I can vouch for the Death Ray Designs infantry. They look good and having them on the supports to start helps with painting, I also like how they slot into their bases. They also helped me win a control points game, so they have a special place in my heart for that reason.
I picked up a couple DRD infantry from Fortress miniatures and very happy with the scale, detail, quality and bases. The SRM packs are always sold out. I order everything from Fortress and very happy with my experience with every order.
There have been reports from backers that have gotten their shipments that the IS BA were all over the place as far as quality. I’ve got one box coming with my pledge but I don’t see buying another box. I just wish we had official AS cards for Elementals. I know about MUL but I prefer the cards.
I’m very glad I got the box of elementals. Especially when I saw some IS units have more then 4. I cut some of them off the bases and now I have 1 base of 4, 3 bases of 5, and 1 base of 6. Some of them are jumping to represent what they can do on the card, and some are all on the ground, for the same reason
Have been very pleased with the models from the current KS. I didn't order any IS battle armor and so far can't say I'm disappointed that I passed on them.
It sounds cliche but anything I can do you can do. I promise. It just looks fancy on the computer screen :) I’ve got a tutorial going up at the end of the month that I think is really solid, fingers crossed it’s helpful.
@@Thearmedpainter some people can paint and others are artists. You fall into the latter category. Yes anyone can learn to paint but you have real talent
Very good, in-depth review -- it is appreciated. I hope I win the "quality lottery" on the ones coming my way from the KS, because I really don't want three boxes of blob people!
This was probably the only box that I was NOT interested in from the Mercenaries Kickstarter. And if it retails for $30.00 - I'll stick with the 3D prints that I have, or use other sources, for the inner sphere battle armor. Thanks for the unboxing and looking forward to more.
@@molenat9973This is true - but by the same token, you DON'T have to g WYSIWYG, especially for infantry and Battle Armor. I do NOT want to paint up a full platoon of like 20 guys ;). The 3D printed folks I have are broken up into 5 bases with 4 guys each. Cheers
Agree with you completely about the price. The packaging weighs four times more than the product. Discarding the packaging does more damage to the environment than a Battlemech would. :(
I did the math, seems like you can get a comparable amount of Inner Sphere Standard battle armor from Iron Wind Metals for roughly half the price. Even if CGL sorts out the quality control issues, I still think IWM would be the better buy, which isn't really the case for the Elementals. Also, IWM has minis for more specialized battle armor designs.
Man, I've loved most of CGL's sculpts and products. This is a major bust. I think it was Scroggins who said he thought the infantry minis should be slightly larger and while the elementals came out pretty good, anything smaller hits the limits of what Liya can produce.
Thats a bummer that plastic isnt kind to them. I was looking forward to these. Hopefully Iron Wind Metals will produce them too, because the new CGL design for these looks great
A couple corrections; You don't get the final STL files. We modify every file from the client for manufacturing. These are injected molded and we could do more details but this would have do parts. And 3D will always look better however you'd have to be able to print 200k copies.
GW was able to make solid looking models at a similar scale for their most recent version of Epic so clearly it’s possible 🤷♂️ The ISBA being similar in size and shape to the elementals but looking worse in quality while costing more MSRP wise is simply baffling. As for 3d prints. DRD produces similar 3rd party minis at less than half the price for better quality. We can says “you’d have to be able to make 200k copies” but if a contract was offered they’d likely look into the feasibility of expanding production and meeting the demand if it was deemed to be profitable. Unfortunately the bottom line is we paid more for this product than the previous one and for a lower quality. If we want to claim inflation and production costs, ok, but the quality also suffered. The elementals were also more complex sculpts with the jump jets, looked better and came in cheaper for the consumer.
I think I'm gonna be fine playing them using the cardoard tokens in mercenaries, hopefully the 8 base box with the grenadiers and kanazuchis is a better value.
