Now let's take our final look at the Sorylian Helix - as usual the reverse features a picture of the studio painted model, plus the usual small intro fluff piece. These are the weakest parts of this Helix from my perspective - the paint job, while nice, is not as good as the others (I don't really like the green used). Also, I don't like the fluff piece, it doesn't fit with the existing canon built up for the Sorylians in Firestorm, and I always find things like this a bit "jarring". Now, the idea of a massive dinosaur-lizard I can accept no problem, but making it some clever ancient that's never been mentioned before, strapping a howdah on its back and sending into a battlefield with weapons designed to destroy leviathan robots seems...a bit daft. So, in my particular corner of the FA universe, they'll be giant lizards from the jungles and plains of Kerender that the Sorylians have used as pack animals for centuries.
Anyway, that is just my personal view on things, and has pretty much nothing to do with the model itself, so let's get on with the unboxing;
Now I had a bit of trouble getting the sleeve off the box, because this one is jammed full of resin - its apparent when you pick it up, it weighs a lot more than the other leviathan helix boxes. That's clear when you lay out all the resin;
The body of the beast itself is a nine piece model, the size of which is quite amazing (and apparent to anyone who has already seen the Sorylian lights (as you can compare them here). Here is the main body;
As you can see its a big block of resin, countered on tp to take the skiff platform, and with a large join for the head piece (good for surface area for glueing. Underneath the piece is similarly countered for the legs;
A nice piece here are the moulded numbers embossed both into the body and the appropriate leg, making constructing simple and error free;
As far as the tail goes, a male/female join will make this easier to join and stronger in use;
The tail itself, nicely posed and detailed;
The head is a great piece of sculpting - I particularly like the whale-like throat folds. Again, it is cast with positive junctions for construction with a mind to strength - nice to see a games company thinking about how the models will be used on the tabletop.
That completes the organic part of the leviathan, but then you have the large skiff strapped to it;
This is a nice model in its own right, and comes complete with a massive cannon (with gunner);
Also in resin are the mounted rocket launchers....
...plus a small crew/rider contingent (which are the standard white metal infantry). Also in white metal are the beasts teeth;
If this wasn't enough, you also get a bunch of the fantastic little grab-bikes, which are one of my favourite lights (along with the Relthoza);
In summary, this is an amazingly good value set, and whether you like the background or not its a fantastic set of models and well worth buying. I'm sure it'll find a place on many tabletops and it does look pretty epic when its together. So, minor niggle aside, it's a great addition to Planetfall - well done Spartan on all three of the latest Leviathan releases!
No comments:
Post a Comment