Third party miniatures New Jungle Fighters from Raging Heroes

[Cenobite Terminator]

These are some amazing minis!

[Cleon]

I did have a little smirk to myself about all of the "variant without 'thing' only available at high tiers" on the characters. Normally paying more gets you extra bits, not naff bits removed....

[MechaMan]

Thank God the Departmento Munitorum has kept these “jungle fighters” supplied with make up! 
 

I’ll definitely be waiting for the inevitable Catachan refresh from GW. The recent models and art have me very excited. 
 

[Jukkiz]

my only gripe with recent plasmagun hype with GW is that everything/one has bionic hand with it.

[MechaMan]

1 minute ago, Jukkiz said:

my only gripe with recent plasmagun hype with GW is that everything/one has bionic hand with it.

It’s that bloody Gets Hot! Rule. They’ve clearly been rolling ones. 

[phandaal]

13 minutes ago, MechaMan said:

 

If you are a Catachan and you are not showing off your bod, what are you even doing? Are long-sleeved shirts even legal on Catachan?

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Everyone making a stink about the "Bulldog" APC is forgetting the RH has a very, very simple defense of that particular metal box.  It's not modeled after the Rhino APC which is obviously copyrighted.  It's modeled after the M113 APC! 

[Evil Eye]

1 hour ago, Iron Father Ferrum said:

Everyone making a stink about the "Bulldog" APC is forgetting the RH has a very, very simple defense of that particular metal box.  It's not modeled after the Rhino APC which is obviously copyrighted.  It's modeled after the M113 APC! 

I mean, you're not wrong!

 

Honestly the Bulldog is the main thing that interests me from this. The infantry are a bit too dynamic/"LOOK AT MY COOL POSE" for my liking but that APC would be VERY nice as the basis for a rare alternate pattern of Rhino.

[TheArtilleryman]

I’m not sure why Lensoven’s original comment was hidden. I can’t remember everything that was in it so forgive me if there was something offensive in there, but I agree with his general sentiment towards the miniatures.

I think some of these sculpts are too far sexualised. Most are pretty cool looking but the scantily clad ones just look silly.

 

The GW Catachans posted above look far more convincing as strong, physically fit women from a death world that could beat the :cuss out of you, rather than busty carry-on style pin-ups.

 

I’m not keen on witch elves or wyches either for similar reasons, but even they are marginally less “obvious” than these sculpts.

[Northern Walker]

I think there's a happy medium to be had between somewhat androgynous figures at one end, and skimpy outfit pinups at the other. There's always going to be a place in the market for the latter - exaggerated female figures (sometimes tongue in cheek) has been prevalent within science fiction for a long time.

 

 

[Bung]

5 hours ago, Cleon said:

I did have a little smirk to myself about all of the "variant without 'thing' only available at high tiers" on the characters. Normally paying more gets you extra bits, not naff bits removed....

 

The Raging Heroes Files normaly come as one piece to print, not cut into pieces like a Builder

 

For more the expansive tier you get the Squad Models, the horse etc. without Rider is the extra model for your own conversions.

You dont need to remove the rider in a CAD programm yourself.

Edited February 3 by Bung

[Naryn]

I'd be curious to see the sculpts in-person and unpainted. I wonder how much of the Lara Croft face look is tied to the coloration they've put on them in the renders.

[Indy Techwisp]

2 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

I’m not sure why Lensoven’s original comment was hidden. I can’t remember everything that was in it so forgive me if there was something offensive in there, but I agree with his general sentiment towards the miniatures.

I think some of these sculpts are too far sexualised. Most are pretty cool looking but the scantily clad ones just look silly.

 

The GW Catachans posted above look far more convincing as strong, physically fit women from a death world that could beat the :cuss out of you, rather than busty carry-on style pin-ups.

 

I’m not keen on witch elves or wyches either for similar reasons, but even they are marginally less “obvious” than these sculpts.

 

I think that comment may have been opposing the style of the GW Catachans in the art, in favour of the Raging Heroes miniatures, but I'm not certain.

 

IMO if GW were to make new Catachans that included female soldiers in the kit, they really need to be more like the official art depictions of them (like the miniature shown above) than the Guard Equivalent of Kingdom Death's Pin-Up minis.

[Evil Eye]

 

]On the whole cheesecake debate, I will say I find pearl-clutching about sexy miniatures a bit silly given the nature of 40K, and what we as hobbyists are perfectly OK with versus what is considered controversial. Apparently flayed skins and severed heads are fine to coat a model in, but a hint of cleavage is somehow too far.

