Federation Marine AIFVs

I recently placed an order with CMG for three of their mercenary Bastion AFV's.  The Traveller also ordered a platoon of Protolene scouts, his first miniatures purchase.  As soon as we can get those based we'll be in a position to throw down some Gruntz.

The three Bastions will support my Federation Marine Corps infantry, serving as one platoon of a Light Armored Recon company.  More details on that later.

Bastion Grav AIFV with canon and heavy machine gun.

These are new releases from CMG and are much less melted looking than their older vehicles, which all have roundy edges and sort of look like they were left out in the sun.  These are also resin, which is new and different.  I had planned on different troop carriers for my Marines but since these had just come out and CMG was having a big sale, I grabbed the platoon deal.

The hull.  The same hull is used on the new light tank as well.

The turrets come with a canon and either a heavy machine gun or missile launcher for the other side.  Each turret is four pieces of white metal, while the hull is a single piece.  The base glues to the bottom of the hull and is much nicer than the older bases.

Turret with commander, sold separately.

I had picked up a pack of eight vehicle commanders with a previous order so I glued one onto one of the Bastions.  This vehicle can serve as a command vehicle if needed.  Each AIFV (Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle) will hold one Gruntz squad of eight models; six riflemen and two squad attachments.

The turret with everything visible.

These are very clean casts with absolutely no air bubbles anywhere.  There were a few mold lines on the turret pieces.  The hulls were ready to go out of the box while the base needed a tiny bit of filing.  Their design style is not anything spectacular or stand out, but they are good, solid troop carriers which would be appropriate for many different armies.  They also come in tracked versions.

These are really great kits and I highly recommend them.  I'll be picking up at least one more to act as the Company command vehicle.  The tank version uses the same hull but with a different turret.  It will make a great light tank, so four of those will be incoming soon.  If CMG and Rebel keep making all these great models I'll never get around to checking out Khurasan and ZombieSmith.

It's not a bad problem to have, really.