With the upcoming release of the tenth edition Codex: Leagues of Votann, Games Workshop are also releasing six new kits which build a total of eight new units. While we’ve already talked about how those units fare on the tabletop in our review of the Codex, in this review we’re talking about assembling and painting the new models – the good, the bad, and what you need to know.
We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of these kits for review purposes.
Arkanyst Evaluator
keewa: Very charming and funny mad scientist type with a cool looking two-handed zap cannon thingy,, replete with lots of cabling (contained in a sort of leather sheath thing, which is pretty cool) and a big backpack power-generator. This guy caused a lot of buzz when the models were revealed and I can see why, he’s got that element of fun and silliness that 40k has been crying out for lately. He has a big lab coat with a leather apron over the top, coupled with some thick gloves, this really solidifies the “scientist” aesthetic in a way that works very nicely.
I don’t really like the bare head option; he has a Heihachi haircut that’s a bit too silly even for me, while the only other option is for a fully enclosed helmet with goggles like some kind of mid-century Soviet gas mask with the breather removed – I don’t mind this, although having a covered head obviously alters the character of the model a bit. I would have liked more bareheaded options, including a female option. Thankfully head swaps are fairly easy to do, if you’re so inclined, and overall this kit was quick and easy to assemble.
Shane: The headswaps were easy and he was pretty quick and easy to build otherwise.
Memnyr Strategist
keewa: Here we have something very different, an ironkin clad in fancy robes, doing Gendo-pose, with robot tentacles coming out of their backpack, each of which has its own mini-Ironkin head on the end, amazing! They’ve got a weird little cogno-crown thing!
Honestly, this one rules, I love them in the same way I loved the original Grimnyr model, I love a robed figure of mystery. The pose with the hands steepled is absolutely radiating cocky mastermind energy, plus the funny little Votann iPad with the stylus, yes! Fuck yeah! I’m already imagining a robotic voiced “Nice move, unfortunately I have already anticipated any potential response out to one thousand moves, checkmate” – you do NOT want to play chess with this Ironkin.
This one wasn’t too difficult to assemble, but there are some problems when it comes to durability. The spindly robot tentacles look great but since they’re so thin, and the attachment points so tiny, they’re unfortunately very very fragile (Perhaps I’m a hamfisted clumsy guy but I broke one off without even noticing), the tentacles should be maybe 50% thicker and I’m sure they’d be durable enough that this wouldn’t be a problem. I’m not sure how well this one is going to be able to stand being transported about to tournaments and what-have-you.
Shane: This was another quick to build kit, but the sensor tendrils are pretty fragile and that is definitely a concern when it comes to transporting him.
Ironkin Steeljacks
keewa: These were super easy to put together, in a way that’s quite refreshing in GW kits of late, the main body is only four pieces – compare that to the latest space wolf terminators, where a single leg could be four pieces and it’s clear which is more user-friendly. The Steeljacks can be outfitted with either a pistol and melee weapon (in this case either a plasma sword or a power fist) or some very large two-handed guns, the sergeant of the squad can have either (you can tell who the sergeant is because they have that arc over their head, the same as with the rest of the Kin units). The way they’re built varies depending on whether you went for shooting or punching, the melee guys have rounded shoulderpads in the same style as the normal Hearthkyn, while the shooters have a single large flat blast-shield on their leading shoulder, that asymmetry is pretty nice and helps differentiate who’s who.
Height-wise, these robots fall between a Primaris Space Marine and an Ogryn, they’re clearly meant to fill a Wraithguard-shaped hole in the Votann lineup and honestly, I think they work well. The proportions are perhaps a little too “human” rather than “dwarven” but that doesn’t really bother me, they’re clearly artificial beings so they can be any old shape and it works just fine.
As with all the Ironkin, their little dome heads are so cute!
Shane: I can’t believe how few pieces the steeljacks were. Please make more kits like that, Games Workshop.
Buri Aegnirssen
keewa: An interesting-sounding new named legendary hero, the poster-boy of the new codex who seems to have had several run-ins with a lot of tyranids, and is wearing the head of a Tyranid Warrior as a kind of trophy. here I have some quite substantial criticisms, I really don’t like this model.
There are some positives: The glaive thing looks really cool, with that sort of faceted, almost gem-like blade (although I’ve found that if you drop Buri just right, that glaive will snap like a twig), the masked face echoes what we’ve seen on other models, particularly the Khal figure, but it’s well executed and looks different and sufficiently menacing. The one bare arm with scars aplenty and sort of half a hand of augmetic metal fingers is pretty badass, love that stuff, this guy has clearly been through some shit.
Ok, now for the elephant-skull in the room. I understand what they were going for with the Tyranid Warrior skull on his back, but for me, it doesn’t work at all. The skull/plates are so large and overwhelming that Buri himself ends up sort of lost inside them, kind of like a grumpy hermit crab. Look at the model from behind, and it looks like someone trying out the most unconvincing Tyranid warrior disguise you’ve ever seen. The raggedy Tyranid-skin coat also looks kinda daft and makes not much sense, you’re telling me this guy had time to sew a clasp onto a Tyranid’s flayed skin, but he couldn’t cut it neatly? There’s also the issue of self-contained “practicality” – this guy is carrying around something as big as himself, that looks like it weighs a ton, considerably more than Buri himself – we’re talking “carrying a fridge on his back into battle” levels of implausible. Ok, he’s wearing a suit of powered armour, but even then, this thing is far too large. There are better ways to decorate a guy so he looks like he’s been fighting Tyranids a lot. The Phobos Lieutenant from Leviathan is a good example here; he has some tyranid chitin plates strapped to his armour panels, that’s a good, flavourful expression of the character’s background. This guy just doesn’t work for me. I admire that they really did try something different; they swung for the fences, but they fell pretty short.
