Huge thanks to Games Workshop for providing our team with Abraxia’s Varanspear for review.
When vague rumblings of a Daemonic queen leading armies of Chaos came up in Dawnbringers V, I thought for sure we were seeing a return of Valkia the Bloody. Imagine my surprise and delight when we didn’t just get a refreshed old character, but a wholly new and entirely badass newcomer. Enter Abraxia, Spear of the Everchosen, Archaon’s semi-trustworthy right-hand woman and foremost among the Varanguard. She arrives in the Abraxia’s Varanspear box alongside a trio of Varanguard. I won’t be reviewing those models today, as they go back to The End Times and we want to focus on what’s new today.
Assembly
The hour and 15 minutes or so I spent building Abraxia were mostly spent hunting for the next bit I needed. As she’s crammed onto two small sprues, her pieces are all over the place, and the layout is not especially friendly. Once you actually start sticking pieces together, it’s a mix of chunky, sturdy assemblies and the sort of hollow “meat tornado” construction one might be used to from the Daemon Prince. I had one moment where the central body of her mount, Thanatorg, collapsed in on itself, but I was able to right it and cover up any problems with the armor. Speaking of hiding problems, almost every seam is hidden by scales or armor, save for a few on the monster’s back. As much as I don’t like the sprue layout, the actual engineering of this kit is pretty excellent. The only option is an admittedly very cool helmeted head for Abraxia that I didn’t use here, but it won’t go to waste. Some Chaos Lord down the line will be getting a fancy hat for sure.
Painting
I would never say “this model almost paints itself!” or anything so easily disproven, but I found painting Abraxia to be easy and genuinely enjoyable in a way many hyperdetailed centerpiece models aren’t. Her base was just a combination of washes, drybrushes, and a couple selective applications of Contrast. Some cut up corks, snow flock, a 3D printed stump, and some twigs from my yard made up the rest. I wish I left her off the ruins so I could more easily paint the underbelly of Thanatorg, but it meant I could more easily hold the model on my XL painting handle. She popped off a couple times and one of the dorsal spikes on Thanatorg got damaged, but that’s kinda par for the course with Chaos models.
Thanatorg was a really fun monster to paint. I started from Gal Vorbak Red and worked my way up from burgundy into magenta, mixing in pinks and pale flesh tones for the scales and underbelly/Chaos Cutiemark respectively. I was very loosey goosey with it, as I wanted to keep things organic and avoid edge highlighting every single scale twice, as is my typical practice. I gave him blue eyes to tie him into the general color this army uses for “magic” and glazed blue around the eyelids to tie those in and look bruised. Honestly, he was easier to paint than your average Varanguard mount, as there’s no weird mouths or mutations to speak of – just scales, teeth, and horns.
In stature and painting complexity, Abraxia herself is about on par with your average Chaos Chosen. It was easy to paint the shield separately and pop that on after the fact. I simply mounted the chunk of sprue containing the shield on a base and painted it on its own. The only real tricky part is painting around her cape and accursed spear, Gorbolga. I nearly snapped the spear off while handling the model, and much like the spikes on the back of Thanatorg, it’s fairly fragile. I opted for the bare head so there was another focal point, and tied her horn color in with those of her mount.
Final Thoughts, Parting Shots, and What Have You
Abraxia has the dubious honor of being maybe the third most imposing centerpiece in the Slaves to Darkness range, but also the one that I think is most approachable for a less experienced hobbyist to paint. This is by no means a slight on the miniature; if you can’t tell I absolutely adore this model and loved my time working on it. Sometimes you want a centerpiece model that doesn’t need its own carrying case, and Abraxia absolutely fits the bill. I just wish I enjoyed painting Varanguard half as much as I liked painting her!
If you have questions, feedback, or you just want to share what your malevolent plans for Slaves to Darkness will be in the new edition, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
