In preparation for my next army, I ordered a bunch of internet supplies from various companies, and I figured that passing the word along to others might be useful.
First up is Dragonforge; I ordered a pretty extensive set of Urban Rubble bases. Dragonforge is a very slick company and their ordering and checkout process is pretty simple. They have on-and-off deals on various sets of bases (usually a buy-twenty-get-five kinda things) and I managed to pick up enough bases for the entire BA force I have planned out.
Turnaround time on the order was pretty decent, ~2 weeks to get to me from when I'd finalized it, but apparently he was pretty swamped at the time thanks to one of the special offers; when I made a second order to fill a couple gaps, it took just barely a week to arrive, so speed of delivery was pretty excellent.
The resin used is quite excellent- it has a little weight to it, which is nice to help hold down models, but for anything metal or terribly tall you'll want to do a little drilling to really make sure they aren't gonna tip on you every time they land on a hill. It's also quite resilient and doesn't scratch casually or snap easily- much tougher than the Finecast and Forge World resins. Furthermore, the level of detail is nearly perfect- the pictures on the website are in no way exaggerations. All of the detail is clearly visible and deep enough to take a good wash or coat of paint, right down to the grit and dirt that makes up the bottom layer.
Long story short, I can't recommend these bases enough. They're reasonably cheap (about $1/each) and come in a wide variety of sizes, including 40mm heroic for characters, 60mm in several varieties, and flying bases for Stormraven-sized vehicles. There are also plenty of styles available, including ice, three or four varieties of different city bases (rubble, futuristic, etc) and some really nice fleur-de-lis ones that are perfect for Sisters.
Second were the jump packs and Ymgarl heads from Chapterhouse. I know a lot of folks are not big fans of Chapterhouse and plenty of their sculpts are... iffy looking. However, both of them seemed pretty reasonable-looking, so I gave them a shot.
I can't vouch for any of the other parts, but the bitz I ordered were pretty fine. The Ymgarl heads needed a bit of cleaning and were a bit awkward to fit onto the bodies, requiring quite a bit of shaving, filing, etc to get them to stay reasonably well, but looked quite nice once attached. The jump packs were much easier to attach, fitting easily onto the normal mount points, but had some major sections of flash and extra resin that required careful cutting and filing to remove. The resin used in the packs (the heads are metal) is much more like the common resins and is relatively, if not unusually, soft, so you'll definitely want to give them a coat of sealant to protect them.
Finally a grabbed an assortment of parts and figures, like the angel reliefs, Storm Shields, and character models. The detail on all of these looks amazing in all of the pictures and just as good in person. All of the Marines are big and epically posed, insuring they stand out amidst your rank-and-file; they also come with bases of their own, although I didn't use them- they're nice, but don't match the style of the rest of the army. Apparently some are not a fan of the size, as they do look rather bulky for simple power armor, but this can go either way; call it Terminator if you want, it's pretty easy to rationalize however you please.
The reliefs are also very nice for adding to vehicles, although you will have to do a fair bit of cutting if you want them to "blend" with the rest of the chassis. If you're looking for something to break up the outlines of your tanks, these are a nice little addition. The rest of Scibor's range is quite nice as well, having a variety of additions for various Marine armies as well as Inquisitional forces, although I'm told that the torsos are a bit of an awkward fit for the GW heads, but I don't have any personal experience with that.
All in all? Good things to say about all three companies. Pictures will follow once I get a bit further into assembly.
