""Best" 15mm Book-style starship trooper MI?" Topic

The Critical mass Fleet Arc augments look pretty good to me

but I have not seen the size in the flesh, and I am certainly up for alternate suggestions. Something matching the book description (including Y-rack and jets) would be my preference.

Thoughts? Links?

Gotta give that one to Khurasan. His Federal power armor guys are spot on for the role, and include a pile of extra weapons to clip to the jump/grenade launcher pack too. Little fiddly to assemble but worth the effort.

Those CMG ones are nice power armor, but MI they ain't.

Those are both fine examples, but I would have to say these are much much closer, from Blue Moon

link

I don't think you'll get a clear consensus on this topic. IMHO there isn't a perfect match available, but taking the book description of having a gorilla look I like the GZG Cyclops power armour:

and

At 28mm these would be in the right size range as well.

Ground Zero Games New Anglian power armor.

IIRC Heinlein described the power armor as making a person look like a hydrocephalic gorilla, ie., short legs, long arms, broad chest, and large head.

Allen57, did you mean these guys?

or these

Micropanzer has some interesting ones coming

IMHO Any of GZG's PA, Micropanzer's or Khurasan's come the closest.

Yeah, those New Anglican PAs are exactly what I imagined when I read the description.

The CMG stuff would look great if you're going for the animated series/comics spin-offs looks.

Other than not having the oversized head (which was dictated by the need for a projector arrangement behind the head that projected images on a display screen above the viewplate), the Kharusan are 90% of the way there, in my book.

The backpacks are large enough to provide a credible power source and jump pack.

The trooper weapons in the book were mounted on some kind of flexible system that pulled them back inrto stowage position, which is hard to represent at 15mm, but the extra weapons provided with these miniatures can be used to represent that.

The weapons mentioned in the book:
-Hand flamer
-Heavy Flamer
-Y-Rack (the backpack mounted bomb launcher)
-Missile Launcher
-Hand grenade type weapons ('fire pills', psychological warfare grenade from the first chapter)

Notably missing is any direct mention of a typical 'machinegun' type weapon.

Again, the weapons provided on the Kharusan power armor are different enough looking that they might not be 'guns' but flamers or missile launchers.

Having said all that, there's a lot of other really good looking miniatures out there, but these get my vote for closest to SST.

I'd go with the GZG ones in 28mm man's second picture.

At a pinch you could try and use the GZG Dirtside 6mm walkers that are pretty much dead ringers for Votom Scopedogs, but im not sure if they would be big or i should say tall enough.

Again, the weapons provided on the Kharusan power armor are different enough looking that they might not be 'guns' but flamers or missile launchers.

Actually that's what the two weapons are -- the longer one is a missile launcher and the shorter one is a flamethrower.

With the Y bombthrower on their backs, the special assault marines' inspiration should be clear.

Nova Respublik will be getting some power armour too, but as it's less sophisticated than federal armour, it's much bigger and bulkier.

@ghostrunner, there was a "knife beam" mentioned in the book, ie a standard laser. Lasers were also implied in long range weaponry, such as when shooting at the debris from Rico's capsule.

Lampyidae as I recall it the "knife beam" was a Skinny weapon.

But a wide variety of weaponry was implied with the sections talking about Basic training.

there was a "knife beam" mentioned in the book, ie a standard laser. Lasers were also implied in long range weaponry, such as when shooting at the debris from Rico's capsule.

I stand corrected – I recall now there was a single mention of it as Rico was going through a wall and he used it to open a hole. But no definite mention of it being used in combat. Not that it means much. Given the role of MI, it might have the same role as a gatling gun on a modern fighterplane – there if you need it, but not usually your first weapon of choice.

The bugs definitely had cutting beams, as mentioned by others.

What a visually awesome thread. Kudos to Bill for letting us post photos.

In my mind's eye, the GZG troopers match the book, but I love all of the above ranges.

I agree there are many fine examples of powered armor from the above providers…but I still have to fall back on the Blue Moon guys…Y rack, over sized head/helmet, and a general larger top to bottom ratio without looking like it is going to fall over.

But again, I like all the ones above…I own the Khurasan ones and I am most happy with them…but to be honest I had not considered them Heinlein reps…though I liked them enough to buy them, I got them for space marine proxies.

And I must agree with the earlier thought…we will never come to a consensus.

And that is ok, having choices is a great place to be…a happy place…a bright cheerful happy place…a bright cheerful happy place with stalwart men in powered armor…a bright cheerful happy place with stalwart men in powered armor ready for giant alien bug stomping…yep, good times…good times…

The "flamer" mentioned in the book is probably a laser weapon, as it doesn't mention any need for fuel and can be focused into a cutting beam, which real-world flame weapons would be hard-pressed to do; energy-beam weapons were not really mentioned much, as "death rays" and ray guns were considered too "pulp sci-fi" for many writers at that time. A laser weapon would probably get the "flamer" name as the beam would set flammable objects aflame unless it was at the cutting-beam focus setting; a wide-beam high-energy laser would be the way to go for a future no-fuel flame weapon. I use GW SM mini's with the "gothic" bits filed/cut off, I haven't been able to read ST in decades w/o imagining the MI armor as GW Space Marine armor… I bought my first RT-01 mini's box to use as them!

Mine have always been Asgard's Space Marine in Battle Armour since they were first released by Asguard in the late seventies:

link

You get dirtside and flying versions.

Cheers
Mark

Thanks, guys, lots of great ideas. And with so many candidates, perhaps I will do some MI-on-MI battles.

we will never come to a consensus

That's half the fun

But I have to say looking at everyone else's opinion some times gives insight.

It is like the perennial Battledress question…