Some assembley required:
And the weapons:
But.. I mentioned distractions didn't I?
Well it has been a busy last month - lots of DVD releases (father's day here means lots of cheap discs I like), a new Metroid and a much awaited expansion for Mass Effect 2.
Metroid sucked.
My review / rant can be found here if you're interested (I post as Zorg there - I made a second one later on).
But Mass Effect... I knew that was going to be awesome in all sorts of ways. So I did a full playthrough of 1 and 2 (all quests, all DLCs) to prepare. That took up a fairly big chunk of my time, but for good reason.
The awesome gameplay.
Ok, ok, maybe not. Just... just stop giving me that look ok?
So anyways, the DLC is done (unless I want to replay it a thrid time) so I can get on with the Marines, who have been waiting very patiently.
Here are the ten squads, Sergeants at the front with the section leader sixth in row
L to R: Bootes/Hecht, Tebbel/Gagnon, Wessamael/Nystrom, Sonkkila/Horti, Sauveux/Halucha, Nils/Guerrier, Lee/Pidot, Brzakovic/Heo, Yazar/Cashman, Varma/Lestoq.
Obviously the Forge World guys are just legs so far. First impressions are very good. Only the MkIV had any real issues, and that was just with the legs. They had a large degree of mold slippage, so the front and back halves were about 1mm off centre with each other at the thighs. The shins were generally ok. It was the running legs that were most effected too.
Which is the second downside - lack of variety in the legs. Each Mark of armour comes with two varieties of legs - standing (or lunging) and full-tilt run. So two out of five are running, three out of five for MkIII (which is odd as it's the 'heavy' armour). I worked around that by giving a lot to the Assault Squads. They'll have plastic assault torsos so I can distribute the FW torsos to plastic tac legs to fill the last couple of gaps.
I also found a workaround by putting the running legs with both feet down. This looks like they're moving at a jog, as opposed to a sprint.
Third downside - for some reason the Mk4, 5 and 6 legs have the grip moulded onto their feet. Why is this an issue? Well it makes it a royal pain to glue them down and be sure they'll stay down, especially the running guys who only have one point of contact.
I cut them all flat.
It's extra strange as the Mk2-3 legs are smooth where they make contact.
Command units are (almost) assembled. L to R, front to back: 1st Lt Edelsbacher (BA kit, need Iron Halo), Captain West (Mk3, brass eagle, needs hair), Chaplain Cho (lotta work yet).
Armoury Sgt Gossow, 2nd Lt Smalls, Comp Sgt Sztaba.
Apothecary Hautern, Trooper Meril (comms pack made with a lascannon's targeter for an antenna), Vet Sgt McGarret (there's a reference there - SW bitz and a Mordheim Amazon head).
Here's a FW MkVI dude with his plastic brethren:
The FW guy is slightly slighter in build, and is standing straighter with narrower shoulders. This makes them look much skinnier, even though the difference is really negligble. The shoulderpads also don't flare out as much, something I might adjust with greenstuff.
Compatability issues with the plastic kits I've found include:
- Scale - the Mk2 and 3 guys are shortasses. I'm not too sure how well they'll mix (plastic torso on their legs especially), so to be safe I'm trying to avoid it where possible.
- Again with Mk2/3, they use the old style pack, which sits higher. Their torsos are differnetly shaped to the plastics, and the shoulder mount is back slightly from the centre. This can cause a problem with the shoulder pads 'clipping' into the pack vents if you use a newer styled pack.
I ran into this assembling West, so if you want the Mk3 torso and pads (which have big rims) you need to use the old pack too.
- Mk3 again: The extra armoured cuffs mean holding weapons is difficult, as it makes the wrist higher than the fist, so the butt of a bolter wont sit right without some work.
- Also note they don't have any pouches, grenades, knives etc... I kit my guys fully so I bought a bunch from Blackdagger Games to cover me.
Not huge issues for anyone at the level of working with resin, but points to be aware of if you're considering getting them.
So, should be progressing with the company fairly quickly, so long as I don't have any more distractions...
What do you mean there are five more classes..?
.jpg)
