Experimental article: Chaos Space Marines kit review!

Well, as the title says, today I have a kit review to post: the Chaos Space Marines box set. Now, it's fairly old now, but to be honest, I do very much like this kit. In fact, this is the seventh box that I've bought...
Anyway, to business. I'll also be taking a look at the Noise Marine sonic weapons. However, there isn't a huge amount to say about those as there's only 4 different bitz in the whole set. That given, here's a quick snap of those:

Now, I know there's a lot of bad press for GW's Finecast products. However, these bits are actually rather good. There isn't much flash, next to no bubbles and minimal warping. This has been the case for 2 packs in a row, the biggest problem always being just a slight curve on the Blastmaster part. So I'd personally say these are worth having.

Onto the real meat of this, then. The Chaos Marines box, as I've said, is a big favourite of  mine. It's aged very well, and still looks good next to many other modern plastic kits. They are, in my eyes (and I dare say the eyes of others too), a much better kit than the Tactical Marines box.

There's a lot of variety in the frames. Each shoulder pad design is repeated only twice each in the box, and most of the components are nicely detailed. The trim has always been a big part of the Chaos image, and this kit really hits the mark, with the extension of shoulder trims and additional leg and backpack plating really serving to enforce the point that these are no basic Imperial marines.

The most exciting components, however, are found on the Command sprue. The last two frames shown appear twice in the box, This, however, is only in once, but there's no real reason to have two. It simply seems worth noting, as it means that the box is, like most GW stuff, not great if purchased purely for bitz.
The parts, as ever, are well-detailed and good-looking. If I had one gripe, it would be that they included 2 plasma pistol arms, but they are both left-handed (from the front), which can be somewhat limiting.

Overall, I do really like this kit. It isn't really showing it's age too much, the models are good and the detail is great. If I had to give it a numerical rating, I'd rate it 7.5/10, if only because technically superior kits have been released since. Also, despite the variety of components, the poses out of the box are somewhat limited.
Anyway, here's some Noise Marines assembled. They are just out-of the box bodies, legs etc., with Noise Marine weapon arms from the upgrade pack:

As you can see, the poses are even more limited with the NM pack. I'd imagine that that's because all of the arms are the same assembly, with even the Blastmaster being much the same. As I've said, my only real problem with the kits are the available poses.

So that wraps up my first real article. Comments, as ever, are accepted and appreciated.
A Dark Angels-based tactica article shall be coming next. See you then!