Product Review: Kromlech Space Legionary Bionic Legs

For a long time I have admired Kromlechs work and have often thought about getting some of their conversion bits. Recently the owner of my FLGS announced that he was taking an order for Kromlech (amongst others) and if anyone wanted anything then to let him know. Like an excited school boy, I was bouncing up and down shouting "oooh oooh me me, I do". I'm a lazy bugger by nature but if someone is going to do the ordering, tracking and picking up parcel part for me while giving me a slight discount, then I am all for it.

I ordered some bionic legs for some veteran Spacemarines that I wanted to paint up for a modern Killteam game. Naturally being veterans, I imagined that they would have had quite a few bits blown off by now so mixing them in with the Forgeworld Iron Hands kit left them half way to being Necron.
Links below:
http://bitsofwar.com/home/83-space-legionary-bionic-kneeling-legs.html
http://bitsofwar.com/home/79-space-legionary-bionic-legs-set2.html

The parts, shipped from Poland and arrived with remarkable speed. Notably they turned up  several days before a Forgeworld order, made at the same time, despite the extra distance.

Made of resin, I couldn't feel a hint of release agent and the quality was incredible. There was no mold slippage at all, the detail was crisp and perfect throughout. They fit seamlessly with the Forgeworld parts I used them with, taking the appearance of a quite old mark of power armor (MK 2 I guess?). Size wise, I couldn't work out if they are larger than traditional power armored legs or if they just avoided the full nappy stance GW's sculptors seem to adopt. Either way, they stand notably taller than plastic power armored legs.

For me the size is not an issue. I have long held the belief that Spacemarines are too small when compared with other miniatures in the same line so I embraced the idea. Adding spacers at the marines waist and sculpted an armored section to cover the gap stretched them further and helped resolve the issue of a short torso. The five that have been built so far now tower over their plastic brethren and aliens alike, yet are still smaller than terminators. In my opinion they fit in perfectly and more accurately reflect an Astartes true stature.

Paint went on them very nicely, the details are well laid out and not over bearing, they would even look good with a quick and dirty drybrush. Though I must admit the very idea of it makes me shudder!

I cannot recommend Kromlech enough and will be ordering from them again soon, they just did everything right. Their range is expanding and they have some charming Ork models that would look great on a shelf in my house somewhere...

The idea for the marines I used the parts on started off with them being Iron Hands, then I decided black was boring and a nice metal affect would be better. Then for some reason a gold shoulder trim was added and Bam, they look like very clean (or Pre-heresy) Iron Warriors. Not my intention but I'm so happy with the result repainting them is unlikely to happen.

The fate of the remaining five marines I have parts to build hangs in the balance. Should they also be these proto-Iron Warriors or should they just be painted as a different legion all together? The idea of doing some dark angels painted up with the old Rogue Trader markings is very tempting.....