Well I received my order from the chaps at Scotia Grendel this morning and have been feverishly rummaging around the box and taking some pics for reviews. The nice folks at Scotia even included some nice extras which will be reviewed as time allows!
I thought I would start off with the Eye of Gorath for my first review:
The miniature arrived in the big box well packed in bubble-wrap and consists of six pieces, the head, body, legs, two arms and two horns. The miniature is cast in hard grey resin and stands about 80-100 mm tall (he's quite stooped and I havent assembled him yet so its difficult to tell!)
The figure himself is nicely sculpted and appears like a huge orc waving his fist and bellowing. The cast is fairly clean with a slight mould line running down either side and a couple of bits of resin which will need cleaning off (such as some on his loin cloth and parts of his fingers) The only poorly cast part are the resin horns which arrived with large pieces of flash attached. This shouldn't be too much of a problem as it will clear off easily (I may even be tempted to sculpt some larger more brutal horns to replace them!
The Eye of Gorath. Alas the pics a bit blurry and doesn't really do the actual model justice!
Good stuff: The miniature is really full of character and very large (easily out bulking the likes of the GW plastic giant) He's also VERY cheap at £9.99 he's great value for money. Also he's a lot more animated than much of the Leviathan line and really looks like he's roaring abuse at his enemies (or indeed his own side!)
Bad stuff: the miniature will need a bit of work with a file and scalpel before he's ready for assembly as there are visible mould lines and some sharp bits of resin needing removing.
Next off I have the Gorathosaur with two crew:
The Gorathosaur is one of the orc hordes medium sized warbeasts and is capable of transporting up to two of Goraths chosen into battle. The miniature is again nicely sculpted with lots of lizard like scales which will i believe, paint up nicely. The goathosaur comes in two pieces, the body and head. The crew figures are metal torsos while their legs come as part of the gorathosaurs resin body. I am not too keen on the crew figures as they aren't nearly as nicely sculpted as the beast. Still hopefully they will paint up ok (I may well replace them with something more suitable)
Both the crew and the beast are free of mould lines and the resin is bubble free (oddly the head is cast from a more yellowy resin, while the body is the usual gray)
The Gorathosar!
Good stuff: Again the miniature is nicely cast and sculpted with lots if interesting detail without being too fiddly. Unlike the Eye of Gorath there is very little needing done to it before assmbly and painting. The Gorathosaur itself is quite characterful as its been sculpted rearing and his head is nicely grumpy looking!
Bad stuff: The crew figures are the weakest point of the kit but as their top half is a separate piece its not too difficult to replace them. Also the picture of the Gorathosar on the Scotia website shows one orc with a bow and the other with a spear, the kit I got had two identical spearmen. As they are going to be replaced at some point its not really a problem for me!
Next up I ordered a pair of Black Orc Warbeasts. Essentially they are identical to Carnosars but appear a bit scalier. I plan on using them as armoured Carnosaurs!
Carnosaurs!
The kit came in a sturdy cardboard box with a colour printed picture of the models (unfortunately I managed to misplace the pic of it!) The beasts themselves are two piece castings, the head and the body.
A nice feature of the kit is that there are two different heads, each with lots of orcish character. Slightly disappointingly there's only one body pose but that's a minor complaint. The beasts are smaller than the Gorathosaur but more heavily built and are sculpted with heavily scaled hides. The crew figures are also resin and come attached to a small resin rectangle which needs removing. A big plus for me is the fact that the warbeasts and crew were sculpted by Kev Adams, creator of the classic GW orcs. Although not to everyone's tastes they are the classic orc look which I far prefer to the apelike GW stuff.
The crew figures.
Although the beasts are mainly flash free there is a ridge on the howdahs which looks like it will need quite a bit of hacking at to remove. Other than that there's a few air bubbles in the open mouthed heads teeth but it's no big thing to fix.
Good stuff: Sculpted by the Kev Adams! Also these are a pair of monsters with real weight and character. With their heavily scaled hides I think they are going to paint up very nicely.
Bad stuff: the resin ridge on their backs are a bit annoying as are the rectangles the crew figures are stuck in. Also the beasts bodies and crew figures would have been nice with more variety in pose. Saying that they are nice sculpts and can easily be swapped for something more suitable or to add variety to units!
I have a ton more stuff to review but will leave it there just now as I need some lunch and I've got some uni work needing done. All in all I am very pleased with the ongoing quality of the Leviathan and Grendel ranges and am itching to get them built and painted! As soon as I've got stuff built I will post some size comparison pics showing the range of sizes from infantry, to cavalry and all the warbeasts!
All the best!
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