Spatha Gunships

I acquired some more ships for my ever-increasing fleets back in the summer, these being some Spatha Gunships (the subject of this post), a pair of Cataphract battlecruisers (oooooh!) and a pair of Raptors for my Relthoza. Oscar has also got a new pineapple, sorry, Kraken Dreadnought to add to his monstrous Medusa, together with its attendant escorts. Since I've had almost no time for any posts in the months since I got them, it's time to put that right.

So as I said, I'll start with the Spathas. I shouldn't have to describe the format to anyone who's a regular reader of the blog by now - sturdy cardboard box with nice glossy full-colour card sleeve holding its contents in;

The Spathas come in a standard cruiser-size box, which is a nice compact size. Inside the box all the components are held in bubble-wrap or press-seal bags for their protection. Unpackaging all this produces the following array of parts;

The Hulls are single-piece mouldings, which is an impressive achievement given the complexity, depth of some of the detail and undercuts present. Added to each of these are two handed engine blocks, each sporting two universal drive exhausts. The final part is the flight stand peg, in similarly standard format (it's the same piece as on the cruisers).

The engine blocks do need some trimming with the faithful #10A blade in the Swann Morton, as you need a nice snug fit onto the recessed moulding on the hull;

This includes the rear, as there's not a lot of room for play.

The engine exhausts (same on the Cataphract etc) do need quite a bit of tidying up as well.

This generates a fair bit of resin spoor!

Whilst we're talking about trimming, be careful when you're looking over the front section, as there are two panels that overlap the forward diagonal sweep of the hull - these are meant to be there, so make sure you don't trim them off!

Once trimming is done, however, the Spatha goes together seamlessly, and in no time at all you have three of the beasts!

Here she is in all her glory;

That's a lot of guns!

Nice view from the bow...

 Side view showing the upper and lower broadsides;

Here she is dwarfing a Gladius (forgive the unfinished paint scheme) - she really is a HUGE bulk!

The Spatha is a beast of a ship - both in-game and in model form. It's a great model, with fantastic detail, and I'm glad to have some available to my fleet now. Until next time!