Thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these models for review.

Coinciding with the release of the Spire of Primus Book are a bunch of new kits, in plastic! We were lucky to get these to review, but we can’t wait on to get the new Hangers-on. We love weirdos and have many more than we’ll ever need, but those are an instant purchase.

Anyway, let’s dig into the stars of this article, the Palatine Justicars.

Contents & Quality

The Justicars kit contains 5 models (all mono-pose, but 3 of them have alternate weapon arms – see assembly details below) on a single sprue, which corresponds exactly to the new Palanite Justicar Delegation from the Spire of Primus campaign book. It also has the appropriate sized bases (2x 32mm and 3x 25mm) for their rules, in the normal industrial Necromunda designs.

This is a modern-era GW kit, and as such the mold lines are undetectable in some areas and very fine in others – I did a minimum amount of scraping and I probably could have got away with doing none at all, the lines wouldn’t be seen under paint and primer. Sprue gates were slightly more of an issue; some were hidden on the less visible surfaces, but some were prominent, particularly on the shoulder pieces, which are one of the most visible bits of the model from a gaming-table perspective, and flat surfaces, so some care was needed to clean those up and smooth them over. As we’ve come to expect, the details are all crisp and the pieces are cut to allow depth of undercuts. 

Assembly

The assembly guide is accurate, but not in colour as with some kits. These models are of medium complexity, nothing unusual for modern GW. All 5 models are 3 pieces for the body and legs, then a design where the mantle comes in two halves, front and back; the back is stuck to the assembled body, forming hollows for the arm/shoulder joint, and the front is stuck on after the arms. This gives a very firm join and makes it easy to achieve the intended pose. There tend to be 2 individual arms plus a weapon/hand bit for each model; it looks a little bit fiddly, but with shaped connection points, they went together absolutely fine. Overall you’re looking at 9-10 pieces per model plus a few optional accessories. As with most modern Necromunda kits, the trade-off is that each model’s head, arms etc fit just right in one specific pose. There is very limited scope to move the position of the arms or head to alter a model’s attitude – you could do it with a little shaving down of the connection points and/or filling armpit gaps with putty, but it’s not enabled by design.

A note on the limited options available in the kit: the Magistrate (the leader with his pistol and gavel) and Executioner (big axe man) are mono-pose, with each having an alternative mask for their head. 

Genghis Cohen: I agonised over the mask choices for each, but I also decided to convert the Magistrate; his pistol is quite a cool one, but I knew I had a book bit lying around and I loved the vaguely judicial (but spikey!) gavel – I wanted to give him a pose brandishing this legal tome and pronouncing judgement on someone.

The Bailiffs only come with one head option, but there are 2 weapon options for each:

• 1 shotgun or pistol/club
• 1 shotgun or mancatcher
• 1 mancatcher or pistol/club

This means you can have up to 2 of each weapon option, but not all 3 the same, which is a minor complaint, since the rules enable you to choose freely for all 3 models. What’s also frustrating, for bitz hoarders, is that some of those mancatcher/shotgun loadouts share an arm piece. So you won’t quite end up with 3 spare sets of arms after building the kit. 

Each Bailiff model has a pouch/grenade bit, the Executioner has a pistol, the Magistrate has a pair of servo-skulls, and all of them have magnacles (handcuffs). These are just super impressive because there’s no obvious slot for them on the models’ waists – you could leave them off and there wouldn’t be any unsightly gaps – but when you slide the bit around, you find the contours guide them to sit just right in their intended spot. A testament to how finely tuned the details are in GW’s designs.

DYLON: I was able to get these 5 minis together in one sitting, over a couple hours. And while I can’t add too much to Genghis’ very thorough review, I gleaned a few things from assembly. The option to build on one the Bailiffs either standing or kneeling is really nice and as I assembled that one, the kneeling pose can accept the mancatcher. Otherwise, I was impressed with how well the kit went together, with very positive points of attachment. It was very clear how they went together, which was a nice change from some kits I’ve dealt with recently. I did my usual custom bases and chose to put the Magistrate and Executioner on 25mm bases. And, in a move of cowardice, I didn’t glue on the Bailiff’s heads and painted them separately. I actually recommend doing it as it made painting the heads much easier.

