Hello, Penal Legion Troopers

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Wargames Atlantic has released their "Cannon Fodder" plastic kit for Death Fields.  Calling them perfect for grimdark penal legion troops is an understatement, and they're barely over a dollar a model at retail.

https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/all/products/cannon-fodder



You can make less, ah, doomed figs with them as well, and they make good colonial militia and even armed civilians, but really, who doesn't want a prison jumpsuit and a combined bomb collar/frenzon dispenser?





Haven't seen a kit this exciting since the initial Stargrave plastics came out, and I suspect these will be fairly compatible with those in terms of part swaps.

[Pictors Studio]

Those are really cool looking. You're right that they are perfect for penal legion.  They would also be perfect for a Necromunda jail break scenario.

[Daeothar]

Cheers for that; I wasn't aware of these coming out.  They look to be extremely versatile and should see their way into many different projects for sure! 

[nozza_uk]

With those overalls/jumpsuits and some hand swaps, these could be good alternatives for a Starfleet crew.

[Elbows]

Huh...glad I clicked on here.  I follow Wargames Atlantic, but gave these zero looks, as I don't need penal "fake guard", but...having seen the sprues.  Spare lasguns, spare packs, spare heads/helmets...couple of pistol arms, arms without weapons, etc.  I could definitely use all of those bits in doing up some Necromunda stuff.

[Diablo Jon]

They look decent. I'm not sold on the guns, they look a lot like 40k las-guns but with the barrels stuck on upside down , I guess it's a design choice to not upset the evil empire?

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Huh...glad I clicked on here.  I follow Wargames Atlantic, but gave these zero looks, as I don't need penal "fake guard", but...having seen the sprues.  Spare lasguns, spare packs, spare heads/helmets...couple of pistol arms, arms without weapons, etc.  I could definitely use all of those bits in doing up some Necromunda stuff.

Yep.  Definitely some Necro potential there, even more so if you have different weapons/arms in teh bits box so you can get away from the lasguns.  Hopefully they work okay with Stargrave kits, which give you more psare arms than you can shake a stick at.  Looks to be quite the parts mine.  Especially love those backpacks, can't recall seeing a scifi set that actually provided variant sculpts like those - at least not outside of GW devastators where the pack is part of the gun.

I'm not sold on the guns, they look a lot like 40k las-guns but with the barrels stuck on upside down , I guess it's a design choice to not upset the evil empire?

Most likely.  Close-but-not-too-close seems to have been the idea, since they know they'll sell to Guard players (and therefore to Genestealer Cult and Imperial Agent and roleplayers too) who don't give a fig for official tourney BS - and after the neo-Nazi incident in Spain, that population is growing.  The guns are probably the weakest part of the kit, but again, hopefull Stargrave's compatible.  If so, problem solved many times over.

[Westfalia Chris]

Folks,

Please note that I split off the "Spanish incident" and merged it into the GW discussion thread, since the latter would be the place to discuss issues like that (being unrelated to actual aspects of gaming and modelling ).

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=57122.msg1704711#msg1704711

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Folks,

Please note that I split off the "Spanish incident" and merged it into the GW discussion thread, since the latter would be the place to discuss issues like that (being unrelated to actual aspects of gaming and modelling ).

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=57122.msg1704711#msg1704711

Fair enough.  I've said my piece on the subject anyway, although I doubt any of us have heard the last of it.

On a more  minis-related note, WA also released a box of goblins today(?) that I think are based on teh old Wargames Factory orc frame.  So if you're into fantasy and like classic Tolkein-esque orc/goblin humanoids, there's that.

[Ceeteegee]

They're vey nice. We left 40K many years ago and have picked up Xenos Rampant*.  These figures are perfect for light infantry and will soon be joining my GSC minis.
The addition of the Grognards Kepi with gas mask and GSC heads means they fit in with the rest of the figures and yes, the lasguns bear more than a passing resemblance of the GW lasguns carried by the other units.
* We've played big battles in 28 and 15 mm and it's great to see armies on the table that'd otherwise languish in storage. 

[Hobgoblin]

On a more  minis-related note, WA also released a box of goblins today(?) that I think are based on teh old Wargames Factory orc frame.  So if you're into fantasy and like classic Tolkein-esque orc/goblin humanoids, there's 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.

[Elbows]

Yep, those two kits are actually entirely different...just based on the same artwork and thus a near identical look.  The Wargames Factory ones were not as nice as the Wargames Atlantic ones from what I can see.   

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Yep, those two kits are actually entirely different...just based on the same artwork and thus a near identical look.  The Wargames Factory ones were not as nice as the Wargames Atlantic ones from what I can see.   

Guess it's the art that had me confused.  It's a good look for them, no two ways about that.

I do like the fact that they're suitably short.  Re-read LotR recently and one of the things that really stood out was how small the orcs are described as being.  The regular snagas are runts barely the height of a Dwarf, and even the uruk-hai are shorter than an average man - stronger and heavily built, but still short and stooped over.

[Hobgoblin]

I do like the fact that they're suitably short.  Re-read LotR recently and one of the things that really stood out was how small the orcs are described as being.  The regular snagas are runts barely the height of a Dwarf, and even the uruk-hai are shorter than an average man - stronger and heavily built, but still short and stooped over.

I''d go even further! The snaga types must be about the height of a Hobbit given that Frodo and Sam can disguise themselves as such. 

It's the Uruk-hai that seem to be about Dwarf-height; Gimli finds them much easier to fight than the "over-tall" Dunlendings at Helm's Deep.

Meanwhile, the half-orcs must be much bigger than the Uruk-hai - because their human height and its contrast with their orcish features is what makes them remarkable. And Gollum - who's seen plenty of Mordor Uruks - says that the Haradrim are "almost as bad as orcs and much bigger".

I reckon one thing that's pretty clear from the books is that the great bulk of Orcs in the armies of Mordor and Isengard are Uruks. Almost all game adaptations tend to create a third class of "soldier orc" to fill this role, but I don't think there's any support for that in the books. After all, Sauron's been sending out whole armies of Uruks for 500 years or so by the time of the events of LotR. The Uruks are the soldier-orcs.

I think one thing that confuses a lot of people is that Tolkien almost always described the Uruk-hai as "Orcs" (or sometimes "goblins") - which can lead people into thinking that they aren't Uruks. In LotR, "Uruk-hai" and "Uruks" are almost always what the soldier-orcs call themselves.

The other thing is that when we first meet the Uruks (in Moria), they seem to be an elite among many smaller orcs. But when we next encounter them (in Rohan), they form two whole troops of soldiers (Ugluk's and Grishnakh's).

But yes, the WA goblins are a great improvement - and they fit the book descriptions of orcs quite nicely: squat and broad, big heads, long arms.

This blog has some really good kitbashing with the WA goblins - and gives you some good close-up shots of them and how they work with WF and Oathmark.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Back on scifi uses, the bayonets on the rifles are particularly helpful for Stargrave players, since several soldier types have carbines and knives as their weaponry while their frames are rather lacking in actual knife bits.  A zap gun with bayonet is perfect for a WYSIWYG soldier needing that loadout.