@FatherKnowsBest Yes, they are. @Modock I wouldn't be so sure. Mowang should be wider and more armoured if you compare it to profile design. I'd suspect something more S2 so either Hulang or maybe new Shang Ji.
My bet is on Shang Ji 3-men (Spit, CombiLFT, HRL) with their pet Tinbot. The bulk is too small for mowang, and too muscular for Zhencha. Wouldn't mind a Hulang though..
Daoying and the Khwarijs get the high marks from me. Excellent design and poses. Khwarjis show you can do some dynamic poses even with a box set (reminds me of the old Myrm box). Yadu and Echo Bravo are meh. I love their designs but they're stiff and boring (especially the Yadu). The Wild Parrot doesn't look anything like its namesake but it keeps with PanO esthetics and how it's supposed to be the EBs backpack when he drops is a wonderful little touch. Raoul gets the low mark. Talk about a big miss. Maybe some track suit paint jobs or the hilarious pikachu onesie will be better then his pajama look he has going on with the official paint scheme.
I like the Yadu a lot, I'm quite surprised at the negative reaction. It's only really Raoul I don't like this month. The Daoying looks fantastic, much better than the starter one (which I didn't mind, but was a bit disappointed with after the fantastic dossier).
The Yadu problem is simply the poses. You compare those to the Yadu in O:CF and its clear. The O:CF Yadu is dynamic and a pose I've never seen before. From memory, there's some 'motion' in her cloth implying she's turnign around quickly. She's in the middle of some action. She means business. Awesome. Cept the heels which will always be stupid. This is exactly what makes the Khawraj box look amazing. They're int he middle of some action. They're not standing around for a magazine shoot. Comparitively, the Yadu box is... fine. They are visibly Yadu and that's about it. The HMG looks bored. The hacker is... a hacker lazily holding onto his weapon. The combi might as well be fusilier angus for all I know. Generic dude pointing gun in plastic army man stance. The Proxy mk 5 sharing a pose with the Yadu HRL is also interesting because somehow, between the wide leg stance and impressive bulk, the proxy looks somewhat intimidating whereas the Yadu looks like she's going for a casual stroll while lazily spraying SMG fire into the distance. Which again, could have been a cool image about how calm and desensitised 'robot-people' are in their approach to combat but... somehow just comes across a bit uninspired. The problem is simply that they're merely 'OK I guess'. The group collectively seem like that they are mildly interested tourists. Compared to the the universallly acclaimed release this month: These guys look like they're in the middle of a firefight right now. They're excited and it makes me excited to own them and suicide them to AROs because I'm actually an inept player :P Honestly, a bit more motion in the cloths of the Yadu and they'd already look more exciting. It'd look like they were actually moving around instead of posing for Aleph Hotties Monthly.
Yeah, I get peoples complaints about the poses, I just didn't really think about it and was a bit surprised with the reaction. They aren't especially flashy poses but I think the Yadu design is cool enough that I'm personally happy with them. The Yadu in Coldfront is fantastic, and I expected the box to be posed more ordinarily than that one is.
Snipershot looks like a Yu Jibg big boy. It's got as many synth-muscles between the shoulder plate, back plate and biceps plate as the Red Veil Zuyong has around his abs. Additionally, the rucksack/battery pack/generator looks a bit underdimensioned for an S2 HI when compared to the other visible armour plates. That said, the Red Veil Zuyong has an enormous chest (too much benchpress training, clearly) I don't know about "universally acclaimed Khawarij". The coats annoy me and remind me of the cloth physics from my Eldar. They're wavy and showy just to be wavy and showy, it's like from a super hero satire movie where the super hero arrives on scene with an entire entourage of make up artists and industrial fans in order to look exactly right for the promotional photography. It took those Khawarij the entire battle to set up that perfect action pose. IA starter contains the sniper Daoying. I'd have preferred it to be the other way around simply because I'd want two snipers before two hackers, but itenit like a very popular Daoying loadout isn't in the starter.
I'll admit there's a old metal GW quality with the excessive robe flapping (the HRL reminds me a little of my old sisters of battle and their capes moulded to their legs). But I'd still rather have something exciting like that rather than modern adaptations of the static toy soldier pose any day.
What a surprise, we put profile most people don't really want in starter, then right after it, we release profile everyone wants in blister...go wonder...Though completely makes sense from firm and profit view.
That Yadu is fine, but not awesome; back in the days of hand-sculpted models we had really dynamic poses:
I prefer the Yadu to that Custodier. Not quite as dynamic but looks more natural. The Custodier is a touch too much, in my opinion.
I miss those old minis. Some poses were a bit silly, some were over the top but on the other hand it was like reading manga or watching wuxia movies. After 3D revolution, we got far superior sculpts and the scale is right (most of the time) but I find many of the new sculpts to be beatiful but "soulless".
The overcoats on the Scots Guards, especially the 2xSMG one... Such simple means and such a great execution of motion.
I never had a problem telling YJ shottie from combi (shottie has two barrels, combi has one), but I can understand the desire to have less potential confusion.
I love the new YJ BS, because it looks so raw and brutal. @Benkei The Daoying along with every IA release has an outstanding paint job. Best painted started imho. But the Raoul really looks a bit weaker when comparing the paint jobs. Giraldez has some dudes painting with him and even if they are not as good as Giraldez, because he is top notch, I think the studio paint jobs are one of the best you can find.
It's the magazine shape that's distinctive (shotgun is a drum), but it can be hard to see the difference when the magazine is stuck in the model's armpit. Using only the double barrels gets confusing when you consider that there's troops with Combi+flamer or combi+shotty
