All Quiet on the Martian Front : Steam Tank Review

All Quiet on the Martian Front is a new 15/18mm Science Fiction miniatures game that combines Steampunk, World War 1 and  War of the Worlds.

In this review we are looking at the US Steam Tank box set. This box set comes with three tank models that can be built as MK II or MK III Baldwin Steam Tanks.

In the box you get 3 tank sprues and a black and white assembly page.

Assembly:

The Plastic Tanks go together well but there were some minor fit issues. For me the main issue was the two hull halves didn't line up perfectly resulting in a couple of seams. Most of the seams are neatly hidden by the track pieces and hatches, etc but the circular "Fire Box" at the back of the tank has a pretty bad seam. Fortunately it's a small part and can easily be puttied and/or sanded.

The fit of the other parts is pretty spot on and  goes together with a minimum of fuss.


Detail:

What I love about this model is the logic put into the tank. These are steam powered vehicles. The designers, rather then just sticking a smoke stack on and calling it a day, gave the design some thought. There is a fire box, coal chute and smoke stack that fit logically in the tank. In an excellent touch the internal compartment of the tank is even detailed with textured flooring and furnace hatch. This part of the model is just begging for hyper detailing.

There are a few downsides The detail on the tanks is a little soft, rivets aren't super crisp and the some of the details like the gun barrels and smoke stacks and tracks are a little plain.

One very frustrating part of the build is the fact that the right side Track assembly has noticeably shallow panel lines, especially compared to the left hand track unit. How this made it through quality control I don't know.

Painting:

My tanks were base-coated black then I used Army Painters spray color primer, Army Green.
The tracks were painted Vallejo German Grey.

For the panel lining I used a brown Gundam marker (also know as a Technical pen) I used lighter shades of green to highlight some panels.

I used some extra American decals from the Flames of War range.

Weathering was down with watered down brown paint for the mud and dirt and GW's new technical paints( Typhus Corrosion and Rysa Rust) for the Rust.



Overall:

I really like the design of these tanks. They ooze flavor and really fit in the setting. For 18mm scale these tanks are pleasingly large.

The box is also a great value in that it lets you build the 1 gun Mk II, 2 gun MK IIb and the 3 gun MK III.

MKII, MK IIb and MK III tanks report for duty