Hello, Penal Legion Troopers

[Grumpy Gnome]

I foolishly overlooked the Cannonfodder set because I did not like the marketing photos. They struck me  as entirely too 40k penal Guard. I completely overlooked the kitbashing conversion potential until someone said that they might make good converted Fallout Vault Dwellers. Eureka! The light finally switched on.

And with female Cannonfodder coming out as well… these are a must have for me now.

Hobgoblin, you are an absolute font of knowledge when it comes to Tolkien Orcs.

[SotF]

For the cannonfodder set, I'd have liked more empty left hands and some with tools rather than just the guns there. They'd fit in well with a lot of other uses by doing that.

The goblins have been out for a month or so now. They're not related to the Wargames Factory ones, except that they obviously share a common inspiration in Angus McBride's orc illustrations. They are very good, though - I've been using some of the heads on my 1/72 orcs and on Oathmark revenants (to make 1/72 orcs with two-handed weapons). I've also been using some of the goblins unconverted as large 1/72 orcs.

The Cannon Fodder look very interesting and useful. I want to find some suitable 'human shields' for the Human Cult army for Alien Squad Leader, and one thing I was looking for were some big, full-face helmets that could be attached to unarmed bodies. These helmets might very well do the trick.

The Wargames Factory Orcs are now available from Warlord...for a pretty steep price increase there.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

For the cannonfodder set, I'd have liked more empty left hands and some with tools rather than just the guns there. They'd fit in well with a lot of other uses by doing that.

Maybe we'll get some tech, medic, and empty hands with the female cannon fodder kit, fingers crossed.  Failing that, hand swaps with Stargrave crew ought to help some. 

[Grumpy Gnome]

A 28mm generic multi-purpose accessory sprue with tools, camp equipment, medical gear etc. would be nice.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

A 28mm generic multi-purpose accessory sprue with tools, camp equipment, medical gear etc. would be nice.

That's one reason the extremely varied backpacks on these guys have me excited.  So much stuff hanging off them already, and you could always add more.  Be nice to get some bits for "in hand" tools and stuff, though.  At least Stargrave's generous with those dataslate thingies, and there's at least one arm with a  wrench.

[Grumpy Gnome]

I snapped up a few weapon sprues for the Cannon Fodder from Irish eBay for those very same backpacks spacesuit helmet heads.

The weapons look better in person than the photos, not quite so chunky as I recall GW lasrifles but still not a design I like.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

The weapons look better in person than the photos, not quite so chunky as I recall GW lasrifles but still not a design I like.

They're not the selling point of the figs for me either, but they don't look terrible.  They do sell me as being the kind of chunky, outdated-looking cast-off guns you might hand to a bunch of expendable convicts - after rigging them so they won't fire while pointed at friendlies, of course, and maybe triggering a lethal injection (or life support failure for the sealed helmets) if you try..