"Landmate-esque Battlesuit Complete (28mm)" Topic

At long last, it's finally complete. I wanted to do more weapons, but the recoilless and assault rifles will have to do for now. I hope to have a shield cum CQC weapon up before release though. More weapons are definitely planned.

Anyway, here are the pics:

Armed with the underslung recoilless rifle:
picture

The assault rifle:
picture

Better shot of the recoilless, along with the finished accessories (2x closed fists):
picture

Once I get back from my trip, these will be heading off for casting. I may do something with the shoulder/upper arm part as it currently looks a little too Michelin-man for my liking.

Comments and criticisms welcomed, as usual. :D

Edit:- Reposted because I thought the other title was a little misleading.

Edit 2:- Forgot to add that it is 50mm to the top of the head exactly.

Edit 3:- @Emu – Yes shoulder weapons (or rather back mounted) are definitely on the table. It's just that building them is going to be quite involved and I'm a little burned out now.

This looks really nice so far. It reminds me of the Power Dolls anime suits.

Any chance of shoulder-mounted weapons pods at some poiny?

Personally I can see this thing entering service in my 15mm games.

-Eli
leadpeople.blogspot.com

I give it a 9 out of 10. It just needs a more interesting pose.

Very interesting

Very nice!

-Will

It turns out it isn't as complete as I'd hoped it was. I've done some more mods to it, and will probably be making more. I will re-post the topic with more pics when I am done.

Currently done:

1. Slimmed down the thighs.
2. Repositioned the hip joints to make posing easier.
3. Added an armour plate to the upper arm.

Zandris,

This thing just keeps getting better and better. Any idea what the target price point would be?

-Eli

"1. Slimmed down the thighs."

Nnnoooooo! Big thighs are what made it Shirow-esque!Besides, I'm rather fond of big thighs.;)Now that my panic attack has subsided, just how much "slimming" are we talking about? I'll pick up a dozen or so if the slimming isn't too drastic.

I can secondthe concern about slimming down the thighs too much. They are a very distinct part of the Shirow style. I know it's because in his universe the pilots' legs are partially in the thighs.

-Eli

another vote for big Powergirl thighs.

Guys, calm down.

I've just taken about 1-1.5mm off the lower lateral portion of the thighs. It's not so much "slimming down" as reshaping them slightly. I do like the chunky thighs look, but the current set was a little too blob-like for my liking, so I reshaped them slightly to increase the definition. I can assure you that it looks *much* better now.

*EDIT* For the worried, here's the mod I've done:
picture

I've also added more armour onto the lower arm, so it doesn't look so plain and undetailed. I'm planning to add more bits of detail to the torso area before calling it a day.

Re: Pricing

Currently, I am *HOPING* that I will be able to sell these (with one or two weapons) for GBP10, and then sell add-on packs of weapons for a couple of quid more.

Also, I want you guys input on this:
The plan will be to have legs which are fused into either straight or bent (that's about all they're capable of, even in their seperated state) and arms which are set into flexed, partially extended and fully extended states. The feet and hands will be seperate to allow for posing and attachment of different weapons. The hips, shoulders and ankles are all ball joints, so, with a randomised selection of arms and legs, one should be able to build the model into a decent variety of poses.

Now my reasoning for doing this is to make assembly easier, as in its current state, the basic model is in 12 parts, some of which are very small and fiddly. By fusing the parts, I am hoping to reduce the need for gazillions of tiny pins and reduce the amount of effort needed to put them together.

Tell me, TMP Hivemind, am I correct in my assessment?

I have noticed that limbs that are sculpted in a relatively neutral – not too dynamic/not too static – allow for the greatest range of poses. Two walking legs can often be repositioned into a reasonable crouch or kneel.

Also, having seperate hands is good for ease of connection and options. Also this allows you to build in solid anchor points.

IS the torso going to be one or two pieces? A two piece tosor increases the range of possible poses without drasticly effecting integrity.

-Eli
leadpeople.blogspot.com

@Emu

Torso was sculpted in one solid piece, so there's no poseability there sadly.

The thing is at the moment, the elbow joints are pretty free, then can be put into a lot of poses, with the caveat that the lower arm part is really small and fiddly, and it does not have much material to put a pin into.

The knee joints, however are a different story. Despite being seperate, the best they can do is about 20-40 degrees of flexion, which does not make them very poseable. They cannot be put into a kneeling pose without "adjusting" the joint with wire and greenstuff. I may just carve up a set of legs into a kneeling pose and sell them as such.

The hands will definitely be seperate, and I've succeeded in producing a set of closed fists, as well as a right hand which is clutching a gun handle. I will probably be fusing the guns to the hands in the production casts, again for ease of assembly.

It sounds like it's a nice design as it is. My comments were based on experiences with Heavy Gear models (old Rafm and new) as well as the original Rafm Jovian Chronicles miniatures. I have also done a bit of modelling on other "mecha" types suits and the same comments ring true there.

I am a fan of "un-fiddly" models myself. I really stay away from kits that force me to pin a dozen pieces and will accept a loss in posing options for a mini that is going to hold up to use on the table. Also I can rely, to a degree, on my modelling skills to help me out.

-Eli

Looks great so far.

~10GBP? Oh, yeah!

I'll take 2 (once finances stabilize again).

To be honest, I'd like a little more pose-ability than the Infinity pieces, but the CLAWs is a bit too fiddly.

I'd pay a little extra for better articulation in the legs, but only to about 12GBP.

How about a second head sculpt? Before you burn me at the stake, here's the reasoning: If they don't sell well enough (or you just aren't plain interested in doing another one)a model with the same chassis but a different head could be used as an Opfor landmate (different sensor suite but chassis purchased from a single manufacturer, ala Israeli F-16's/American F-16's). If this project does turn out to be profitable,and you do another landmate, we can use the alternate head for a commander. Just a thought. I'd also like to see a bullpup weapon…hey, you asked!:) As to pose-ability, I'd say you've got it covered. Sorry for the long post and if you do the alternate head, I'll take 10 of each.

Moonbeast,

That's an awesome idea on both the alt head (good reasoning) and a bullpup gun. I had noticed that the assault rifle seems nearly as big as the heavy weapon which seems odd.

I second both these recomendations.

Back to posability. Like Lion of The Stars, I would like to see something half-way between the fixed poses of Infinity and the ultra-fiddly CLAWS.

-Eli

Excellent work!
Looking forward to sending my paychecks to you. :-P

Cheers!

Now THAT looks like a landmate!

Will you be taking Paypal?

Al | rivetsandsteam.com

@Emu and Lion

The halfway-point in poseability is what I'm going for. Thing is that if I sold the legs in two seperate pieces (thigh + calf) then you wouldn't really be gaining much in terms of poseability over fiddliness. What I'm proposing is that I pre-join the thighs and calves into a set of legs which are either straight or flexed, giving me a set of four different legs Left/Right bent, Left/Right straight. From these four, you can achieve four different leg combinations in additon to however you wish to rotate the legs at the hips. Sort of like the Jovian Chronicles stuff, but with a rotating hip and ankle joints.

I'll have to work on the bullpup-style gun as the forearm is really short, and the wrist joint is a flat joint rather than a ball joint. However, a different head definitely sounds excellent, once I get over the trauma of sculpting this head…!

It looks rather promising. If it indeed goes for £10.00 GBP or so, I might actually be tempted to get me some.

Zandris,

I like your take on the legs. They would provide stability and ease of assembly while still presenting options

Have you considered offering the the ability to select leg combination when ordering?

Victory Force does this with their hand options in their WW2 line and that has always appealed to me.

-Eli
leadpeople.blogspot.com