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A Singasari League Frigate from the board/minis game Avertigos: South China Seas.

Well that’s prettttty. Nice job!

Dang man, where do you find such cool stuff? Just looking a that makes me hungry for Noodles. No matter how much I gaze out my window I don't see any flying Noodle vendors. Fething mundane reality. The 1950's promised me flying cas! Where are my finned Edsel's! I just know at least be of those pipes is dedicated to a steaming noodle pot.

That is freakin' cool! Dark Eldar Reavers look out, the Feng Cho Kwo are on the loose again!

This is...a little smaller than a Reaver.

Ankle-biters are the worst!

Dear Kestral and Insurgency Walker...

So, this is a dump of all of the human "Empire of Men" vehicle minis I bought. I've showcased some before, but I went ahead and finally BUILT them all, so here we go. Spoiler tag because 25 images.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/geeksaw/empire-of-men-28mm-sci-fi-miniatures-collection

My PDF/Admech Forces needed some reinforcements.

---

First up, the "Mammoth" walkers. Size/mass about double a 40K Sentinel, it puts them more on the "Dust Tactics" size of walkers. They'd probably make a reasonable stand-in for an Onager dunecrawler, I should dig one out for a later shot if I remember.



Next, the "Wolverine" troop carrier, which is their Chimera replacement. It is slightly chunkier than a chimera, but not overall much larger. However, the turret is definitely more massive.



Then we have the "Little Eagle Mk. III" main battle tank. Significantly larger than a Chimera or Russ or even the Wolverine, it should make a decent stand-in for one of the IG "Heavy" tanks, getting measurements for the Malcador and Marcharius to compare.



Here is a front and top picture of both styles of tank.



Next up, the Stahlratte Mk.I superheavy tank. This thing is a monster, larger than a Baneblade. This is the Armorcast one, but the scale's not that far off.



Finally, the "Reaper" 'fighter', which did NOT turn out as expected. In fact, they retro-fitted it to be a Valkyrie stand-in. Which, meh. But...wings!



Finally, here's a shot of everything:



---

The models are okay. Mostly clean, with only a little cleanup. However, the design of each is set up to allow for turrets to "snap in" to place, the wings to fold, the rear door of the Wolverine to open. And, while I appreciate this a LOT, the designers neglected to remember that resin expands and contracts, which means there's a LOT of trimming and fitting to make all the "special effects", such as the folding wings, to work. It is worth the effort, to be sure, but I ended up removing all the tabs on the rings of the turrets, because I wanted to be able to swap them out easier, and they just fit in better without them.

There's also no cockpit glass for the fighters, which is sad, they should have made and cast them in fine clear resin. Alas!

The Mammoths and Reapers each came with a standard molded round resin base, but the planes did not come with any form of "flight support", and the Mammoths really don't look good on the bases. All the bases are identical, so some variety would have been appreciated. I think I'm going to paint them up and use them as craters for exploded vehicles.

I only bought one of the Mk.IIIs and I don't really like the design that much, but I wanted one because I'm a filthy hoarder.

Overall, happy with the Kickstarter, the company had great communication, and they were packed very well.

These models, I believe, are still available.

I also got several of their infantry/cavalry miniatures which were advertised as being 28mm, but they are all very slight of build, so they are, in my opinion, fiddly.

Questions? Comments? Let me know!

--B.

That's a really nice haul of tanky goodness. I'm sure those big navy planes could be something for 28mm aeronautica.

Thanks for the through review, those fighters are tasty but yeah, resin. Great for one piece models but not for complex multipart ones.

Briancj,

Nice Singasari Frigate you have there.

Cheers,

CB

Captain Brown wrote:Briancj,

Nice Singasari Frigate you have there.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks, Cap! I'll get around to the rest once my muse for that game returns. It flits around, and I'm learning to go with it, instead of fighting it.

---

Here's a couple of shots of the Mammoth Walker, with a Sentinel and an AdMech Onager Dunecrawler.



I think it would be a reasonable replacement.

--B.

