Railroad Cars for Wargaming Terrain

(Note: Although this is a wargaming blog, I've endeavored to make this review useful to O-gauge railroad enthusiasts as well. If your interest is solely railroading, just skim the pictures in Part I, and then scroll down to Part II of the review.)

1- Railroad cars for Wargaming Scenery 
Many 28mm wargamers use O-scale buildings in their terrain setups, but what about the traincars themselves? Whether historical gaming or post-apocalypse zombie settings (Terminus anyone…), trains are an excellent and evocative subject for wargaming terrain.

As well as looking cool, they can provide excellent cover and line-of-sight blockage. So what's holding wargamers back? My guess is that it's money. O-gauge railroading is an expensive hobby. However, it doesn't have to be this way. There are a few quality budget lines of railcars from companies such as Lionel and the Railking sub-brand of MTH.

The focus of this review, however is Menards. That's right: for a number of years, the home improvement chain Menards has been in the O-gauge railway business. They even have a section of their website accurately called O-Gauge Train Stuff.

Of particular interest to wargamers, they have quite a few pre-weathered boxcars for $25!

That's a pretty good deal for 10x2x4 chunk of pre-painted blocking terrain. They're even sequentially numbered, so if you buy several they won't have the same ID numbers!

Menards also has quite a line of pre-painted O-scale buildings, some of which are quite affordable. On the budget end, we find the focus of this review: the basic flatcar, which retails for only $8 and comes in 4 versions.

Individually, they are only available in-store, but the web listing will let you search local stores. I found a batch in a store near me and was able to pick up five. Be sure to call ahead to check stock and ask the employees. Sometimes they are hidden away in the "Off-Season" section, which at my Menards was up a nearly hidden stairway behind pallets of warehoused summer furniture.

Anyhow, the basic flatcar is still tall enough to provide heavy cover for infantry and has holes for stakes or tie-downs so you can put whatever load you want on it, from U.S. Army tanks to spaceship sections.



The holes in the top are the same size as standard zip-ties for easy tie-downs. Also, one could easily chop the wheels off and have a great looking Necromunda style walkway!

I'm looking forward to adding this to my railway-themed terrain, which right now consists of an elevated train station and some second hand three-rail track propped up on top of other scenery.

2 - Railway-centric Review of the Menards Flatcar
Now, here's some additional information for those interested in the railroading details of this car, or those who want their wargames terrain to move. What we have here is a very basic plastic car with some nice features and a few metal parts. According to the "O-Gauge Railroading Online Forum," they are being produced by the Golden Wheel Die Casting Company of China. As noted previously, they come in four colors, each with a specific line: Milwaukee Road, SOO, C&NW and BN.

Quality and function is essentially what one might expect as part of a current "ready-to-run" set. This is not an indictment, just an observation. It's certainly better than many of the all-plastic budget train cars of the past, which had one-piece trucks/couplers and plastic wheels. As seen in previous pictures, the top side has moderate detail. If the slats on top are supposed to be wood, there is no grain to be seen.

Here are pictures of Menards (left), Lionel and MTH trucks side by side. The Lionel car is from The Scout 2010 RTR set, and the MTH is from a 2004 Spongebob RTR set.

The trucks are mostly plastic with metal wheels painted in a grey metallic paint (compared to the matte grey finish of the other brands). The couplers are functional in the same way as Lionel and seem to interlock and release well with both.

The wheels vary in smoothness, with some spinning freely and some only making a few revolutions before stopping. I assume a bit of lubricant would have them all spinning well. Note that the Lionel and Menards trucks are nearly identical, except that the Lionel wheels are a bit more precision made.

The lack of even basic undercarriage detail is a bit surprising also since it probably wouldn't have taken much effort to mold a basic frame under there. Our O-gauge layout only comes out at Christmas, so I've not had a chance to run these with an engine, but overall I'm rather impressed. I don't have the cash flow for full-tilt O-gauge railroading, and this might be the least expensive O-gauge car currently produced. I hope it's not the last of it's kind. I'd love to see what other affordable rolling stock they could come up with. Perhaps something akin to the cheap all-plastic cars of the past, but with the metal wheels and functioning couplers that these flatcars have.

