Steel Legion Mortar Teams (Anvil Industry Heavy Weapons)

More Steel Legion today - this time is my freshly finished mortar teams. I've had these guys for a while, but they were always lower down on my list of priorities. After adding up a few potential army lists, I realised that they'd be useful to have as an add on unit to fill those gaps where I was left with thirty or so points to spend.

They're pretty much 100% Anvil parts, so nothing to report on that front. Anvil supply heavy weapons teams with smaller bases than the GW ones; which means that you have the second crewmen on individual bases. I think I'd prefer a 60mm round base, but it does make marking wounds easier.

Style-wise, they match the rest of the army. Most of my guys are styled with very busy bases like they're in the thick of combat. I went with calmer more plain bases for the mortars as I envisage them always being out the back of the force providing support.

Anvil Industry, Heavy Weapons Review

I'm back with a fresh review for another excellent Anvil product.

This time, I'm looking at the modular Heavy Weapons sets. These sets are 28mm scale and are compatible with the full Regiments and Trench Fighters ranges. Like other Anvil products, they're scaled to fit any of the major 28mm scale companies, so they'd be right at home being manned by a few Cadians, or any other GW forces. You could probably make some great Ork Big Gunz with them too, with a few Gretchin crew to man them.

These miniatures were supplied by Anvil Industry free of charge in exchange for the review, and they even let me pick the parts this time. I wanted to use them in my Traitor Guard force when they were finished, so I picked a selection of cool bits. For some reason, I was really drawn to the idea of having some Mortar teams, so here's hoping they'll be reasonable on the field!

I also got some man portable RPG launchers, as I wanted to show both the larger set weapons and the smaller man portable types. Handily, I also have a Steel Legion force that I've been working on, so I put together a rather nice rocket team so I could show them in a different style. These weapons can be mounted as simple two man teams, or combined on a larger base to make a more dramatic display like mine, which I've based to match the ruined industrial look of the rest of the force.

Review - The Basics

Material

Like all of Anvils products these parts are made of resin. The resin is very clean and has incredibly fine detail. I always say it, but the crisp details are second to none, and really put a lot of other manufacturers to shame. Personally, I'm often a bit dubious of resin miniatures as they can be a really mixed bag, but as before, Anvil delivers a quality that most other companies can only aspire to. These parts were supplied for the review, but I've bought from them myself in separate orders and the quality is always excellent. I know a lot of other happy customers of theirs too, and I've never heard a bad thing about them.

Want to know how they'd look in a fully painted infantry squad? I've got you covered!

Casting

As with all of the Anvil products I've seen the casting is flawless. I didn't have a single fudged detail or imperfection in 3 complete heavy weapons teams or any of the Regiments squads that I've ordered from them before. There aren't a lot of mould lines either and the parts are very easy to clean up; with most just needing to be clipped off of the sprue and glued together.

Fitting

Everything fits well, and I didn't have anything that was bent or needed to be reheated and bent to fit. It you're not familiar with resin, this can sometimes be a problem, even with big manufacturers like Forgeworld. The upside is that it is usually fairly easy to fix by submerging parts in very hot water for a few seconds and then bending them back where they are supposed to be. I've never seen it with Anvil products, but it is worth knowing for future reference.

The joints don't need a lot of gap fill either; only if you're converting, and getting a good pose for your miniatures is easy to achieve.

The teams themselves come with two bases as standard; with a larger one for the weapon and a separate crewman. It is quite good if you need to count the number of wounds remaining or anything, as you can remove the additional man from the field! They also have the option for a 60mm base that will fit both models, so the choice is yours.

Heavy Weapons
With the basics out of the way, lets take a closer look at the actual Heavy Weapons.

The sets are modular in that they come with a choice of weapon and a choice of stand/mount.  Currently there are several options for both, and I'll include a few stock photos below to give you a overview of some of the range. You can also get optional extras like ballistic shields as well as items for the crew.

Notice the different tracked units and bases available for the weapons too. This Phase Cannon looks pretty intimidating!

