"Hard Plastic 28mm Sci Fi Marines" Topic

Just a little teaser photo of one of our upcoming multi-part 28mm (1/56 scale) hard plastic future US Marines.

link

This guy was painted up by the very talented Mr. Steve Dake (with photo assist from Don Nelson)

We'll be showing off lots more over the next couple weeks as we gear up for launch…and also of the future German Panzergrenadiers and Alien "Bugs"!

Thanks again,

Tony

Tony Reidy
Defiance Games
defiancegames.com

Looks great! Can we see some higher res pics of the painted marine? Right now all I see are the thumbs alongside the illustration.

Your use of Facebook pains me… a direct link to/of a picture would've been nice.

Anyways, here's the direct link to the figure in question, I think…

link

First thing.. they look interesting. Possibly really cool.

Second, why does your link send us to Facebook, which then sends us to your website to actually look at the preview? You could have just sent us straight to the website.

Here's a direct link. Can't display it her though its a .png
link

Too small to see… we want more!

very interesting! can't wait to see more :-)

Very nice

Yeah. Less Facebook.

I'm of the facebook generation, but I only have the one, completely unfilled profile on the chance I may need to locate and contact people I used to know and that's the first method I need to reconnect to that person, followed with real contact methods, like phone.

So in other words.
No facebook. Ever.

Piqued my interest. More images please.

Those look great Tony. Im with the others, please show us more!

I like the figure. I think you will do well with these.

They would be great for Tomorrows War
Mick

some thoughts on that one figure.

- pose looks good
- why does he have armoured lower legs?
- where are the ammo pouches?
- will GW cadian arms be a straight swap onto it?

Pat
catweasel-scatterbrain

Kneepads and shinguards are fairly popular with real-world grunts and riot police. Besides, the Colonial Marines from 'Aliens' had armored greaves.

Lower legs take a lot of impact when in an operational environment…all that 'hit the deck to avoid incoming fire' action.

I would have expected elbow pads as well (for the same reason).

Nice enough but I'd want to see better pix before I bought any…and a scale pic with other humans from other manufacturers.

It's fantasy. Science Fantasy. No disrespect, I expect to engage arachnids on our next game.

Interesting….

looks interesting. More and larger pictures would be nice.

As said previously. Looks interesting.

Things like elbo pads, bear skin with, urban env wouldn't be a good idea.. but as a general figure.. it looks ok. Scale wise and how they "fit" with other models is key.

If you do make them compatible with GW stuff, you will of course open up a secondary market for people to buy them, wishing to use in a rivals rule set and system. But, if it sells figures, is that such a bad thing?

Not a plastics fan as such, but I will watch with interest what other things you have. Keep them coming.

"- why does he have armoured lower legs?"

I'm no soldier, but I learned quickly back when I used to play paintball in the woods that it's good to dress like one and take tips from them. :)

Aside from the above mentioned impact during battle when you need to get down quick, the last thing you want is your legs shot out from under you when you're charging into a house, especially if you're the first man. Simple 5,56mm, the M16's round, is more than enough to turn all the muscle, bone, flesh and sinew in your legs into a meat pie loosely held together by the skin that wasn't perforated by the bullet(s). Now, if a weak round like the 5,56 can do that….imagine what more powerful ammo of the near future would be able to do? Probably not much worse, but it's better not to take the chance, right? ;)

As far a critiques of the figure… I think everyone else covered it. Needs elbow pads, more webbing kit. Maybe something on the back? Optional backpack? He just looks too….stripped down. As if he was woke up during the middle of an attack on the base he was stationed at and didn't have time to fully gear up. A pistol in holster would be nice as well. There are no western soldiers these days that don't carry one in combat. A knife to fit on the armour, likely on the breast plate, would be a realistic addition as well. Bayonet may become obsolete, but a good ol' knife will never run out of uses. Nothing with a stylized handle though. Should be a very plain looking K-bar or a SOG knife.

