Dust Tactics: Initial Impressions

So my Dust Tactics game arrived today.  This is a game that I've had on my horizon for a while, but could never justify buying.  However, I came into some extra cash (legally, of course) and my first thought was to pick up this game.  I really like the models that I've seen on the official Fantasy Flight site and from various reviews in blogs and videos.  So regardless of whether I can find someone to play with me, I want to own the models!

You can find all sorts of "unboxing" videos on the web.  So I won't bother to go into it too much.  There's an impressive amount of stuff.  Here's what I pulled out of the box.  I left the picture fairly big.  So if you click on it you should be able to get a good view of what's included.

I haven't looked over the rules yet, as I was too involved with the gorgeous figures!  (By the way, you can download the rules PDF for free from the FF website here.)  It took about an hour to unbag and assemble all the models.  But I had some company while doing that menial task.

Each of the models is primed.  You can feel the primer on the models, which is good.  I was surprised to find that not only each model was completely different from any other, but also that each model can be articulated differently.  The heads and torsos move on all the figures.  For the most part, this is cool.  But some figures look a tad goofy, nothing I can't overlook.

The big walkers are what really sold me on the game.  If you can take a Sherman tank and a Panzer tank and convert them into walkers, well, sign me up for that.  I found these models look really good in person and have lots of moving parts.  However, I was disappointed that they seemed somewhat fragile.  A part of the German walker snapped while I was pushing in an arm, and I wasn't using too much force.  Fortunately, it is not a big deal.  Also the machine gun attachments on the German walkers don't fit too well and fall off a lot.  Those will have to be glued in place. 

I tried to take some close up pictures of the individual soldiers, but the flash ruined everything.  So I won't bother posting those.  Trust me when I say the detail level is excellent.  Since I plan to paint these models, I looked carefully at them.  There were some mold lines, but nothing major and no plastic flash.  I expect sanding the mold lines will remove the primer.  So I'll have to live with it.

Finally I wanted to show how these figures stack up to other 25/28mm models.  Here's a U.S. model under guard by two Lord of the Rings Mahud.  (The flash makes the Mahud look crap-tastic.  But just wanted to show scale here.)  The Dust Tactics models are slightly larger than a LotR figure, as you can see from the picture below.

So that's it.  I excited to learn this game, try it out, and paint these awesome figures!