For my part, I chose to go with some rather nice mortars and tracked units. I have a sort of traitor tech guard force, so I wanted them to match the look I had on my other units. The tracked bits are really cool, and the detail on the small inner wheels are really crisp.

I haven't finished painting them all yet, but this shot should give you a decent idea of what a squad of these could look like.

For the rocket launcher team, I built a scenic base with a bit of wall for them to hide behind. I had a bit of a play with the parts that I got to make them look like they were on the move and receiving orders or something. You can made a variety of poses with the parts offered in the set; including aiming and firing poses. They combine quite well with the crouching legs as well to really make that classic shooting pose for a shoulder mounted weapon.

For those interested in the exact bits on show in this review, here's the list of everything I received:

Regiments Custom Heavy Weapons Squad (6 Figures)
  - Regiments Head Style: Stahlhelm Gasmask
  - Regiments Torso Style: Gothic Void Torso
  - Regiments Legs: Long Greatcoat
  - Regiments Leg posing: 2x Kneeling, 1x Sitting
  - Regiments Arms: Fatigues
  - Regiments Infantry Weapon: Tesla Disintegrator
  - Regiments Shoulder Pads (optional): Double Curve
  - Regiments Heavy Weapon: Mortar
  - Regiments Gun Mount: Tractor
  - Optional Gun Shield: Tech
  - Regiments Arms: Fatigues
  - RPG Launchers (three launchers with arms)

As with the other sets that Anvil make, the pieces have a huge amount of customisability; with a number of different torsos, legs, arms and heads on offer. Combined in with the heavy weapon teams, you really can make almost anything you can dream up. They've even done a range of dress uniforms and Private Military Contractor style parts lately, so the range is bigger than ever. A quick search on the internet, and you'll be able to pull up plenty of images of some of the other looks you can create, or even better, you can go to their online store and have a dig through the parts on offer.

Conclusion:

I've said it before, but you really can't beat Anvil in terms of resin quality and casting. After that, it only really comes down to style choices and preferences. Handily, They've got you covered there with a huge range of parts available in all kinds of styles that allow you to create an infantry regiment of almost any type you can imagine. The heavy weapons are just another facet in this great range, and Anvil offer enough bits for you to really go to town and build something cool and unique. For me, a great bonus is the ease of build. Resin can be hard to work with, and the idea of putting together a whole platoon from some sellers would be more than a little daunting, but with Anvil it really is easy; with no more time needed than putting together a unit of plastic figures.

For most people, these kits are going to go straight into an Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum force, and this is where the heavy weapons kits can really shine. There are enough parts on offer to match all of the older regiments; like Mordian Iron Guard, Catachan, Valhalla, Pratorian, Tallarns or my own Steel Legion. This is really great, as it offers you a chance to get modern quality parts for your force that may never have been made, or be very scarce now when the original models were released back in the 90s. Equally, they're suitable for a range of conversions, and would be right at home in a range of other games and systems that use a 28mm scale. That's before you start considering things like Scions or Veteran Squads, which are perfect excuses to pick up some Anvil parts.

I guess the biggest endorsement I can give them is that I'm planning on ordering some more parts soon, so I can build another unit of men, and another rocket team!

If you're interested in getting some bits for yourself, I'll add a link to their website:

https://anvilindustry.co.uk/

Dynamic Miniature Photography - Part 2

I wrote an article a little while ago extolling the virtues of taking dynamic photos of your miniatures. It was quite well received, and I've been doing a few more experiments with the technique lately.

These pictures aren't produced with any special wizardry; quite the opposite actually. All I use is a few bits of scenery with a backdrop and a light. In this instance, I was using a red backdrop to try and get a cool "evil dawn" kind of looking thing going on (if that is a thing...). It does add a nice bit of ambiance though. The camera is just the one off of my ipad, so nothing special, and a decent phone camera would do you just as proud.

