I’d had the Hot Toys figure for awhile, and always liked it, so I decided that one of the most romantic ways my wife and I could spend a Saturday evening and night was to play some World of Warcraft and put together a mandollie.

I wanted to put together a USAF TACP using the Hot Toys kit, but I also wanted to update him a bit. Since that early Hot Toys “ACU” is probably better off used in some kind of sci-fi bash, or as a commercial camo, I got out a spare “Lucas” 10th Mtn with BBi’s nice ACU print.

The other option was to use Multicam with Crye-cut pants, so I picked out a parted-down MIL/Merit “Spanky” to scavenge his clothes if needed. I also wanted to save the Jake Gyllenhall-alike head sculpt for my eventual Jarhead “Swoff”  bash.

The first pic shows the stuff I got out to work with – a Hot Toys nude from the Secret Service ERT figure, a broken-down Merit/MIL ”Spanky” figure, and BBi “Lucas”.

Hot Toys TACP - Boxed

Next 2 pics are pretty much the “unboxing” images from the TACP – the first with his gear in the tray, and the second with all of his gear taken out. In the second you can see my referencing Orion0800′s kitbash on OSW in the background. Orion is an actual USAF TACP, and complimented me on my work (along with another TACP active on OSW) – so that gave me a little warm glow and continues to do so when I look at this figure.

Hot Toys TACP Tray picture

Hot Toys TACP Unboxed!

From here, it was simply a matter of putting all the gear into a pile, working out which to go with, and then playing dolly-dress-up.

Gear Pile!

I wanted to keep it pretty much the same, despite swapping out both the figure and the uniform. I used Spanky’s boots since I wanted to keep the high-sitting HT beets for future bashing (and a lot of those hiking type boots look quite plasticky anyway), and the kneepads were obviously not needed since I was using the Crye cut pants. In the end I did go for the Multicam, since it appears to be more current and just looks better. I ended up using more of Spanky than I’d originally planned, but that’s okay.

TACP Kitbash - front view

Another view

TACP Rear View

In the end the parts breakdown is:

Body: HT Truetype Secret Service ERT
Uniform, Hat, Sunglasses, gloves, boots: MIL “Spanky”
Dropdown: PH USMC RCT
Smoke Grenades: Soldier Story (I think)
Everything Else: HT USAF TACP

TACP Kitbash - last pic!

As well as a follow-up order with Eureka, I’m also planning to pick up pretty much the entire Modern (Western) range from Empress Miniatures very soon – US Forces and Brits. Again, they look very nice, and should add some additional variety to my modern forces.

I started by basing them on 25mm rounds from Proxie Models. A couple of months ago I ordered a ton of bases ($70 worth) from Ken after some recommendations on Dakka, and they are both dirt cheap and excellent quality. I’m tempted to order more just to have a healthy stockpile for the future.

One of the new things I’ve decided to try with these was the coloured primers I picked up a couple of months ago from Vallejo. These are the new Acrylic-Polyurethane primers. I picked up the full range of 10 colours in the 200ml bottles, in the hope that I’ll never need to buy the stuff again.

I’ve heard people talk about how they’re wonderful for plastics but not so great for metals. Well, they applied very nicely and smoothly to my Marines using a 3/16 flat brush, and once dry, the paint has indeed “shrunk” into the detail, leaving them unobscured.

I have to say, using coloured primer has been a little hard to get my head around – after more than a decade of using a spray can, using a brush to apply coloured paint just seemed wrong in some way – like I’ve started basecoating without undercoating. The Vallejo primer was very smooth in it’s application, and feels quite nice on the models. I used a 2:1 mixture of RAL8000 German Green Brown with White, as I figured if I’m going to use coloured primer I may as well lighten it to be a bit closer to what will be my main base colour.

In all, it turned out well. After drying I’ve spotted a few places on a number of the figures that I’ll need to touch up. After that, basecoats!

