West Wind Police Detectives & Patrolmen

West Wind make quite a lot of police figures in their Road Kill range. In addition to the detectives and patrolmen that I'm reviewing here, they also make motorcycle cops and lots of SWAT troopers. I'll review them at a later date. But first, here are the detectives from set GRK020 in the two photos above.

At the far left is a male detective minus his jacket. As you can clearly see, he is wearing body armour in the shape of a kevlar vest. Indeed, all of the figures in this set are wearing body armour, which means they're ready for action. This detective wields a 9mm Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine gun. He has clipped his police badge to the top of his flak vest.

The female detective has sensibly had her hair cropped short to prevent it being grabbed. She is armed with just a pistol but it is fitted with either a torch or a laser sight under the barrel. She holds her police badge in her left hand. Her pose suggests she is assessing the situation.

The detective to her left is also armed with just a pistol, which he is holding in a steady two-handed grip. He is wearing his suit jacket over his kevlar vest. He has tucked his police badge over the belt of his trousers. He is wearing sunglasses. Note the way his jacket has swirled out behind him, indicating he has just swing into this firing pose. It gives the figure a nice dynamic feel to him.

The sculptor has pulled off a similar trick with the final figure from this set. I like that. This detective has the best weapon out of the group - a Colt 5.56mm CAR-15 assault carbine, which according to GURPS Cops, is a common weapon in the LAPD. This detective has done the same as the first figure I reviewed and hung his police badge from the top of his kevlar vest. He also wears glasses or sunglasses, depending on how you want to paint them.

                  

Moving on, we come to set GRK009, which contains four police officers or patrolmen as I call them. I rarely ever use gloss paints on any of my figures but I did use Humbrol gloss black to paint the cops' hat peaks, belts, holsters, pouches and shoes because I wanted them to have a highly polished look to them.

We start off at the far left with a cop firing his pistol one handed. It is probably hard to see in my photo, but he has a radio clipped to his left breast pocket just to the left of his badge. He is the only figure in the group thus equipped.

Next to him is a cop with his pistol held down at the ready. His belt is equipped with a holster and a single pouch, whereas the previous figure only had his holster attached to his belt.

Third in line is a cop with his pistol drawn and who is pointing a very large torch in his left hand. I'm sure that the torch would make a great improvised club. His belt is fitted with a holster and a pouch.

The cop at the far right of the group holds his pistol in a two handed pose as he carefully takes aim. He is wearing a pair of glasses/sunglasses and his belt also holds a holster and a pouch.

Many firms make figures of contemporary cops and I have a lot in my collection, although most concentrate on American police forces. This is okay for me, even though I am a Brit. I set my ATZ campaign in Mayhem City, America, so I need American police figures. That said, I do have a smaller collection of British bobbies, if ever my campaign crosses the Atlantic or if I play something else set in the UK.

These West Wind figures are very well sculpted but once again, I take exception at them being classed as 28mm scale figures when they are clearly four or five millimetres taller. The size doesn't bother me, but I know for a fact that if some people bought them, expecting them to be 28mm scale, they'd be very disappointed. I have a minor criticism of the police officers' set and that regards the lack of gear on their belts. Where are their handcuffs, pepper sprays, daysticks, etc.? As I said, it's only a minor criticism and it wasn't enough to prevent me from buying them. Another point that occured to me, is that none of the eight figures is armed with a shotgun. This isn't a criticism, just an observation, as I know that shotguns are popular with American cops. The two sets cost £6.00 each. These will fit in well with my WWG Mayhem Police Station, once I finish making it. An Assault on Precinct 13 style ATZ scenario, with zombies of course, is a must do!