Though I'm primarily a wargamer, I do dabble in a bit of Christmas railroading. These flatcars and the other Menards train items seem equally well-suited for both. Railroaders have access to budget-priced, new-production cars with full functionality, and wargamers can add railway terrain to their tables at a price that competes with purpose-built wargaming terrain. Menards, you have our attention.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Alpha Strike Game Report and Review

At last week's club night, Jon, Tyler and I tried Alpha Strike for the first time. Alpha Strike is the new game set in the Battletech universe, using simplified mechanics and terrain (rather than a hex map) to enable larger battles that play faster than the traditional Classic Battletech rules. Rather than using the usual 6mm Battletech miniatures, we used prepainted 10mm scale miniatures from the Mechwarrior: Dark Age clix game. It's the same fictional universe, but a different game that has since gone defunct (meaning lots of cheap, prepainted minis can be acquired for pennies on the dollar!).

Of course, we rebased the Mechwarrior clix onto traditional wargaming bases. The club bought a huge quantity of these some time ago as an inexpensive entre into mass-scale sci-fi gaming, and they have been used for many different rulesets since.

As it was our first outing with Alpha Strike, we limited ourselves to an 80-point lance (a group of four mechs) per player. Though most Battletech units are available in multiple configurations, we chose the configurations that had the fewest special rules.

We also made a couple of minor house rules. Regarding the rows of trees you can see in the pictures, we replaced the the 6-inch rule for forest cover, instead deciding that if you're adjacent to the trees, you can see through them and be seen (with modifiers, of course). If you're not adjacent, you can neither see nor be seen. We also determined that shooting at someone on the other side of the overpass makes them "obscured." We also decreed that all structures two floors or higher could hide a mech from view.

The card buildings on the layout are free online PDFs, either from Heavy Gear or Battletech, scaled up for Mechwarrior and based on pieces of vinyl floor tile. The roads are painted roofing shingles. The overpasses are from an architectural model board that I purchased at the Games Plus gaming auction. You can see what happened to the rest of the board here.

For our first battle we simply ran a kill-em-all game using the "Standard" level of the rules. My apologies that my Nova Cats (white/grey/gold), Tyler's Nova Cats (white/grey) and Jon's Rasalhague (white/grey/light blue) all have similar color schemes.

Jon proved to be the most adept player, quickly taking me out and nearly defeating Tyler. In the end he and Tyler both lost their last mech in the last turn, so there were no units left on the board! I didn't record a full battle report, but here are some of the battle's highlights, in the order in which they took place.

Jon's Rasalhague enter the field.

The beginning of the end for my Nova Cat Dasher II as it is flanked by a Spirit Cat Marauder II and subsequently takes heavy fire.

Rasalhague Forces cautiously advance through the buildings, making excellent use of cover.

This conservative approach would prove to be a very wise decision, as Tyler and I attacked each other while advancing in his direction. In this pic, a Nova Cat Warhammer IIc takes aim at a Rasalhague forces across the way.

By this time the Nova and Spirit cats had bloodied each other to the point that they agreed to temporarily ally against the Rasalhague forces. Here Rasalhague forces in cover take aim at an advancing Nova Cat Thor.

The Thor is knocked out before reaching the Rasalhague positions.

Spirit Cat Marauder II rains death down from the viaduct.

A Nova Cat Warhamer IIc (ignore the blue Spirit Cat marking, I was proxying...) engages the Karhu.

And dies a turn later, putting the Nova Cats out of the game!

The Rasalhague Karhu proved a dangerous foe as it promptly flanked the Spirit Cat Blackhawk on the viaduct.

A couple of turns later, the only two remaining mechs were a Spirit Cat Cougar and Rasalhague Maurader IIc.

They simultaneously destroyed each other in a blaze of fire at point blank range.

Observations on Alpha Strike 
I really like this game. The rules seem sensible, the play is fast, and I'm really enjoying playing in the Battletech universe that I have enjoyed for so long without gaming in (I never played Mechwarrior and don't like the Classic Battletech rules). It's a small thing, but I like that Alpha Strike gives you (free via the online Master Unit List) a premade card for virtually every Battletech/Mechwarrior unit and/or variation, each with its own card.