Something I'm surprised by the one thing you all missed though….
His rifle has no sights! Need something like a Red-dot sight or an ACOG scope. Iron sights are nice, but antiquated. I see it has picatinny rails though. Maybe a smaller sprue of rifle accessories like flashlights, various sights, laser points and so on? The connection point just need to fit over the rails. Easy enough!

*Edit: I see he has something strapped to his legs, but I can't tell what.

Looks interesting, although, I don't care for the helmet. Nevertheless, more 28mm plastic SF is great!

Good stuff, I suspect with some Fritz helmets from somewhere these may well form the basis for my Colonial Marines for the bug hunt game I have planned.

A pic the size of the ilustration would have served better.

The helmet does look a bit paintball, but that is not a bad thing as such.

I will deffo be after some packs.

Perhaps the "Fritz" helmets are reserved for their Bundeswehr units…

Nice mini, though I am also a bit unsure on the size of the helmet. the "heroic" proportioned mini given an overall impression of an overzised head to me. Naturally that may change when looking at the mini in real, or in comparison to others.

Good chance that I may go there. Any idea when to expect the first mini reaching customers?

Knee and shin pads are good because a wound to the knee or shin will cripple a soldier with pain and, worse, immobilise him, meaning he has to be carried out of there.

A round to the thigh will generally either slow him down a bit if it embeds in all that muscle, or kill him outright if it hits the femoral, which, while bad, isn't as demoralising or dehbilitative to unit effectiveness as a man who can't walk and is screaming in pain.
Also, full thigh protection is going to be a lot heavier than knee and shin guards.

Just wanted to comment that the overall look seems a bit SWAT'ish. Like he's jumped out of a van and is raiding a house rather than a marine in the field.

That said, it's a good "fast" look, and packs are one of the easiest things to add to a model if you want a field-kit look.

Now get us some proper pictures!

28mm plastic bugs will be quite welcome. Plastic 28mm marines always welcome, too. These could make for a nice bughunting game (alIens a la spacehulk…). I assume the marine sprues will come with some SAW and flamer options?

I like the gun, neat design

I've strayed from 28mm to 20mm and a bit of sci-fi for my 15mm, but I can't pass these up. My old Stargrunt oponents will soon have a new force to contend with :)
And 24 minis to a pack? That's a perfect platoon right there. With the money saved on plastic over buying my usual metals I might just have to spring for some lovely Antenociti armour.

However, I totally agree that the grunts need more stuff. A tactical computer strapped to their forearm, usable webbing, extra stuff.

The average American grunt in Afghanistan carries 600 rounds for his rifle on him. That's 20 magazines, plus one in the weapon. Where are all those pouches on your model? If your grunt doesn't carry a slugthrower, what about energy cells?

Also, where are the optics? At least make them an option on the sprues. I would expect to see at least 3 different optics in the real world: one simple red-dot plus magnifier (most of the troops), one ACOG with a bit of magnification (squad leaders and SAWs), and one serious scope for the designated marksman.

"The average American grunt in Afghanistan carries 600 rounds for his rifle on him. That's 20 magazines, plus one in the weapon. Where are all those pouches on your model? If your grunt doesn't carry a slugthrower, what about energy cells?"

concept art from before says it's caseless. So, he'd be able to carry the same amount of ammo in less space, but he should definitely be loaded for bear…. caseless doesn't mean "Oooh! I get to carry less weight!" it means just the same as it did with the switch from 7,62 to 5,56. "Oooh! Lighter ammo! Now I get to carry twice as much!"

I'd offer a minor critique… the helmet seems to leave the base of his skull exposed, or at least that reddish brown bit looks like hair to me. While I get not having an armored neck, leaving the back of his head unarmored seems to negate the purpose in putting the helmet on in the first place.

Hi Guys – thanks so much for all the feedback!

The back of the helmet DOES look like hair, but it's actually fully covered.

There are loads of packs, etc. to glue on to these guys and several different weapon options.

There are also alternative helmets with full face shields (for those hostile environments or when you don't want to get Bug juice all over your face!)

We'll be showing off more in the lead up to the launch.

Thanks again!
Tony

Oh, one more request. Don't link us to facebook from here. Link us to defiance games.