Rob: This is a smaller model than I was expecting, but pretty easy to work with. I don’t love the Tyranid cowl, either but I will say that it’s very easy to remove his cowl and replace it with whatever you want. I left mine off and put a large horned skull on his backpack to match the aesthetic of Shane’s Chaos Dwarf Votann. The only thing you miss doing this is the cabling that goes to his cloak, so be sure to cut those off and attach them.
For a subassembly, I’d recommend not gluing him to the rock either way; it’ll make it easier to paint the underside of his cape.
Cthonian Earthshakers
keewa: Somehow, it makes perfect sense that Space Dwarves would have artillery that shoots down into the ground rather than into the air. The Cthonian Earthshakers draw direct inspiration from the Squat Mole Mortars of 35 years ago and form-wise they’re basically the same, a big tube on legs. Each box has a complement of two Earthshakers with three crew each, the major option available here is the type of munition – you have to assemble both the same way but you have the choice between Breacher shells or Tremor shells, the main difference is the end of the tube, the breacher shells have a straightforward tube to launch their drill-tipped mole shells, while the tremor shells turn the end of the tube into a kind of Space-y laser beam attachment.
If you chose the breacher shells you also get two little ones erupting from bases to use as tokens, which is cute – these are similar to but bigger than the ones that come in the Cthonian Beserks set, which also has a mole launcher type weapon.
The crews for each battery are two strapping bare-armed kin in vests (one poking at the screen and another using a sort of Nintendo Switch device to (presumably) steer, and a (very cute) Ironkin loader, along with an open or closed box of shells to use as base decoration. In addition, the loading hatch can either be closed or open, and if you choose to have it open the Ironkin loader can be built so that it’s loading the shell into the tube directly, which is a nice touch.
I like these guys, the concept is very charming and the execution is well thought through, the mini-diorama style of basing reminds me of the recent Krieg artillery kit (although these are much, much smaller). The mortar itself goes together easily and looks great, it’s simple but with plenty of elements that let you know this is unmistakably a Votann weapon. As far as the crew goes, there’s not really any variety, you have four chunky guys in singlets with heads that look more or less the same as any other kin, albeit with the addition of a pretty cool terminator-esque beady eye in one of the sunken sockets. As with everything else, a female option would have been good here, along with more variety as far as bare heads go – since these guys are truly bareheaded I would have liked to see some more luxurious, truly dwarven beards.
Kapricus
keewa: More like Votoyota Hiluxann, this little pick-up truck is very charming. It comes with two build options: you can either kit it out as a mobile gun platform with some serious firepower, or as an agile troop transporter with a big machine-gun to supplement its defence. The design closely follows that of the Hekaton and Sagitaur vehicles, featuring classic Votann rounded-polygonal armoured panels over a body fitted with dune buggy roll bars and some cool mid-century retro-futuristic curved elements, like the bonnet and suspension. I drive my colleagues nuts by constantly saying how much I prefer the chunky moon buggy tyres on the Hekaton and Sagitaur compared to these hover plates on the Hernkyn bikes, and now this fellow – it would really have been nice to have the option to choose between hover plates and wheels.
The customisation options are mostly limited to different types of heads for the crew, plus some stowage (that’s “supposed” to be for the troop transporter model, but I don’t think anyone will call the police if you put it on the gun platform one) which is fine, they’re mass produced vehicles after all, if you want to customise them you can do it through your paint and decal work.
Interestingly, the Kapricus eschews both the GW clear-plastic flying stem (a la Repulsor) and the cantilevered springy design (like the Hernykn Bikes) for an I-shaped stand bit that fits directly into the bottom of the chassis. The rock-solid stability this design choice gives is unparalleled, there’s no way that you’re going to break the stand off the Kapricus no matter what you do, you’ll smash the model before this thing gets knocked off. This stability does comes with a bit of a trade-off though, obviously if you look at the model side-on the stand is obviously visible in the way that a clear plastic stand wouldn’t be, while a cantilevered design eliminates stands altogether. When it comes to something the size of the Kapricus though, I don’t really care, if you’re looking at the model from any position higher than “straight on sideways” you aren’t really going to see it.
That said, I really like this little guy, I absolutely adore the retro-futuristic design of the Votann vehicles – an aesthetic I think that’s been missing from 40k until recently, and the crew in their Hernkyn leather bomber jackets and flying helmets with goggles/shades are adorable. Is it cold in space? Probably, but not if you’re dressed like Maverick from Top Gun.
Shane: There is a trick with the Kapricus kit, in that if you build the gunner for both the defender and carrier separately, use the gun mount on the rail for the carrier, and glue the hatch door for the defender build, you can swap the kit between the two different gunners painlessly, so it can function as either kit without having to buy another. That’s pretty solid.
Final Thoughts
We were pretty impressed with these kits, especially after the multipart madness of the new Space Wolf kits two months ago. They assemble quickly and aren’t too bad to paint, and they add a ton of new options and character to the Votann range.
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