Though the rules are not technically new -- an earlier version called "QuickStrike" is included in the massive tome "Tactical Operations" -- this is the first time these rules have been available in a standalone book. The result is a game that is fairly easy to learn (we skipped the "Introductory" rules and went right to "Standard" level), but with enough crunch to make a satisfying game.

I'm looking forward to incorporating new units like VTOLs, armored vehicles and infantry, and even at some point trying the "Advanced" rules for things like ECM and special munitions. We probably spent a bit less than two hours on this game, and now that we know how the rules go, I could easily see a two-player game using two or three times as many units on the field and still resolving the battle in the same time span.

As far as complexity, the overall game is similar in complexity to Mech Attack. The units themselves are simpler, but Alpha Strike adds more rules mechanics and special rules. It's more complex than Panzer 8 Sci-Fi, our club's favorite ultra-fast-playing sci-fi mass battle game, but it could probably handle almost as many units on the table, though it would take longer to resolve. The fairly long movement and firing ranges mean that it probably plays best on big tables. Our 4-foot by 3.5-foot space was fine for small battles, but for large engagements, the extra space on a 4 by 6 or 4 by 8 foot table would be ideal.

No discussion of the game would be complete without a brief mention of the book itself. Alpha Strike is beautifully laid, something we have come to expect from Battletech publications. It's full color with lots of pics, diagrams and even some fluff and background. The rules are separated into Introductory, Standard and Advance rules. Also included is a "Abstract Aerospace" game that can be played alongside the game to involve aerospace units and their effect on each other and the battlefield. The game also features a campaign system and some sample unit lists representing some of the major factions in the Battletech universe.

Lastly (and it didn't affect our game) the points system needs some work. The points values for each mech are simply 1/100th the points values that the mechs had in Classic Battletech. Though the Alpha Strike stats are based -- via an algorithm -- on BattleTech values, the resulting points values don't always reflect the Alpha Strike stats. This is not a huge problem for us, but Alpha Strike really needs a points system based on Alpha Strike stats, not Battletech Stats.

Conclusion
I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants a fast-playing sci-fi miniatures ruleset for 6mm or 10mm scales. It's clearly aimed at Battletech players, but the rules and massive list of pre-made units mean that players can proxy any miniatures without much hassle. It's not a "hard" sci-fi game, nor does it feature an abundance of complexity, but Alpha Strike has enough crunch to make a satisfying game. Also, since one book is all you need to play, and there are thousands of unit cards freely available via the online Master Unit List, this might be one of the great gaming bargains of 2013.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

A Visit to Draxtar Games, a New Game Store in Chicago's Western Suburbs

I stopped by Draxtar Games in Batavia (a suburb about 40 miles west of Chicago) last Thursday. The far western suburbs aren't my normal territory, but I've got family nearby and am not one to miss a chance to visit a new game store (Draxtar Games has been open 5 months).

I didn't have a good camera with me, so I've borrowed a few representative shots from their Facebook page for this report. Two things jump out at you when you first walk into Draxtar. The first is a 6-foot tall, 8-foot wide glass case filled with beautiful painted miniatures. And it's not only the usual Warhammer 40,000 stuff either -- they've got 28mm figures from Bolt Action, 15mm Flames of War units, Warmachine groups and others.

Once you peel your eyes away from the cabinet of wonders, you realize just how large the place is. The overall floor space is impressive, certainly bigger than the floor space of any just-opened game store I've ever seen. This is a game store made for playing, as the actual shopping area is only about 1/4 of the total space. The shot below shows most of the store. The low glass cabinets to the right contain Magic cards and the register and staff area. Not visible is the retail area, the tall miniatures display cabinets and entrance, which are on the opposite side of the glass cabinets.

And this shot shows the rest of the central staff/display area, the entrance and the retail area.

About half the gaming area consists of tables for collectible card games. The rest is filled with nicely done standard-sized gaming tables (waist high, recessed edges, sturdy construction, etc) of the sort you might see at a Games Workshop store.

Perusing their terrain I saw the usual batch of 40k ruined cityscapes, but also some crisp futuristic terrain that would fit in well with Infinity or Warpath, as well as some Wild West buldings, small-scale European terrain, buildings for Flames of War and custom space gaming mats that were being used for X-Wing while I was there.

