[OT/SG] Irregular Miniatures' 15mm "Star Marines" -- anyone have pictures?

I was looking at buying the 100-piece 15mm sci-fi force ("Star Marines")
at
http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/, but I don't want to buy blind.
Anyone
have any pictures of IM's sci-fi line, or know where I could find some?
It looks like a good deal at 13GBP for 100 minis, but only if the minis are
worth having, of course.

Thanks,

> I was looking at buying the 100-piece 15mm sci-fi force ("Star

I got one or two as afterthoughts when I was ordering Afghans last year.
Haven't painted them as yet and the usual comment about Irregular's stuff is
that it needs to be painted to look good.

Assuming I'm remembering the right figure....This one is trooper with heavy
weapon. He's bulky looking, with large pads that look like thigh armor except
it goes to his boot top. Similar pads over the upper arms except those are
partly covered by the cape and aren't as prominent. A case for four magazines
at the left hip, some kind of
bag hanging form the back of the belt, and a waist-length cape over
the rest, which helps make him look bulkier. He's got a large
clip-fed weapon which looks like it started life as a recoilless
rifle. The weapon has a radar dish on top, but that will come off before I
paint mine. The helmet is shaped something like a football helmet with comms
gear over the left ear. He's snuggled up to the weapon sight so you can't see
anything of his face except for the left cheek. The right hand, on the
trigger, is rather vaguely molded but you can tell what it's supposed to be.

Summary: if you want a showpiece, or a lean, lightly armored trooper, this is
not for you. If you want armored troopers who are cheap and look okay on the
table, it'll probably work.

Repeatedly, I hear the same comments about Irregular, often either lofty
praise or scathing insult, but, taken as a whole, captured below:

'Irregular Miniatures prices are just about the most competitive around.
Individual 25mm foot figures start from 45p, mounted cavalry from 95p. Bulk
pack prices are even cheaper; top bargains are the 24 figure sample pack for
£9.50, or, even better, the battlepack: two opposing forces, and a set of
wargame rules for the appropriate period, for £25. Rules sets are available
from a ridiculous £1.50. Mail order is quick and reliable, with delivery
within a week.

If there’s a catch, frankly, it’s on the quality control side. Irregular
seem to re-use their moulds ‘til the arse is hanging out of them.Â
Some of
the older figures could charitably be described as dog-rough, with
enough
flash and mould-ridging to make another figure hanging off them.
However,  Irregular have an ongoing programme of remodelling their figures.Â
If you stick to the newer figure ranges, or the recently remodelled ones, the
detail is good, and the casting crisp. As far as the older ranges go;
personally, I wouldn’t bother….. you’re looking at a long evening with a
craft knife and a file.'

Certainly explains my experience with various Irregular pieces; so befitting
of their name.

Now, if you look at some modern's on Andy Cowell's site:
http://www.cowell.org/~andy/min/15mm/irr.html
you'll see that they CAN be painted up quite nicely.

I was going to suggest you buy some individual Star Marines from Silver Eagle
Wargames, who are also in CT, though they used to be much closer to me when
they were in KS. However, I'm not sure they have enough
turn-over
to guarantee examples of the most current runs. Now, if you're lucky enough to
be going to Historicon, I see from their site that they will be there, and you
can ask if they can do a bundle deal, after you've had a look at
their current stock. ;->=

With they way the exchange rate has been lately, I'm sorry I haven't sent
money to Jon to cover my commitment of purchase of the pending 15mm
figs...
*sigh*

The_Beast

Doug Evans said quote
**********************************************************
Repeatedly, I hear the same comments about Irregular, often either lofty
praise or scathing insult, but, taken as a whole, captured below:

<SNIP> good summary of IM miniatures

Certainly explains my experience with various Irregular pieces; so befitting
of their name.

Now, if you look at some modern's on Andy Cowell's site:
http://www.cowell.org/~andy/min/15mm/irr.html
you'll see that they CAN be painted up quite nicely.

****************************************************************
If I might add to this, there is something strangely attractive about IM
figures. If you can be bothered to clean them up and persevere with painting,
they seem to make an amazing transformation. My reactions to receiving figures
from them is always the same " oh dear " they look bereft of detail and poorly
moulded. HOWEVER once cleaned up and base coat sprayed they appear to make a
transformation and suddenly you are aware of detail that wasn't apparent
before and they have some nice natural poses. My experience has been mainly
with historical figs. Take a look at my Seleucid army. It's about 60 percent
IM figures and I think they look quite good.

http://www.angelfire.com/games4/bobsgames/selcd15m.htm

note this is a freebie angelfire site. beware of pop ups, For cost and final
appearance and incidentally minor figure variations in most ranges I would
recommend them.

Hope this is of help

If these are your only figures or you will add other figures lines later that
are compliant with their height and bulk then go with these as
kick-start, else look elsewhere...

On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 06:24:13 -0700 (PDT) "Andreas Udby"
> <andreas.udby@hr.com> writes:

On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 09:56:23 -0400 "Laserlight" <laserlight@quixnet.net>
writes:
> I was looking at buying the 100-piece 15mm sci-fi force ("Star

One of several as most of their Sf figures in this scale are 3 to 5 variants
(random basically)

He's bulky looking, with large pads that look like
> thigh armor except it goes to his boot top. Similar pads over the

Right on summary except IIRC mine did not have cape.

> Summary: if you want a showpiece, or a lean, lightly armored trooper,

I would caveat that these 15 mm figures are more like 18 mm figures but that
is a trend in all scales from what I see. The only 15 mm figures I have are
OOP and very noticably smaller in height and very slender comapred to
Irregualr figures. If your other figures are or will be
medilu plus in build and 'large/tall' 15 mm figures these would do.

Gracias,

Irregular figures are generally more animated, a bit larger, and almost have a
comic book style or "heroic" style. This was particularly evident in my Amazon
army, where the ladies are exceptionally well endowed.

> On Mon, 7 Jul 2003, Andreas Udby wrote:

> I was looking at buying the 100-piece 15mm sci-fi force ("Star
Anyone
> have any pictures of IM's sci-fi line, or know where I could find

I've got a platoon of these guys as 15mm Heavy PA, with one or two pics of
them here:

http://wind.prohosting.com/~warbard/sg2gallery.html

Not very close-up, I'm afraid. They're OK figures, fairly chunky but not
badly proportioned, with a fair bit of detail. Not as crisp as GZG's stuff,
but they paint up well and look good on the table. There're a fair number of
varient poses of the basic riflemen.