Style

The aesthetics of these dudes are great; suitably grimdark while also giving clear design cues to medieval (or early modern) magistrates, executioners, and bailiffs. I always have an eye out for multi-functionality and what other purposes I could put Necromunda weirdos to – the Bailiffs are therefore the most exciting bit of the kit to me, because they’d be fine as almost any sort of guard/watchman. They would even fit nicely in Age of Sigmar or Old World settings if you snipped off the odd shell-casing ornament and left their grenades off (and replaced the weapons). The physical proportions are relatively tall, in line with other Necromunda models, which skew a bit bigger than the newest 40k humans, but noticeably more slender than, say, Orlocks. The Magistrate and Executioner are a head taller than the Bailiffs and look much bigger; on close inspection this is more due to stance, bulky equipment and base sizes than a real physical difference, but I did almost think the design resembled Warcry’s aesthetic, where the leaders are out of scale with the supporting scrubs. 

Genghis Cohen: I liked the skull-faced look for the leaders, but felt it was over-egging things a bit for the Bailiffs to be just as menacing, and I couldn’t accept their square hats. It’s not that I dislike them, but for some reason they put me in mind of historical Chinese magistrates. They seemed like hats for officials, not low-ranking flunkeys. I also wanted the option to use those models sometimes as more generic watchmen types, so I dug up some old resin heads I had sitting around, for a more soldierly feel.

DYLON: I actually like that you have, essentially, a death-squad all in skull masks. Their little hats are kind of silly, but so are their huge shoulder pads and top coats. There is some kitbash potential here for some nobility, what with those fancy boots.

Painting

DYLON: Time, always the issue with getting things painted. I gave up the quest for perfect many moons ago and with the usual time crunch associated with previews, I got down to it. I spent a bit figuring out the paint scheme before I opened a paint pot though. I wanted a good handle on what was getting painted what. Looking at the box scheme, I decided to simplify and limit my color palette. Browns, red, metals, that’s it. And all Contrast too. Quick and easy, but still getting solid results.

I used my typical undercoat, Army Painter Leather Brown Spray with Army Painter Skeleton Bone zenithal over top, then dry brushed white. The coats are Blood Angels Red with a glaze of Skeleton Horde. Skeleton Horde is also used for the edging. It made that step easy because I didn’t have to be careful, just slopped it all over the jackets. Boots, hats and leather grips are Cygor Brown and belts are Snakebite Leather. Exposed skin was done in Guilliman Flesh. Metals with Army Painter Plate Metal and Citadel Retributor Armor, then washed with TTC Black Wash. Finished them off with a quick glaze of the eye sockets with Warp Lightning (was going for a lens effect) and some ‘Ard Coat. Painted up the bases and into the Lightbox!

Genghis Cohen: your quick results put my best effort to shame mate – I didn’t even try to paint my Justicars in time. I was busy painting Infinity stuff (not sorry).

Verdict

This is a great, characterful kit which represents its idea well. It is well worth picking up if you fancy the idea of a skull-faced judiciary doling out (in)justice in the hive. It has limited use beyond its intended purpose as a specific allied delegation in Necromunda. The Magistrate and Executioner could of course be converted and re-roled, but the personality of those models is very specific to their archetypes. E.g. I could see using the latter in a 40k setting or other game that called for a character whose job title was ‘executioner’; it’s hard to see him as anything else! The Bailiffs are more generic and thus more adaptable, but 3 isn’t very many if you wanted to use the designs for whole units of models in other games. 

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions for us, want to suggest a future article, or just want to show us pictures of your kickass gangs, drop us a line over at Necromunday@Goonhammer.com.