The Steel Legion I ordered over a month ago finally arrived. It is amazing to get these old metal models. GW has changed just about all of their metal sculpts to their Finecast resin so I haven't actually bought a new metal model in years - maybe a decade - until these. These truly are the STEEL Legion. And at $35 for ten, they are the same price as the cheapest plastics and feel like a steal compared to anything from Forge World.
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| And he even has a slottabase! |
Just handling these old metal models again in a great feeling. They certainly would be a pain to do any conversions, and of course every squad looks exactly the same in all the same poses, but you can't complain about the assembly time! They need some straightening of gun barrels and quite a bit of flash cleanup and mold line removal, but overall pretty fast compared to assembling Elysian Drop Troopers and all their little fiddly bits. And these guys are a great scale for Horus Heresy marines - they precede the massive scale creep that has bloated the miniatures more and more over the years and eventually led to the heresy of Primaris marines.
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| Back when Guardsmen were scaled properly to marines and we didn't need no Primaris nonsense. |
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| I still blame the plastic Cadian and Catachan boxes for breaking the scale of WH40K and setting us on the path that eventually led to Primaris and a whole new world of 32mm scale instead of 28mm scale. |
Ever since the old 3rd Edition Codex Armageddon book, I have always thought these guys were cool and I am glad I will finally get to see some painted up and on the battlefields. The only downside is they only still make this one squad and there are no characters or other special or heavy weapons (other than for a high price on ebay) so I will have to convert a few from alternate suppliers if I want to flesh out the army a bit more. I've got a few things in the queue ahead of them, but I'm looking forward to seeing some WWII Eastern Front action someday soon with these guys.
They definitely look way cool; exactly the feel I expect for 40k. Heavy trenchcoats and gas masks. What could better represent the grim darkness of war? It nods at WW1, which was certainly one of earth's dirtiest, nastiest wars. I guess that's why guardsmen are so easy to identify with. There weren't any hero soldiers decked out in armor like a knight and carrying anti-tank weapons like toys in WW 1 or 2. That's a fantasy. In truth, it was truckloads of infantry winning battles. Luckily, 40k doesn't make players deal w environment issues like hunger, residual gas, or moisture ruining ammo between battles but if it did, death corps would rule! Everyone else would have foot rot and holes in their ventilators
ReplyDeletePlus, their willingness (even desire) to go forth and die in battle makes them perfect for 40k. Life is reduced to an infinite meat grinder. Those who struggle are just embarrassing themselves
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