The one thing I’m not sure about is the basing of the sniper. He’s too big for a 40mm round, which leaves me with a choice of the two 40k cavalry bases. The WFB square one leaves his rifle overhanging, which means I could more easily position him as shooting out of a window etc, but the round one will better protect the rifle from damage in storage, transport and play. I can also do a little more on the base by adding some rocks and such, though not to the extent of making a mini-diorama, as I feel they detract from models when used as gaming pieces. I also prefer round(ed) bases. A 60mm round would be overkill, I feel. I’m using another figure as a spotter, but I prefer to have 2-man teams based separately as it offers more flexibility on the tabletop and in storage.

In the end, I went for the rounded base for the extra protection. Since with these figures I’ve decided that I want to try a bunch of new materials and techniques, I found the Vallejo Sandy Paste that I purchased awhile back, and decided to ladle it onto their bases. I haven’t used this kind of material for basing before, and have only used non-textured acrylic pastes for adding bulk, such as on my FoW DAK, and then going over the top with regular fine sand. Since the Proxie bases have a slight indent and the Eureka figures have an integral metal base, I used the paste to level out the tops of the bases, using a sculpting tool to apply it, and the same brush as I used for the primer to wipe it off when I got too much on their boots.

Verdict – the paste is way too fiddly to use on something like a 40k army or a full historical army, but should be fine on a smaller skirmish force like these ones. Finally, I added some kitty litter to the bases to add some texture as rocks. I’m going for a more rural Afghan-style base, rather than simply sand. I added a couple of the larger stones to the front of the sniper, to make it look like he’s found a spot that affords him a little bit of visual cover, while still keeping him in theme with the rest of the figures (so no bricks or ruins).

Now I just need to touch up the primer where it got rubbed off during the basing, and the actual painting can begin!

Eureka Miniatures SEAL Team Six

Eureka Miniatures SEAL Team Six

Kosta has done a good job on these sculpts once again, right down to the cut of the pants being recognisable as Crye G3, including the integrated kneepads. If he does any more of these sorts of figures, it might be nice to see the AC cut make an appearance as well. Regardless, they (and checking out the Frenchmen) made me realise that none of the USMC figures have kneepads.

I also picked up Eureka’s USMC Force Recon figures, initially thinking that I could simply mix them in with the other USMC figures. On closer inspection, the uniforms and gear are too different, as the FR figures kit visibly dates from the early 2000′s. They’re still very nice figures, and I’ll most likely use them alongside, but as a separate unit. I’ll probably paint them in 3-colour “coffee stain” desert BDUs rather than the MARPAT of the more modern figures. In retrospect, I should have gotten 2 sets of these, since they’d work better for me as three fireteams, but I’m not too keen on paying postage for one small set of miniatures…

USMC Force Recon: Front

USMC Force Recon: Back

USMC Force Recon Sniper

USMC Force Recon Sniper

With my large order of all of their Modern USMC and SEAL figures, Eureka also sent me along a free sample of a related range: 1960-80s US trooper in MOPP gear. It’s a nice enough figure. The uniform doesn’t have the same amount of detail, but as he’s wearing a MOPP (aka NBC) suit, it’s to be expected. I guess the old-style M1 metal helmet gives the figure a wider range of years the figure could fit into, I can’t help but wish he had a PASGT helpet instead. If he did, I’d buy up a bunch of these guys as they would fit in decently from 1985-2002.

1960-80s US trooper in MOPP gear with M60 Machinegun: Front

1960-80s US trooper in MOPP gear with M60 Machinegun: Back

Overall, my buying experience with Eureka was very pleasant, with fast service and excellent product. The figures would work as their own group of 40k Imperial Guard for those so inclined, but be warned they’re close to “real” 28mm figures, so they’re a bit smaller and slighter – also known as more realistically proportioned.

