Bits Review: A Call to Arms – Rating the Best Bits
Today we are going to look at a bunch of bits companies and decide who really makes the best arms!
Normally I just review various bits I get and try to show people whats out there and how it is usable to the average 40k player. I decided to do something different this time around. Instead of looking at a range of bits from a single company I thought it would be nice to look at a single bits type across several companies to see how they compare.
For the first on the comparison article I wanted to look at arms compatible with Imperial Guard. Arms have been sorely lacking in the bits department for quite a while. Its only recently that we have been able to get more than 1-2 alternatives. The nice thing about these arms is that most are designed to fit a Cadian torso so they are cross compatible. This makes it great for the converter as we can mix and match bits from many different companies without too much fear of them not fitting.
The companies that I am aware of that are currently selling Cadian scale arms in bits are Maxmini, Anvil, Victoria Lamb, Blight Wheel and Forge World. I included Forge World because they have a couple of sets of arms that can be used with the Cadians to make renegade guard. I thought it would be see how they stack up to the competition.
1. Maxmini – Maxmini has just released their Greatcoat Arms. They come in a set of 10 pairs for $7.91. I have some of these and the detail is very nice. I’ve test fitted them to FW Renegade Militia and Maxmini Greatcoat and armored torsos; the fit was good on all accounts.
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| Greatcoat Arms |
2. Anvil Industries – Anvil has a few different arm options. Two of which are compatible with Cadian scale figures. The first one is a set of Bionic Arms – Small. The arms come in several pieces so you can position them anyway you choose. This also makes it a bit difficult to assemble since there are so many pieces. You get 5 pairs of bionic arms for $4.57. The second set of arms are Bare Rifle Arms. You get 5 par of arms posed to hold a rifle for $3.87.
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| Bionic Arms – Small |
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| Bare Rifle Arms |
3. Victoria Lamb Miniatures – Victoria has a wide selection of arms to choose from. One of my personal favorites is the new resin Penal Legion arms. With the Penal Legion arms you get 11 pair for $10.50. Some others that I really like are the Trench Raider arms (6pair for $6.50) and Shotgun arms (5 pair for $4.30). The only downside for Victoria Lamb arms is that they are almost all single pieces which makes converting them a bit more difficult. If you want a special weapon to match the rest of the squad you have to do some cutting. It would be nice if they made some arms in each style that were not holding a weapon so that you could use your own. They do offer a few ‘special weapon options but not in every arm style.
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| VL Penal Legion Arms |
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| VL Shotgun Arms |
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| Trench Raider Arms |
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| Victrian Rifle Arms |
4. Blight Wheel Miniatures – Blight Wheel has a couple of sets of arms for Cadian scale figures. The first is a set of arms from their Britannic faction; Britain Arms 01. The Britain arms work out to be 5 pairs for $8.34. The other sets are the Grants Spectres arms, these are also 5 for $8.34. In the Grants Spectres range they also offer a set of arms with rocket launchers, these are 3 pair for $5.77
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| Britain Arms |
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| Grants Spectres Arms |
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| Grants Spectres with Rockets |
5. Forgeworld – Last but by no means least are the FW arms. FW offers two different sets of arms for the Cadian scale figures. These are from their Chaos Renegade Militia range. The first set is a Renegade Militia Weapon Arms. This set comes with a nice mix of weapons including auto guns, auto pistols, close combat blades, melta gun, plasma gun and a voc caster torso. In this set you get 9.5 pair of arms, the half is because the vox caster only needs one arm, priced is $19.38 for the set. The second set is the Renegade Militia Icons and Assault Weapons. This set is less useful for the average converter but is nice if you are building a renegade force. It comes with a variety of items including Lasgun, Autogun, Auto Pistols, Plasma pistol, Laspistol, Shotgun, close combat arms, mutilated torso, grenades, Skulls, Molotov Cocktail, Banner and Icons. The price for this set is $16.40.
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| Renegade Militia Weapon Arms |
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| Renegade Militia Icons and Assault Weapons |
So how do the various companies and sets stack up? I broke the sets down by the number of pairs of arms you get and cost.
Anvil has the cheapest arms; the Bare Rifle Arms. This probably has to do with the fact that they don’t come with any weapons. But for people who want to do lots of converting this is a good thing as it allows you the option to arm them however you please. Maxmini’s Greatcoat Arms were second only by 2 cents per pair. They also do not have any weapons which lends to their lower price and nigher convertibility. Victoria Lambs arms were not far off from Anvil and Maxmini and hers come with weapons which could be a good thing to some people. They also have fantastic detail. Blight Wheel came out pretty expensive and don’t really stand out in look or quality to me. Forge World is, of course, the most expensive costing about twice as much as other similar arms. The arms are very nice and have a good ragtag feel to them so if this is what your after they are great if you can afford them.
I personally have all the arms listed here except for the Anvil Bare Rifle Arms and the Blight Wheel Britain Arms. As far as quality goes they are all pretty close. I might give a slight edge to Victoria Lamb’s new resin Penal Legion arms because they are really nice looking. The Maxmini Greatcoat arms are really nice too though, and so easy to convert. I hope this was informative and if there is interested I can do other similar comparisons are other bits types. I buy far too many bits so I have fair knowledge about the different aftermarket vendors out there.
Good luck and keep on converting.
