Dystopian Legions - FSA Treadbikes

Todays Dystopian Legions review is for the Federated States of America

FSA Treadbikes

These small but powerful machines use a liquid fuel engine to power a single central track, echoing the great Land Ships, but on a tiny scale. Squadrons of cavalry Treadbikers, often nicknamed ‘Trailblazers’, are attached to infantry units to serve in the traditional cavalry roles of scouting and shock assault. Although happy to draw their sabres when necessary, the Treadbikers generally prefer to use the twin Orlington strip-fed snub machine guns mounted on their metal steeds

  Single tank track motorbikes with mounted twin machine guns. Sounds like something out of Mad Max!

And there I was thinking Dystopian Legions couldn't get any better. I was wrong.

If you have read any of the DL reviews so far you will know that I am a fan of the Spartan Games packaging. Appealing while still showing and telling you exactly whats inside.

In the box are 2 Treadbikes each with 2 different bodies and acrylic bases. You also get a Dystopian Legions collectors card, FSA blank Activation card and 2 Game Cards.
The Treadbikes are a Veteran section of 2-4 models with the option of an NCO upgrade.
A mix of good firepower and good combat attacks make these a brutal force.
Game Cards-
"High Speed, Low Drag" gives the Treadbikes the option of a 'free' Fall Back
"Trailblazer" lets them attack first in melee using their machine guns.
The full rules can be found HERE

The main body of the bikes is resin with the riders and extra parts in metal.

As you can see, each bike gets 2 different riders. This will let you have different models in a Section or 2 different Sections that are easy to tell apart.

 There are a couple of large tabs on the parts and some small vents but these are in places that either can barley be seen when the model is built or on areas that you glue anyway. Cleaning up the parts was no problem at all.

The main resin body didn't have any mould lines at all. It did have a lump of resin on the underside of the track but in 99% of cases this is going to be glued to the bade anyway. (Ooh, jumping Treadbike idea)

The rest of this piece was perfect.

The metal parts had a tiny little mould line on. I would expect you can ignore it completely if you want and it wont be visible when painted at all.

Building time?

Scale shot with Lionel the Linesman

The model is fairly simple to build. The engine parts on the sides and the ammo feeds on the front and riders backpack just slot into place.

The riders body did take a little positioning. With the waist flat on the resin part he looked a little low so I raised in up a tiny bit and filled the game at the waist.

Basing was another matter. Spartans dedication to high detail is a great thing. That is until you try and stand a track tread flat on a base when it has raised detail running down the middle.

I ended up covering the middle in super glue and using a pair of clippers to keep the model straight while it dried.

Price

The FSA Treadbikes come in at £17.10 for a pair when you Pre-Order from The Troll Trader

A pretty good price for 2 resin minis of that size.

Overall, I really like the FSA Treadbikes. They look amazing and capture the Steampunk War feel really well. I think these will end up being the iconic stand out model for a Federated States of America force.

Score

9 out of 10 Badger Points.

If the bottom of the track was flat and the rider a mm higher it would be a perfect 10.

Thoughts on these?

Hendybadger awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!