 

One of the tings that I've particularly enjoyed is that taking photos like these can be a great excuse to throw good practice out the window. In the picture above I was only lighting the models from one side, which doesn't give you a great view of their paintwork; but it does give a great feel. I've done a little digital editing afterwards as well, but only to crop the pictures and darken them to make them more moody and realistic.

I've found that a slight upwards angle often helps the shots, as it takes the bases out of the picture a bit and really helps the miniatures look like they're part of the scenery. The picture above is tow of Anvil's Regiments range hanging out in some GW ruins, but you have to admit that they look a lot more exciting than the description sounds!

It can be fun to play around with your lights too. I got this interesting moody photo by moving the light so that the miniature I was taking a photo of was actually obscured. Sounds sill, but I think it looks like a still from Resident Evil or something. Those odd shapes in the red background are actually bits of what the background was leaning against (picture frames), but who cares. I'm not looking for perfection, so much as just interesting with these kind of photos anyway.

You might be wondering what use this could be. Well, for one thing, some exciting pictures never hurt the popularity of a blog! They also might help to keep people's attention who are reading (did you make it this far? because I know you wouldn't have without the pictures!). They could be great to include in a campaign though or just a write up of your army's background with some cool shots of units/characters thrown in. After all, we all like to think about the place our forces would have in the fictional worlds that they inhabit.

Anyway, that about sums the process up. I think the results are really cool though, and this zombie battle scene was fun to put together and photograph.

I'm in a bit of a hobby slump at the moment (well, actually distracted by other hobbies), so I hope you enjoyed this slightly random article.

Until next time...

Anvil Industry, Trench Fighters Review

I'm back with another review again, this time for Anvil's Trench Fighters range.

Following the success of my recent review of Anvil Industry's modular Regiments miniatures, I got talking to them, and they actually offered to send me a sample of their new Trench Fighters for free (I knew that running this blog would pay off one day...). The miniatures were given in exchange for a fair review, so I jumped at the chance. After all, I'd been thinking of buying a few bits from the range at some point, and as I was confident that they'd be nice miniatures, I was happy to oblige.

If you missed my first review of the Regiments parts, you can find it here.

What is a Trench Fighter?

The Trench Fighters range is really an expansion to the Regiments kits that Anvil already make; essentially adding in hundreds of components to an already diverse selection. The Regiments parts are a set of modular infantry bits that allow you to make completely unique infantry models. There are a huge range of different heads, torsos, weapons and legs. These options have now been expanded with the Trench Fighters release to include some cool new additions; most notably trench coats as well as some awesome new kit that runs the gambit from full on sci-fi lasers to WW1 & 2 inspired helmets and trench accessories. Overall, there are enough parts for literally thousands of combinations, so there's never been a better time to start building the squad of your dreams. The picture above shows two miniatures that I built entirely from the new Trench Fighters parts.

My sample regiment. I've been experimenting with dramatic photos lately, but the miniatures speak for themselves.

The Review

For this review, I was supplied with the parts to make about 10 men, with a large variety of heads and cool bits to play with. In an effort to cover all my bases, I decided to build and paint 5 of them up as a distinct regiment, to show what could be achieved in an army setting, as I'm sure a lot of Imperial Guard players will be wanting to know!

For the other five guys, I decided to build them like some kind of Post-Apocalyptic Survivors. Not only is this great for me as I like a good skirmish game, but it also gave me the opportunity to really go to town messing about with different bits. Here's some early pictures of what I came up with:

I went with long-greatcoat legs and the skull faced helms; because despite what Gillette might tell you, what a man really wants is a skull for a face and a bangin' trench coat. It's the best a man can get.

 On a serious note, you can see the resin quaity clearly in these shots, and those are crisp details that Games Workshop's Finecast can only dream of. The banner pole assembly is also a nice part that Anvil have created. The officer head comes from a sprue of several different capped heads that were my personal favorite part in the release.

For fun, I created these five all differently. They use a wide variety of bits, with mostly shorter trench coat legs and Trench Irregulars torsos. I suggest taking the time to have a look at each one individually, as if you like any one particular look, you could replicate a whole force of them. My personal favorite is the guy with the Bren Gun - although I swapped the sickle clip for a belt feed from a different Anvil gun as it was getting in his eye-line.