 

For the record, I don't particularly care for RH's attempts at cheesecake, mostly because I just don't find the minis themselves particularly aesthetically pleasing (in any regard). They're usually far too visually noisy and overly dramatic in their pose and presentation, and IMO don't work especially well for gaming or display. Compare those to the Diaznettes, which have (often more than two!) breasts on full show but are more restrained with detail and posing.

 

If we're talking REALLY bad cheesecake miniatures (avoiding low-hanging fruit like the ancient Dark Eldar slaves), I point to a great deal of Wargame Exclusive's output, which beat GW's "barely looks female" faces by barely looking human.

[TheArtilleryman]

1 hour ago, Evil Eye said:

On the whole cheesecake debate, I will say I find pearl-clutching about sexy miniatures a bit silly given the nature of 40K, and what we as hobbyists are perfectly OK with versus what is considered controversial. Apparently flayed skins and severed heads are fine to coat a model in, but a hint of cleavage is somehow too far.

I think the point is that even in a high fantasy/sci-fi setting, you can still have an element of realism and believability, and generally in spite of the incredible things that can happen, we do have this in 40K. My view is less about “pearl-clutching,” and more about immersion. Severed heads and the like are there because of the extreme violence and depravity of the characters represented. Half-naked female soldiers with certain over-enhanced attributes don’t serve any logical purpose in warfare and are only there to cheapen the female form. Nobody looking like that would survive on a death world, whereas the soldiers above look like they could.

 

Same reason I can’t take things like the insanely over-sized swords in JRPGs seriously - they’d be impossible to use in battle so they break the immersion.

Edited February 3 by TheArtilleryman

[MechaMan]

1 hour ago, Evil Eye said:

 

]On the whole cheesecake debate, I will say I find pearl-clutching about sexy miniatures a bit silly given the nature of 40K, and what we as hobbyists are perfectly OK with versus what is considered controversial.

Pearl clutching suggests it’s a matter of ethics rather than embarrassment. Politics aside, some people just find sexualising plastic soldiers painfully cringeworthy. 

[Marshal Valkenhayn]

Muscles bulging. Chests bulging. Veins BULGING. We all got to bulge.

 

But more seriously, I've always been of the mind that campy over the top sexy models have their place just like everything else. You can take a male model built like a gorilla and pretty the face up with some makeup and call it a woman for laughs, or you can find some more fit looking female models and play it serious. It's just important the options for everyone make it to the market. Getting down on someone because they like a certain style of model in their army just isn't worth the effort. 

 

It's always been the lore stuff that bothered me, not how people actually chose to represent their models on the table. Though I tend toward more macho muscle man armies, if I were to do fantasy vikings I'd do a unit of shield maidens for sure, and I'd want them in full armor but still fierce and curvy, not just head swaps of the guys. But I like the beautiful as much as the brutal.

[TheArtilleryman]

Oh yeah I’m not getting down on anyone, just giving my view on it and anyone who wants to is entirely entitled to have a different view. 

[Antarius]

On 2/3/2025 at 11:00 PM, MechaMan said:

Pearl clutching suggests it’s a matter of ethics rather than embarrassment. Politics aside, some people just find sexualising plastic soldiers painfully cringeworthy. 

Exactly. Making it about moralistic pearl-clutching is just a dodge. People don’t like it because they’re puritans, people just find it cringey. As always people are free to like/dislike what they want, so it seems a bit silly to pretend there’s a moral panic going on.

Edited February 5 by Antarius

[Evil Eye]

I may have worded that poorly, to be fair; I wasn't suggesting the critiques here were of "Won't someone think of the [X]!" (though such moral bandwagoning does exist in our sphere, and it is very annoying) but nonetheless, cringing at boobs but being fine with eye-watering gore does seem a touch...odd, at least to me. Both are aiming for shock value to some degree even if they're going for different flavours of edgy. Like, 40K has always thrived on over-the-top themes and aesthetics as part of its core charm, and I don't think some degree of sex appeal is unreasonable or unwelcome. Certainly it's been present in older sculpts and artwork, and sci-fi and fantasy works have always had some degree of titliation or eroticism worked into them. I just find it kinda funny that people will roll their eyes at, say, a 3P Daemonette sculpt being topless but be perfectly OK with the plastic Fulgrim's flayed crotch. ...Ouch. Just thinking about that hurts, goddamnit.

 

THAT SAID, I do think some of RH's sculpts (mainly their older ones) are a bit cringeworthy myself, though less because they're aiming for sex appeal and more because they fail at everything else (including most importantly being gaming pieces) and ironically enough don't even really accomplish the stated goal; they seem more like what a very technically skilled 13-year-old might create. These not-Catachans actually aren't too bad, though the digital paintjobs definitely aren't helping to sell them.

