Review: Abyssal Dwarf Halfbreeds from Mantic Games

The artwork on the box

Since I have been working on different manufacturers' products recently, I thought it is time for another review post. Today, I have Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf Halfbreeds under the spotlight. When they were announced, I was so excited that I went on and preordered not one but two boxes of these guys. That was the very first preorder I have ever placed. Yeah, I'm a n00b, so what...? :)

I will try to follow my review method here, with occasional comments in the last section.

Packaging:
The miniatures come in Mantic's usual hard plastic box. The artwork on the box is consistent with the rest of the product line and wrapped with cellophane. I find Mantic's packaging very good for all their products and there is no surprise here. The only thing that caught my eye is that the Mantic Point for this box is located on the backside of the box. Before, the Mantic Points were made as stickers and thrown into the box, now you have to tear the cellophane and cut the point from the artwork on the box.

Score: 9.5/10

Contents:

Unboxing...

Let's open the box and have a peek. Here are the contents:

• Two packs of bits (all plastic)
• Ten 25x50mm (cavalry) bases on sprues
• Four-page Mantic brochure
• Protective foams

As advertised on the box, each box has just enough bits to make 10 halfbreeds. There are no extra bits provided and that means there are no bits to build command troops. The surprising thing for me here was even the head bits are made of plastic. All the head bits except one are the same with the abyssal dwarfs infantries' heads and they were metal. I wonder if Mantic will change them to plastics too.

A quick word about the equipment options: The weapons they carry are great weapons and there are no other weapon options nor any shields.

Another point worth noting is the base sizes. If you are planning to use these ones as bull centaurs for you Legion of Azgorh army, you'll need 50x75mm bases. Just keep that in mind.

Score: 7.5/10

Quality:

All the bits

Brace yourself Mantic, harsh criticisms coming... Even though I admire Mantic's work and advocate their products all the time, I have to say that they seem to have botched this time. The bits have horrible amounts of flash and they cannot be removed easily. The mold lines are awkward, because they go through areas which have details on them, which makes them harder to get rid of. Last, but not the least, you cannot just glue the parts together, due to the gaps between the bits. The size of those gaps are abnormally big for a plastic kit and I had to use stuffing to make them disappear. You can see the size of the gaps in the photos at the end of the post. They are huge!

After all these smack-down, I must say that they don't totally suck. Each miniature is built by using 5-6 parts and an occasional bit to place under the hoofs to make them stand still. There is a huge room for conversions for these guys. With a few bits lying around in your bitz box, you can turn them to whatever you want.

The detail level is the same Mantic level; but you have to free them from the mold lines first. Why Mantic, why...?

Score: 3/10

Price:

This box currently retails for £15.99 at Wayland Games, which I think is an awesome price. Games Workshop's old bull centaurs sell for almost an arm and a leg on eBay and at £1.60 per mini, these miniatures are a decent alternative here.

Score: 10/10

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OVERALL SCORE: 6.5/10 

The average of the scores tells 6.5 out of 10; but if you are too obsessed with details or don't want to deal with cleaning or stuffing your minis, this kit is definitely not for you. 

Maybe the most important factor that will influence your decision here though, is the scale of the miniatures. They are the same scale with the GW's old bull centaurs and Mantic's abyssal half breed lord as you can see from the photos. However, they are nowhere near Forge World's newly released bull centaurs. You will not be able to mix-match them with FW ones, for the FW ones will tower over them. But if you already have painted GW's or Mantic's minis like me, this kit will serve you well.

Here is a quick summary for your convenience:

+ Good price

+ Decent packaging 

+ Nice alternative for GW's old bull centaurs

- The scale (Forge World's bull centaurs completely dwarf them)

- No extra bits, no command bits, lack of 75x50mm bases

- Lack of equipment options

- Not the best quality miniatures, too much hassle to build

I have a couple of them on my workbench right now. I will post painted photos of them soon. Below are a couple of size comparison shots though. Enjoy...

 

Comparison with Mantic's Halfbreed lord

Comparison with GW's bull centaurs

Painting on the Move

"More light!"

Real life issues suck, plain and simple. I have been doing lots of traveling for almost a month now due to work and trainings. As you can guess, it takes its toll from the time I spend in my workshop. Luckily, I was quick to invent ways to paint on the move, like my good friend Mr. Lee did. As you can see from the photo on the right, I sometimes went for the extreme...

During my travels, my destination is Istanbul. The biggest advantage I had was that my company has rented an apartment in Istanbul. It is easy to customize the apartment for my needs and there are no cleaning ladies waiting to toss your stuff into trash or stash them in someplaces. Big win! Hopefully I won't be traveling for some time now though. Fingers crossed...

So anyways, I have some stuff to show you. Since I have been living a roving life, the products are also different from each other. Firstly, I have a couple of bull centaurs: A standard bearer and a musician. My eBaying skills could not earn me any command guys, I had to convert my own ones. The base model is Mantic's Abyssal Half-Breed Lord for both of the conversions, with various bits from WoC boxes. I tried glow effects on the standing stone beside the standard bearer; but you will be the judge of that.

