What's in the box? Orange Monkie Foldio

A couple of month ago, I pledged some money to the Foldio Kickstarter, intending to give it to my brother (the serious miniature painter of the family) as a late birthday gift. Foldio is a portmanteau of "folding" and "studio" and is a folding, so far so good, lightbox intended to allow quality pictures of relatively small objects. Like miniatures, for example (totally random example of course). While at it I also ordered one for myself...

A couple of weeks ago, both Foldios showed in the mail and I finally managed to buy the two 9 Volt batteries needed to power it just a couple of days ago (a nearly impossible task!) I first used it to take pictures of my (not so) freshly painted and previously posted Brigade Model Power Armour.

But let's take a look at the Foldio itself...

What's in the box? ClearHorizon Miniatures Drop Pods

It seems like just a few weeks ago that Mr Harold came out with the concept for these Drop Pods. My first reaction was, like many people I assume, "how come nobody thought about filling that particular obvious gap in 15mm sci fi minis?" My second and close reaction was "ooooh, shiny; me want; me need!"

So a quick paypal-fu move and just 15 days waiting later, 5 of those babies show up in the mail!

After a couple of disapointements (here, here and here) with resin molding, this model does indeed restore my thrust in that medium/process! While Old Crow Models is still my personnal champion for sheer surface texture, those pods really have incredibly crisp details; bravo zulu to the caster! If anything, my picture doesn't do justice to the level of detail!

What's in the box? Brigade Models Pacific Federation Light Tank

I initialy only ordered the MBT, the APC and the "flyer", but that range grew on me and I went back for more, namely the light tank, in order to round up my Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets (O.U.E.P.) (I've got all the models now, just waiting for the bases and off to the painter they go!)

What's in the box? Brigade Model

I just needed some more tanks from Brigade Models to round up my Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets (O.U.E.P.)... But, inspired by Mr Harold's awesome colony table, I coudn't help myself from adding their two new advanced buildings. 

Ordered on 02AUG and received on 22AUG: slightly on the slow side even for across-the-pond delivery...

What's in the box? CMG Praesidentia Sentinel Drone & Hawk Wargames Roof Detail Accents

Two boxes showed up in the mail today... CMG Praesidentia Sentinel Drones for my Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets robot army and Hawk Wargames (Dropship Commander) Roof Detail Accents. So what's in those boxes?

1cm grid

The drone comes in three different references, each one identical to the others but for its nose weapon: from left to right: phase lance, phase cannon and tri-phase blaster. Each pack is made of three metal drones and three small bases.

What do I think? Nice sculpt, minor flashes at the tip of the wings and weapons, I'm always a fan of having variants of  a given model, they're scale-less and could be used for anything from 6mm or smaller fighters to 28mm or bigger micro drones, the stand is a bit to low for my taste (but that's subjective, I envision them as flyers zooming over the battlefield; but I guess they could just as well be grav lifted "ground" vehicle, hovering just above the ground)...

What's in the box? GZG Spider Drones

Another short review of minis I intend to use for the Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets before they proceed to the painting facility.

While the CMG RAL were an "of course" choice for a droid army, I wasn't too sure about what to use for not-destroyer-droids though... Most of the GZG range legged drones seemed a bit too near-future for this (plenty of use for other forces though!)

That is until I took a closer look at those little guys!

What's in the box? CMG Praesidentia RAL

Just before I start packing all the Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets minis to send them off for painting, a few pictures of what they looked like when they showed up in the mailbox.

CMG Zas and Armies Army Commonwealth
minis for size comparison (left).

The regular infantry comes into 8-bots packs: two packs of regular rifle toting bots and one of heavy weaponed bots. 

I only have one of the rifebots pack (more on order). They come in three different poses. As you can see on the pics, they are somewhat shorter than you're usual 15mm human although their body is similarly proportioned only they have very small heads and no neck to speak of.

What's in the box? Brigade Models Pacific Federation Armour

Dry mounted. Left to right, APC, recce "flyer" and MBT.

Just placed a few orders at GZG, CMG and Brigade for the figs needed for the Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets (O.U.E.P.) In the mean time, here a review of some I already owned: the Cougar MBT, Wombat APC and Minigwal recce vehicle; the Ocelot light tank is ordered.

