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This will be a (hopefully) lengthy blog on my first foray into a non GW miniatures line, namely the assimilation alien swarm line produced by Trollforged's kickstarter. There has been a fair amount of conflict over this line, in terms of the miniature quality, and the time they took to be produced. However, despite this, I have seen very little, if not any, blogs on the miniatures themselves. Hopefully, this blog will help people see the potential the bugs have, and hopefully you will join me on this little adventure in modelling! I have big plans for these slugs. Big plans. This is a bit of a refresher for those of you on Ammobunker, as I'm posting about these miniatures in my INQ28 blog there too. However, for those of you who haven't seen these miniatures yet, this should hopefully be quite exciting!

Well, first thing's first. Let's do a quick review of some of the miniatures I've acquired. I went for the 'Host' pledge level when the kickstarter was in full swing, so my blog is missing some of the bigger critters, but depending on how this goes I might try and get some more. And whilst I might sometimes sound critical of the sculpts at times, I want to preface this by saying I am very pleased with the majority of the line. So, let's start shall we?







The image and concept art above is for Trollforged's 'Alien adult.' The artwork was what sold me on the bugs, but overall I'm a bit unsure of these miniatures. They're not quite what I was hoping for really. One gripe I have with them is the conversion into miniatures, Trollforged seemed to do away with the concept of hands, and instead went with tentacle/blade limbs. On the plus side, they have some fantastic, crisp detailing, and look pretty terrifying. But there's only 6 different variants to the sculpts.. Having 20 of them makes this problematic, meaning I will be searching for ways to convert them up. what makes this worse, is that of the 6 variations, they are only in one of two poses (3 variants in one pose, 3 in the other!). I am planning on equipping them with guns however, so hopefully once all's said and done, they'll look appropriately unique...hopefully.


My other complaint is that these guys are on the smaller side of 28mm, making their scale way out of line. They look closer to Lord of the Rings miniatures scale than to heroic scale. And whilst it would be crass to complain that a line of non GW miniature does not scale well with GW miniatures, the fact of the matter is that the rest of the Trollforged alien range does. It's almost as if the alien swarm adults are on a scale unique to themselves, whereas the rest of the miniatures line is on a larger 28mm scale. Hopefully with a bit of creative lore-crafting, I can come up with a reasonable solution; currently I'm thinking about explaining it through dimorphism within the same species, like the difference between worker and soldier Ants. Onto the next image!





Comparatively, this is the torso of the alien swarm soldier. Let's just say that these miniatures stand easily as tall as an 'Art' scale space marine. And this is partly why I'm mildly annoyed by the scale of the swarm adults. They are so different in size that it looks slightly jarring, and is difficult to accept. Furthermore, whilst the adults have an almost humanoid musculature, the swarm soldiers have a uniquely alien physiology. But it's the size difference that irritates me the most. Personally, and without wanting to cause unnecessary argument, I think this is due to a lot of backers of the kickstarter were wanting to use these as tyranids, so the swarm warriors had to scale up to the tyranid equivalent, which is a shame really. to compound on this, the swarm adults have symbiotically attached gun arms. Whilst these, at least were in the concept art, it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. To each their own I guess, but I will be finding ways to mix them up a bit. As for their immense size, as previously noted, the difference between a worker ant and a soldier can be quite vast, so perhaps I can find a workaround.


Next up, and similarly sized, are the 'Stealth Swarm Adults.'







Now these guys, I like. I think they're the closest to the original artwork by far, and they look brilliant. I know these are just torso shots, but I hope this give you some reference to their scale.



Now after complaining about the Tyranid influences, I'm going to be really hypocritical when I say that I think these guys could actually make some pretty mean genestealers with a bit of work. 'True' scale Tyranids, anyone? These miniatures do suffer from similar issues that the soldier adults had; they're big, maybe even bigger than the soldiers, they have symbiotically attached 'scythe' arms, but overall they're fairly tasty. Whilst the temptation to make them into some lean genestealers is tempting, I'm planning on keeping them as is.

Still with me? Good! Now for the hidden gems. When I first backed this kickstarter, it was primarily for the bipedal bugmen. However, this kickstarter has a whole other side to it. Worms. Big, slimy worms, that I had not really given the time of day. But whilst my opinion of the bugmen waned, the grubs just kept impressing me. With my pledge level, I ended up with a bunch of the worms, despite them not being the thing that attracted me to the kickstarter. However, as it turns out, they are probably the best sculpts in the range by far. Perhaps Ed of TF is more comfortable with sculpting giant molluscs than alien men, because these monsters are fantastic. Again, I only have sparse photos, as lots of the miniatures are still on sprues, but I hope this helps satisfy your interests.





These slugs stand at human height, and come with dozens of different head choices. For the necromunda player, they could make for some excellent Millisaurs. I have 30 of these beasties to prepare. Their only drawback is that the mouldlines seem to be on the most ridiculous places. Instead of running with existing lines on the miniature, they go against the grain, making it sometimes quite a chore to get rid of them. TF also threw in a free special edition large grub, and, as it turned out, three large grubs too, so I just cant complain.





Excuse that monstrous mouldline. It'll require greenstuffing to fix. Worm is big though, nicely detailed too. I like how the head ties in visually with the bipedals.

The last two images are just heads. The bodies they will eventually be attached to are huge, and require a lot of time preparing, time which I haven't really got spare at the moment. Giant chunks of sprue which literally need sawing to get through, mouldines galore, and some irritating airbubble pock marks. However, hopefully the heads will give you enough of an impression. These guys are big. Real big.





This is for their 'Fiend,' though I prefer calling him the Kraken. With all the tentacles, you can see why.





And this is for the slightly daintier 'Wyrm.' When I say dainty, it's only in comparison to the Kraken, this worm is big and scary.

Altogether, you can see that some miniatures stayed true to the concept art, and some invariably strayed. My next post will cover a more detailed look into background and ideas. Feel free to contribute ideas, the more spitballing we have, the better the finished piece! And, sorry for this sort of non-content post, my next will have something painted to look at, promise!

For those of you still with me, here's a follow up; My malevolent molluscs are progressing nicely, and I thought I'd snap you a photo of the fruits of my endeavors. I'm not changing them up much, but I'm trying to vary them up a little with a bit of putty work. The main offenders are those worms whose faces share similarities with certain reproductive organs. The predator has nothing on these grubs, let me tell you.










And a little picture of the big worm.





Wormalicious!