The terrain was all to a good standard as well. Except for a table which was being used to prep terrain, I didn't see any flimsy, half-finished items that often appear in gaming shops. Obviously, they've put quite an effort into their terrain selection and construction.

The service was good. The manager greeted me after I'd been in the store for a minute, asked a few things and left me to my own devices. Whether this was the usual service or just because only one person was on duty (it was a slow night) I appreciated that he didn't hover in the manner of some GW redshirts.

Like most game stores (especially new shops), this one has a huge selection of Magic cards and a good selection of Games Workshop and Privateer Press games. However, it's clear that they are already trying to branch out into other miniatures games. X-Wing, Flames of War and a few other major players shared space with small selections of lesser known games like Warpath, Dystopian Legions and Dreadball. Even a few items from smaller peripheral companies like Dreamforge and Secret Weapon Miniatures were present. 

Outside of CCGs and miniatures, there is a small selection of board games and an impressive selection of "Munchkin" products. Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder comprised most of their RPG section, but their were quite a lot of vintage D&D and Shadowrun products as well. The D&D items were in such good shape that I wondered (I know little about RPGs) if they might be reissues. Definitely worth a trip for any old school RPG fans out there!

In the end, I was quite impressed with Draxtar. They're obviously going all-in trying to create a full gaming experience from the very start, and that's quite an undertaking for a new game shop. With my eclectic taste in miniatures and penchant for "indie" games, there wasn't much in their selection to tempt me. However, I won't hold that against them, as Games Plus is the only store in Illinois that carries items I'm interested in, and comparing a 20-year-old establishment to a 5-month-old startup is not a fair match.

As to Draxtar there isn't a comparable shop in the area offering the selection and gaming space that they do. I think folks in the Batavia area and other western suburbs up and down the Fox River will find Draxtar to be an excellent gaming destination and retail location, and I wish them all the best. Support your local game store!

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

A Visit to the Gaming Goat in Oak Park

Rejoice, gamers! A new shop has opened up in Oak Park, a suburb just west of Chicago. It is The Gaming Goat, part of a group of game stores that already operate in a few other Chicago suburbs.

I went out to their grand opening yesterday to scope out the scene. I'm particularly excited for the Goat because I work a mere four (4!!) blocks away from the shop in Oak Park. For the last year I've been making a pretty epic trek to the Dice Dojo to play Magic, so it would be just fantastic to have a shop that supports Magic located nearby. I live just a short 15-minute drive from this Goat location, so it's a win-win all around for me.

I can report that the Goat is deeeeep into Magic, both selling and buying. They've got plans to support draft, Standard and EDH/Commander (my format of choice).

But you didn't come here to read about Magic! Let's get to the action! The other reason for my visit was to scope out the minis gaming potential at the Goat. As you can see in the background of these photos, the store is planning to support Warmachine in a big way. Staff mentioned that they were stocking the entire line of both Warmachine and Hordes. That's a big investment, so it makes sense that they'll be looking to attract a regular group of players for these games each week.

They had a Privateer Press Ganger running Warmachine demos at their grand opening event.

The Goat also seems keen on Heroclix, a game I played many years ago but don't currently play (except for once or twice a year, as a beer-and-pretzels game, with my high school buddies).

And there's a decent stock of popular board games on their shelves, as well as a small area with opened games that you can pull off the shelf and play. Game space is divided among three distinct areas. The first, located near the big windows overlooking Ridgeland Avenue in Oak Park, has one table and seems ideal for "premier" games that might attract passers-by. Another area is just past the main retail room and has room for 4-6 tables.

Quick sidenote: One of the highlights of the day for me was a visit by Jim Pavelec, a fantasy illustrator who has done work for a bunch of Magic cards! I picked up a few artist proofs (preview cards provided to Jim before a Magic card is sent to the printer) which are super cool and very collectible. Here he is working on a sketch.

The third and perhaps most exciting gaming area is located in the basement. Yes, I said basement! Every gamer probably has memories of gaming in someone's basement. Now you can recreate those memories at the Goat! First, light a torch and venture down these steps....