All vehicles form a very nice range of both original and internally coherent  vehicles... Usually not too fan of Brigade Models design (nothing wrong with them, juts usually not too my taste) but those, I couldn't pass on them!

What's in the box? Daemonscape BigRig Dropship

Had this one on a shelf for a while, but thought it might fit my O.U.E.P. Robot Army quite well... Something to drop those legions of riflebots on the unsuspecting aliens and help negotiate access to their untapped unobtainium resources...

Left to right, top row: back (with cargo hatch), turret, upper body, front (with cockpit). Bottom row: back hatch (both faces), lower body (with integral landing gear, the three domes you can see on the picture) and engines. The small metal part taped on the card is the barrel of the turret.

What's in the box? CMG Ravager & Blackguard Mechas

Last but not least of these ZAS Kickstarter reviews, the two mechas... They were designed by John Bear Ross and sure enough they show plenty of its trademark modularity!

Left: the Blackguard Support Mecha with its 2 rocket laucher backpack, the body
and (metal) shoulders, the legs, a railgun, an energy cannon and two plasma cannons.
Right: the Ravager Assault Mecha, its body and shoulders, jump-pack,  legs, 4 leg
thrusters, a flamer, dual barrel auto cannon, grenade launcher and power claw.

What's in the box? CMG Strike Hawk and Galacia VTOLs

Two of  the strech goals of the ZAS Kickstarter (infantry reviewed here, mechas to follow) were an attack VTOL and its transport conterpart... Obviously I couldn't resist. So there went another £26 (£11 for the small guy, £15 for the big one).

On top, the Galacia Heavy Transport VTOL: the two top row are the engines and their support "blocks", note that the two forward are wider, putting the forward engines more outboard that the aft ones and paying at least lip service at avoinding one engine exhaust feeding the next one; on next row are the 4 skids, the body, a chin gun and a chin sensor (that seems to actually go with the Hawk but fits both).

What's in the box? CMG ZAS Mercs Kickstarter

Unless you've spent the last few months on planet 28mm, you all know Critical Mass Games ran a Kickstarter last March in order to expend one of its Mercs lines, the ZAS. Although they're not my favourite of their Mercs (give me the Astagar or Ygs), I pledged £30 for the Early Bird ZAS Company Commander (and then some more for the stretch goals Mechas and VTOLs, more on those to follow any time soon).

Inventory of the Company Commander Pledge

And I got my package earlier this week (later than some due to the mechas and VTOLs)... So, what's in the box?

What's in the box? Khurasan Python Power Armour and Corsair Battle Dress

I got those with one big order (got to blow all that combat pay on something) I placed at Khurasan a couple of months ago... Unfortunately, in the process, I also blew some of the Customs Department tripwires and ended up paying and waiting a bit more than expected. My mistake, not John's...

Anyway, what's in the box?

• The Python Power Armour:

Both poses (on a 1cm grid): identical missile launchers (top) and bodies (centre), four different dual laser arms (left and right), different (symmetric) legs (bottom).

What's in the box? CMG Ayame Battlesuits

On 27APR I ordered a bunch of those from Critical Mass Games. They where sent on 08MAY and received on 17MAY. And then I took my sweet time to blog about them...

So what's in... The assortments of plastic bags that came in the box?

• The Protolene Ayame Battlesuit Platoon: 

As you can see, a platoon is made of 3 suits: 3 pairs of legs, 3 torsos (the suits have no heads) and a whooping 18 arms (9 left, 9 right; and 3 different weapons, top to bottom: big energy weapon, hand with claws and 3 barrels guns). All models come with a white plasticard base displayed hereunder. Torsos and legs are resin, everything else is metal.

What's in the box? ACP Games Valkries

On 13JAN I ordered from ACP Games, 1 pack of each of the 4 variants of their Valkries. I got them in the mail on 01FEB.

So, what's in the box? Or rather the padded envelope? 

The Colonial Valkries pack: 3 pairs of arms (top and middle left), 3 torsos (top centre), 1 missile launcher (in between the arms and torsos, 3 pairs of legs (bottom left), 3 guns (middle) and 3 bases (right); cm² grid.