I have trying to model an army based on some sci-fi stories that I have written over the years and one of the groups consists of heavy infantry with full protective armour surrounding their bodies.
Looking at my Death Fields models I realized that raumjagers were already on a good path for such a concept, since their chest armour and closet helmets are somewhat close to what I would be expecting heavy infantry to use in combat, so that got me thinking about a potential kit for the raumjager line that builds up on the existing parts to achieve heavier infantry in the same style.
My idea for this would be to have a heavy infantry kit or potentially a conversion kit for the basic raumjagers which essentially added the things missing for a fully armoured soldier, including armoured arms to replace the arms from the base kit, armoured legs, as well as some weapons and gear to match heavier soldiers, including power packs for the back that could fit the torsos in a similar way to what was done with the radios in the existing kit. The final result would be something along the lines of a fully armoured soldier like for example the power armour in Fallout games or similar concepts, where any added height/strength would be related with the armour structure and not any bioengineering.
With that said, any thoughts on whether this concept and whether or not this would fill the needs of other players out there?
Forgive me if I'm missing something, but what you describe there already seems to exist in the form of the Iron Core range:
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/iron-core/products/eisenkern-stormtroopers
https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/iron-core/products/eisenkern-panzerjager
Had you overlooked these, or was there some specific element of the Raumjagers' uniforms that you couldn't do without?
@GreenScorpion
As @Stephen Sutton mentioned the Eisenkern Stormtroopers/Panzerjägers make solid heavy Infantry. It's easy to see them as wearing full carapace or plate armor.
If you need heavier Infantry than that the upcoming Valkir kit might the trick. They definitely look power armoured.
https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/72925/valkir-iron-cores-most-sort-after-ranges-
You can see some really great conversions with Valkir and Stormtroopers bashed with Grognards here:
https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/79246/the-224th-lidosian-sturmjager-regiment
Maybe you could do similar with the Raumjäger if that's the aesthetic/torso you really want.
Finally if you are looking for EVEN MORE HEAVIER / maybe a mini-mech, there was this sneak peak Friday:
It's being discussed here:
https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/77051/powered-armoured-mobile-infantry?page=2
That being said, options are the spice of life. A kit that unarmored/upweaponed Raumjägers would be cool.
(Largely unrelated. I wish the Raumjäger had been done later. It's an super early WGA kit and it shows. If the models lived up the concept/art, it would be an amazing kit.)
There are plenty of spare parts in the Eisenkerns, i did up armour some Raumjagers a while ago using the old dreamforge parts...
However the Eisenkerns are pretty much this concept already, the upcoming power armoured Valkir especially.
@Stephen Sutton @JTam @John Wilson :
I know the current Eisenkerns would represent heavier infantry, but the mention of raumjagers was mostly because their chest armour makes them look thicker, while the current Eisenkern kits are rather thin (I know there were more heavily armoured versions in the past), which make the Eisenkern fully armoured troops but not as heavy as what I had in mind.
The idea here would be to not only be fully armoured but also noticeably wearing thick armour, which the raumjagers seem to be with their somewhat exagerated torsos and shoulder pads.
The picture below from the store should show why I am more inclined to upscale the raumjagers with thick armour in the arms and legs rather than using the Eisenkern:
@GreenScorpion It sounds to me like you prefer the chunkier, more heroic scale of the Raumjager, which I can understand. What you're looking for sounds like an almost entirely new kit though, with only the helmets and torsos from the Raumjagers being used. There may be hope though, as there was a survey about moderns back in May, and one of the options was a SWAT team, so something fitting the bill (or that can be kitbashed with Raumjagers to achieve that effect) may be on the cards.
@Stephen Sutton For general purpose infantry heroic scale can look strange, but for bulky armour I think many heroic models end up looking the part and that is mostly my personal justification for Raumjager to have those chunky torsos and helmets, it is not that they are chunky humans, they just have thick armour :)
Lets see what appears among the next releases from Wargames Atlantic that might enable this sort of concept.