Nice review of the Empire of Men stuff. Some pretty cool models in there with nice features like the interiors and the drop troops on the flyer. But no glass on the flyers' cockpits seems like a big miss.

 The Riddle of Steel wrote:
Nice review of the Empire of Men stuff. Some pretty cool models in there with nice features like the interiors and the drop troops on the flyer. But no glass on the flyers' cockpits seems like a big miss.

It's surprisingly hard to get truly "clear" resin to cast well, etc. Well enough to show interior details, anyways. I understand why they didn't.

I have some options.

--

I've been holding on to (hoarding) three open-topped Sentinels, which I was going to paint into Scout models for my IG army..but the winter theme and open-topped never really 'gelled'.

However, with the Munitorum sets, we can get a passable Sentinel Powerlifter.

Thoughts?

Hmm. It maybe needs a bit more heft in the legs - bigger feet even? Also, that's a snazzy looking train there!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Hmm. It maybe needs a bit more heft in the legs - bigger feet even? Also, that's a snazzy looking train there!

The train is an ongoing project...should have more for it soon.

I have to change the base, anyways, so the feet can be redone.

Here's the original powerlifter:

I am familiar still think the chicken feet need to be bigger. Duck feet maybe

I think the lifter claw looks a bit oversized. What were you thinking that your lifter would be moving around? Maybe do some scatter of that and then design the claw around that?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, bay 12, please.

 Flinty wrote:
I think the lifter claw looks a bit oversized. What were you thinking that your lifter would be moving around? Maybe do some scatter of that and then design the claw around that?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, bay 12, please.

I am thinking of cutting the claw down, and moving the main 'joint' to the shoulder of the sentinel. And making the feet bigger, as per Graven's suggestion.

The original powerlifter's "claw" was also massive/ungainly, but I don't want to have to build from scratch.

Thank you both for the suggestions and feedback! MOAR WORK TO BE DONE.

--B.

Wow, that empire flyer is....very Horten. Which I like. Power lifters! Got to love any rear echelon unit. I remember a little tech track made from a centaur that was in a FW display table. Cool stuff

Love the paint on the Frigate and WOW... those vehicles!

Okay, I cut down THE CLAW, cut down the hydraulics, and moved the claw onto the 'shoulder' of the Sentinel.

Much better! Still huge but doesn’t look unbalanced.

Agreed, big/small improvement.

Nice adjustment Brian. Well done.

FW needs you.
Ah. I promised some numbers....

Wow, great stuff!

I adore flying ships, ever since Space 1889 hove over the horizon. How big is it? I'll have to look into the game.

The empire of Man looks to be a great source of Admech Tech Guard - kind of like the standard vehicles, but as if the Mechanicus had been tinkering with the STCs. Looks like an armored regiment in the making to me! There is a general lack of skulls, parchment and gratuitous power cables of course, but you could either add them or go with the idea that "mere" guard equivalents are not worthy of such things and their vehicles are more utilitarian.

The Chimera counts as packs too much turret IMO (though it would make a good light tank), but the firefly/flakk/multimortar are all solid.

The walkers are solid for Onangers, with the bonus that being a bit larger, I personally think they're reasonable for Rhinos or something like that as well.

The Russ type is particularly techi with the exposed sponsons.

The super heavy - hmm, needs more techno bling, but a great starting point.

Those planes - great score! the folding wings also make them easier to store in the cabinet. If you want to go truly crazy you could get the similar Dust Flyers - I have them, and they are really nice. Then you'd have a whole themed air wing.

Powerlifter looks great. I may press mold my tractor claw to try to copy it.

'd love to see MOAR!


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In fact, I'm going to go grab one of those planes for myself since they seem to be still taking "late pledges'. I didn't see it when I glanced over the kickstarter originally.

 kestral wrote:
Wow, great stuff!
I adore flying ships, ever since Space 1889 hove over the horizon. How big is it? I'll have to look into the game.

