Today we will take a closer look at the Wargames Atlantic Death Fields Male and Female Cannon Fodder kits! These 28mm hard-plastic multi-part science fiction miniatures are part of the extensive and still expanding Death Fields miniature range. These cool miniatures are pretty generic and therefor extremely useful for all sorts of purposes, these can be assemble as soldiers, civilians, scientists, prisoners, explorers, settlers, starship crewmembers and much more. To be honest the possibilities are as endless as your own imagination especially when combined with the digital set but later more on that. So let's take a closer look at these new figures.
About the Death Fields universe: Death Fields: The Greatest Sport is War. For thousands of years, advanced alien civilizations have visited the Earth for one purpose: to steal their bravest warriors. For centuries, the cream of Earth's soldiers have been taken against their will to fight, die, and be reborn in arenas throughout the galaxy.
The Game Guilds provide some of the most watched sport in the known universe with matches broadcast in thousands of systems. A perennial favorite of sports fans everywhere are the humans - a primitive race from the far edge of the galaxy. Over the millennia, the finest warriors of that backwater planet have been brought to the arenas to fight each other and a host of other sentient species and deadly creatures.
Even now, thousands of years since abductions began, Recruiters still acquire the best of Human space's warriors for the games. The humans go on in their tiny light-years bubble of space attacking each others colony worlds, believing themselves the most advanced race in the universe while the rest of the galaxy watches their immortal ancestors fight and die in the Death Fields... The Death Fields will be a constantly expanding range building toward a future game release once we have enough plastic sets and factions.
The Cannon Fodder (Male & Female)
"These are the dregs of the Death Fields sport: the washouts, the mental cases, the warriors who just can't cut it or the teams whose strategy, training, or cunning have fallen behind new, younger franchises... These are also the one final chance for an owner to profit. Cobbled together into a horde and given basic weaponry, the typical Cannon Fodder bout is an ugly display of sheer numbers thrown at a standard roster team. Defeat is an almost foregone conclusion, but not always, and audiences often root for these men, women, and beings sent to fight to a final, Real Death."
These science fiction Death Fields model kits contain enough hard-plastic components to create 30 male cannon fodder figures while the female cannon fodder model kit contains enough parts to create 24 miniatures. As with all science fiction miniatures by Wargames Atlantic these are scaled heroic 28mm. Note that the initial male cannon fodder kit was already released somewhere in August 2021 while the much more recently female cannon fodder kit was released in July 2022, looks like time really flies! As both sets have different sprues and overall content, this review will be further divided in two to show the similarities and differences between both model kits.
The miniatures are supplied in a nicely illustrated box with artwork by Mark Stacey and pictures of the painted miniatures by Matthew Leahy which are a great painting reference. The miniatures were digitally sculpted by Thieu Duong and are tooled and manufactured in United States of America.
The Male Cannon Fodder
So let's start with the first released set containing the male cannon fodder, as mentionned before this model kit contains enough parts to assemble 30 multi-part plastic miniatures representing poorly equipped or low-tech soldiers, convicts, colonists or other roles. This boxed set contains 6 body sprues and 5 weapon sprues giving you plenty of equipment and weapon options for your miniatures.
As you can see the body sprue contains five male bodies in numerous dynamic poses all dressed in loose-fitting coveralls or jumpsuits. These comfortable one-piece garments are a great option as they are quite generic and can cover both military and civilian clothing. Next to this the body sprue also contains most of the heads including heads with helmets, kepis or caps and bald heads with explosive or tracking collars more suited for convicts. Each of these body sprues contains five of the above mentionned heads so plenty of spare heads too for other projects.
The second type of sprues included are the weapon sprues of which five are included. As you can probably guess from the name these sprues contain all the cool weapons and equipment for your miniatures. As you can see in the picture, these contain six standard rifles equipped with bayonets, one heavy plasma weapon and one pistol or flare gun. Next to this the sprue also contains ammo magazines, pouches, bag packs, scopes, chains and loose rifles. As you can see these are mostly low-tech items with the exception of the plasma weapon so very suitable for both poorly equipped or low-tech military or civilians. The sprue also contains five cool heads with breathing helmets suitable for all sorts of purposes such as for space, bio hazard environments or deep sea exploration.
The Female Cannon Fodder
The newer female cannon fodder model kits contains enough parts to assemble 24 multi-part plastic miniatures representing poorly equipped or low-tech soldiers, convicts, colonists or other roles. This boxed set contains only 4 identical sprues but these are significantly larger than the male sprues. These larger sprues combine both the bodies and weapons on one larger sprue as you will see in the pictures.
These larger sprues contain 6 female bodies in different poses including a rather odd kneeling pose. The weapons included are mostly the same as on the male sprues but in different quanities, the standard rifle with bayonet is included 8 times while the sprue also includes a heavy weapon. Note that this heavy weapons seems to be of another type than the one included on the male sprues. The number of heads included is huge with all similar types of the male sprue included but in larger quanitities. Next to this the sprues also include lots of interesting bits and pieces such as ropes, bagpacks, pistols, bionic arms, knives, pouches, scopes, etc. Pretty decent amount of kit and very usable for all sorts of settings.
Assembling your Male and Female Cannon Fodder
The miniature assembly is quite straight-forward first of all I clipped and cleaned all the parts from the sprue and kept them in small part piles sorted by weapons, heads, bodies etc. Then I took the bodies and worked my way through the other parts by first testing different combinations before finally glueing (revell plastic glue) them into place. The parts between the male and female sets look mostly interchangeable which is great to add more different poses and combinations. As you can see plenty of cool types can be created and if you need even more different tools you can also 3D print your own extra tools, heads and bodies by buying the very useful Cannon Fodder Civilian Conversions Kit at Wargames Atlantic Digital.
The Scale Comparison
Below you can find some pictures of the Cannon Fodder miniatures alongside miniatures of other companies to give you an idea of the size of these new plastic science fiction Wargames Atlantic models. As you can see these Wargames Atlantic miniatures are scaled heroic 28mm.
The Conclusion
These two Death Fields Cannon Fodder sets are great for numerous settings, ideas and because they are so generic they can easily be used for both military and civilian purposes. So if you're looking to field some low -tech colonial militia, a civilian exploration team, a deep sea exploration team, a starship crew or just some planetary colonists these are the sets for you. Really like both these kits, they are very useful and a nice addition to the science fiction miniature market.
The quality and price of these miniatures is excellent, with a boxed set containing either 24 or 30 multi-part cannon fodder miniatures. These boxed sets are retailing for €32.69 or equivalent in other currencies at the time of publication with further discounts for larger amounts of boxed sets. You can buy these very useful miniatures now directly from Wargames Atlantic or from other distributors and retailers worldwide. Pictures of the painted miniatures below were taken from Wargames Atlantic.
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Disclaimer - We received these miniatures from Wargames Atlantic for reviewing purposes. Please note that this doesn't influence our review as we always strive to supply you with our own independent and honest opinion about the wargame products reviewed.
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