I’m definitely planning on giving Iron Wind some of my money instead of picking these up (I had not backed the KS so I’m picking up the packs I want as they come available)
Thanks for the review. I didn't add this box to my KS pledge because I have so many DRD Battle Armor sets. I'm glad I didnt get this box because of the quality issues, but the cards might have made it worth it.
Everything else pretty much came out great on the KS. I'm not sure what happened on those battle armor units except perhaps some inferno rounds melted them on the battlefield if you want to be thematic about it.
I’ve heard some of the mechs have had issues but I’ll hold judgement until I see them. Aside from the obvious mold lines and such the previous mechs have mostly been solid so hoping that’s the case for the rest of the KS too.
I suspect the non BA stuff will be solid for the most part. This is the first time I’ve gotten a CGL kit that I felt was sub par especially for the price point.
Hi Big J... I learn something with your videos and enjoy myself... Although sometime I set the playback to 0.75... you must rock some caffeine as you speak quite fast (said the boomer)
I didn’t order any IS BA with my kickstarter, as I rarely run BA, but this is disappointing. That being said, I did receive my KS pledge, and an say the ‘Mechs and combat vees are great! Outside some slightly bent barrels and arms (easily fixed by warming up), the ‘Mechs are fantastic - seems they keep improving the casting with each wave. There are the usual spots where parts were cut from the sprue, but I had to hunt - and use my magnifying light on my painting desk - to find mold lines. The Vees were likewise great sculpts, and the way they have the turrets attached is brilliant! On some, even the little MG turrets can rotate!
@@ThearmedpainterLooking at my emails, I got the address verification email July 12th, and shipping notification on the 23rd, so close to two weeks apart.
I didnt add them to my kick bc they looked pretty bad from the days of the kick. Looked muddy back then, at least it was not false advertising! I just don't know whay cgl was thinking that they were ready for sale the way they are!!🧐🤔🤨
Games Workshop has some amazing infantry at a similar scale. But they have better quality minis in general and use a different material. But at $30 bucks for these infantry I feel like there isn’t a good excuse for CGL.
That's a shame. I do love running Battlearmor, but it's the one place that Iron Winds isn't all that great. The Elemental suits are pretty good. DRD'S Sikverback Suits are quality pieces. I used them for Tin Stars before we had official art for them. Turns out they aren't bad for them.
I will say the DRD elementals, silver backs I think they are called, are amazing as are all the stuff they put out. That price point on those 4 stands is silly.
Im very interested in ordering some proxies instead of those. I don't intend on playing in official events so I don't feel like I need the official catalyst models when they're this underwhelming.
Ironwind has a sprue of 3 for 2.60. each figure on the sprue has a different weapon (MG,Laser, or Flamer). 4 sprues with a pack of bases will run you 15.30. With a little bit of work, you can have 3 different stands of IS BA for half the price. in comparison to other infantry lines from sci fi mini companies, Catalyst's BA seems small. I guess it's so the individual figures don't crowd the stand.
The seller in question was forced to shift these to pre order but it definitely tips the hand of CGL letting the backers and customers know at least some retailers out there got product before we did which is annoying.
Yeah, with Silverbacks coming in at 25 stands... that a demi-company of battlearmor at half the price of a platoon from CHL. And Silverbacks look better to boot. I use Elementals as themselves and silverbacks for IS BA. 2 silverbacks gives you a company for $32... 3x the units, better details, for the same price.
I didn’t hate them honestly. For figures of that size not printed, I expected them to look like this. If they made them just a bit larger, they would've come out much better
I just replied to your post on Reddit with a picture of mine. Everything else in my haul was great, but these looked so bad they essentially look like wet blobs with no detail. It’s really disappointing
I’d argue that Scroggins is probably a bigger factor. If not for the influx of all these new 3D designs from he and his team I think BT would still be struggling :/
Yeah I did not add these to the kickstarter when I could. They just are not the best! Honestly I was not happy with the elementals either and I painted 25 bases of them. Ugh! I picked up some 3d printed elementals at a larger size and plan on redoing the elementals with those.
