continue to develop their name and establish their place within our hobby as one of the big hitters! They have some of the most talented sculptors and artists collaborating with them and continue to surprise us with their scope of their releases.

This is what makes each and every release so desirable, in fact when you partner all of this with the versatility of these kits, its easy to understand why.

There are so many options open to the painter, whilst Aida could easily be depicted in a quiet, street lamp lit cobbled street of an old Italian town or village, calmly walking away from a hit, Jess could easily be incorporated as rebellion activist.

Perhaps Jess is a loner, travelling and keeping his head low or he could even be used in a vignette with other figures from the Trigger series, there really are a number of situations you could place these figures. Then there’s the various ways you could paint each of the figures.

AFFORDABILITY

Aida comes in at $55 whilst the more complex kit Jess is another $10 on top, that places them around the £40 mark for us U.K. folk which seems perfectly affordable, fair and competitive.

When you factor in the amount of work that goes into making each figure it seems quite incredible: concept, sculpt, cast, boxart, sales, warehousing, distribution, the quality of the sculpt and cast, the quality of the packaging etc etc and its delivered to our door for the cost of what nowadays? A takeaway and a few pints? Seems worth it to me!

For me these are currently some of the nicest figures in our community, I just wish I had time to paint them all!!