Next week, I’ll hopefully be picking up some of their La Legion figures, so I guess I can get some more FR as well then to pad out the fireteams…

One thing that does bother me about Eureka’s site is that the pictures are generally pretty small and not shown all that well. I figured since I’ll be painting these suckers up soon, I’d take some pictures and put them all up to show the figures off in their bare metal glory and give them a simple review. It’s really quite odd since Eureka have quite a nice gallery of painted figures, which for some unfathomable reason aren’t linked from the individual models in their online store.

The castings are crisp and clean, no flash, and just a slight mould line. You will have to trim a slight bit of metal off the bottoms of their bases in order to get them to stand up straight, but this is simply a matter of running a knife or file along the bottom for a couple of seconds. The sculpts are great as well. Kosta has done really well here, including lots of small details. ACOGs and Reflex sights are easily identifiable, weapons look good, and he’s clearly taken the time and care to understand what the equipment is and does, unlike way too many sci-fi miniature companies that have started to stick rails on everything but seem to have no idea what they’re for…

In short, excellent sculpts and excellent castings.

Now, for the good stuff – The pictures!

(Pictures all link to the appropriate pages on Eureka’s Website)

Eureka Miniatures USMC Officer and Marksman armed with M21: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Officer and Marksman armed with M21: Back

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Patrolling: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Patrolling: Back

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Advancing: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Advancing: Back

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Firing: Front

Eureka Miniatures USMC Fireteam Firing: Back

So those are the USMC figures. Eureka kindly provide a simple paint guide so you can purchase the appropriate Vallejo paints to paint them up as Kosta has. I’m not that excited by the M249s all using different ammo sources (we know they can use a loose belt or a STANAG magazine, but really, box feed, please! The USMC set is also available as a Squad Deal, which is the way I picked up the entire range.

Next up I’ll get the SEAL set and the Force Recon Marines organised.

Probably worthwhile as a disclaimer – I have no association with Nic Robson or Eureka miniatures, aside from having bought figures off him and had a chat with him in the past. I paid RRP for these figures and there is no Quid Pro Quo for my thoughts on them. Judge for yourself via the pictures if you’re in the market for Modern USMC.

edit – I thought these figures could work just as well as US Army, but decided to ask someone in the know. After asking an online aquaintance,  US Army MAJ (Ret) Will Rodriguez who is still very much in the loop on these things, I got the following response:

“At this scale it’s very difficult to tell a difference between these Marine and Army figures.  The paint applications will probably be the most determining factor.

The biggest giveaway that these are Marine figures is the fixed stocks on the weapons though the US Army was using a large number of fixed stocks through 2005.  The vests were the earlier IBAs which aren’t so molle intensive as the more current versions of body armor.

The Marine Spartan vest and Army IOTV are almost indistinguishable at this scale.  The rest (helmets, pouches, boots, uniforms) are not detailed enough to definitively say what branch they are.”

After hearing that, I’m very tempted to pick up a second set of them so I can paint one up in UCP/ACU to represent the US Army and the other in MARPAT for USMC. Hmm.. I might end up doing that with my next pay. Oh, I’m supposed to paint these guys up as well!

I’ve been interested in Kaos studios for some time. Born out of Trauma Studios, who created the most excellent Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942, the core of the Trauma crew were hired/bought by DICE to work on Battlefield 2 which was pretty much a commercial reworking of Desert Combat as a direct sequel to BF:1942. Following the release of BF2, DICE/EA did what big studios always seem to do and fired everyone from Trauma, who in turn got picked up by THQ and formed Kaos.

A couple of years afterwards, they brought out Frontlines: Fuel of War which I was very much looking forward to, right up until several months after release when there was still no demo in sight for the game along with many complaints about PC stability and balance issues. So I never bought it. More recently, Kaos developed Homefront, which crashed and burned on account of not actually being very good, and Kaos in turn was closed earlier this year.

So. The game.