@@BrotherKarr22 I didn’t kind the elementals personally, though I didn’t paint them as detailed as I do mechs (too small for me) but I certainly feel their details relative to the ISBA here are more crisp.
I got a box for my KS rewards. Looking like I'm going to just have to paint them a generic camo pattern so I can use it with as many forces as I can so I don't have to get a second box.
Well that's disappointing. Not only are these underwhelming but that's going to negatively effect all future Battle Armor sales. As for the price that should cost half as much as a Mech Lance box imo.
@@dubuyajay9964 totally agree. My concern would be their ability as a company to get good quality infantry at this scale with the production facilities they have chosen. GW has managed to do it in hard plastic, but they cost more. I’m not sure CGL is willing to invest in better material/quality for these. If they do however, I’d be happy to see it. The small scale stuff GW has made look great.
Tgey've said for now they have no intention to do conventional infantry minis in plastic, but there are cardboard counters in the mercs box and Iron wind does a wide range of BattleTech infantry minis in metal.
I’m not a fan of the battle armor. I know you are more an Alpha Strike player than just Battletech. How much of an influence do they make in Alpha Strike ?
So in Alpha Strike combined arms is huge. For Clanners BA helps with threat projection and burst damage. For IS that lack as main Omni mechs (most BA require this to ride them, but there are exactions) BA and combined arms are a little different. You’ll see IS use transports and flamer infantry (heat is brutal) and BA that excel at range damage vs short range attacks or melee. The Cuchulain (www.sarna.net/wiki/Cuchulainn) and Gnome Battle Armor (www.sarna.net/wiki/Gnome) are two really brutal BA to use for medium range damage. They out DPS lots of lower end mechs or cost similar points of more. You give up mobility of course but standing back and shooting is nice and lets you focus on maneuvering with your other units instead.
Loved playing against the SLDF boys, they look fantastic. Lucky dude whoever wins them!
I can vouch for the Death Ray Designs infantry. They look good and having them on the supports to start helps with painting, I also like how they slot into their bases. They also helped me win a control points game, so they have a special place in my heart for that reason.
@@dbul2542 agreed. DRD infantry is my current gold standard.
I picked up a couple DRD infantry from Fortress miniatures and very happy with the scale, detail, quality and bases. The SRM packs are always sold out. I order everything from Fortress and very happy with my experience with every order.
This is why I will be sticking with the Iron Wind Metals Battle Armour.
Glad i passed on these. My buddy got a pack though that I'll paint for him eventually I hope I can make them look a smidge better,
Those Battlefield Asset rules are in the Mercenaries box set. New to that.
@@warlok363 makes sense, I don’t have that box yet. When I do I’ll be able to address that and mention it :)
Thank you for the detailed look. Still waiting on address lock so hoping against hope later runs are better. Not holding any breaths though.
There have been reports from backers that have gotten their shipments that the IS BA were all over the place as far as quality. I’ve got one box coming with my pledge but I don’t see buying another box. I just wish we had official AS cards for Elementals. I know about MUL but I prefer the cards.
I’m very glad I got the box of elementals. Especially when I saw some IS units have more then 4. I cut some of them off the bases and now I have 1 base of 4, 3 bases of 5, and 1 base of 6. Some of them are jumping to represent what they can do on the card, and some are all on the ground, for the same reason
Have been very pleased with the models from the current KS. I didn't order any IS battle armor and so far can't say I'm disappointed that I passed on them.
Your painted miniatures would really be a prize . I’ve always been envious of your skill
It sounds cliche but anything I can do you can do. I promise. It just looks fancy on the computer screen :) I’ve got a tutorial going up at the end of the month that I think is really solid, fingers crossed it’s helpful.
@@Thearmedpainter some people can paint and others are artists. You fall into the latter category. Yes anyone can learn to paint but you have real talent
Great Presentation! I got one too. Not the greatest. Looking forward to more videos.
