History

The New York City Police Department was created, in 1845, with the establishment of the Municipal police, replacing an old night watch system. In 1845, when the NYPD was established, New York City's population of 320,000 was served by a force consisting of one night watch, one hundred city marshals, thirty-one constables, and 51 municipal police officers. At the request of the Common Council, Peter Cooper drew up a proposal to create a police force of 1,200 officers.

For the purposes of policing, the city was divided into three districts, with courts, magistrates, and clerks, and station houses set up. The NYPD was closely modelled after the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England which itself used a military-like organizational structure, with rank and order. A navy blue uniform was introduced after long debate in 1853.

Contents

Black dog use a standard cardboard box, thin yet surprisingly strong with opening flaps at each end of the box. The art work is pretty standard with a picture of the resin figures unpainted.
The box contains two figures one male and one female.
The female figure comes in six parts.
The male figure comes in five parts.

Review

The sculpting on these figures by Hwang Jung Min is sublime without too much in the way of impurities. The male police officer has a tiny mark on his nose that needs to be removed but it is an easy job to rectify. The main part of the figure is the legs, torso and head leaving minimal work on building with just his two arms, police hat and gun to be fitted to the figure. The boots of the male officer seem to be a standard issue police boot which is in good detail one tiny blemish to the right heal, so small that I only picked it up with the digital picture. Standard police cargo pants with creases where you would expect to see them, some nice areas here to emphasise the shadows when painting. The police belt is a real focal point with what I can only describe as "magnificent" from the buckle to the equipment pouches, it really is full of detail. The keys in particular have such intricate detail as to be able to tell that there are three separate keys on the fob of the belt. Moving onto the police shirt again we see some excellent sculpting with creases where you would expect to see them and stress between the two halves where the buttons join. The pockets of the shirt are excellent pleated pockets with creases, really great detail in such a small area. They have even managed to get the NYPD badges on the shirt collars.

Facial features on the male figure apart from the little blemish on the nose, which in all fairness can easily be rectified, give him the overall look of alertness and when built will be listening to his radio. Ears and eyes are all good in detail, the hat with peek and badge is very nice with impression of his head inside the cap giving that creases too. The left hand is well done with considerable detail and the definition of the curling fingers with arm position when built would be by his gun. The right arm is clutching his two way radio, again great definition showing knuckles and fingers wearing a short sleeved shirt with badge on arm.

The female officer you cannot be anything but impressed with the sculpting which they have really done well with good definition between the sexes. There are six parts for the female officer, so you have the main part which is the head, upper torso, legs and feet.

The boots of the female officer are not as well defined as the male officers; there is also a seam that runs from the middle medial side of the boot to almost the top of the leg. This hopefully will not be to tricky to deal with, but you will need to be careful so as to not remove any detail like the creases in her pants. The pants are well defined with some creases again where you would expect them to be in the pose that she is stood. The pockets on the pants are very good, pleated type with button down top again, the belt becomes a focal point with fantastic detail she also has a second belt.

The overall detail is too a high standard and the second belt emphasising the hips, the standard police shirt is like the males shirt with very good detail, creases where you would expect them to be for the pose. The facial features look very feminine, the other parts that need adding is the left and right arm, cap, gun and radio. The hands and arms are very good and clearly are defined as female with smaller fingers and petite frame to her arms. There is a radio and gun that attaches to her belt and in good detail.

The Build
I chose to build the male police officer for the build part of the review, just be aware when cutting resin, I cut it in a small tub of water thus stopping any dry particles hitting the atmosphere. First I detached the figure from the large resin block that it comes attached to by using a razor saw from JLC in the Czech Republic, I find this the best one to use. After cutting the block off the bottom of the boots I then, using wet and dry carefully to file off any excess left and shape the boots on the bottom. I then cut the two arms, hat and gun from their resin blocks again cutting in the water you have to be careful that you don't damage any of the parts that you are cutting off.

The right arm has two locating pins making it easy for you place the arm in the right location and the left arm only has one locating pin, same for any parts, equipment that you place on the belt. The two arms were easy to place as is the hat and gun, once cut from the resin blocks it is easy to assemble.

Conclusion

Black Dog have already made some fantastic figures over the last couple of years but I really like these figures, they are really very well sculpted with such little work to be done. The overall look of them is very good and is easy to define between the sexes, both figures have individual facial features. As for building them, that came as a pleasure with each part going together very easily and the end result looking very good. Three blemishes were all I could find and one of them only came about after I took a photograph of the back of the male figure's heal. Besides this a tiny mark on the nose and a seam up the leg of the female figure. With so many possibilities for dioramas with these figures they should appeal to a wide range of modellers.

All in all a very good release from Black Dog .