Dystopian Legions: Mercenaries, Black Wolf Raiding Party

I finally got my hands on this unit. It saw general release in April, but it only arrived in my FLGS last week. I hope to actually have them on the table soon, but in the meantime, here are my impressions of the minis.

I must say, overall I'm impressed with these guys. The flash that is there is easy to remove, the arms , for the most part, are easy to assemble, making for good poses, and 6 individual miniatures (which, for a one off unit is really to be expected at this price point, but other companies don't always deliver on this).

Box Contents:
The non-mini contents of the box are as follows. 6 basses, 5 30mm and 1 40mm. The 40mm base being for the Officer, as he is Tier 1, thereby adding Command Points to your army total. The larger base then lets you see this, so as you don't forget when adding up, and also to remind you not to add the CPs if you lose the Officer. A nice touch. The box also contains one special activation card for the unit, that may be inserted into your pack to be used in play, and lastly a selection of 4 activation cards, one for each faction, thereby allowing this section to be fielded with any of the four factions. A nice touch.

The Minis:
The box contains six miniatures in total, four ratings, or able seamen, one Officer and one Specialist. Each of the ratings are 2 part minis, with the gun and arms being separate. The Officer has both arms and weapons as separate parts, and the Specialist is the most complex of the pack, with each arm being separate, as well as two parts of ammo belt, one to be connected between the backpack and the gun, and the second to flow from the gun.From these pics it looks like flash is a major issue, but although the flash is large, it cleans up very easily, leaving little or no trace. There was a small issue with mould lines on the hats, but since the tops of the hats are flat, this too was easily resolved.

 

Ammo belt

The issue I have with these, and this is a common one to Spartan 32mm minis, and that is due to the fact the minis are very thin, especially the arms, which leads to connecting the fiddly little parts. This is a big issue with the specialist, as his gun and left arm are two pieces, which join with a very slight connection on top of the gun. This reminded me a little of the Dragoons' arms, and not in a good way. Maybe a little green stuff on the join would strengthen it, but there really isn't much space for green stuff on top of the gun (maybe I should have put it at the arm joints). There is also the ammo belt to connect, but there was no  earthly way I could have connected that in the same sitting, the glue needs a good while to cure before I go back to play with that fragile connection. In fact, I had to put a dollop of green stuff behind the belt being expelled from the gun, to ensure a strong enough bond for play. This does look a bit lumpy, but I'm sure it'll be hidden once painted.

The overall detail and sculpting on these is excellent. As with most Spartan 32mm releases. The faces are great, and their shirts even have the stripes shown in the concept art sculpted on. Of course this is only made possible by the computer aided sculpting process, but it is rather nifty. What remains to be seen is how that will translate on the painting table.