Well, the shooting mechanics are a bit off. Sure, I’m playing on console, but they’re not nearly as smooth or good “feeling” as either CoD or Battlefield’s. You’re forced to rely on the “snap-to” auto-aim mechanic, and even that’s a bit off.Your companions lack personality, the guy is a generic douche, the girl is showing off her lower stomach and just a hint of upper pubis to go with her cleavage. Because it’s important to keep up sexy appearances during civil insurrection. The writing is pretty bad and dialogue is worse – John Milius or no.

It all looks a bit grainy. Dunno, I guess they’re going for “gritty”. On one hand, a few years ago you’d laud a game like this for looking so good, but by today’s standards they’re nothing special. They’re not bad per se, they just look a bit off.

Had to take a break after a couple more stages when one of my companions got stuck on a wall we’d vaulted. You always have to “follow” your companions, and you can’t do simple things like go through a doorway or go up/down a ladder until the game decides it’s your turn. Even if there’s nothing or no-one in the way.
There’s a variety of weapons to pick up, as apparently there’s no uniformity in the Koreans’ equipment, so they’re all carrying a variety of about 5 different rifles, with a variety of different add-ons and types of optics.

bang bang

You can’t carry much ammo (about 5 mags per rifle) and you can only carry 2 weapons, oh – and apparently weapons which are a variation on a theme do not use the same ammo, let alone magazines. This means that the M4 Carbine, which uses the exact same magazines and ammunition as the M16 in the real world, doesn’t in this game. Let alone other weapons that share the same ammo and use compatable STANAG magazines like the SCAR-L, ACR, etc. But worse, even two different M4 rifles with different optics don’t share ammo. This is worth complaining about since the ammount of ammo you can carry is so limited, forcing you to be scavenging new rifles fairly regularly. Oh, except, sometimes, slightly different variants of the same rifle will refill your ammo. But not always.

Oh, and the “RPG”s that are used by the Koreans throughout the game (and by you a time or two) are actually German-made Panzerfaust 3s, rather than RPG-7′s or the Chinese copy, Type 69 which makes total sense. Right? Especially since the US doesn’t use them, nor do the Koreans, though the Koreans seem to be using the entire stock of US Armed forces’ M4 rifles.

After having finished the game, I have some more thoughts. A little more reflective at this point.

While the gameplay is filled with flaws, on another level the game itself is an interesting take on games as narrative. With John Milius (Red Dawn) on board, the influence of having a “proper” write in the game designers is clear. The game is very much a hyper-linear experience. While we’re used to that in FPS games like, well, almost everything since forever, Homefront takes it to a new level. Rather than having to make it to the next checkpoint, you simply follow one or another of the NPCs around like a dog on a long tether. Aside from not being allowed through doors or up ladders until your companions have finished their bit of dialogue, this game takes it to the extreme At one point, your companions head to an overlook to make comment from a distance on bad things that the Koreans are doing to some nice American civilians, and the game literally has you follow them up to the ridge so the NPCs can have their chat, and then follow them back down so you can move onwards. It feels like a scene that may have been in a film or book and fit in, but in Homefront you, as Mute Protaganist #498076 simply follow along like the aforementioned tethered canine and observe what you’re told to observe, when you’re told to observe it. As storytelling goes, it’s not involving or interactive at all, you’re simply a detatched mute observer, going through the motions.

Similarly, at the game’s climax the game attempts to give us a poignant moment, but unfortunately the player is so detatched from the goings-on that it just falls flat. Rather than feeling that you’re in the story, you’re basically just following along. Compared to, say, the Call of Duty experience – which *is very Michael Bay – but at least you’re the hero, Homefront has you tag along as a semi-interested observer, following your companions like a little dog and listening to their trite scipted dialogue in between headshotting a few more Koreans.

An enthralling bit of dialogue from one of your charismatic and well-written companions.

