"Defiance Games Marines review" Topic

My thoughts:
matakishi.com/dgmarines.htm

>>> The wrists are dire.

Interesting review, but I'm guessing the above snippet means you didn't like the wrist molding at all? If not, may I ask why?

They're lumpy, indistinct and badly positioned. It's hard to tell if they're cloth until you notice the rolled sleeves further up the arm. They are the least convincing part of the sculpts. The head/helmet designs are the poorest part of the figures but the heads themselves have been sculpted well, the mash up between head and helmet is what makes them bad. The wrists however need a rethink.

I'm guessing there needed to be some compromise to get the hands to hold the guns, whatever the reason, there is a marked difference in quality to the rest of the figures.

Matakishi's review is pretty much my take on them. I've grown fond of them (comes from looking at the renders for months) but they've got some problems including blobby knees and some shallow details that can easily get obscured under primer and a couple of coats of paint (well, thick coats that a bad painter such as myself applies).

I don't think they're half bad, but I'm biased :)

Thanks for the review!

Thanks for the review Matakishi!

Here's what they look like painted:

Painted by Markos Eugene

The sprues don't look all that bad to me. They're no worse than the Citadel Cadians or Catachans. After they're painted they look great. There's nothing like a good paint job to cover up any perceived defects in design or sculpting.

As I said on LAF, it's a good review from Matakishi (again) but the product is still of no interest to me even tho it's pretty cheap. Possibly DG will get some my filthy lucre sometime later tho if they can up on the designs more than on the price – that remains to be seen.

They paint up well.

I will be interested in seeing them in person.
But I do like the look of them.

Thanks for the review.
How many of each weapon option are included?
Are there enough helmeted heads to make all 24 marines with helmets?
Just asking… :)

There are two basic guns, a SAW and a short gun per frame. there are 2 half and 2 fully enclosed heads as well so you can have everyone in hats if you want. The frames are small, you can see virtually all of one in the first pic despite the (important announcer voice…) extreme close up.

Thanks.

Hi Bill – You have the option to make all 24 Marines in fully enclosed helmets, all 24 in open-face helmets (one with visor down, one with visor up), and you have the bare and cap head to mix in.

The frame is designed to make 2 Marines. Both can have the standard rifle – one carrying/firing and the other in the relaxed carry with the stock resting on the bicep. So if you want to go with all of them in a specific helmet type with the standard rifle, you can do that.

There's a backpack, but unfortunately we only had the space for one – so you can outfit one of your 2 squads with backpacks but not both. I like having the backpack on the SAW gunners as it looks like their humping a lot of extra ammo (as they would)

Thanks,
Tony

Well, my thoughts are (I don't own any yet, but that should change soon) they look good for a first attempt. I can see them getting redone in the future… I hope all the critiques will help Defiance Games develop their line into a well done set of products.

I can agree with Matakishi that they are good filler troops. But in the end you get what you pay for.

I would love to see the germans get a good start, the line has potential. The bugs look awesome as is (at least from the previews), then again insects dont have to look too well detailed to be impressive, the basing will be interesting to say the least.

I have faith that DG will take these comments (from the entire community) and not let the previous mistakes happen again. First runs of anything are were you work your kinks out, sometimes you just take the hits and move forward.

but it wasnt a first attempt Byram, Wargames Factory was the first attempt.

Well i like them a lot, i going to buy them for Stargrunt/FAD/Tommorow war game althought iam 15mm player. from what i see i will buy some germans too.
IMHO this is the First hard-scifi plastic set in 28mm. i getting them soon as possible:)

Thanks for the reviews and pics. The SAW wrists are a bit rubbery looking and there are some other flaws, but they're certainly a nice step up from the WGF Shock Troops in proportion, posing and sculpting. The rolled sleves don't bother me at all.

I don't think Defiance has "arrived" yet, but this is a serviceable kit and if progress continues then there's good things in store.

alien BLOODY HELL surfer, I can respect that and I understand he was the founder of WF, I am just saying that new staff, new models, new production company = new kinks…

Yes he should have the experience, but this is the new company's first run… let's just see what happens…

I got mine today, and slapped them together quickly. The one real downside I noticed was the large amount of flash that I had to remove from around the hands. I am just not used to it anymore.

So here are some quick comparison pics I took.

link

and because I think its funny here is a pic of a quick conversion I did using a grenade launcher from the WGF greatcoats.

link

These are certainly not the best miniatures, I agree with Matakishi's review. Legs are a problem for me, and the hands look like a continuation of the forearm. Over all, a par with Cadians/Catachans, but with better proportioning and no cartoon "rarg" expressions. The helmets appear too smooth, but then again someone was complaining about all the shot traps in the German helmet.

That said, nobody's going to be churning out Infinity-quality miniatures in hard plastic for $1 USD each. I expect the learning curve will pick up. The Germans look much nicer, although there is still that niggling problem with the legs. Too fat – makes the whole mini look shorter and squatter than it should be. However, the paint seems to sort some of those issues out.