@wolfprophet: Still gotta have pouches for 20 magazines, whether they're 10 rounds or 200 rounds each!

Good to hear that there are all sorts of pouches, but I'm not kidding about wanting 10 magazine pouches per model!

As a serving infantryman, to have 10 ammo pouches on your kit would not work.

Far too many pouches…where would you put them all? On my kit i have 4 pouches that contain 3 mags each. The rest of my ammo is in bandoliers either strapped to my body or in my patrol sack.

So i have 4 ammo pouches, 2 grenade pouches, a command pouch (gps, compass map etc) a med pouch and a holster for my Sig. Thats plenty of stuff attached to your body already…….

Thats not including radio, prr, water, rations, spare gpmg ammo, batteries, night vision kit, metal detector……etc

You say an average guy has 20 mags, is that actually 20 mags or 20 mags worth of ammo, there is a difference. We Brits carry x amount of mags, but actually carry alot more ammo. Any lull in battle and ammo gets re-bombed, redistributed.

So, yep, they need more kit. but not necessarily loads of ammo pouches.

Steve.

The king of rock and roll said-

A round to the thigh will generally either slow him down a bit if it embeds in all that muscle, or kill him outright if it hits the femoral, which, while bad, isn't as demoralising or dehbilitative to unit effectiveness as a man who can't walk and is screaming in pain.

Hmmmm, id like to see any man who has been shot in the thigh walk, or not scream in pain.

steve.

They would make good 'Deus Ex' police (not SWAT of course, who are more heavily armoured)……yes, I am playing Deus Ex, human revolution at the moment.

my post should have read "why does he have armoured lower legs and not thigh armour?" its like he's only put half his pants on.

thaks for that perspective yorkie o1.

Tony, nice work so far and good to hear on the extra parts. :) Keep it up.

Though, do address the issues! Little changes can go a long ways!

Ok, maybe not ammo pouches, but remember that I'm a yankee, which means I'm used to (what'd that Frenchman say?) 'creatine-fed monsters' 6+ feet tall and 200lbs before their gear. That gives you more space for magazine (and other) pouches. Besides, US magazine pouches are only 2 magazines (and usually 2 grenades!), so to carry the same magazine load is 6 or 7 pouches for you Brits.

Look Great – will fit Tomorrow's War quite well methinks…

WEolfprofit, UD ammo pouches carry three mags each. For some time that was the basic load, 6 mags in pouches, one in the rifle for 210. Of course infantrymen often carried a lot more. That might be the official load still, I have ben retired for a couple of years now.

I seem to remember that the basic load for the M-60 in my M-577 was around 500 rounds. We actualy carried 5500 rounds, because that totaly covered the floor.

Owen

looks interesting, but I'd like to see bigger pictures, and to see some un-doctored models in the flesh before I buy any, but so far the anatomy looks correct and it looks like the detail may be acceptable so fingers crossed we get a decent product when it goes into production and on sale.

Is the website down? Links on the FB page don't want to play.

Hi Macross – it is down. I had a major crash on Friday and finally got a new install up last night around 12:30. Now I have to make it into Defiance Games again – you'll see more later today!

Back to the code!

Thanks,
Tony

Tony Reidy
Defiance Games
defiancegames.com

Looks good. The gun looks belivable (a lot of decent figures come with far-out silly 50īs rayguns – ahem em-4 plastics). Nice proportions. Add some neck and elbow protection and maybe carapace armor to the thighs.

And like mentioned above a rucksack, pouches, scope and gizmos for the rifle and a sidearm would be nice to have.

If you plan a platoon sized box I'd like to see some goodies like a couple of bare heads, communicationgear, two or three heavy weapons and a pistol or shotgun, a torso with less armor and parts to build a female trooper, some specialist gear like medical equipment and scanners/computers. If it could be part of a 24 man box or be sold on it's own.

GhostofRebecaBlack – oh come on, like the em4 plastics are that difficult to add a nicer looking gun to – and they are pretty much the best plastic sci-fi out there at the moment for generic human figures – let alone how cheap they are!

Yeah, okay… I'm a bit lazy.