Forge World's Eldar Lynx Build Guide

One of my local gaming clubs has a bunch of Apocalypse games planned for the summer so I picked up this Eldar Super-heavy at Salute.

It is not the heaviest of heavies. Its slightly smaller and less expensive, both in points and currency, than a Cobra. But it still packs a mean punch, with a choice of either a two-shot Destroyer cannon or an apocalyptic template D-weapon. It only has two structure points, but its Titan holo-fields give it a decent Invulnerable or Cover Save each time it moves. But what's it like tto build?

Turns out, pretty easy. Its a nice straightforward kit with a minimum of parts, most of which are easily removed from their sprues. There's lots of big flat surfaces to glue together as well, so you end up with a fairly solid little tank. Apart from the antennae, but we'll get to them later. Also note this is the Pulsar version of the Lynx. Construction for the Sonic Lance version might vary, but likely only in the shape of a couple of the components.

So it looks like there's a lot of stuff in the bag the Lynx comes in. And clearly some of the parts are likely to be warped. Boiled water does the job of straightening out things like the cannon barrel and wing tips, so no big deal.

 You're probably going to start with the main fuselage. Its three large chunks of resin and they all slot together nicely.

 I recommend adding the weapon power plant and the engines next, before the control flaps/jets on either side. This is because when you are applying pressure to the engine parts, waiting for the glue to dry, you will likely be tempted to brace your fingers against the side of the tank, making pulling those flaps off again if the glue there isn't perfectly dry.

When you glue the engines on though, the two long ones go in the inside positions on each side, the shorter ones on the outside. There are tabs at the base of the engine components to guide their alignment, though you may need to trim them a little for a smooth fit. And yes, I did cut my thumb open while making this kit ><

 Here's the control surfaces at the left side of the tank. You can see the shorter piece goes to the front, the longer at the rear. Mine were a little warped, something I didn't notice until I had glued them on, so check yours and heat-treat if needed.

 The main weapon comes in two parts. A power plant type thingy for the back end. Again, there is a tab that may need trimming.

And the main pulsar barrel at the front. Another tab to make sure it is aligned properly.

 The kit also comes with four warp vanes/antennae. There are two long and two short. I suppose you could put them pretty much wherever you want and there's probably some scope for artistic interpretation there. I prefer to just stick mine on like the ones on the Forge World site though, so its the long ones in the middle and the short ones on the outside surfaces.

Make no mistake though; these vanes are tied for worst part of this whole kit. As they are resin, they are almost guaranteed to be warped when you get them and furthermore brittle and incredibly prone to snapping. I mean really prone to snap. I've definitely snapped three of them with only light pressure. Its going to make transporting this thing a pain in the bum, :( So be very very careful with them, or use spare plastic ones if you have them.

The only part of the kit that rivals the vanes in the Bad Design awards has to be the stand. For this large chunk of expensive resin you get: a standard 40mm flying base. There is a hole drilled in the base of the tank, but if you insert the stand into it the tank does not balance and just lists to one side. Maybe I got unlucky and got a Lynx with an over-drilled hole, but I doubt it. I have instead magnetised the base and the stand so its now nice and solidly attached.

Thats it for the construction. I forgot to take a picture of the secondary weapon mount, but its fairly obvious where it attaches below the cockpit. You only get the shuriken cannon option in the kit though, so, if you're playing a really strict game of Apocalypse, where WYSIWYG is observed, you might want to mod this bit before deploying.

Next: the painted model and battle report.

Review/Build of Scibor Celtic Warriors

I have been running two Rune Priests in my Wolves army recently but using other models as proxies. GW do do a reasonable 'official' model and it wouldn't be too hard to scratch build one from spares. But Scibor also do some pretty awesome looking resin models...

Here's a few pictures and some tips on assembling Celtic Warrior and Celtic Warrior #2
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 Here's what you get in the clamshell for Warrior 2. A nice scenic base, the body is one cast, and the right arm comes in three parts.

 Its not entirely compatible with GW's range of parts and models. The Scbior figures come with this rotary fan backpack, for example.

 All it took was trimming about a millimeter off the fan with a craft knife though, and a stock marine pack fits on quite neatly.

 The arm glues together quite easily too. Its important to have an idea of orientation before going to glue though. There are no guide marks like you might get on a Privateer Press model.

 Moving on to Warrior. This guy comes in four parts - the base, the body, and a sprue each for the arms. You might want to keep the arms separate until the glue is dry though as, again, there is no guide or mark to identify otherwise which shoulder pad goes with which shoulder.

 Is it a coincidence that the rifle the model carries is the weakest part of the whole sculpt? Well, maybe, maybe not, but its coming off. I chose to cut around the hanging talisman and then through the wrist to remove the gun.

  

Then a fist with a pistol was glued on to the stump.

The small number of parts and generally high quality of the casts made building and converting the Scibor models to GW style was really really quick and easy. The whole process took about half an hour. There are a few things to look out for though.

I was generally very impressed with the quality of the minis. Once the parts were carved off their sprues there was very little trimming to be done of excess flash. Zero mold-lines. And there were almost no bubbles. Warrior 2 was in fact free of them. Warrior did have a few little holes though. One on his right thumb, one on the haft of his axe and one on the underside of the butt of the same axe. I have used glue to fill them rather than greenstuff as they were all quite small and inconspicuous.

Aside from that, it is very important to use a sharp knife and lots of care when removing parts from the blocks of resin. The shoulder pads in particular are very firmly attached to the sprues. The thick resin was quite hard to cut through. This then means lots of force which means a greater risk of over-cutting both the model's parts and your own. Frankly I'm lucky not to have cut my thumb open last night.

In summary then, the two Scibor models I built and converted last night were of very high quality. Converting them to Space Wolf models is about as simple as it could be. The casts are great quality - both artistically and in production. These models will be a great addition to my Space Wolf army. Some care is need when cutting parts though.

I have added a few purity seals and nicknacks to the models and primed them. Later on I'll post some pictures of the painting.