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5deadly: so far as we can tell, the missile pods are for one hardsuit, the rest of them have twin bread-knives and gun arms.

Not liking the bread knives.

Did anyone receive his gunny yet?

I opened my box of UAMC on the day the gunny coupon was expiring. :-(

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
I opened my box of UAMC on the day the gunny coupon was expiring. :-(

You couldnt send an email/photo or anything to get yours?

The coupon said to enter the code online with my next purchase. Since I am waiting for the female marines to come out to finalize my army (I want to save on shipping), there was no way for me to get it.

I guess I'll get him when/if he becomes available through the store.

My Bugs arrived yesterday. I spent some time assembling a few (and screwing up the leg assembly). A nice bonus was the inclusion of two Germans with my Bugs! Anyway, have some pics; I'll post more, including scale comparisons, tomorrow.







Anyway, a mini review:

The plastic is good. It cuts and carves just like the standard high-impact polystyrene normally used for "hard plastic" minis. My Bugs came in a variety of shades of gray; I assume they were using different batches of plastic with different amounts of dye. It feels a little more flexible than regular HIPS, and springy; it bends back into shape well. I was more interested in assembling, though.

Assembly is easy. Each Bug is 9 pieces: 4 legs, two arms, two body pieces, and the head. The pieces are attached to tabs with thick connections that aren't too much of a problem in the context of the Bugs -- the recessed attachment points hide any irregular cuts. The same (mostly) goes for the head, but any detail on the top of the head is pretty much lost. Assembly is somewhat complicated: the legs were in two bags, one with long, spindly legs and the other with more compact legs; the latter are necessary to get the Bug to fit on its base. I didn't notice and used the longer legs, meaning I'm going to have to go back and do a fair bit of work to actually based most of my Bugs. Also, if you didn't already know which was which, it's not easy to tell which pieces are arms and legs. On the other hand, they're actually interchangeable.

Leg/arm issues aside, the Bugs are a piece of cake to assemble. My advice is to not think too hard about leg assembly, and snip the tips of the feet to give a little extra surface area for attachment. As long as you have three legs on the base, it'll be fine. By the way, use superglue: polystyrene glue will not work on these. Also, DO NOT twist the legs off the tabs; they'll snap off past the ball joint, ruining the leg.

The one real problem with the kit (from my POV) is the bases. I'll let the pictures speak for me:




Many of the bases are warped like this, and others are pitted. Most seem to have been twisted off, leaving a chunk taken out of the base. All are concave in the center. The bases aren't worthless (to me, at least) but they don't look very good, either. The German bases are much, much better, but still concave at the center. This may have been a problem with the specific batch and/or rushed packaging.

The Germans I received were a pre-order bonus, cast from the test molds rather than the finals, so I can't speak for the finished product, but mine had a few small casting flaws and smudged details, particularly on one of the forearms. Also, the guns are slightly warped. It should be easily correctable with some hot water.

Like I said, I'll take more pictures and post them tomorrow, along with a completed Bug swarm.

Wow,

It's good to see some 'consumer' bugs at last.

The surface of the Bugs looks quite rough/textured can you comment on that ?

And the bases do look poor, are these the 'limited' resin bases given as a freebie to prorders, or are they the 'standard' ones ?

Those are the standard bases. The limited editions ones seemed a bit better, though I wasn't paying as much attention to them. The rough texture on the Bugs is intentional. The casting for the Bugs was generally pretty good though, I now recall, there was some miss-alignment on a few pieces from mold slippage. However, as this was only a problem with a few pieces, I suspect it was due to faults in whoever was doing the casting, rather than a problem with the mold itself.

If I can get my camera and/or computer software to cooperate, I will try to get closeups tonight.

I wouldn't buy those bugs or germans after seeing those photos. I also wouldn't accept those bases and would be sending them back and asking for replacements or a refund.

Warped BASES? Huh well thats a first

Really surprised DFG didn't catch those. I would think out of everything, those bases would've raised a red flag. Might want to contact them and see if they can get you some new ones. That's not good if they're warping that badly. That's almost like a broken mold.

Hopefully the Germans are good. I'm waiting on preordering until I can see a few more pics of them, but I hope they don't suffer the same problems some of these bugs have...

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
Hopefully the Germans are good. I'm waiting on preordering until I can see a few more pics of them, but I hope they don't suffer the same problems some of these bugs have...

Regardless of the casting quality, going by the one shown here I'm not impressed. Proportions are all over the place.


I do like the bug though.

XENO,
Could you share a shot of the trooper from the back?

 insaniak wrote:

Regardless of the casting quality, going by the one shown here I'm not impressed. Proportions are all over the place.
.

Unfortunately, I agree. I realize that it is probably "realistic", but the crotch armor does seem a bit diaperish. I will withhold final judgement until I see painted examples, but it's not getting me just yet.

Still looking forward to the hardsuits though as honestly they are the unit that I have most immediate use for.

I shot Ed @ Defiance a PM about the miscast bases and this was his reply:

Ed wrote:
I know they are going to have some problems and the bases were the ones I saw going in and we changed that system now so I'll get with Tony and make sure we solve it. The german base problem is fixed so we might as well catch this now. I'll build a new mold with new base design. Thanks!

You can post my answer if you want. I did not know this was happening so yeah, it can be fixed.