Very good, in-depth review -- it is appreciated. I hope I win the "quality lottery" on the ones coming my way from the KS, because I really don't want three boxes of blob people!
Yeah I would probably 3d print proxies for these guys.
Its cool that we have battle armor alpha strike card. Even if there a bit of a derp.
This was probably the only box that I was NOT interested in from the Mercenaries Kickstarter. And if it retails for $30.00 - I'll stick with the 3D prints that I have, or use other sources, for the inner sphere battle armor. Thanks for the unboxing and looking forward to more.
The fact that later IS units have MORE than 4 to a squad (some have up to 6 troopers per squad/base). Went with the elementals box and I’m glad I did
@@molenat9973This is true - but by the same token, you DON'T have to g WYSIWYG, especially for infantry and Battle Armor. I do NOT want to paint up a full platoon of like 20 guys ;). The 3D printed folks I have are broken up into 5 bases with 4 guys each.
Cheers
Loving the styles of this design! I still love any time that just let you have little dudes with huge units. Like that platoon is quite brave XD
I've bought most of the units in the Death Ray Designs infantry range and they're all great, very high quality prints.
I've been told that after a toothbrush with dish soap they look better. I'd like to see a side by side with the elementals after a zenithal prime.
I found the rules for battlefield support are in the Mercenaries box.
Agree with you completely about the price. The packaging weighs four times more than the product. Discarding the packaging does more damage to the environment than a Battlemech would. :(
I did the math, seems like you can get a comparable amount of Inner Sphere Standard battle armor from Iron Wind Metals for roughly half the price. Even if CGL sorts out the quality control issues, I still think IWM would be the better buy, which isn't really the case for the Elementals. Also, IWM has minis for more specialized battle armor designs.
Hey! You and me, lucky 12 and 13! 🤣
Only got into Battletech recently so I didn't get to participate in the kickstarter, I hope they release it for retail soon
Man, I've loved most of CGL's sculpts and products. This is a major bust. I think it was Scroggins who said he thought the infantry minis should be slightly larger and while the elementals came out pretty good, anything smaller hits the limits of what Liya can produce.
I would agree. And since the minis are abstract the infantry being a smidge larger would have been perfectly fine.
Thats a bummer that plastic isnt kind to them. I was looking forward to these. Hopefully Iron Wind Metals will produce them too, because the new CGL design for these looks great
A couple corrections; You don't get the final STL files. We modify every file from the client for manufacturing. These are injected molded and we could do more details but this would have do parts. And 3D will always look better however you'd have to be able to print 200k copies.
GW was able to make solid looking models at a similar scale for their most recent version of Epic so clearly it’s possible 🤷♂️
The ISBA being similar in size and shape to the elementals but looking worse in quality while costing more MSRP wise is simply baffling.
As for 3d prints. DRD produces similar 3rd party minis at less than half the price for better quality. We can says “you’d have to be able to make 200k copies” but if a contract was offered they’d likely look into the feasibility of expanding production and meeting the demand if it was deemed to be profitable.
Unfortunately the bottom line is we paid more for this product than the previous one and for a lower quality. If we want to claim inflation and production costs, ok, but the quality also suffered. The elementals were also more complex sculpts with the jump jets, looked better and came in cheaper for the consumer.
I think I'm gonna be fine playing them using the cardoard tokens in mercenaries, hopefully the 8 base box with the grenadiers and kanazuchis is a better value.
I’m definitely planning on giving Iron Wind some of my money instead of picking these up (I had not backed the KS so I’m picking up the packs I want as they come available)
Another awesome unboxing! Can’t wait to get these myself. Keep up the great work on the channel 🤙🏻 excited for the next episode.
Thanks for the review. I didn't add this box to my KS pledge because I have so many DRD Battle Armor sets. I'm glad I didnt get this box because of the quality issues, but the cards might have made it worth it.