Something like the Bad Company franchise at least features some humour from your companions, and as such, they become likeable. Something like Uncharted has characters you actually grow to like over the course of the game and enjoy seeing. Even Medal of Honor, which suffered a little from “Black Hawk Down Character Syndrome” – Who is that guy again? Which one is he?” managed to kick a real goal in terms of end-of-game poignancy. Especially compared to this, it’s like Shakespeare.

Homefront uses THQ’s “online pass” system, and despite my copy being new, I couldn’t be arsed putting in the code just to have a 10-minute look at it’s multiplayer. (And no, I’m not willing to email it out). I figure I have several installments of Call of Duty and Battlefield if I feel like some modern-military-style multiplayering.

Overall, and despite my many misgivings towards this title, the short (5 hour) campaign length works in it’s favour for me. If the game was longer, I probably wouldn’t have finished it or it’d join the many games I end up putting down for months or even years. Since it only cost me as much as a large lunch and was short enough to play in a weekend, I actually don’t regret the purchase. More dedicated gamers could easily finish it in a day or even a single long session. As it stands the experience was more akin to seeing a movie at the cinema that was merely “ok” – and cost less than doing so, while still having enough of it to make for an interesting think about the nature of story in games.

====

Verdict: Skip it or Rent it. Only bother to purchase if it’s going to cost as much as lunch.

P.S.: For an entertaining look at the game’s shortcomings via captioned screenshots, check out Homefront’s IMFDB entry.

Painting models – I found it to be a great stress relief and also great to motivate me to do my work – since I made myself do more reading/writing in-between paint breaks – which was much more rewarding than the assignments!

Chronopia Sons of Kronos

Chronopia Sons of Kronos (back)

The tartan looks a bit better in person, what with the figures being about an inch tall. Looks much more messy when blown up like this. The markings on the guy are meant to be woad warpaint, though I wanted to avoid the “Braveheart Lite” look, as well as overly-intricate patterns. I was initially going to put some on her as well, but she’s already quite busy with a lot going on so decided against it.

As for Chronopia itself, I bought the rules and a few semi-random figures when the game came out, but my group never got around to playing it. The figures therefore won’t be painted as proper forces, more likely a few nice display models and perhaps a few will be drafted into 40k-ish or LoTR forces. Much the same as the majority of my WHFB stuff.

Warzone Corporation Men In Black

Also a small update to the MIB figures from a few posts ago. I wasn’t satisfied with the sunglasses or the whatever-it-is on the bottom of that one guy’s pistol, so I touched them up. The gloss varnish on the glasses hasn’t come out in the photo, and the thing on the guy’s pistol has been painted as a tac light, though it’s a little out of focus in this photo. Win!

Ollander and Frodo

Ollander Elsewhetherornot of Mootshire from RBG with Frodo Baggins from GW. Ollander is noticably shorter than Mr Frodo, but still fits in well as a Hobbit, especially when you take into account that not all humans are the same height in real life.

Brynjar Gunnar and a Khazad Guard

Brynjar Gunnar from RBG and a Khazad Guard from GW. As can be seen, the sizes are 100% compatible. Oddly this Khazad Guard doesn’t seem to be available from GW at the moment…

Hostrum Hammersmite, Gunnar and Khazad Guard

Another shot showing Dwarf with Dvergr. Hostrum Hammersmite is added here, who I’ll use as a Dwarf King or General type figure. I’d have compared with one of my GW Dwarf Kings as well, but they’re packed away in a box. Somewhere. Very happy with the RBG Dvergr/Dwarfs – I picked up almost a dozen of the various figures to mix in with my GW ones and add some nice personality to the force.

Hvitarnor and Boromir

Fearless Hvitarnor from RBG and Boromir from GW. I picked up a couple of the Norse-themed Njorn range, somewhat to use as Dunlendings. Again, my Dunlendings are …somewhere, so Boromir gets size comparison duty. I purchased Hvitarnor because he reminded me of Conan, right down to the pose, facial expression and helmet.

