The lovely folks at Mongoose Publishing have sent me three of their new Rogue Trooper miniatures to paint and review. They've launched a kickstarter to raise funds for their new Rogue Trooper miniatures line and wargame, the latest product from their 2000AD license. It's already raised three times the amount they were asking for, so it's a safe bet if you want to join in. Only 7 days to go though.
(Rogue Trooper Kickstarter link).
You can also download the current play-test version of the rules (for free) on the Kickstarter page.
For review, we have a Nort Trooper, a Souther Trooper and the infamous Rogue Trooper himself, the first of three planned Rogue Trooper sculpts. Here's a quick group photograph.
First up, let's take a look at the Rogue Trooper himself. It's a lovely sculpt of Rogue runing forward with his iconic, "left shoulder down" running style. The Eagle-eyed among you might notice a small defect with the scope on Rogue's Rifle. The guys at Mongoose let me know about this in advance: it's a defect with the protoype mould they've used to produce miniatures for review. It will be sorted (as these things always are) before the miniatures actually go into production. Other than that minor hiccup, the sculpt is lovely. The miniature perfectly matches the first incarnation of Rogue Trooper. Even the Bio-chips for Helm and Bagman are positioned just where they should be, although the bio-chip for Gunner is hidden by the miniature's pose.
It's a nice, clean sculpt, with enough detail to make the model eye-catching but not so much that it becomes fiddly to paint. As with most Mongoose miniatures I've come across, there are no awkward brush angles when painting and plenty of nice, large surface areas. All this means that the sculpt is a complete joy to paint, taking me less than forty minutes (including ink drying time) to paint.That was using an ink wash and two layers of highlighting for everything except the skin, which I gave five layers of highlights.
Next up we have the Nort trooper, my favorite of the three. The Nort's are very obviously based on Soviet Pack soldiers in the Rogue Trooper comics (the series was first published at the height of the Cold War, after all) and tend to die in droves when Rogue Trooper is around. Less well armored and less well equipped than the Southers, they still manage to butcher Souther troops in their droves whenever Rogue isn't around.
I really love this figure. Quite apart from the fact it's so quintessentially Nort, you can clearly see the COld War Soviet influence in the shape of the rifle if nothing else. Again, the miniature has just enough detail to capture the essence of a soldier in the field without there being so much detail that the painter gets bogged down dealing with random gubbins. The open pose means that there are (once again) no awkward brush angles to worry about while painting. Your brush just naturally follows the contours of the miniature. Again, very quick to paint. Just thirty minutes in this case for bas-coat, ink wash and two layers of highlights.
The Nort's will be my army-of-choice for this game. The Nort's have the added bonus of appearing generic enough that they could be used in a variety of other Post Apocalypse settings as well, so I'll be getting at least two uses out of these miniatures. A pretty vital consideration for me, seeing as I'm a gamer with something of a tight budget.
Finally, we have the Souther trooper. Souther's are generally better armed and better equipped than the Norts, with a fully armoured environmental suit with internal airtanks and airlines that are clipped close to the body (to make them more difficult to sever with a knife - Rogue Trooper's favorite party trick). What the Southers don't have going for them is a ruthless officer corps that's scarier than the Southers. The Norts do have such an officer corps behind them (literally) which is probably why they keep kicking Souther butt.
Like the Nort sculpt, this miniature matches the Souther concept perfectly, even down to the rather cautious crouch (contrasted with the Nort's brazen nonchalance). The armoured suit is an absolute doddle to paint. All those big, smooth panels. The air hoses, pack and other details again provide just the right amount of detail. It's difficult to give what is essentially an armoured pressure suit anything in the way of personality, but this miniature certainly has that. Again, no awkward fiddly bits to paint and no awkward brush angles. Total painting time (including drying time for ink) fifteen minutes.
I can't stress how big a consideration painting time is for me when I'm buying a miniature. Heavily detailed (I'd say overly detailed) miniatures like those Rackham used to produce take forever to paint. Which is why I don't have any in my collection. Most of adult gamers struggle to find more than a few hours a week to paint. Me included, ironically enough. At least, when it comes to finding time to paint something for myself rather than a customer. The last thing I want to do is spend my whole week's painting time painting just one miniature. The fact that Mongoose seem to realise that (and actively make a point of producing gorgeous miniatures that are fun and quick to paint) is why I'm such a huge fan of the company.