Then you'll find yourself in the Temple of Elemental Evil -- er, I mean, the basement. When I visited the basement was clean, but fairly spartan...just a bunch of tables, chairs and some overhead lighting. Get some posters on those walls, gents! Here's a peek at the main room -- BEFORE it filled up with gamers.

I didn't see a whole lot of available terrain for wargaming, so I'm betting game groups will need to bring their own terrain and table coverings, at least initially. And while the Privateer Press games don't hold a ton of appeal for CSW members (except Josh, the newest Cygnar recruit), I got the distinct feeling that we'd have a warm welcome if we wanted to play some of our non-commercial, PDF-rules-only games.

When I left Saturday afternoon, after hanging out, gaming and shopping for a couple hours, the basement had filled up with gamers of all varieties. One group had a game of EDH going...another group was puzzling through a board game...and another group of younger kids were having a fun-filled game of multiplayer Magic. Overall it seems like the Goat seemed poised to attract a diverse group of clientele: younger kids from Oak Park's neighborhoods (did I mention there is a middle school located one block away?), casual gamers who might dabble in board games like Settlers of Catan, and adult gamers (like me) who appreciate a clean, friendly game store setting to shop and play.

It was great to meet co-franchisers Ross and Charlie. They have a nice location and seem very dedicated to gaming in general. By the time I left, they knew me by name -- that's the sign of a superb game shop! And Jeff, the company owner, also plans to play an active role in developing the gaming community in Oak Park. Jeff's done great things out in Elgin and Schaumburg, so I'm looking forward to watching the Oak Park Goat grow and prosper.

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Looking back on 2012

We're feeling retrospective as 2012 comes to a close, so we felt like it might be a good idea to look back on a year of gaming in the Windy City.

The year began with the club ramping up our first concerted effort to produce a series of blog posts on a particular topic. In this case, it was 28mm on the Cheap, a series that aimed to dispel myths about the perceived expense of gaming in 28mm. It's our favorite scale, and we've got plenty of tips on how to avoid breaking your gaming budget. The series actually began in late 2011, but it really gathered steam in 2012. It was also an excuse for us to share some of our favorite makers and manufacturers of affordable minis! We also expanded it to talk about cheap, DIY terrain and vehicle conversions. It's now a regular feature on our blog.

In February, we got our hands on a playtest copy of Apocalypticum, a post-apocalyptic skirmish ruleset under development by Ganesha Games, publishers of the excellent Song of Blades & Heroes. If you follow this blog, you know that CSW has a soft spot for post-apoc gaming as well as Ganesha Games. We enjoyed the game and look forward to its eventual publication.

By April we were gearing up for our second appearance at Little Wars, an annual convention that takes place in suburban Chicago. In 2011 we ran a straightforward Song of Blades & Heroes scenario. This year, we aimed a little higher: post-apocalyptic highway carnage! Check out the battle report from the game to get an idea of how epic it was.

Later in the summer, we launched our first club campaign: The Iron Isle, a Song of Blades & Heroes fantasy epic! That link goes to a description of our campaign world, as well as battle reports from the 20-odd individual games we played over the course of the summer. It was a fantastic series of games, and the campaign really inspired us as a club to dig deep into the hobby. We painted miniatures and built terrain all summer long, buoyed by the fantastic games we were playing in the campaign.

It was around this time that our recruitment efforts began to pay off. We had regular gaming space available at Pat's house and Karl's house, and our small group soon grew to number 6 or 7 regular players. We're very excited to see new faces at CSW's regular game nights!

By September, we were beginning to talk about our winter campaign. The consensus was that we wanted to try out a full-blown post-apocalyptic campaign -- after all, we had the miniatures and we had the vehicles. Time to put 'em on the table! With this in mind, the terrain bug bit a few of us that fall. Pat started knocking out various post-apoc ruins and rubble bits. Karl converted a bag full of plastic farm buildings into a table's worth of industrial warehouses. He also snagged an architectural tabletop model at an auction and reconfigured it as an urban wargames table. Tim churned out a great collection of modular modern office buildings, as well as a batch of foamcore ruins and some plaster car wrecks.

We took a break from all this post-apoc prepping to host our second annual Halloween zombie game at Games Plus. Carnage in New Chicago, the sequel to 2011's Escape from New Chicago, allowed us to really one-up our previous game in a lot of ways. We had more terrain, more zombies and most importantly, more players!