Astrid, Arwen and Yrsa

I decided to use a female figure from GW’s LotR range to compare with the RBG ones. Here’s Eowyn in the middle, with RBG’s Astrid of the Stones on our left and Yrsa the Accursed from the HelsVakt range on the right. I bought these two mostly because they’re good looking figures, though perhaps they could both be used in friendly games using the rules and stats from one of the Stormcaller or Shaman characters.

Christia the Chaste and Eowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan

Christia the Chaste from RBG’s Aelfar (Elves) range along Eowyn again. I really liked the Aelfar figures, so just as I bought a big bunch of the Dvergr, I did the same with the Aelfar.

Yvander, Legolas and Edele

A few more Aelfar. Yvander Halfblood from RBG, Legolas from GW (seems this one is discontinued) and Edele of Aelheim from RBG. No prizes for guessing where these guys would be used.

Uruk Captain, Sverreulf and Gothmog

Uruk-Hai Captain from GW,  Sverreulf the Red-Handed from RBG and Gothmog from GW. RBG’s Halfblood range is interesting. When browsing it, this guy stood out to me as a figure that would make an effective Orc Captain, especially amongst the non-uniform plastic orcs. Again this Gothmog figure appears to be discontinued, though since it’s the same figure as was widely available with the Battle for Middle Earth magazines, I don’t see a shortage of this figure happening anytime soon.

That’s it for tonight. I picked up a bunch of other RBG figures at the same time as these, but these pics should give anyone interested in using these figures alongside the GW LotR ones for any kind of Middle-Earth miniatures of Role-Playing games (MERP!) a good idea of what would work.

Scibor Rosette of Death #1 (both)

Rosette of Death #1 has a somewhat generic look, what with all of the skulls and all. It wouldn’t be out of place in Kaplica Czaszek in Poland or Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. This, naturally, means it would fit in anywhere in the Warhammer/40k Universes. I imagine this is the kind of thing that they have decorating childcare centers in the 40k universe.

Scibor Rosette of Death #1 (single)

A slightly closer-up pic of #1

Scibor Rosette of Death #4

I also purchased Rosette of Death #4. With the Angel-winged shield, I figured that I could use it for any of my Dark Angels, Blood Angels or Templars and it would fit in quite nicely. Once again the work is finely detailed, the casting is pretty good and there are no major finecast-style quality issues such as the chain being incomplete.

Scibor Rosette of Death #4 (closeup)

Once again, a bit more of a close-up. I probably won’t use the braces that it comes with, but it’s nice to have the option. Similarly to the Rosette #1s, I’ll need to figure out exactly what I want to do with it first…

Scibor Rosette #1 size shot

This shot shows Rosette #1 with a plastic Space marine standing on it. You could easily break some of these up for basing materials, or alsost even use them as bases for Terminators and so forth (they’re just a bit bigger than a 40mm base.)

Size comparisons of Scibor Rosettes #1 and #4

Great stuff from Scibor. My next review will be on the Scibor shoulder pads and shields I also picked up, or possibly on some of the Red Box Games figures I had arrive today. One or the other, but both very soon!

With that in mind, we’re also hoping to mostly use models that aren’t crap. Unfortunately, the GW LOTR spiders are indeed crap. Overpriced as well, but really the issue is that they’re awful models.

Luckily, the GW Goblin Spider Riders aren’t crap. Overpriced, yes, but I was lucky enough to get a set of 10 off a nice bloke selling off chunks of his O&G army, and also have another 10 on the way from an eBay parts seller. All I needed to do was toss the riders in a parts box and scrounge up a bunch of round 40mm bases.

Oh yeah, and come up with a colour scheme. Since my wife hates spiders, and I’m not exactly their biggest fan when I see one inside the house, I wanted to go for a scheme that was somewhat realistic, a bit revolting, visually striking at a distance, and also not likely to be mistaken for a real spider in the house. (I had to get rid of a great big Huntsman Spider in the lounge room the other day – not fun!)

