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| Forge World's take on the Horus Heresy keeps getting better and better. |
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In case you were still uncertain of Games Workshop/Forge World’s most talented sculptor, Simon Egan’s next masterpiece was just revealed on Forge World’s website, a battle scene depicting the faithful dual between Garviel Loken and Ezekyle Abaddon. It has only been a few months after his stunning vision of Angron, Primarch of the World Eater was released, showing the world that Forge World’s ambition to recreate the the Sires of the founding Space Marine legions was not one of misguided arrogance.
Egan’s strongest talent is probably his ability to sculpt unique, emotion filled faces. Rather than simply recycling one of the over-used space marine unhelmeted heads, Loken and Abaddon's faces were sculpted to be genuinely unique (like Angron, both even have eyebrows sculpted!). The anger he has crafted into each of them is remarkable. Thankfully, both of their heads are actually to scale and not comically large (unlike the new World Eater Rampager squad...).
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| Korydae, Lugft Huron, Angron, Garviel Loken, and Ezekyle Abaddon, all Egan's work. |
Both Abaddon’s Cataphractii terminator armour and Lokan’s Mk IV power armour was entirely resculpted; although subtle, the armour is slightly broader than the normal versions offered by Forge World, making them even more imposing. Further, Egan takes pains to accurately proportion each component of the characters’ armor. This is particularly evident when you come compare his Space Marines with some of the Space Marine releases from Games Workshop and Forge World in the past. Several sculptors have a tendency to make Space Marine legs too narrow and/or short (very evident with Forge World’s MK IV Maximus Armour). On top of his attention to proportions, Egan also has an eye for detail and manages to incorporate a wealth armor embellishments to each of the characters’, making their suits of armour unique. Each of the wide and layered armour plates are edged by fine trim and covered with the Eye of Horus and other iconography (I love the tiny leather straps and buckles on the breastplate of Loken’s armour). Even more impressive, he manages to incorporate all these elements of detail with such care that the they do not clutter the model and actually seem like natural extensions of each figure.
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| Ezekyle Abaddon, First Captain of the Sons of Horus and Master of the Justaerin. |
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| Garviel Loken, former Captain of the 10th Company of the Luna Wolves Legion. |
To fit with the hatred evident in the models' faces, their poses are suitably dynamic. Loken is charging forward, Tigrus bolt pistol outstretched, directly into the midst of a taunting/challenging Abaddon. Along with his bolt pistol, Loken has an impressive looking double handed chain blade (Paragon Blade), while Abaddon has a brutal looking powerfist (with pointed fingers) and either a combi-bolter or a simple and elegant power blade.
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| In addition to the sword, you also get a combi-bolter (to reflect his in-game wargear). |
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| He even has an impressive cape! |
Like with Angron, the new kit retains the slotted scenic base design, allowing each model to be removed and used in games when not showcasing their confrontation (Loken on a 20mm and Abaddon a 40mm base). It too comes in an impressive black box stenciled simply with "The Horus Heresy" in silver. Unfortunately, the models come at a very high price of 55 pounds (around $83). The high price will be inhibitory to many people, even in a hobby as expensive as this one. In the end I feel it is worth it, as I think they are some of the nicest models I have ever seen, in any miniature game (the only model that I think rivals them is Angron, ha ha).
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| A nice view of the slotted scenic base. |
Humorously, the parts shown in this box are for Angron...
If you would like to hear a bit more about the design process, Forge World put up a short interview with Simon Egan on their youtube channel. And while it is pretty short and not that much is revealed, I am pleased that Forge World realizes how special the models are and that people are interested in the design process (I know I certainly am).
-Godwyn Fischig
This is a really great review that touches on the key elements of the models, keep up the good work man. They really did a wonderful job with this particular scene, I am not ashamed to say I am a massive Loken fanboy and it is brilliant to see the emotion present in the scene itself. It does a good job of reflecting how I imagine the scene "in Galaxy in Flames" and it also does a great job of showing how they both feel about having to fight.
ReplyDeleteWe can see that Loken's bruised and bloodied, as opposed to his opponent who is raring to go, but a curious feature is the look of desperation with the slightly hollow cheeks of Loken. It conveys the full shock of what is happening, as well as gives an insight as to how devastated and angry he is over Tarik.
Thanks for the comment and checking out the blog!
DeleteIt is models like this that keep me coming back to Warhammer. The ability to capture so much vitality in such small models is astounding. And with the added benefit that many of these characters have rather extensive back-stories through GW lore or more recently the Black Library, just makes them all the more meaningful.
I agree that Egan did a fantastic job conveying Loken's shock at the magnitude of the the Betrayal.
Oh, and perhaps you saw, but we have another post unboxing the actual models, that has a lot of more detailed pictures of both Loken and Abaddon:
http://betweenthebolterandme.blogspot.com/2013/03/horus-heresy-unboxing-abaddon-and-loken.html