Next, some more infantries, 5 more to be precise. Nothing fancy here, except that I placed them on a regiment base. You know that I am suffering from ranking up issues and this might just be the way to solve it in style. Also, when gaming, they generally don't die or die in droves (damn I or die spells), so it won't be much of a problem in games. I am planning on doing more of them in the future. Oh, also, I have to mention that I finally gave in and went on to buy Vallejo's Black Lava and used them on the bases of the infantries and the bull centaurs. That stuff looks -and smells- like olive paste (a very low quality one that is). I used them to provide some texture on the lava parts of the base. From the photos you can see the difference between the bases of the wolf rider and the other bases. I think i will be using that stuff from now on.

Lastly, there's a test model for Hobgoblin Wolf Raiders. No conversions there, just the good old Wolf Riders of Games Workshop. The painting schema was originally from Mr. Lee; but I modified it a little to achieve the look I was looking for. Let me know what you think...

So that's pretty much it. For those who are interested in bull centaurs, I have to tell you that Mantic's Half-Breeds are in pre-order currently. Their pricing is a steal at 2GBP/model, so I advise you to check them.

Here be photos...

Battle Standard Bearer: Every Army Needs One

Here is one of my last ditch efforts to make it to the IzmirCon tournament: The BSB...

As you might already know, there are no BSB models for The Legion of Azgorh list yet. This is both a curse and a blessing as you need to convert your own mini, spending money and time in the process. But in the end it is worth it. Well, sometimes at least...

Before selecting the base model for my BSB, I considered a few options. Since the model is expected to carry a big fat banner, the most important factor here was the pose of the miniature. One of the alternatives I thought was Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf King model. Another one was Enigma Miniatures' Toktien model. For both of them, it would have been the same steps: Cut the weapon, give them the banner instead, done.

Instead I went for another miniature: Hasslefree Miniatures' Kain. With this model is the base, I went on with the same steps above for him first. Then, in an effort to "chaosify" him more, I added a couple of horns and a chaos shield from Games Workshop's bits. The banner itself is also a GW bit, of chaos knights' I believe.

I tried to to some freehand on the banner; but just couldn't make it, so left it like that. Maybe if I get a solid idea, I might get cracking and try it, who knows.

Below are some pictures, including a size comparison with Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf Immortal Guard miniature. Enjoy...

War Machines Rock!

All wargamer would know that, although painting infantries is fun at the start to try out new color schemes and stuff, it can quickly get boring after you manage to get a sizeable unit ready. Well, that's what's happened here on my side and I went for a change ::drumroll:: A WAR MACHINE!

Big surprise, eh? A dwarf army and a war machine... Well, let me just say that I have more under my sleeve and I'll share them with you soon; but for now, yes, it's a war machine.

This one is from Mantic Games again, the one which they call Katsuchan Rocket Launcher; but I'll be using it as a Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher in my Chaos Dwarf army. First, let me talk about the model a little.

Like all of Mantic's Abyssal Dwarfs line, these miniatures are also hybrid ones. So, you'll be doing conversion work again. The crew miniatures are built using the "normal" dwarf crew miniatures, with adding chaosy headwear to them. Also, there are only two crew miniatures per war machine, so I needed to use one of the infantries from the army box to make it three. But don't worry, apart from the body, there are enough bits to make a third crew miniature.

The war machine itself is a little more different in origin. The chassis is from the Balefire Catapult of Mantic's Undead line, with metal conversion bits again. This time I have no complaints though, since the bits really make the war machine look different than what it was and cool at the same time. Also, the bits fit very well to where they are supposed to go. Decent job Mantic, ::cough:: this time...

The painting stage of the miniatures was very easy. I used the very same color scheme with the rest of my army mostly. I kinda regret that there were wooden parts on the war machine though. I would have preferred to have an all-metal one which would be more fitting for a Chaos Dwarf force; but in the end, meh is all I can say.

When building the base, I wanted to have all the miniatures to be able to sit comfortably on it. Now when I look at it, I think I went extreme there, with the base is about 90mm square, oops... :) Not entirely happy with it and will definitely try and make it smaller when I build the second one.

Just for the sake of completeness, I'd like to make a note that there are also three more infantries finished, to increase the size of the infantries to 24. Decent size to be fielded in small games, so I have no complaints there either.

So, all and all, I have my very first war machine ready to serve Hashut's will. And it rocks, as in rock-it launcher. And yes, I can do word jokes in English too. Or so I think... Anyways, have some photos here:

Starting a Chaos Dwarf Army

With the new Forge World book, Tamurkhan The Throne of Chaos is out now, I am one of the jumpers on the bandwagon to collect a Chaos Dwarf army.

The Tamurkhan book is a campaign book actually; but there is a Chaos Dwarf army list called The Legion of Azgorh, which is a sanctioned army list and can be used in tournaments and such. Encouraged by that, I went on to buy a couple boxes of Mantic Games's Abyssal Dwarfs army deal. This product line is essentially Mantic's regular dwarfs, plus some metal, "chaosy" bits to make them Abyssal Dwarfs. I didn't know that when I bought them and was very surprised to see Mantic, making me to convert their minitures; but you can only build & paint what's put before you, so, who cares... :)

From those boxes, I had 60 infantries, 20 ranged guys and 2 warmachines with 2 crew each. Not a big number actually, especially when you think that you can get almost twice this number of miniatures if you buy regular dwarfs. I think including metal bits took its toll there.

Anyways, that was a quick review of the Mantic miniatures. I will be posting what I do with them soon.