Mad Robot Colonial Marine conversion parts reviewed

[manatic]

As there's a fair amount of both Aliens and 40K interest on this forum, I figured I'd let you know I just added the Colonial Marine Imperial Guard conversion bits by Mad Robot to my ongoing 28mm CM review at http://dawnofthelead.com/2011/03/25/colonial-marine-miniatures-a-review/

However, since I don't want to resort to sheer blog pimping, here's the full text from the review:

Games Workshop plastics with Mad Robot Miniatures’ conversion parts

Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K range of miniatures includes the Imperial Guard, who are basically the footsloggers of a very dark future. This range includes two styles of plastic regiment: the Catachans, who are Rambo-esque jungle fighters and Cadians, who are a more generic type of soldier. Neither of these regiments as such looks like Colonial Marines, although due to their wide availability they have often been used for conversion work (see here for one example). However, there’s a large after market selling resin conversion parts for GW’s plastic sets. One of the companies doing this is Mad Robot Miniatures, who just happen to sell some CM style Colonial Defense heads and pulse rifles.

The heads come in a sprue of five different heads, although with some heads the expression differences are quite slight. The resin castings are very very crisp, with nothing to clean up. They’re instantly recognizable as Colonial Marines due to their distinct helmets with helmet cameras, mics and even the protective neck flaps. The pulse rifles are an amalgam of the Aliens design and a GW lasgun. Just like the heads, they are nice clean castings with no cleaning required. Everything is sculpted by Mr. Mad Robot himself, Steve Stodden.

I tried the extra parts on both Cadian and Catachan models. I found that they work with both, but the Catachan with their vests, tank tops and bare arms make for a more CM look. The main fault with the Cadians is their long jacket that doesn’t mesh with the CM look. The Cadians do have the body armour that the Catachans lack, though. As the long hem of the Cadian jacket is attached to the legs, a good alternative is to combine Cadian torsos with Catachan legs for the best of both worlds. Mad Robot is also releasing armoured torsos for their Colonial Defense line, so that will definitely fix things. The Cadian torso features a high collar, which requires some trimming to make the new head fit.

There’s not much to criticize here, apart from one very obvious thing: the parts are intended to be compatible with GW’s plastics, which makes them the wrong size for most other ranges. The pulse rifles and heads are in line with GW’s “big heads and bigger guns” aesthetic, and will look odd on other minis. This is pretty mild critique though, as the parts are very good for what they’re intended to do.

The pack of five heads costs $3.50 while the pack of five pulse rifles will set you back $4.00. They’re available in the Mad Robot online store. You can find the Games Workshop plastic sets in the GW online store.

[Commander Vyper]

Very nice find 

[Predatorpt]

And do you know he's doing torsos?





They sure look like Colonial Marines torsos...

[manatic]

And do you know he's doing torsos?

Weeeeell, like the review says:

Mad Robot is also releasing armoured torsos for their Colonial Defense line, so that will definitely fix things.

Steve's a really nice guy, and he's already promised to send me the torsos for review!

[AKULA]

The major downside is that they are sized to match GW Cadians and so won't fit in with any other figure range....

 

[commissarmoody]

Are they going to make smart guns?

[dwartist]

The major downside is that they are sized to match GW Cadians and so won't fit in with any other figure range....

 

Not quite true....
http://dwartist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mad-robot.html and perfect for these...
http://dwartist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mad-robot-and-dust.html

Edit: Just realised you may have been talking about the torsos, A. If so my apologies!

[Predatorpt]

Weeeeell, like the review says:
 

Steve's a really nice guy, and he's already promised to send me the torsos for review!

Me bad! I only skimmed over the review 

[mcfonz]

Not quite true....
http://dwartist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mad-robot.html and perfect for these...
http://dwartist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mad-robot-and-dust.html

Edit: Just realised you may have been talking about the torsos, A. If so my apologies!

They work on the Dust stuff, which is slightly bigger IMHO anyway. But for me, the first pic with the consortium mini, doesn't work. Looks a bit bubble headed.

These are clearly aimed at the GW market as you can see in some of the assembled pictures. It is a shame as if the heads were a tad smaller, say a tenth, then they would have far more applications.

[steders]

That is some interesting stuff, thank you

[joekano]

Great find - looking forward to seeing how the torsos work with the kits