Swiftly following the release of the main host of Cathay models, ruler of the Northern Provinces Miao Ying has arrived. Sailing onto the battlefield in both human and dragon forms, The Storm Dragon will be the final centrepiece that Cathay players have been waiting for.
Our thanks to Games Workshop for providing a preview copy of this kit for review.
First Impressions
From the moment that Miao Ying was revealed the community has been excitedly awaiting her release, and it’s easy to see why. Capping off an entire new plastic range for Grand Cathay, this is one of the models from the faction that makes it clear that Old World is an ongoing concern for GW and the setting is receiving time and attention from very talented designers.
I’m also just a sucker for models transforming on the tabletop, and seeing two different aspects of the same character. Age of Sigmar’s Morathi-Khaine and the Shadow Queen is the obvious comparison, a powerful, commanding ruler in elf form transformed into a bestial powerhouse. I think Miao Ying wins out on coolness factor here just slightly, as her human form is in the midst of what looks like some pretty intense spellcasting and strikes a powerful pose.
There’s been quite a lot made of the potential cultural implications of Games Workshop releasing a range like Cathay in 2025 – or perhaps rather, the potential for tripping up if they get it wrong or aren’t respectful of the obvious influences taken from Chinese culture. Fortunately, the designs and studio paint jobs have avoided a lot of the harmful stereotyping that other manufacturers haven’t always managed to dodge, and there are some great interviews on Warhammer Community that cover how much research the design studio team did in creating the range. For this kit in particular the dragon is clearly heavily influenced by the traditional Chinese dragon, or loong, but it evokes that form whilst still leaving space for the designer’s own more Warhammer touches.
One detail I really like is that Miao Ying is a four-clawed dragon – at certain points in Chinese history (Yuan, Qing, Ming dynasties) five-clawed dragon designs were reserved for representations of the emperor, whereas the four-clawed dragon was used for other nobility. Being a four-clawed dragon would fit Miao Ying’s position in Cathay as a powerful member of the royal family, but still lesser than and in service to the Celestial Dragon Emperor (or the Jade Dragon, serving as regent in their parents’ absence). I have no idea if the designers were thinking about that, but given that I was able to pick that up with 15 minutes of Wikipedia reading, I’d be willing to bet there was intent behind the choice.
The Build
The kit is spread across two large sprues, plus an additional character-sized sprue. For the most part Miao Ying’s human form is confined to the small sprue, although a couple of bits of her base rocks especially do spill over onto the big sprues, so watch out for that.
This is, as with most modern Warhammer kits, a well engineered thing. Despite pretty small contact points the models feel solid on their precarious rock bases, and although she has a slight wobble I didn’t really have any fear that the human version was going to fatigue and break under the force of painting, which is an issue I’ve had with some other kits with optimistic mounting points (Votann Hernkyn Pioneers, in particular). Almost everything slots together with a nice solid fit and clearly defined connection points.
That said, I do have one major gripe with this kit, and that is the instruction manual. The steps for the dragon form are occasionally, to put it mildly, baffling. Broadly, you’re led through building Miao Ying’s head, body, four arms/legs, and tail as separate subassemblies, before finally bringing them together, attaching them to the base and attaching some final armour panels. So far, so good. Where things get a bit mad though is that within each of those subassemblies, there seems to be a complete lack of willingness to do any further sub-assembling, to the point that some things practically feel like they don’t go together. Take an arm for example – you might expect to build the shell of the arm itself, then assemble a hand (Paw? Claw? What do dragons have?) from a few pieces before attaching it to the arm. These instructions instead have you attaching the hand pieces one by one to the arm, with the first piece often having pretty tiny or ill-defined contact points. I tried reading ahead and assembling the hands first then attaching them to the arm afterwards, and it worked fine, so this definitely feels like an instructions layout issue more than an actual fundamental flaw in the kit design.
Overall, it’s not going to ruin your day, but just something that I’d advise you to be aware of if you’re building this kit. Once it’s all together it’s solid, and a beautiful pose. Also – it’s huge! Hopefully the photos convey that, but her dragon form is roughly 7.5”/190mm tall at its highest point.
Painting
This kit is a real painter’s delight, and I think we’re likely to see quite a few of both poses in painting competitions over the next few years. Honestly I think you could easily sink a couple of hundred hours into the pair of models, but needless to say I did not have that much time.
After priming black, I set about with some purples to produce a black to purple gradient on both the dragon’s scales and human Miao Ying’s robes. Purple is definitely the focus colour here, so it’s worth putting in some extra time. On the human form I finished this off with some gentle layering to smooth some transitions, and a couple of edge highlights. On the dragon form I drybrushed all over very gently with a light lilac colour. Once everything was dry I gave it a wash of Black Templar contrast thinned heavily with airbrush thinner (probably at least a 4:1 ratio of thinner:paint). This shades the recesses without tinting too much, and was especially good for adding definition to the dragon.
After that, it’s mostly just details! I took a lot of inspiration from the ‘Eavy Metal scheme without trying to copy it identically, so in places I added a bit more pink, or opted for a bone white rather than cold white for the trim on her robes. I tried to reuse the same bright lilac colour a lot – it’s also the base colour for the freehand on the robe, and the base and layer of the hair. Reusing paints like this is a great tip for making sure a scheme feels consistent, especially for an army project that’s going to be viewed at tabletop.
For the silver armour on the dragon form I think it would really benefit from some time glazing shadows into the lower angled plates, but I decided not to embark on a glazing odyssey with a looming deadline. If I go back to the model at all though, that’ll be the thing I spend some time on as currently I think it’s a little plain for how much it draws the eye.
After that it’s just a nice traditional tufted field base, and she’s ready to bring the might of Grand Cathay to bear on the table. I can’t wait to see what other people do with this kit – if anyone’s brave enough to diverge from the lore-accurate colours, I’d love to see one painted in the super bright colours of some of the traditional representations of Chinese dragons, or the dragon puppets used in festivals and celebrations. Share them with us if you do!
Final Thoughts
Overall, this is a fantastic model. Sure, it was a bit challenging in the build phase, but in my opinion that’s really made up for by the sheer enjoyment to be gleaned from the painting process. A great centrepiece that will be attention-grabbing even on a table full of huge balloons and animated statues.
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