Critical Mass Games Review

Welcome to my first ever miniature review, which will be a review of the miniatures you can get from Critical Mass Games.  Which will be directly linked to the sort of miniatures used for the Gruntz system so any basing I do will be for that system. But do not forget about their own ruleset on their website

And a huge thank to them for letting me do this to their miniatures.

Lots of bags of goodness Happy bear

An all-sorts mixture of infantry, walkers, tanks, metal and resin.

So what is the format for this review. Well I enlisted the help of my ‘loyal’ Twitter followers as to what they like from a review such as this. What this has meant is that I will be doing a 2-parter for ALL my miniature reviews now and in the future, allow me to explain;

I will be doing shots of each miniature (or group of) as pictures are worth a thousand words apparently, I will also be doing a scale shot of each for those that asked for it. As well as showing what the finished miniatures looked like from the company (studio painted). Then once I have got round to it I will also publish my attempts at painting these miniatures as a second follow-up post, hopefully giving as much detail as I go.

Any other suggestions stick a comment on or harass me on Twitter. So let’s get started.

General observations, the casting is very good in the majority of the miniatures, yes there are the odd ‘smudges’ seen but due to the size of the miniatures it is impressive to have so few and to be honest you have to be really close to notice some of them anyway.

The resin casts are superb not only the little flight stands but also the larger vehicles. Hardly any flash is seen on them and there is hardy any excess resin about!

Overall I think these guys know what they are doing.

First up is the ARC Fleet Grav Bike

A nice one piece model with just the single line of flash (most flash seen on any of the miniatures) but on a miniature this size it is not that much. The level of detail on these kits is amazing having not done a lot of stuff at smaller than 28mm something half the size is impressive.

Like all the skimmer types I have received they come with a resin flight stand which is nice and chunky so no breaking and toppling from these miniatures which is a very nice touch.

Scale

Using my trusty ork for scale.

Finally the studio painted miniature

Overall very good, only some light clean up work needed and some nice details.

Protolene Khanate Predators

First of 2 units I received the doggies are again well done with almost no flash to be seen anywhere. I did have some worries about the faces but I am certain it will not effect the paint job on them. (I could never sculpt that small)

Scale

Again the trusty Ork is now joined by the White mane.

Studio paint job

Sorry when I paint these I will not be doing the claws do I look daft….

Mercenaries

Again great job and like the above doggies hardily any flash to speak of.

This time there is no scale picture here as they are the same size as the other infantry.

Studio job

Protolene Ayame Predator Battlesuit now that is a mouth full.

This is a resin/metal kit what surprised me is the body appeared to be a completely different sort of resin to all the other samples I received (no idea why).  As is the theme across anything from the CMG guys great detail on something so small and hardly any prework needed to get it to a painting stage!

Scale shot

Studio paint job

Praesentia Sentinel Drones I received 3 different drones all with different weapons.

You will notice again decent detail and hardly any clean is needed to get these guys painted.

Scale shot

That Ork gets everywhere.

Studio pint job

Praesentia Guardian Drone first of the bigger kits and it shows some nice lines seen on both the resin and the metal.

I had to do the most clean up on this kit simply because of the ‘nose’ gun needed to fit snuggly in and there was some excess resin in the way, but that is all I can complain about.

The shaped nubs on the metal wings fit very well into the holes on the resin body, while the grove needed for the nose gun was also a very good fit. Well thought out and executed.

I swear I am trying my best to be critical, haha critical…….never mind!

Scale shot

Studio painted

Praesentia Hyperion Drone biggest kit I got my hands on great kit, easy to put together and little work need on the clean up except a nub of resin from the injection site needed snipping off and making flush for the nose gun.

I would have liked the extra rear panels to fit slightly better to the shape of the hull but a little warm water would have sorted that out no problem.

Scale shot

Studio painted

Conclusions – So that was my first miniature review and you may have noticed I struggle at points to say anything and is because CMG did such a good job and made my job that much harder.

What can you say when they have done a good job across their range both in metal and resin…

Well simply you want 15mm sci-fi at some very nice prices than the guys at CMG are ready and waiting