The View from the Turret

Incursion Grunt APE Miniatures — Review

Posted on 29Jan09 Updated on 18Mar11

Incursion is Grindhouse Games’ upcoming weird war board/miniatures game set in an alternate World War Two universe. They have posted a nice description of the game. Others have described it as a blend of Space Hulk and Wolfenstein 3D or, in other words, a dungeon crawl type game set in the bowls of a Gibraltar-based German research lab. Details on the game itself are still rather slim but some of the miniatures are now available for order. We got the full set of Allied APE suits and a German Sturmzombie.

I ordered direct from Grindhouse and my order arrived promptly in just a few days. The miniatures come attractively packaged in individual bags. The castings are extremely crisp and clean with almost no flash — cleaning them up will take just a few minutes. The only minor issue was some very slight miscasting on a couple of the exhaust stacks, but once painted they will just look a bit rusted out. They also include a 40mm plastic slotta-type base. The detail on the figures is impressive and rivals anything produced by Games Workshop. In size they are almost identical to a Space Marine Terminator but the arms and shoulders are smaller.

The APE I and II figures came with two head options with two different masks. Note, there are some photos floating around that actually show a figure with the head on backwards! This is somewhat understandable because there is a strap on the back of the head that looks a bit like goggles and the neck could be seen as some sort of gas mask. But, as you would expect, the proper front of the head looks far better. The HMG APE is an especially impressive figure. He carries a .50cal water-cooled machine gun with a nicely detailed ammo feed line leading from an ammo pack on his back to the weapon. He also has a great head with the figure blowing a bubble! The APE Blazer has a very detailed flamethrower with a hose. The flamethrower is rather long and thus susceptible to damage during play and transport as is the hose. I cut my flamthrower down by 1/8th of a inch but I will still be surprised if it survives much play.

The Slugger Murphy figure has a great head with a cigar in the mouth. Unfortunately we do not like the bat that ships with Slugger nor the Axe that comes with the Sarge but it is easy to replace both. For Slugger we swapped in a pneumatic piledriver fist and for the Sarge we replaced the axe with a GW Chainsword. Both seem more fitting to us but others will enjoy them as they are. The Sarge also has a grenade launcher mounted under his machine gun.

Overall the APE figures are excellent. The casting and sculpting quality is top notch and we really like the look.

We also picked up some Sturmzombies I. We wanted to write Grindhouse complaining about the ‘miscasting’ of the arm and stomach but decided they have probably heard that one a hundred times by now! The Sturmzombies are single piece and ship with a 30mm base. They are the same height as a GW Cadian figure but have more realistic proportions. Like the APE figures, they are crisp and flash free and clean up in seconds.

We look forward to getting some paint on the figures and cannot wait for the release of the game itself. Grindhouse may very well have a hit on its hands if the game turns out as good as the figures.

Also see the Incursion APE painting guide and our Incursion MI-13 Commandos Review.

(Note: Sorry for the blurry photos.)

[Updated: 27FEB09]