Assembled Storm Troopers

I've assembled some of the storm trooper models from the other day, and they look great so far.  There are a lot of pieces to put together, especially with the mechanical mule, but the results are excellent.

This is the front and back of a standard storm trooper.  You can see that there's a lot of detail all over the model, and I especially like the helmet and mask.  It looks like the standard storm trooper rifle is some sort of MG-42 derivative.

This is Ada, the female storm trooper that came as a bonus for the Kickstarter order.  Again, there's excellent detail matching the regular storm trooper from above.  Plus, there's a ridiculously large gun involved. :)  At least that's the only thing big on her, and she doesn't have her own floatation devices that are all too common on sci-fi/fantasy female figures. :P

One of the cool pieces of equipment that came with the accessory pack is the mechanical mule, which is a Big Dog style walking robot cargo carrier.  There are three of them in the pack, and although there are some fiddly pieces, they add to the sci-fi atmosphere quite a bit.

I immediately thought of using the mule for 1/72 scale sci-fi, so I took this picture with two figures from that scale.  It looks like the machine can definitely fit that purpose.  It's just more of a robotic ox instead of a mule, being quite a bit larger.

Here's a comparison shot of the two storm troopers with a converted Games Workshop Cadian trooper.  Dream Forge's sculpting style is much closer to actual human proportions than GW's "heroic 28", so these models are taller and thinner compared to the Warhammer figure.  They're probably better off used separately from the GW stuff in 28mm sci-fi games.

All in all, these are great models that can really add to any gaming experience.

Storm Troopers!

No, not Star Wars.  I just received my Kickstarter package for DreamForge Games' plastic sci-fi German storm troopers.  These are very nicely made hard plastic 28mm figures that are based on DreamForge's current metal range of sci-fi Germans.  I ordered one 20-man pack of storm troopers, which came with an accessory package as well as a couple of bonus figures - the gun-totting "Ada" female storm trooper and the "feral Shadokesh" alien with an alien handler.

To my surprise during the Kickstarter campaign, the plastic miniatures were all going to be manufactured by Wargames Factory.  Now this company has gotten a bad reputation for poorly made products with soft detail.  However, none of that is evident in this batch of miniatures!  So it seems the problem was more with their original design side rather than the manufacturing side.  With DreamForge's excellent sculptors and designers, WGF can obviously make an excellent product.

 

These are the sprues that come in the 20-man storm trooper box.  There are pieces for all the storm troopers, alternate weapon selections, as well as enough bases for all the soldiers.

 

A close-up of the storm trooper helmets.  The detail is pretty amazing, a far cry from the poorly rendered "Greatcoat Troopers" from WGF's previous sci-fi set.

 

A close-up of some storm trooper legs.  There are some nice animated poses.

These are the sprues from the accessories pack.  As you can see, there's a ridiculously large selection of alternate heads, arms, hands, and weapons, far more than actually needed for the 20-man pack.  These sprues will fill up the bits bin for years to come.

In addition to the extra human parts, there are three "mechanical mules" in the accessories pack, which are Big Dog type walking machines that can carry cargo.  The picture above shows the detail in the body section of the mules.  When I put them together, I'll have to see if they can be used for 1/72 scale sci-fi somehow.

This is a great new product for 28mm sci-fi, and all in hard plastic to boot!  It looks like 28mm sci-fi is getting a surge in plastics just like 28mm historicals.