Sunday, February 17, 2013

Dreamforge Leviathan Crusader Built!

Had some time yesterday evening to finish building the exceedingly excellent Dreamforge Games Leviathan Crusader - I have to say that I was completely blown away by this kit. The instructions were very good (with Mark from DFG doing a few updates, they're now spot on), and the pieces all went together like a dream!


There was some odd plastic vents and attachments to the sprues, but 90% of the time they were on nice flat, underside areas that were super easy to trim away clean. I spent a while getting the pose sorted out the way I wanted, then glued everything in place. The arms remain removable by design, and I left full articulation on the shoulder and elbows to allow for future weapon swaps.

  

I think it ended up with a decent sense of ponderous motion - my only nitpick with the kit at all is that the head has no option to rotate side to side - they must look straight ahead, which it a little limiting as far as really dynamic posing is concerned. The more static pose does give it a greater feeling of weight, I suppose...


The final side-by-side shot with my Knight Errant, and a presumably smug tech priest for scale. It's definitely too big to be a Knight in my opinion, I plan on arming it with a second Vulcan and running it using the Warhound.rules. It is roughly the volume of the old Armorcast Warhound after all!

Definitely an awesome kit, I enjoyed building it from start to finish. Now to primer and paint the monster!

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13 comments:

  1. ManusFebruary 17, 2013 at 12:11 PM

    That does look really awesome. Great work.

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  2. Lead LegionFebruary 17, 2013 at 1:38 PM

    Cracking work Mordian. Now let's see it painted!

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  3. the unrealistic artistFebruary 17, 2013 at 1:55 PM

    Wow. Looking forward to the paint job!

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  4. Pick A Damn ArmyFebruary 17, 2013 at 9:54 PM

    That's fantastic, love your ponderous pose! I'm working on the hips for mine right now. I almost felt bad strapping the leg armor over all the great leg detail. I also felt like a medieval page suiting up his knight. :-)

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  5. Pick A Damn ArmyFebruary 17, 2013 at 9:56 PM

    Oh, I meant to ask: how did you glue the pose once you had it where you wanted it? Did you add glue to each hydraulic piston and joint?

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  6. KernbanksFebruary 18, 2013 at 5:42 AM

    I hope they maintained all that detail on the smaller figure...

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  7. Andy - bGFebruary 18, 2013 at 7:05 AM

    That looks absolutely brilliant, I cannot wait for mine to arrive (stupid international shipping times). Very excited to see just how much poseability there is with the different weapons.
    You mention that the arms are left poseable, how does this work, does it require the addition of magnets?

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  8. Mordian7thFebruary 18, 2013 at 8:24 AM

    Thanks folks! I'm definitely looking forward to painting it.

    @Rabidchild: Yes, the friction and screws are enough to hold it in place enough for assembly and posing, but once I was happy with the pose I hit most of the joints with some thin superglue, being careful to do so in unobtrusive places. That sealed it in place well enough, though in retrospect I really should have used plastic glue as the kit recommends. I fear that at this scale, superglue's bond is a bit too brittle.

    @Andy - bG: The arms are held in place with a rotating tab-and-socket attachment (similar to Guard tank turrets). No magnets required! One thing that I've found now that I've primered it though - tape off the mounting points before the primer stage. They fit snugly enough that the extra thickness of the primer caused me some grief when attempting to re-assemble. I had to sand the primer off of the tab and slots in order to get it to rotate freely. Doh!



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  9. Occupy TerraFebruary 18, 2013 at 12:38 PM

    I feel like the Knight was too short, although that's also true of the Warhound and Reaver. They should be a bit bigger, and I think this is about right for the size of a knight titan relative to an astartes.

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  10. Mordian7thFebruary 19, 2013 at 10:45 AM

    I go back and forth with my feelings on scale in 40k. It's understood that the vehicles are a bit smaller than they ought to be (no way 10 marines and their gear fit in a Rhino), and while i do like the idea of "true scale" marines, there comes a point where "true scaling" larger vehicles become ungainly on the tabletop (unless you're playing Apocalypse on a massive table). I'm pretty happy with the Knight scale on the 120mm base, it's supposed to have one 'rider' who essentially stands in the chest cavity, unlike their full sized titan bretheren who have two or more crewmen who sit down in the head. The Crusader sort of straddles the line for me. Too big to fit my idea of a knight, but too small to fit my idea of a full-on Titan.

    Nevertheless, a thoroughly fun kit to build!

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  11. LuckGodFebruary 20, 2013 at 6:34 AM

    That looks amazing! Great update, I look forward to seeing how it progresses with painting.

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  12. Mark MondragonFebruary 20, 2013 at 6:20 PM

    Thank you! Linked on my blog.

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  13. Mordian7thFebruary 21, 2013 at 8:35 AM

    @LuckGod: I appreciate it, hoping to get some paint on it this coming weekend - pics to follow!

    @Mark Mondragon: No, thank YOU! This was one of the most fun kits I've build in recent memory. Bravo!

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