I decided on going for a yellow, exotic, almost tropical spider look. I also thought dipping would work well as an effect to give it that glossy, slimy, “ewww” factor, as well as expediting their painting. I’m also not a huge fan of the “skull” onthe back of many of the goblins’ spiders, but since there are things in nature such as the Death’s Head Moths (right, Clarice?) and knowledge that any dip would just bring up the skull details anyway, I decided to incorporate the skull into an overall stippled pattern on the model.

I couldn’t decide between red eyes (the typical, standard “evil monster” look) or green, for a more natural or vaguely realistic look – I knew I wanted to avoid blue. When I saw my metallic green paint, I decided I found the colour to try out.

So after all that, here’s my concept model, before dipping:

I’ve been reading a bit about Army Painter brand dips recently, but will be giving this guy a dunk using an old can of Wattyl stain as that’s what I have in the shed (if I can find it). If the experiment works out okay, I’ll buy an actual can of the AP dip. Probably their “light” tone.

I know there’s some visible mould lines left on the figure. It wasn’t that easy at times to work out which lines were part of the GW angular “exoskeleton/carapace”-style sculpt and which just need to be trimmed. Since this is a colour concept figure I’ll get the others done more carefully. Now I’m off to go get wood stain on my hands!

]]> http://azazelx.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/lotr-spiders-test-model-pre-dip/feed/ 0 azazelx http://azazelx.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/polish-resin-2-maxmini-steam-knight-heads-gothic-backpacks-and-shields/ http://azazelx.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/polish-resin-2-maxmini-steam-knight-heads-gothic-backpacks-and-shields/#comments Sat, 13 Aug 2011 03:27:58 +0000 Azazel http://azazelx.wordpress.com/?p=248 ]]> Much the same as the last post, this is mainly so people can see what this stuff looks like in some decently-sized pictures and get some feedback. Like the Orc heads from my previous posting, these Steam Knight pieces are great.

Steam Knight heads

I haven’t taken close-ups of every one of them. You can see the designs on their website anyway. This is much more to show how they compare size-wise to GW’s marine heads and also to show how they fit on marine torsos. They’re a little taller and thinner than the standard, as they don’t have the large “ear/headset” sections of your standard marine helmets and are a little taller, but I think they fit in very well anyway. I plan to use some of them for Templars, possibly some for Grey Knights and some of them for Iron Warriors.

I’ll probably order another set or two, just to make sure I’ve got enough for my IWs.

Maxmini Gothic Backpacks

The Gothic Backpacks set gets you six (two of each) and while they’re not especially cheap, they’ll make great characterful backpacks for Templar marine armies. I’ve provided a comparison pic with Helbrecht’s backpack, a normal plastic marine backpack and also a chaos marine backpack. I probably won’t order another set of these, since I want them to stand out on character models (Chaplain, Techmarine(?), Emperor’s Champion, etc), though I might end up getting some more down the line for the unofficial squad leaders amongst the Neophytes and Sword Brethren.

I also picked up two different sets of Maxmini shields. I got a 10-pack of the Mechanical Shields, which is shown here by the larger one with the cross – as you can see, quite a decent size. They’re also offered as a 5-pack with 5 hammers but I passed on that since I think they offer better hammers elsewhere and I’d rather have twice the number of awesome shields than half as many with some merely “alright” hammers. (I wonder why you can’t get some Mk1 hammers mixed in with Mk2 ones in an order?).

The smaller round shields (Black Lotus Tribal Shields) also look good, and came in a 10-pack. Not sure where the name comes from, but with Eagle, Lion and Wreath designs on them, they have a nice strong “classical” look that will fit in with many space marine armies.

I’m really happy with all of the Maxminis stuff I picked up, and I’ll most likely make another order from them within the next couple of weeks.

That’s it for now! Next – Scibor.