It's a little weird that they would go to the trouble of casting their own bases when they can be sourced so cheaply anyway. The flat-bottomed bases would be another turn-off for me even if they weren't miscast... It's the same problem I have with most of the resin bases on the market: they are horrible to try to stand on terrain.

liking the germans a bit more with the shots. Gut reaction of it wasn't very good. Not a fan of the hardsuits, but I seem to have missed whatever it reminded people of.

It's been a few days, I haven't been on Facebook or DG's website, have there been any updates on official street dates for the PZG or a hardsuit casting test?

I can't wait to be over those swamp worms and onto humans again.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
It's been a few days, I haven't been on Facebook or DG's website, have there been any updates on official street dates for the PZG or a hardsuit casting test?

I can't wait to be over those swamp worms and onto humans again.

Nothing yet. All quiet on the eastern front. Hoping they get those base issues figured out, I really REALLY want to use those panzergrenadiers as stormtroopers...

I wanted to at first as well, but I decided to throw myself into DFG's KS instead. I figure I only needed 2 full squads, plus options for a few heavy weapons if I decide to run them as veterans, plus the game has potential, I think.

The fact that the eisenkern will be taller than my UAMC marines force will drive the point home that they are the ubermench on the team.

You should join us. We have big robots... and cookies.

Kroothawk wrote:I think it is obvious that this specific model was the "inspiration" for the Defiance games model. Maschinenkrieger is for alternative WW2 design what Star Wars is for SciFi.

Why the scare quotes?

robertsjf wrote:Finally! Power Armor/Exosuits for Gamers! None of that Adonis Sculpted Breastplate (with nipples) here!

Yeah, baby!

Xeno wrote:For those who wanted to weapons separate, looks like you just got your wish!

I don't know what's going on with the muzzle of the LMG, the ladder sight on the grenade launcher (which still looks like a shotgun) is still on the wrong end, and the ATGM has a too-large foregrip and waaaaay too-small sight...but on the whole they look pretty good. Not as nice as the concept art but, hey, Defiance Games. Since the announcement of the Dreamforge plastics I've no more interest in picking up any of Defiance's germans but bits like the heavy weapons should still prove useful for proxying.

Mathieu Raymond wrote:Also, wouldn't standing up in such a position require a skeleton and a lot of muscular effort, which would be premium resources that a worm doesn't have? So are they aleutian swamp snakes?

Even snakes can only raise up ⅓ of their length IIRC. They probably do have an endoskeleton but damn if that ain't some impressive alien musculature. And some weak sculpting. Not to mention the Reaper worms are cheaper. Bit of a missed opportunity. Anyway, the colonists probably just went "Long, lumpy and slimy? Worm. Where's me shotgun?"

5deadly wrote:Wait looking at Alex's 2D asset the hard suit had an. LMG looking gun on one side is that gone now?

IIRC the weapons now attach to the underside of the forearms instead of replacing them. Tim am play designers.

I was interested in the bugs, but the casting on them looks terrible, intentional or not.

Hoping they sort out the obvious issues, but looks like they're consigned to the do not buy pile now.

 Earthbeard wrote:
I was interested in the bugs, but the casting on them looks terrible, intentional or not.

Other than the bases, the casting looks pretty clean. Is it maybe just the colouring of the plastic that's putting you off?

I'd bet it's the texturing which I wasn't expecting either,

I was looking for smooth shiny bug exoskeletons like the art seemed to show, but they've gone for a rough surface texture. Not nesessarily bad buy not expected

Could be good but I'll need to rethink the painting I was planning

I cracked up the other box of Bugs and, lo and behold, the bases were just fine! Well, one was a bit thin, but otherwise they were pretty good. No warped, no gaps, no unevenness. Quite acceptable.

Anyway, I've got a lot of stuff to do, unfortunately, but I'll work on getting those pictures taken and posted tomorrow; Physics homework

 Xeno wrote:
The same (mostly) goes for the head, but any detail on the top of the head is pretty much lost.

Wait, are you saying they sprued the torso+head at the top of the head?!?

Still waiting on my bugs :( but I preordered mine kinda late so I guess they're still in the pipeline

Hey xeno, any chance you could get us more pics of the Germans? I'm really hoping to look at them more before the preorder, as I need to know whether to buy them or the dreamforge guys.

@MrMoustaffa: Even if you miss the preorder, you'll only be missing Fritz the heavy-gunner, right?

Although we don't know when we'll see the Eisenkern hit stores, and at which price point, so I see your dilemma.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
@MrMoustaffa: Even if you miss the preorder, you'll only be missing Fritz the heavy-gunner, right?

Although we don't know when we'll see the Eisenkern hit stores, and at which price point, so I see your dilemma.

I thought the Eisenkarn start shipping once the preorder is done, and they'll probably be cheaper through the kickstarter than they'll be in stores.

This means they're both coming out at the same time, and with my limited cash at the moment I can only pick one. Add in that they're roughly the same price for what you're getting, and it's a tough choice.

Luckily, I don't need a ton for stormtroopers, so I'll only need 2 boxes tops...

And they mostly have the same equipment in the box, too.

Eisenkern ships in mid-november, so you'll be painting into the holidays if DFG respects their schedule. If you need them ASAP, Defiance might be a better way to go.

Eisenkern will end up being more expensive, I think. Around 40$ a box of 20, or even more.