We closed out 2012 by auditioning a number of rulesets for our upcoming post-apocalyptic campaign. We tried Neutron York 3000, In The Emperor's Name and This Is Not A Test, a work-in-progress ruleset that we are helping to playtest. We're leaning towards TNT, though our recent game raised enough questions that we decided to have another go at it in early January.

Thanks to all of our readers who took the time to post a question or comment -- and bonus points to everyone who came out to game with us in 2012. Watch this space as we head into 2013! We hope to share more photos, battle reports, tutorials and gaming fun with all of you.

-- The Players of Chicago Skirmish Wargames

Two reviews: Inkwell Industries and Mega Minis' Salvage Crew

Today we'll review two groups of miniatures: resin bases, barrels and wheels by Inkwell Industries, and the Salvage Crew from Mega Miniatures.

Inkwell Industries: Bases, Barrels and Wheels
Inkwell Industries is a one-man side project that has some good quality resin products at remarkable prices. This review will showcase their bases, barrels and tires, all of which I purchased a few months ago.

At present the only way to buy Inkwell Industries products is through the Post-Apoc Wargames forum's Traders Shack, which is where I found them.

The 25mm round bases come in 9 designs and are sold in batches of 20 for $5. In the past I've tended to view cast resin bases as a bit of an extravagance. With most bases costing nearly the price of what I try to spend for miniatures ($1 to $2) I didn't see the point. At 25 cents each, however, I couldn't resist trying them, especially when I have a slew of post-apocalyptic figures that would look good on them.

The bases look like the pictures below, though they now all come in white.

The bases all seem well cast. Some of them are a touch uneven on the bottom, but nothing you can't fix with a bit of sandpaper.. A few of them had what might be very minor flaws in the casting detail on top, but since these are all modeled after broken ground, scrap and salvage, I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't had two of each base to compare to each other, and I doubt anyone else would notice.

Most importantly, the sides all seemed nice and smooth, with no bubbles. The heights of terrain modeled on the bases do vary a bit. Inky informs me that he originally made the bases for himself to balance out the height of the various figures he was using for his own post-apocalyptic games. Differing heights don't bother me, but it's interesting to hear this perspective

My final observation is that while a wide variety of bases are great for post-apocalyptic figures, players seeking a more uniform look might not appreciate all the variation. I would love to see the selection expanded so there were 4 to 5 different sculpts for each "theme" that appears in the mix (gears, rocky terrain, wreckage, etc).

Be sure to read through the miniatures review below to see photos of these bases black-washed and attached to miniatures.

Inkwell also has a 40mm round base cast in a metal plate pattern. It's a nice design, and while the plates aren't perfectly level (I'm not sure if this is intentional or not), they're a steal at 50 cents each and would be a nice choice for basing Space Marine Terminators. I'll probably use the one I have to base up the Ape-X figure from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter.

Hint to Inkwell...If this metal-plate design was available in 25mm or 40mm, I'd buy a batch tomorrow!

I also purchased a pack of oil barrels. They are very simple, with basic rim detailing and a valve on top. The bottoms are a bit uneven on some, but that's to be expected on barrels cast from a one-piece mold, and it's easy to fix. They are entirely adequate, and at 10 for $3 they are quite a bargain.

 
Lastly, I bought some resin wheels. These are purchasable individually at 15 cents each, and I got 16 of them.

They are 16mm in diameter and size up well with the wheels on the bargain 1/43 Bburago cars I reviewed earlier. These cars were nicely made, but they had some really cheap-looking wheels.

While the diameter and detail of the wheels are all the same, the thickness of the wheels varies quite a bit. There seem to be 3 or so different thicknesses. For folks using these for terrain detailing, this is not a problem, but for those intending to put these on vehicles, it might be worthwhile to specifically request wheels of the same thickness.

I had no problem making a few sets of wheels out of the batch I purchased, though a few will need to be sanded down a bit. The resin is easy to cut and modify, so I have no doubt it will be easy to drill out holes to fit these onto the wheel posts of the Bburagao cars.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the products received from Inkwell. They don't have quite the polish of some higher-priced resin products, but at a third of the cost or less they are more than adequate for my uses. I highly recommend them, and it's very likely that I will be purchasing more of the bases in the near future.

