Rockfish: This guy has enough pieces to make you think it’s a full normal kit, until you notice the pegs and sockets of course. Nothing too terrible about the build though, despite how intimidating it could be from number of parts if this is someone’s first time building a model it should still go well as everything goes together well. The only caveat is that you gotta be careful with the cable from the wrist computer to the blood capsule as mine snapped in the middle while pushing the model together.

Worth calling out that you aren’t committed to their basing detail as the model is fully rendered separate from it, so making it match your existing basing scheme shouldn’t be too hard if you can find a suitable hero rock for the raised foot.

Rockfish: I have a very mixed opinion of this model, it’s absolutely fantastic compared to the last time they did a ETB dread but it’s still… a bit plain? That might be a bit too mean as I still really like the model because its a cool loadout that is well detailed, but without limbs to reposition you might find a bit of repetition settling in if you were to do multiple. This isn’t helped by the pose they give you out of the box, which is entirely functional and looks way better in person then then previews imply, still it’s just kinda standing there. Just one last minor thing to nitpick, but I think the lil skull on the chest plate eagle kinda goofy.

The build is pretty good like everything in the box, everything went together smoothly and it makes wish the multipose dreads armor plates were like this rather then a bunch of small pieces that inevitably have a gap. You could probably pose the torso by clipping the peg that sticks up from the legs to reposition the upper body, but that and rotating the weapons up and down are the extent of customizability.

If you’ve painted a brutalis or redemptor before you won’t really find any surprises here once you start getting the paint on, everything is nicely accessible and well rendered so you won’t have any trouble there. I had the minor issue that there wasn’t really anywhere that I wanted to put my salamanders flame motifs, you could do the entire side armor ‘wings’ as if they were shoulder pads but I was worried that would be too much black particularly with the weapon casings right there. This is very much a me problem though, and isn’t really anything to complain about.

Soggy: I’m a very simple creature who loves chonky bois, so I’m happy to see a new flavour of Redemptor. As the others have mentioned the ETB pose on this one is a bit stale, but I’m sure we will see a fancier kit within the year. One incredibly minor point to note is that as is the arms aren’t  directly interchangeable with other Redemptor Dreadnoughts – the tab on the shoulder of the older models needs to be removed.

Jack: Lovely model, but not particularly sub-assembleable – which means painting the cape is a pain. Fortunately he doesn’t have to be on the hero rock base, though feet have a 1mm height difference. I don’t like the iron halo. The peg for the head is annoying to clip out, but once you do so it’s easy to swap a different head in.

Liam: Yeah this guy rocks, but is kind of annoying to build – I found his fit to his hero rock tight, in a way that made him surprisingly difficult to jam onto it. There’s also just a lot going on here, painting-wise, between all the bullshit he has attached to him and the dead Tyranid on his base. Still, he’s worth it.

SRM: Your mileage may vary with the dead Tyranid bits on this guy’s base, but with a bit of elbow grease you can put him on a different piece of Hero Rubble to make him suit your army’s narrative. I fortunately was able to put him on a scrap 32mm base while painting, letting me get up into his cape, which is otherwise a challenge on a base so large. Assembling him is a bizarre experience; the arms sit on pegs with these big hoops, and get locked into place by the pauldrons. His head pegs in, but some deft clipper/knife work you can dig that peg out and put your own head of choice in there. I went with Helbrecht’s helmet after seeing a few Templar-flavored Photoshop mockups float around the Internet. I also removed his Iron Halo and replaced it with the dead dude from the Black Templar Marshal kit, and added a few Templar bits to what is already a pretty blinged-out model. I wouldn’t want every dude in an army to have this much going on, but for a Marshal, I think it was fitting.

Rockfish: Fitting for being a battleline unit, these are fast to build with straightforward poses and a reasonable number of details for a basic set of dudes. If there is anything to be mentioned about them, it would probably be that they do have a feel that they exist mostly to serve as a means of getting a Tacticus armoured troop like unit into the box. They look great and I love a another source of flamers for my salamanders but you gotta admit they kinda feel like a kitbash of the intercessor box with a lot of leftover flamers.

