Planetfall Terran Recon Helix & Infantry Upgrade unboxing

It's back to the turn of the Alliance of Kurak forces for an unboxing blog, so here are the Terrans (boo, hiss etc!).

Now there are some familiar elements here as we've seen the APCs and Hirdmen from the core Helix. The Freya light tanks and Huscarls are new, however, and the exciting part of the set. Let's open it up and see them!

No surprises on opening the box, elements protected in bubble-bags and pieces in a resealable plastic pocket.

Metal elements are the Huscarls, their weapons and the single-piece Hirdmen for the infantry bases.

As I mentioned, we've all seen this bad boy before (and I've blown up a few in my time). They're solid and chunky, having a very Terran feel to them.

Likewise we've seen the infantry bases before, though i don't remember this one (probably just a senior moment and the fact I don't play Terrans myself), but I like it a lot. Has a very dynamic feel to it.

The Huscarl is next, standing about 2/3rds higher than a standard infantryman - room enough for a Terran dude to actually be inside that little cockpit. It's nicely cast with just a couple of casting spure and a little flash between its legs, and has great detail. They should paint up VERY nicely (and there are already several examples of some really nice jobs on these on Facebook etc)

The other new shiny is my personal favourite in the box, the Freya. This is a gorgeous little vehicle, almost Hummer-like, but sexier! She deserves some more pics;

It's a really nice box, and a good addition to Terran forces. I don't know what the Huscarls and Freyas are like stat-wise, but I'd field them just because they look so good!

Next for the spotlight is the Terran infantry Upgrade box.

This disgorges a lot of little Terrans;

The resin elements are grenade launcher toting guys hiding in a cowardly way behind concrete (it's the Terran way!). You get two different styles;

On closer inspection these are cast very nicely in a single piece, and have the same high levels of detail we've come to expect from Spartan.

To add a little more firepower to the gun teams, you get 18 (yes eighteen!) minigun guys;

These are fantastic little figures, they almost make me want to play Terrans! Of course, someone has to lead these oppressors of freedom into battle, so bring on the chain of command...

See what I did there? No? Oh well....anyway, the commander for the Terrans is another really nice model, with a very human pose - you can imagine him in the heat of battle straining to hear his orders through his suit communicator, touching his helmet even though this probably has no effect on the audio quality. Very nice.

You get standard Hirdmen to protect him, but there's nothing stopping you upgrading a base with resin infantry on it to mix up the feel a bit - it's what Oscar has already declared he's going to do.

Overall, these two releases are very nice both in their content and the way they gel with the prior Terran forces and how they expand them - they're a very cohesive set of models for the Terrans, keeping up the "slow grinder", infantry heavy approach for them.

My only other comment is that I'd love to see the Commanders and some of the other figures (like the minigun guy) in 28mm...they'd look GREAT!

Planetfall Dindrenzi Recon Helix & Infantry upgrade unboxing

To follow up on my prior post where I mentioned Dindrenzi were next up, here are those independent-minded frontiersmen in all their glory!

The front sides of all the Planetfall boxed sets are pretty much the same, a dark background with a coloured hex in the centre with the faction symbol on it. They get more interesting when you turn them over and find  the painted box content photos;

Now, the Dindrenzi recon helix has raised some eyebrows over on the community as they're all drop assets, but that is very much the Dindrenzi way. Likewise I know some do not like the armoured shield on the gun team model for the infantry upgrade box, citing Dindrenzi Nyx infantry speed and manoeuvrability etc. I can see their point. but it really doesn't bug me that much.

Opening the boxes, we're greeted with the familiar sight of poly bags and bubble wrap;

There's a lot of infantry there! That means a lot of painting too....

So, let's take the Recon Helix first. Unbagging all the resin and metal, we find ourselves with;

That's four bases for weapons emplacements, one infantry drop pod, weapons and infantry bases - including one commander. Now at this point I normally go ahead and share additional pictures of all the items in detail, but I actually got painting these right away, so they're a little more mid-painting than normal! First item is the weapon pods base;

Then  we have the Estock flak launchers, which are exactly the same pieces as on the Leviathan, but with an "adaptor" piece to make them fit on the base above;

These I will magnetise, together with the pun platforms, and have them interchangeable but no likely to fall off mid game (which they otherwise will do - the shot above is very carefully balanced!). So the Gun platforms are next;

These use the same gun pieces as the tanks, and are nice units - though considerable more fiddly than I had initially imagined.

You also get a drop pod and infantry, but we've seen them before - apart from the commander, who I'll cover in the infantry upgrade - which I'll crack right onto...

Yep, that's a hell of a lot of metal! The main components are the infantry gun;

and the missile teams

The former can be posed with their shields as intended...

Or you could stick him on a base without it as you wish. There are two shield base designs to choose from;

The missile guys come in standing and kneeling;

and then to round of the infantry upgrade (and the recon helix as you get a commander in there too), is the Dindrenzi 3-base HQ guy;

He's pretty cool, as are all the infantry dudes - they're really nice little castings. It's a fairly "vanilla" upgrade compared to the outlandish Aquan box, but good nonetheless.

So there you have it - the Dindrenzi Recon and infantry boxes...hopefully you found the unboxing useful!