 

Anyway, I won't drag this subject out any further (though I do think there would be merit in a civilized discussion on the topic in a separate thread) but as a summary to that, I think it's entirely possible to have sexy miniatures without them being cringeworthy to look at or field and I don't think it's any worse or more cringey than stuff like, say, Festus the Leechlord force-feeding an Empire state trooper a batch of plague brew and making his flesh fall off*; it's all in the execution. Something like the 5th edition Lelith Hesperax model is in a way no different from the Malcador Defender, it's just that the area of appeal is badass but sexy female characters (the two are not mutually exclusive) rather than interwar-styled heavy tanks with unusual weapon configurations. If Lelith had breasts the size of a Dreadnought and the Malcador Defender replaced the heavy bolters with battle cannons, I think the result would be the same; the attempt to appeal to rule of cool/sexy/whatever would have been misaimed and overdone, and in doing so undermined the quality of the model.

 

On topic, if for some reason I ever do a small Catachan collection (not impossible, I've always had a soft spot for them in spite of the very dated plastic kit, and to be fair the 2009 command squad is pretty nice) I'm more likely to go for Wargames Atlantic's Space 'Nam kit. I do love me WGA stuff, and they perfectly fit the bill of cool-looking without every model looking like it wants to be a centrepiece.

 

*I like that model by the way, it embodies the horror of Nurgle perfectly.

[phandaal]

1 hour ago, Evil Eye said:

On topic, if for some reason I ever do a small Catachan collection (not impossible, I've always had a soft spot for them in spite of the very dated plastic kit, and to be fair the 2009 command squad is pretty nice) I'm more likely to go for Wargames Atlantic's Space 'Nam kit. I do love me WGA stuff, and they perfectly fit the bill of cool-looking without every model looking like it wants to be a centrepiece.

 

Space Nam has always been my go-to whenever I think about a Catachan army. One day, after the 3001 other things in my backlog...

[OttoVonAwesome]

On 2/2/2025 at 2:05 PM, TheMawr said:

 

I wonder if being downloadable files gives some legal "wiggle room" currently wich makes it harder for GW to pursue ? After looking around I do think they have had some exact things for a while now. I see a literal lord of skulls (without any oppurtunity taken to improve on it.), chaos knights and a landraider, and in contrary to the more human things I dont see how this would fly legally. There is also some eldar vehicles but these step a little further from the source material.

Having been part of the 3d printing community for some time now I can attest that there is no rhyme or reason to who GW serves with cease and desist letters and copystrikes.  Quite often they are bogus and are just hoping the creator doesn't have the money to fight them in court. Very random. Some creators have been left unmolested for years while others especially the smaller ones are hit within weeks.

 

In general though something needs only be a conversion part or 20% different from the source material to be legally kosher. Won't stop thier lawyers from trying to take it down though if they suddenly feel inclined.

[Antarius]

20 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

I may have worded that poorly, to be fair; I wasn't suggesting the critiques here were of "Won't someone think of the [X]!" (though such moral bandwagoning does exist in our sphere, and it is very annoying) but nonetheless, cringing at boobs but being fine with eye-watering gore does seem a touch...odd, at least to me. Both are aiming for shock value to some degree even if they're going for different flavours of edgy. Like, 40K has always thrived on over-the-top themes and aesthetics as part of its core charm, and I don't think some degree of sex appeal is unreasonable or unwelcome. Certainly it's been present in older sculpts and artwork, and sci-fi and fantasy works have always had some degree of titliation or eroticism worked into them. I just find it kinda funny that people will roll their eyes at, say, a 3P Daemonette sculpt being topless but be perfectly OK with the plastic Fulgrim's flayed crotch. ...Ouch. Just thinking about that hurts, goddamnit.

 

THAT SAID, I do think some of RH's sculpts (mainly their older ones) are a bit cringeworthy myself, though less because they're aiming for sex appeal and more because they fail at everything else (including most importantly being gaming pieces) and ironically enough don't even really accomplish the stated goal; they seem more like what a very technically skilled 13-year-old might create. These not-Catachans actually aren't too bad, though the digital paintjobs definitely aren't helping to sell them.

 

Anyway, I won't drag this subject out any further (though I do think there would be merit in a civilized discussion on the topic in a separate thread) but as a summary to that, I think it's entirely possible to have sexy miniatures without them being cringeworthy to look at or field and I don't think it's any worse or more cringey than stuff like, say, Festus the Leechlord force-feeding an Empire state trooper a batch of plague brew and making his flesh fall off*; it's all in the execution. Something like the 5th edition Lelith Hesperax model is in a way no different from the Malcador Defender, it's just that the area of appeal is badass but sexy female characters (the two are not mutually exclusive) rather than interwar-styled heavy tanks with unusual weapon configurations. If Lelith had breasts the size of a Dreadnought and the Malcador Defender replaced the heavy bolters with battle cannons, I think the result would be the same; the attempt to appeal to rule of cool/sexy/whatever would have been misaimed and overdone, and in doing so undermined the quality of the model.

