NSL Jager Light Infantry review

I've been painting a few lesser-known Ground Zero Games figures recently, some of which you may see on Jon's newly-opened web store.

First up, we have some NSL Jagers - SG15-N02. Click for larger images!

As usual for GZG figures, they were quick and easy to clean up, with very little in the way of flash or mould-lines. As one of the older 15mm infantry packs, it consists of 1 squad leader, 1 SAW gunner, 1 missile launcher, 2 "advancing" riflemen and 3 "advancing/firing" riflemen.

All are wearing long field jackets, chunky boots and the sort of jodhpurs that Terry Pratchett would describe as "trousers that look like they have a rabbit in each pocket". They have quite tall, peaked helmets which appear to have built-in comms, and their jackets incorporate some sort of back protection with a few technical gubbins attached.

Being of the older GZG style, the figures are on the shorter side of 15mm, and are quite chubby in comparison to more recent figures such as GZG's own UNSC or other companies such as Critical Mass Games. Their faces are slightly podgy, but I've seen plenty of motorcyclists who look just the same with their helmets on, so perhaps that is deliberate! Small arms are nicely detailed, though the one carried by the officer looks smaller than those carried by the riflemen This might just be an optical illusion - his left hand is quite large, so his gun might just look small in comparison.

I opted for a 2-tone grey scheme. Trousers and the front part of the helmet are base coated in GW blue-grey, jacket and the back of the helmet in Vallejo Cold Grey. After a Vallejo black ink wash, they received a drybrush of the base colours, followed by highlights. The blue grey received a GW Space Wolf grey highlight, the cold grey received a Vallejo stonewall grey highlight. Flesh is Vallejo dwarf flesh, GW flesh wash, Vallejo dwarf flesh again, then Vallejo elf flesh highlights. Hair was painted in various browns and sandy colours with brown or back washes followed by appropriate highlighting. Small arms, boots, the helmet peak and earpieces are all Humbrol 55 matt black with a Humbrol 32 dark grey drybrush to show the detail. If I were painting them again, I'd probably add some contrasting piping down the trouser leg too, but I wanted to keep these basic so they'd show up the detail in the figures on the web store. Thank you to Jon for giving me the chance to paint them for him!

Overall grade for these figures: B - Quite chunky compared to more recent releases, but a nice variety of weapons and poses. Cleanly cast, easy to clean up and plenty of character. With the jodhpurs, they'd make especially good dress-uniform guards for high-ranking officers! As with many of the earlier GZG figures, the lack of other packs of NSL Jagers means that if you wanted to field an army they'd start to look pretty "samey" after a while, but I realise that there is so much for Jon to do that further NSL figures are probably way down the list!