Rockfish: I quite like this model on its own terms, but where you can get away with de-nidifying the rest of the models in the box without too much trouble, there’s absolutely no way around it with this guy. Ride hell or highwater, this guy is committed to murdering Tyranids, between the trophies on the model itself and the foot being split between his leg and the dead Neuroloid, getting rid of it all will really be a bit of a challenge if you are the sort not to like having anything opposing faction specific on their models.

I will admit the build on this guy is a bit worse then the other models, nothing too terrible but the right arm didn’t feel very secure so I’m not sure if it will stay without glue. There were also a few steps where you really had to both apply force and jiggle the various parts of the model to get all the gaps to close.

Rockfish: These are a great example of how far we’ve come since the ETBs of 8th ed with their stiff poses and minimal details. Each is pretty well packed with every kind of visual interest you can think of, veteran honors, spare mags, even slings that go across multiple pieces.

Jack: 🍆Great models, paint up super easily. Only thing to watch out for is if you’re painting the helmets separately, as each one goes with a specific body. Either mark them or clip the pegs as you’re building so it doesn’t matter as much.

Rockfish:

Rockfish: I am not entirely sure I was sane when I decided I was going to get every marine model in the box done in time for this article, but hey, I managed it. The biggest complaint I might have about the box as a whole is that there is maybe a relatively weak theming going on here, there’s the terminators and friends block, but nothing else really ties together or feels like it might be a force fighting together. There isn’t a firebase the dreadnaught is chilling with, the Lt is off on his lonesome doing cool dude shit, the Sternguard and Infernus bros can kinda be part of the forward line I suppose, but the Apothecary Biologis? He just took the wrong bus and now is trying to get along with the people at the party he gatecrashed by accident and is wishing he had some gravis buddies to drink with.

I would say this is far more of a expansion to a existing army rather then the start, everything in the box slots in with some unit or group of models in my collection, but they don’t really make sense as a core to anything other then the termi blob. Doesn’t break the fact that they are all fantastic models and it makes the box worth picking up just for that, just go into it with the expectation that you will need to fill in some glaring gaps.

Tyranids

Every release box has to have Space Marines, and it also has to have something for Space Marines to fight. This time around they’re up against the forces of the Great Devourer, as the Tyranids bring a variety of re-imagined classics and brand new bugs to bear.

Rockfish has, as ever, painted pretty much all of this. Corrode has built lots of them, so also has thoughts on the models, and Pendulin is brush-in-hand, not sleeping, frantically painting these bugs even as this article goes live. What a lad.

I almost managed to finish the whole box, but alas the last sprue of termagants and ripper was too much -Rockfish

Barbgaunts

Pendulin: Of everything in the Leviathan launch box, I was looking forward to these the most. Something about their stance gives me the vibe of a pack mule, some nightmarish beast of burden, saddled with an unbearable weapon almost as large as they are. And the model does not disappoint.

Liam: For some reason these completely passed me by in the preview posts – not helped by there being nearly 50 models on the Tyranid side, with some updates of classics in there and a bunch of awesome new big bugs as well. The “gaunt” in their name suggests something much smaller than they are – in reality they stand on 40mm bases and are easily the size of a Primaris Marine. The three-legged stance gives these guys some real heft; they look like they’re struggling under the weight of their oversized guns.

Rockfish: These are a funny set of models, I both really like them and feel they are a bit off in some ways, they have a very distinctive look to them that almost makes them feel single pose with the restrictions on how they can hold that big weird gun. I do love how off-putting they are the more you look at them, the brain bug is just kinda slorping the brains of the carrier and then the gun bug having its own lil tail and the body plan of a nid so its clearly a critter in of itself.

I will comment that these models are a bit of a drag to paint, they are remarkably dense with details and armor carapace layers, it makes the painting process feel just a bit long as you are working your way through the full unit.

Neurogaunts

Liam: On the opposite end to the Barbgaunts, the Neurogaunts are tiny little guys. Interestingly there’s 11 of them, and one is significantly bigger than the others. We’ll have to wait and see if that translates into any kind of rules impact.

Rockfish: These lil fellas are adorable, look at their teeny faces and baby limbs. Like puppies. