I like the hulking look of the Janisaries. They look like their story. However, I can understand how you have a particular feel about them. But in this case, I agree that PanO HI would look most out of place. Story-wise, Nomad Mobile Brigada already work for QK. It’s not much of stretch to see them make up the whole team as Jannisaries rather than the usual AVA1. After MB I’d say Zuyong who work for Dashat. Either of those two would allow for you to play Dashat or QK.
Many people are saying these guys look utilitarian rather than pretty. That assessment is apt in the since that they are not pretty. However, the definition of utilitarian is: "designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive." And sadly, these guys do not look useful or practical. Firstly, their armour plates are full of conical holes at the front: in the head, thighs and shoulders. Any ballistic shot to these areas will ricochet straight into the centre of the target as would any sharp tipped blade, rather than glancing off the armour safely. Secondly the armour is very spindly looking in the legs and arms, which hardly evokes the look of heavy infantry plate armour being useful to protect the wearer from blows. Thirdly, they have rather bulky backs but only narrow waists protected by cloth armour, which makes them look top heavy, ungainly and weak in the middle. Finally, their official paint scheme has a red strip in the centre of the chest and lights shining out of every hole, which pretty much puts a bullseye on every vulnerable and vital part of the wearer. As I see it there is really nothing utilitarian about their design at all. Needles to say that I can certainly imagine nano materials that negate the need for bulk and can see that utility is not the goal of HI for any faction above aesthetic design. However, the visual cues on Janissaries do not adequately convey the HI troop category nor the fluff of elitism that these troops deserve. At the end of the day I hope they get a re-sculpt deserving of their status. If the Hortlak Janissary is any indication of the future design then there maybe hope for these guys to come.
I barely play Ramah, and when I do I avoid to use Jannissaires because of the minis. I neither like the Assawira miniature, I can live with one meh miniature, but not with a core of them. And to be honest, after seeing the new Hassassin, I do not think that CB is going to resculpt anything else for Haqqislam.
Sure, the HMG sculpt is way too thin, but the box set is actually fine for bulk in the joints and waist. Perhaps not ideal, but also not too bad. They are also very tall, which I like for the unit, and this makes them comparatively less thin than they might appear. I'll post a pic below as a size comparison to support this point. The indentations do look like vulnerabilities, but overall the sculpts still manage to sell a more utilitarian look than say, the female Orc troop stiletto high heels, or the massive tubing on many new Morat sculpts or on the Kriza, and there are undoubtedly many more examples of impractical design throughout each faction which hold up worse than these details. Overall, I'm OK with these choices, but I would rather see stiletto heels phased out than Janissaries re sculpted because of these perceived impracticalities. I concede that the indents are far from ideal for practice purposes, but imo the aesthetic is cool, and provides character and differentiation in the context of CB having to design so many HI and myriad other sculpts and keep them looking as unique as possible. The Janissaries give off a great 'no-nonsense' vibe, and as many have mentioned in the past, the female sculpt is more believable than many others, not least because she actually has boots rather than stiletto heels, which is a massive win for me. The cloth section is there to cover the more vulnerable articulated torso sections of the armour, and indicates intelligent, value added design, rather than the opposite. There is no way that the suits upper section is not connected to the lower half via fibre bundle musculature or powered cables, etc, otherwise the suit would fail to function as a true HI. Imagine trying to ambulate all that armour without a fibre bundle exo fully supporting the wearer and connecting the core to the legs, spine, shoulders, etc, and this technology could easily be streamlined, giving a thinner appearance. Properly throwing a punch drives power up from the toes all the way to the fist, as another example of why the suit must have a fully connected synthetic musculature, and I therefore refuse to imagine that the entire torso of these HI is just cloth. Regardless of what anyone says, I will continue to imagine there being some type of powered musculature underneath, with the cloth augmenting the armours protective function in a practical and inexpensive way, while also retaining flexibility. And I don't think the torso appears too thin to support this idea.