Resin Quality

I'd say without reservation that I consider Anvil's resin to be the gold-standard. This stuff really is what other manufacturers should be aspiring to; clean crisp details, minimal flash and mould lines are almost invisible. I also haven't noticed any warping in their parts either, so I'm assuming that everyone at Anvil worships Satan or something and have traded their souls for the secrets of casting little men. People might be dubious about taking my word for it, as I was given these just for the review, but I bought the last lot of stuff off my own back without telling Anvil about the review that I was writing and the quality was exactly the same. I really can't praise them enough, as anyone who has been hobbying  for a while will know what a minefield resin miniatures can be. I can only advise anyone interested to place a small order and see what turns up - I think you'll be impressed.

Scale

28mm, and as I did a bit of kit bashing in my last review, I can vouch for the fact that the parts are compatible with plastic Imperial Guard bits. Size wise, I'd probably call them semi-heroic; with good proportions that are very comparable to miniatures in 40k and a lot of other game systems.

In the interest of clarity, I've taken a shot of some Anvil guys side by side with a few infantry models from other games. As you can see, the scale is pretty much what you'd want it to be for any 28mm game.

From the left, a space marine, 3 Anvil models (the guy in white is from my last review of the Regiments Range), a Chaos Cultist, Dark Eldar Warrior, Cult Neophyte and a Pan-O Fusileer from Infinity.

Fitting, Mould Lines and Working with Anvil's Resin

As I mentioned earlier, there aren't a lot of mound lines. Anvil's resin both looks and feels like plastic; with an ease of building that really does defy what you generally take for granted with resin. The parts come fitted with short pegs on the tops of the arms and a peg at the waist to help position the torso correctly. They go together easily, and I had no problems putting my 10 infantry together in an afternoon. All the parts are completely interchangeable and can be used with any other bits from both the new Trench Fighters and the Regiments kits.

Delivery and Purchasing 

Anvil do free delivery on all orders of £40 and over. This includes international orders. The flat rate of £2 for UK orders below that threshold or £4.50 for international orders is pretty reasonable too. As these Trench Fighters were a sample, I didn't go through the purchasing process this time, but it's pretty easy; with drop-down menus that take you through the hundreds of options on offer and package deals for full units and more. If you're tempted by any of these models, I'd recommend heading on over to Anvil and having a dig about as the chances are that you can build exactly what you want (I know from personal experience that if you like 40k, you'll happily find enough bits to make some really nice custom Steel Legion as well as dozens of other familiar regiments). 

Anvil often also use slimline boxes for smaller orders; meaning that they fit through your letterbox with ease - leaving you with time go go out and buy all of those paints you're going to need when they arrive...

Mutability/Options

What I really love about these sets is that they let you tell your own story. Rather than being constrained by one look or feel, you can really go to town and create something unique. With all of the options on offer, you could quite happily make everything from an outer space boarding squad to a feral world warrior. The weapon arms are diverse too; giving you some great options as far as cool poses go. Rather than go on forever, I'd rather illustrate the point with a few miniatures that I built:

Why not go mean and militaristic with long trench coats and German-style helms with a future edge? The picture below also shows the great detail on the back of the coat. Models have backs too! And luckily Anvil haven't failed me there...

Not your thing? How about a WW1 style Brodie with a medic pack and pick axe? Just one example of the kind of thing you can make.

Or you could go wild with some trench irregulars bits and a nice shotgun.

Stick bomb, machete and snow mask? The shorter coats are cool too as you get some nice leg armour  which makes them look a little more high tech.

Plain gas masks are always a winner, and with a lot of weapon options to choose from to go with your chosen look there's no end of variety to be had.I painted this guy up in blue, as I wanted to show how different one unit of Trench Fighters can look from another.