 

On topic, if for some reason I ever do a small Catachan collection (not impossible, I've always had a soft spot for them in spite of the very dated plastic kit, and to be fair the 2009 command squad is pretty nice) I'm more likely to go for Wargames Atlantic's Space 'Nam kit. I do love me WGA stuff, and they perfectly fit the bill of cool-looking without every model looking like it wants to be a centrepiece.

 

*I like that model by the way, it embodies the horror of Nurgle perfectly.

For what it's worth, I appreciate your thoughts and your nuanced take on this. I'd be happy to take part in that discussion, if I'm around when/if you post about it.

When it comes to "sexy" I certainly think there's some "wiggle room" so to speak, partly because of genre conventions, partly because of - for lack of a better word - intent.

I mean, I don't think Witch Elves would be a thing today, if they weren't "grandfathered in" due to being from a time of chain mail bikini artwork being the norm and thus, I don't really mind them. This may sound somewhat contradictory and/or weird, but I think most of our aesthetic and stylistic preferences are based on what we're used to.

As for the intent part, I think e.g. Slaaneshi miniatures are meant to be disturbing, rather than straight up sexy and I think that fits very well with their established concept and the setting as a whole. It's the same reason I think macabre and violent stuff is absolutely fitting for 40k, because that's part and parcel of the setting and the vibe, while pin-up type stuff just feels immersion-breaking to me.

To use a slightly exaggerated example, just for illustrative purposes, I don't get the sense that someone who uses Festus in their army secretly wants to pour acid down people's throats, but I do tend to think someone who goes out of their way to use "sexy" minis get some sort of (hopefully mild) kick out of it. Maybe that's just me, though.

Edited February 6 by Antarius

[Bung]

54 minutes ago, Antarius said:

For what it's worth, I appreciate your thoughts and your nuanced take on this. I'd be happy to take part in that discussion, if I'm around when/if you post about it.

When it comes to "sexy" I certainly think there's some "wiggle room" so to speak, partly because of genre conventions, partly because of - for lack of a better word - intent.

I mean, I don't think Witch Elves would be a thing today, if they weren't "grandfathered in" due to being from a time of chain mail bikini artwork being the norm and thus, I don't really mind them. This may sound somewhat contradictory and/or weird, but I think most of our aesthetic and stylistic preferences are based on what we're used to.

As for the intent part, I think e.g. Slaaneshi miniatures are meant to be disturbing, rather than straight up sexy and I think that fits very well with their established concept and the setting as a whole. It's the same reason I think macabre and violent stuff is absolutely fitting for 40k, because that's part and parcel of the setting and the vibe, while pin-up type stuff just feels immersion-breaking to me.

To use a slightly exaggerated example, just for illustrative purposes, I don't get the sense that someone who uses Festus in their army secretly wants to pour acid down people's throats, but I do tend to think someone who goes out of their way to use "sexy" minis get some sort of (hopefully mild) kick out of it. Maybe that's just me, though.

 

I think you muss the biggest point.

Sex sells.

(I am not talking about the physicall act here)

 

Those Miniatures are in the same Level as Comicbooks, Videogames, Ads, etc.

If you want to sell to male audience including sex boosts Sales regardlwss of product.

Looks at the controversity about the female Main Charakter in Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

You are talking about witch elves but remember when the Juan Diaz Demonettes were released which we're a great Upgrade from the older Metal crab Hand ones.

 

Then cultures are different and some are more prude than others, without going into the political part, looking at the USA ist a good example compared to Europe.

 

 

 

[TheArtilleryman]

2 hours ago, Bung said:

 

I think you muss the biggest point.

Sex sells.

(I am not talking about the physicall act here)

 

Those Miniatures are in the same Level as Comicbooks, Videogames, Ads, etc.

If you want to sell to male audience including sex boosts Sales regardlwss of product.

Looks at the controversity about the female Main Charakter in Horizon Zero Dawn.

 

You are talking about witch elves but remember when the Juan Diaz Demonettes were released which we're a great Upgrade from the older Metal crab Hand ones.

 

Then cultures are different and some are more prude than others, without going into the political part, looking at the USA ist a good example compared to Europe.

 

 

 

Not to everyone lol… but I get your point. I know this kind of stuff appeals to some, but for others of us it’s a big switch off. Each to their own.