Monday 7 May 2012

A Necron Ghost Ark Model Review



Good evening minions of the pestilent one and thank you for joining me once again in the dark recesses of his domain. I apologise that we have not made many offerings of late, this is down to playing 40k & Warhammer Quest as well as working on my Thunder Wolf Cavalry model for the 9th.

As part of building my Necron force I have recently confronted the Ghost Ark model and it is a beast. This is a review on my experience of building the Ghost Ark kit and not a review of its use in game.

When I unboxed the kit it came on three large sprues that were crammed with parts and each part was numbered which concerned me a little as while I like large amount of parts I personally feel the Necrons seem to have gone the path of "forced dynamic poses" where if you only have 5 models then it is ok as they all have a different pose. Though when you get a few kits together you have the same 5 poses repeated unless you spend time converting them to be different as part A must go with part B and never mixed with C.


Now as I got into it my fears were confirmed as while there were some repeat parts things such as the Warriors in the racks had different harness numbers which didn't look any different at a casual glance though at least their necks were attached unlike the pilot. This may seem a small thing but why have a 3mm cubed piece of plastic not attached to body?

I was impressed with the amount of parts and the clear instructions it came with which have improved significantly from the warrior instructions on the side of the battle force. However these improved instructions have the warning signs that this is a model first and a game piece second as there are multiple stop points which suggest you paint what you have assembled so far.

They are sensible places to stop such as painting the warriors before placing on the ship though one is part way through building the helm. So you need to make a decision as to if you want to make sure this is painted up while you have ease of access or if you want to use the £30+ transport. This way lead to a new era of buying one model and painting it before using it and I sincerely hope it does but I for one kept I have mine in two sections to paint while still being usable in the mean time.

Please do not get me wrong this is not a bad thing as on models such as Rhinos if it said "stop to paint the inside before glueing the roof on" there would be less glued shut in anger are not being able to paint the console how they wanted.

Overall this is a very good model kit and unfortunately I feel that means you do need to treat it as you would any other model rather than a game piece and paint it before you use it otherwise you'll have difficulty getting to the fiddly parts and there are a lot of them. Also it comes on the old style flying bases which break too easily and it is not a small model being closer to a Land Raider than a Rhino foot print wise due to length and the outward facing flayers.

Until next time drink deep from the cauldron of Nurgle and accept his blessings into your life.

O'Shashar

3 comments:

  1. Sounds a nightmare to build, never been a fan of things you need to paint before building but its coming clearer as more models come out that this is starting to be the case.

    Painting one at a time could be a double edged sword, it might mean you get it done out of necessity to play, or most likely just mean the old taucrons come into play forever since you dont have the painting time.

    Either way nice to see another getting done, just need the cases now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hopefully get more done as go along though my Thunderwolf is almost done just the riders face and base to go.

    cases are needed though depending how much more I get for WHQ might be next months big spend.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...