Monday, 13 May 2013

Eisenkern Stormtroopers. An answer to all my IG prayers?




Dreamforge Games Miniatures Review: Eisenkern Stormtroopers

I have to say, I was really excited for these. I did come across them entirely by accident, but instantly recognised in them, a cheap and quick way to expand my Imperial Guard army. Either as a cheap alternative to Troop choice squads (at £2.25 cheaper per ten), or preferably a lot cheaper alternative to Elite choice squads (at £9 cheaper per ten). Whilst my army is composed of squads drawn from various worlds and regiments (Valhalla, Cadia, Vostroya etc), but the majority is made up of Death Korps of Krieg. These guys suit that theme perfectly, and would make a great squad of Grenadiers for said regiment, which means they are £18 cheaper per ten! So, picking up my first box just to test the waters, before diving head first into buying the numbers I actually need (maybe another 5 or 6 boxes), I went straight to putting them together.



I have heard great things about the quality of the models made by Dreamforge Games, and so I must say I was immediately disappointed by the box they come in. It looks cheap and tatty, with the printed artwork and general finish looking amateur and on the whole as though it had been quickly printed off on someone’s home printer. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but when I buy a product, I expect every aspect to be of a decent standard, and totally congruous across the whole thing. Taking the sprues out of the box however, and my opinion was completely reversed; the components have been densely and concisely packed on to two sprues, which is great considering you get 10 multi-part models in the box. The sprues stack gorgeously, thanks to some forward-thinking on the designer’s part, utilising a clever peg and hole system; meaning the sprues take up next to no space, unlike some of the more ungainly GW ones…

The scale of the models look quite out by comparison to GW, when looking at them on the sprue, but once assembled actually make beautiful proxy for the purposes I had in mind. The design is fantastic, and the detail really is spectacular. They knock spots off of their GW counterpart, second only to the FW DKK.

At the initial assembly stage of model number one, I was delighted to see they had very little by means of mold lines. You have no idea how much I loathe mold lines… At times, I contemplate giving up the hobby entirely, due to my lack of patience when dealing with them. If a manufacturer is notorious for mold lines, I will not buy their products, simple as that. Having a very long-standing history with production molding, I know that it isn’t altogether very hard to avoid them. Not to say you can actually perfect the process so that you never get them, but there are steps that can be taken to reduce them significantly. DFG seem to have managed that perfectly, as every component I clipped off the sprue was practically mold line free!

However, this was where the good points on the assembly side ended. The few mold lines they did have were a nightmare to remove! The plastic is a very poor grade, and a lot softer than most plastics of other manufacturers, meaning scraping and slicing the lines away often results in deep gouges of the model also being taken away. This made the models extremely frustrating to put together, coupled with the horrendous design of the way in which the arms and gun were designed to couple.

I like the extremely multi-part nature of their composition, with each model having circa 10 constituent components. It meant uniqueness and poseability were at a high, and it was easy to customise your squad. Not only were there a lot of ways to put the models together, but the number of components never once compromised the ease of which you could assemble the models; with all the pieces going together very simply (except those pesky arms!).



Overall, they are good looking and cheap alternatives to act as stand-ins for your Imperial guard army, looking totally at home alongside GW models, and for only a fraction of the price. However, be prepared to take twice as long when putting them together, and don’t expect premiums when it comes to packaging; it just won’t happen. 

Score: 7/10

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