I still have my Space:1889 rulebook.
If you like that sort of thing, you can probably pick up Catalyst Lab's "Leviathans" for cheap. Great game, utter failure to launch. WWI flying battleships.
This game is "Avertigos", active and available. A free shipping deal is coming, I'll set you know. The makers are from Singapore. That ship is 3.5" long. The other 'large ship' is the Dynasty Destroyer, 4" long, equivalent to a 787 in length, game-terms-wise.

The empire of Man looks to be a great source of Admech Tech Guard - kind of like the standard vehicles, but as if the Mechanicus had been tinkering with the STCs. Looks like an armored regiment in the making to me! There is a general lack of skulls, parchment and gratuitous power cables of course, but you could either add them or go with the idea that "mere" guard equivalents are not worthy of such things and their vehicles are more utilitarian.

Yup, Agreed. Or another form of 'lost' STC

The Chimera counts as packs too much turret IMO (though it would make a good light tank), but the firefly/flakk/multimortar are all solid.

Unfortunately, the standard chimera turret looks just TOO small. But they're good for playing around with as Leman Russ or Predator swaps! ALSO, the flak/mortar turrets are interchangeable with the main Wolverine turret, and so I'm going to use those to build the Chimerax, Chimedon, and Chimerro variants showing in WD [UK] #185...

The walkers are solid for Onangers, with the bonus that being a bit larger, I personally think they're reasonable for Rhinos or something like that as well.

Could be rhinos, or some of the newer AdMech vehicle swaps. I imagine it as an AdMech troop transport...

The Russ type is particularly techi with the exposed sponsons.

Needs some work for me. According to IW,

The Macharius is 7 3/4 inches long, 5 inches wide at the sponsons. 4 1/4 wide without sponsons. 3 3/4 tall

And the "Little Eagle" is 6" long (6./5" with the rear trench rails), 3.5" wide w/o sponsons, and 2.5 inches tall. If I reverse the turret orientation, it looks somewhat like the Marcharius, and I can do a bit of hull extension/kitbashing. So that'll be what it plays out as, a PDF Heavy Tank.

The super heavy - hmm, needs more techno bling, but a great starting point.

Yeah, I really don't know what to do with these, aside from buying/building new turrets. I did ponder just using bits and pieces for things, but the assembled chassis really doesn't MATCH anything in-40k-universe, so I'm going to have to ponder. I may use the four base chassis to build the mobile repair fortress described in the novel "Baneblade". It can field-repair a superheavy.

Those planes - great score! the folding wings also make them easier to store in the cabinet. If you want to go truly crazy you could get the similar Dust Flyers - I have them, and they are really nice. Then you'd have a whole themed air wing.

I bought them at the last minute on the pledge, as I wanted to play with the hinges, etc. But they're not Valkyries, for sure. Good for PDF forces. I'm not sure how much more of this sort of thing I want to buy, although the temptation to buy some of the German Dust Tactics Walkers is HIGH.

Powerlifter looks great. I may press mold my tractor claw to try to copy it.

I'm happy with it, so much that I finished all three kitbashes!

'd love to see MOAR!

Well, okay!
All three Powerlifters. You could also easily put the claw centerline under the chin of the sentinel, and link it to the counterweight to the rear, but that would require a new box, instead of just being able to use the small crate from the Munitorum containers box.



Next up, moar back-rank goodness and...contrast paints! (#*)$#* these are expensive. $8.00USD a bottle?!?

--B.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Tonight on "Brian can't leave things alone, and owns a hacksaw"...

Old:



New:

Interesting. The “new” version has a profile a bit like a Sicaran with the tracks sloping down to the front. I really like that body shape better out of the two. The only thing that looks a bit off is those liquid tanks (?) being on the front top in a fairly exposed position.

I like the power lifter sentinels. The claw is still a bit large but the modified version looks a lot better and overall it looks realistic enough. Definitely looks industrial instead of combat. I really like one with the claw twisted/rotated. It would be cool if it could be rotated 90 degrees but I assume it interferes with the body?

Yeah, I'd have to extend the claw's "handle" a bit to allow 90' rotation.

MEANWHILE,



Look at my messy workbench!

--B.

Never mind that, SPACE TRAIN!