Invasion ships unboxing - Dindrenzi

Oh yes, it's now the turn of the Zenian League, and the mighty Dindrenzi!

So the first thing to note about the Dindrenzi Planetfall Naval Division is that it only comprises 6 ships, making it the lowest ship count of all the boxes (especially compared to the Sorylian 10 ship haul!). Three of these ships, however, are large class Capitals, compared to the Large/Medium combos in the other boxes.

Ok, so opening the box and spilling resin onto the table, the first thing to note is that less ships does not equal less parts - you've a large number of substantial pieces in the set. Let's work up from the smalls...

Also having a typically Dindrenzi small squadron size of just 3 ships, the Scuta comes in about half the size of a Secutor cruiser. It's a chunky little ship, but again, very Dindrenzi.

The detail on the Scuta and the moulding is fantastic - once again there are some amazing feats of moulding, and I know I say it almost every time with SGs models, but they seem to break any standards (that they themselves have set) of moulding with every release. Great job!

The next ship up (and it's a BIG step up!) is the Castra Assault cruiser. This is a monstrously sized ship - as big as a Cataphract, in fact. It uses the standard heavy cruiser engine components, a large central hull and then four drop-cast container add-on pieces. 

The final ship in the PND lineup is the mighty Legion Assault Carrier.

This is a HUGE ship, which is both an obviously classic Dindrenzi design yet also fresh and interesting. It's an eight part model, with a top, bottom, two rail pieces, two flight peg pieces and two engine pieces (though mine only shipped with one). The way it has been sectioned is very clever, though it will definitely require pre-painting before assembly to get the most out of it I feel.

As you can see there are three locating lugs in the top hull which align into three troughs on the lower piece, making accurate fitting of the hull pieces much easier. You can also see the detail that's been moulded into these top and bottom inner hull pieces.

Test-fit together these align very nicely. Don't glue these pieces together expecting to be able to just bolt the railgun pieces onto the sides though, as they actually "lock" into place, slightly wedged between the two. This will make it slightly trickier to put together, but should result in a much more robust tabletop mini, which is again commendable and forward-thinking from SG - more on this below.

So here are the railgun pieces, which are actually handed - they're not the same piece duplicated - another point of note but easy to spot if you look at them with more than a cursory glance.

And here's one in place (again, just test-fit, no glue here). Looking from the rear you can see how the pieces lock together;

The railgun pieces are actually open to the sides where they join the main hull as well, so you get to see detail inside...bear in mind if you're thinking of skipping internal painting!

So there we have the Dindrenzi release, a really nice set of unique models that I'm sure will find their way into many players fleets - invasion or not. The Legion is a fantastic looking ship, and looking over the stats (which will be another blog entry), it's a versatile and useful ship in many scenarios. The clever way in which the model has been split is also very interesting, as is the modular nature of the Castra - I could definitely see other versions of this hull on the cards.