Minis Week in Review: Kommander Harkevich and Black Ivan, Storm of Magic

This week is Khador’s week, as Kommander Harkevich and his partner in Jack-wrecking crime Black Ivan are previewed in Privateer Press’ home page. Games Workshop also has Storm of Magic, some teasers on a new Warhammer Fantasy releasing in a few months.

Kommander Harkevich has been catching a lot of flak on the interwebz; and while I hate to agree with doomsayers and forum hate, I do have to admit that they have some merit. I generally don’t mind the model, but a few things stand out for me: Firstly, the level of detail and items he has is ok, but I find them aethetically opposed; the cap and his beard seem more ‘mechanik’, but don’t match with the more military accoutrements on his armor (but then again maybe his fluff will explain it all so I await the Wrath book to get my comeuppance). Secondly, his pose is a bit silly. Which might be due to pracitcal mold making reasons (sad but sometimes unavoidable). What really gets my goat is his weird mace thingy. I can imagine them channeling a tetsubo look (check out Guildwars for a fictional version) but considering these maces are two handed the pose issue comes into play again. I am likely to get him, but I’m also likely to see if I can fix him with some hacking and greenstuff.

I’m similarly undecided about Black Ivan. The idea is cool, the wrecking claw is cool, but for some reason the whole aesthetic isn’t gelling for me. I know in Soviet Khador bigger is always better but the mouthplate and wrecking claw seem inordinately oversized. I’ll buy the kit, but I don’t know if I’m going to use it, or just scratchbuild my own Black Ivan and use the bits for my Orks.

PP have also rereleased their Banethralls. These look great, but so did the original, so other than an update in sculpt, they don’t really do much for me. Plus, they cost the same (more or less) as the originals. Awesome models, but nothing to write home about. When are they gonna redo the winterguard??!

On to Games Workshop, the Storm of Magic expansion reminds me of a Fantasy version of 40k’s spearhead/apocalypse. Lots of giant monsters, prepped by the giant monster releases of the Warsphinx, Arachnarok and the like, encouraging people to buy the monster kits. I love me my giant monsters, but I don’t like being ‘convinced’ to buy them as a gaming necessity, so I’m taking a cautious ‘wait and see’ attitude to this. Maybe they also want to convince the gamers to give more money to Forgeworld?

Especially with more daemons again. Forgeworld have previewed Sayl the Faithless and Nightmaw, a paired set, as well as a Tamurkhan on his Toad Dragon. Tamurkhan seems like a normal (well normal enough by demonic standards) dude, but his Toad Dragon actually looks pretty menacing (rather than just boringly gribbly as is the wont of some Chaos entities).

And that’s it for this week! I’m pretty sure PP will be showing us some more Battle Engines in a day or two though…