The DRD Battle Armors are great. I have several of them. Details are crisp and they are fun to paint. Super disappointed with the CGL IS BAs.
Everything else pretty much came out great on the KS. I'm not sure what happened on those battle armor units except perhaps some inferno rounds melted them on the battlefield if you want to be thematic about it.
I’ve heard some of the mechs have had issues but I’ll hold judgement until I see them. Aside from the obvious mold lines and such the previous mechs have mostly been solid so hoping that’s the case for the rest of the KS too.
I have heard a few people mention quality issues with the IS battle armor. Everything else seems to be pretty solid from what I have seen.
I suspect the non BA stuff will be solid for the most part. This is the first time I’ve gotten a CGL kit that I felt was sub par especially for the price point.
I'm glad I didn't include this as one of my KS picks. I may grab one box from Fortress once they have them, but I'm not even sure about that.
Hi Big J... I learn something with your videos and enjoy myself... Although sometime I set the playback to 0.75... you must rock some caffeine as you speak quite fast (said the boomer)
@@jgnunan yeaaah….I don’t wanna disclose hope much caffeine I consume lol!
I didn’t order any IS BA with my kickstarter, as I rarely run BA, but this is disappointing.
That being said, I did receive my KS pledge, and an say the ‘Mechs and combat vees are great! Outside some slightly bent barrels and arms (easily fixed by warming up), the ‘Mechs are fantastic - seems they keep improving the casting with each wave. There are the usual spots where parts were cut from the sprue, but I had to hunt - and use my magnifying light on my painting desk - to find mold lines.
The Vees were likewise great sculpts, and the way they have the turrets attached is brilliant! On some, even the little MG turrets can rotate!
I got my address verification email I think over two weeks ago. No shipping update though :/
@@ThearmedpainterLooking at my emails, I got the address verification email July 12th, and shipping notification on the 23rd, so close to two weeks apart.
$30 for battle armor? I think 19.99 would be a better price point for what you’re getting.
This ^
I didnt add them to my kick bc they looked pretty bad from the days of the kick. Looked muddy back then, at least it was not false advertising! I just don't know whay cgl was thinking that they were ready for sale the way they are!!🧐🤔🤨
Infantry and BA are beyond what PVC plastic should/can do.
Games Workshop has some amazing infantry at a similar scale. But they have better quality minis in general and use a different material. But at $30 bucks for these infantry I feel like there isn’t a good excuse for CGL.
That's a shame. I do love running Battlearmor, but it's the one place that Iron Winds isn't all that great. The Elemental suits are pretty good.
DRD'S Sikverback Suits are quality pieces. I used them for Tin Stars before we had official art for them. Turns out they aren't bad for them.
I will say the DRD elementals, silver backs I think they are called, are amazing as are all the stuff they put out. That price point on those 4 stands is silly.
Im very interested in ordering some proxies instead of those. I don't intend on playing in official events so I don't feel like I need the official catalyst models when they're this underwhelming.
We sell SO many of our infantry to BT players as it is ;) you won’t go wrong with some drd minis.
Ironwind has a sprue of 3 for 2.60. each figure on the sprue has a different weapon (MG,Laser, or Flamer). 4 sprues with a pack of bases will run you 15.30. With a little bit of work, you can have 3 different stands of IS BA for half the price.
in comparison to other infantry lines from sci fi mini companies, Catalyst's BA seems small. I guess it's so the individual figures don't crowd the stand.
Funny how they can get them shipped to retailers to make more sales quicker than to pledgers who've already paid 🤔
And that price tag is obscene
The seller in question was forced to shift these to pre order but it definitely tips the hand of CGL letting the backers and customers know at least some retailers out there got product before we did which is annoying.
I hope the 'mechs and other vehicles look better then, I'll be pretty disappointed if the quality takes a similar hit.