Conclusion

I think the pictures speak for themselves. Both the quality of the models and the customer service from Anvil are great and well worth your attention. They really do offer something you don't see every day; the ability to design your own miniatures from the ground up, and with hundreds of options and an ever expanding range,  there's bound to be something for everyone. 

I'll leave you with a few more pictures that I didn't fit into the body of the article and this link to Anvil for you all to check out:

http://anvilindustry.co.uk/Regiments/trench-fighters

Anvil Industry - Trench Fighters, the Opening Salvo

Anyone following Anvil Industry's latest project will probably already be aware that They're finally going over the top this week. For those of you who missed it, let me fill you in.

A few weeks ago I did a review of Anvil's Regiments; modular resin infantry kits that offer a huge variety of cool parts and customization options. The range is getting a massive expansion this week with the first wave of Trench Fighters releases. These additional parts feature a huge number of new options, with enough great-coat toting  gasmasked badassery to have any Imperial Guard player salivating with anticipation.

After my last review, I got talking to Anvil, who kindly sent me a sample of the new range that arrived this Saturday. I'll be doing a full review soon, once I've painted up a few of them. For the minute I thought I'd share the first few miniatures that I built to showcase the kind of thing that you can create with a nice selection of bits. Everything I've used is entirely from the Trench Fighters range and everything is Anvil Industry.

The skull-faced helms were too cool to resist; they're certainly imposing with the new trench legs and torsos. My favorite part has to be the captain's hat though; no army should be without a sprue

of those if you ask me!

The fun of these sets is that they really let you make something of your own. As it was for the review, I wanted to go with a look that I think will be popular, but equally you can really go off the rails and design something totally unique. For fun, I've done a piece of background for the unit that could fit in most sci-if universes, and I'd encourage anyone with these to do the same and really have fun with it.

Warriors of Zod

Ignored and forgotten by the galaxy for over 1000 years, the people of Balomar IV had returned to a feral state; eking out an existence hunting through the ruins of their once proud civilization. That was until they unearthed the holy Zod from deep underground. A colossal machine of unknown origin; Zod was a supercomputer that once formed the core of a great interstellar ship. In their ignorance, the primitive people determined it to be a God and set about emulating their new patron deity, and living by its edicts.

Centuries past, and industry returned to the planet. They reverse engineered what they could and gleaned holy knowledge from sacred data stacks; with each file decompression being hailed as a devine event. Their priesthood stood in awe of the machine as it trailed off numerical data that they interpreted and acted upon with fervor. Over time, wars were fought at the machine's command and the balance of power shifted over the whole planet from one sublime edict to the next. Whether the machine was really commanding its followers, or merely tracking astrological phenomena, nobody can say, as the gates to the High Temple of Zod have been sealed for 100 years. 

In battle, the warriors of Zod fight like religious zealots; their belief in their God is absolute. They daub their skull-faced helms with chalk derived from the processed remains of their fallen enemies, in homage to their ancient past; all the while singing hymns in binaric machine code and exclaiming holy co-ordinates in muttered voices. Many are the worlds that have scoffed at the primitive appearance of their invaders, only to discover the fury of their reverse engineered archeotech weaponry.

Stay tuned, as I'll be working on these and more over the next few days.

Squaduary - The End

Well, I finally finished my squad. Cheers to everyone who made it to the end with me.

I was doing so well in the beginning, with plenty of time to spare, but then the Dark Eldar came and messed everything up! Thankfully, I pushed through the pain this weekend and got these guys finished (and it was actual pain as well as figurative too thanks to the unexpected and rather miserable migraines I had).

The second batch in all their completeness 

I'm really happy to have these done though, and I hope to ship them off to the battlefield soon; fresh recruits for the meat-grinder of war. The Anvil Industry parts were like a dream to work with too and I'm happy with the unique look that I got. I used a lot of techniques to help me batch these guys and to get them ready within a reasonable time frame. If it weren't for all of the hobby distractions, I could've had them finished 2 weeks ago!

Just remember; no squad is complete without the Chainsaw Warrior!