Old Crow first impressions

 Now with actual content!

When I got home from work today there was a little package waiting for me from Old Crow. Let me share my thoughts while the parts soak in detergent.

First of all, I made my order on the 23rd of January, so it took a lengthy 22 days to arrive, even considering international shipping. I would say it took Old Crow about 2 weeks to dispatch the order. Now, the website does have a notice on it saying that orders take longer than usual to process, so it wasn't really a surprise, but it didn't make waiting any easier!

Okay, so all the parts are packaged quite nicely. Every vehicle and turret comes in its own little ziploc bag and there's plenty of bubble wrap around it all, leaving no room for bits to slide around the box. There are four vehicles in the box - two Slingshot AFVs, a Claymore APC and a Crow Lander.

The picture below shows the contents of one Slingshot baggie. The hull consists of a top and bottom piece and the wheels are all separate. I'm guessing Old Crow mostly use one-sided molds, but unlike some other companies, all the parts come pre-sanded. As an additional nice touch, the missile turret comes with two styles of missile pod.

The quality of the casting is outstanding here. The details are, for the most part, very sharp, and defects practically non-existent. In fact, I can say with no doubt in my mind that these are the best resin casts I've seen in 15 years of tabletop wargaming.

The two halves of the hull fit together perfectly (I hope you're taking notes, Spartan Games!)

 The other Slingshot was just as nice as the first, so we'll skip it except for the turret. I wanted to try as many options as I could, so I ordered different turrets. This is the "support" variant and it comes with two sets of metal barrels that fit into the recesses on the resin turret perfectly. The turret ring has a small air bubble, the only irregularity I noticed so far.

The Claymore is a bit beefier than the Slingshots, but funnily enough the hull is a single piece. A few more bubbles here in the left corner, but luckily all on the underside. We also see another turret variant, this one with three different metal barrel options.

The bits of flash seen between the wheel slots here are the only flash present on any of the models.

Lastly we come to the Crow Lander. This is hybrid resin/metal model and the only one I can see myself having some problems with. I do not look forward to attaching the heavy metal wings to the resin hull.

Additionally, the cockpit piece seems to have suffered a little bit of shrinkage. Probably not enough to be noticeable on the tabletop, but slightly annoying nonetheless.

My final ratings (I am making up the categories as I type) for Old Crow:

Sculpting 9/10 - sharp lines, great style; 7/10 for the Crow, which I find it a little bit boring
Casting 10/10 - hands down the best resin casts I have ever seen
Service 7/10 - no real problems, but a tad slow
Value 10/10 - Old Crow have some of the cheapest 15mm vehicles on the market and reasonable international shipping rates; low price combined with outstanding quality is a rare sight these days

How can I best sum up my opinion of Old Crow? Let me put it this way. Once I hit Publish on this article, I will go rinse the models, then I will log onto the Old Crow website and put in another order. Ta ta!