@@ninneplug I have no doubt the quality of the bigger stuff is solid. The preview hover craft I have is night and day vs this.
Plastic Injection SHOULD be superior to 3D printed hands down...
Yeah, with Silverbacks coming in at 25 stands... that a demi-company of battlearmor at half the price of a platoon from CHL. And Silverbacks look better to boot. I use Elementals as themselves and silverbacks for IS BA.
2 silverbacks gives you a company for $32... 3x the units, better details, for the same price.
The rules for battlefield support are in the merc box
Haven’t got that box on hand yet, I’ll mention that when I open it up.
I didn’t hate them honestly. For figures of that size not printed, I expected them to look like this. If they made them just a bit larger, they would've come out much better
I think the issue is they are similar in size to the previous armor they released and not the same quality while being expensive for what they are.
Well, at least I'll have official cards when I proxy the models.
A shame. I chose a box of these BA and will see if I can trade them around piecemeal.
I just replied to your post on Reddit with a picture of mine. Everything else in my haul was great, but these looked so bad they essentially look like wet blobs with no detail. It’s really disappointing
CGL is single handedly the greatest thing to happen to battletech since FASA died but man do they make some mistakes
I’d argue that Scroggins is probably a bigger factor. If not for the influx of all these new 3D designs from he and his team I think BT would still be struggling :/
@@Thearmedpainter holy shit i didn’t even know who this guy was but yeah this beautiful art was definitely a factor for getting me to join the game
Yeah I did not add these to the kickstarter when I could. They just are not the best! Honestly I was not happy with the elementals either and I painted 25 bases of them. Ugh! I picked up some 3d printed elementals at a larger size and plan on redoing the elementals with those.
@@BrotherKarr22 I didn’t kind the elementals personally, though I didn’t paint them as detailed as I do mechs (too small for me) but I certainly feel their details relative to the ISBA here are more crisp.
I got a box for my KS rewards. Looking like I'm going to just have to paint them a generic camo pattern so I can use it with as many forces as I can so I don't have to get a second box.
Well that's disappointing. Not only are these underwhelming but that's going to negatively effect all future Battle Armor sales. As for the price that should cost half as much as a Mech Lance box imo.
Any idea if they plan to do plain and jump jet infantry?
No idea. I wouldn’t expect a heavy expansion of infantry though. It’s not as easy to make and the quality is…not great.
@@Thearmedpainter Nonetheless, they ARE a thing in this game.
@@dubuyajay9964 totally agree. My concern would be their ability as a company to get good quality infantry at this scale with the production facilities they have chosen. GW has managed to do it in hard plastic, but they cost more. I’m not sure CGL is willing to invest in better material/quality for these. If they do however, I’d be happy to see it. The small scale stuff GW has made look great.
Right now I doubt it, seems like for unarmed infantry CGL is going to point you to IWM.
Tgey've said for now they have no intention to do conventional infantry minis in plastic, but there are cardboard counters in the mercs box and Iron wind does a wide range of BattleTech infantry minis in metal.
I’m not a fan of the battle armor. I know you are more an Alpha Strike player than just Battletech. How much of an influence do they make in Alpha Strike ?
So in Alpha Strike combined arms is huge. For Clanners BA helps with threat projection and burst damage. For IS that lack as main Omni mechs (most BA require this to ride them, but there are exactions) BA and combined arms are a little different. You’ll see IS use transports and flamer infantry (heat is brutal) and BA that excel at range damage vs short range attacks or melee. The Cuchulain (www.sarna.net/wiki/Cuchulainn) and Gnome Battle Armor (www.sarna.net/wiki/Gnome) are two really brutal BA to use for medium range damage. They out DPS lots of lower end mechs or cost similar points of more. You give up mobility of course but standing back and shooting is nice and lets you focus on maneuvering with your other units instead.
$30 is a bit steep for BA……gunna pass.
A shame the details are poor.
Disappointing, and I have a box coming with my Kickstarter too.