Salvage Crew Miniatures on Inkwell Bases
Last year I briefly reviewed the Salvage Crew miniatures from Mega Miniatures. They were originally produced by Alpha Forge for their Star Mogul game, and Mega Minis acquired the line last year (which includes many other great figures) and released the game as a free download on their website.

The purchase of the post-apocalyptic bases from Inkwell Industries seemed like a perfect excuse to assemble these figures and base them up. I've mounted them on the Inkwell bases and given them a quick-and-dirty black wash to bring out some of the details. Here's a group shot and another from above to show off the bases.

My observations from the initial review are largely unchanged. They are very nice figures with separate heads, though the quality of the heads are are hit-or-miss. The casting is good, with minimal flash and mold lines. For the most part, they are loaded with packs, tools, gear, etc. as befits the subject matter.

Be aware that each figure comes with two random heads, so you might not end up with the heads I used, or the heads pictured on the website. Also, some of the neck pegs are a bit skinny; a bit of putty or just some extra superglue will fix this. I've listed them with the names that Mega Minis has given them. For those looking to acquire these figures, they are available here.

Gang Member with Shotgun and Cutting Equipment 

Love the character of this figure, though he's the one figure I couldn't get to photograph well, so you'll have to take my word for it. Uniquely among this batch, he does not have a separate head. Also, he doesn't have any specifically futuristic gear. His main equipment is a double-barreled shotgun and a cutting torch on his back. His aviator cap and goggles, trenchcoat and lack of sci-fi equipment would make him a good fit for a steampunk setting as well as sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, etc.

Gang Member with Grinding Tool

This figure comes with a separate grinding tool with hands attached. He's unarmed, so I'll probably add a pistol holster. It's a nice find, though, as unarmed civilian sci-fi figures are fairly uncommon. The cutting tool could easily be modified into any number of tools by cutting away the blade and substituting some other techy bit.

Gang Member in Light Armor 

This is a female figure with a heavy automatic weapon. The head I chose for her is the best of the female heads available.

Gang Member in Trench Coat 

This is another one of my favorites. I gave him a Pig Iron Kolony Rebel head, though in retrospect that may have made him look a bit too bad-guy-ish, and he ended up resembling the most recent movie incarnation of the Batman villain Bane. He and the two following figures seem almost tailor-made to be Necromunda gangers, scum or bounty hunters.

Gang Member with Assault Rifle

Here's a nice pose -- and is that a bolter he's carrying? I particularly like the messenger bag laying across his chest.

Gang Member with Light Machinegun 

This is a typical shooting dude with an SMG.

Gang Member with Rocket Launcher

The rocket launcher is a separate piece, and as I already have various launcher-armed figures, I switched out the launcher for an assault rifle from Heresy Miniatures. I did have to reposition the left hand to be supporting the gun rather than steadying the rocket launcher. It's a nice figure, but unfortunately the original configuration with the rocket launcher isn't very balanced. Check out that huge tire on the base!

In conclusion, I'm very happy with the Salvage Crew figures. They're not state-of-the-art sculpts, but they fill a nice niche in my sci-fi collection. They would work well in most post-apocalyptic or sci-fi game setting and seem ripe for use in Necromunda. Also, at only $2.50 a piece for each 28mm figure, they are a great deal.

As a bonus, I give you Rosie, Cryotechnician. I had this Reaper Chronoscope miniature lying around for some time, so I decided to use her here. I think she's intended to be a "not" version of Kaylee from Firefly and Serenity. The figure comes with a wrench and gun options for her right hand, though I still haven't decided which to use. With the wrench option she is unarmed, and you can never have too many unarmed sci-fi figures in your collection.

Like most Chronoscope figures, she stands notably taller than other 28mm models. Using traditional sole-to-eye measurements, the Salvage Crew are a standard 28mm, while Rosie towers to a height of 32mm. Despite the height, she fits in well with the style of the Salvage crew figures, so I'm pretty happy with her. As with most Reaper miniatures, the detail is really well done, and she's a step up in overall quality from the others.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member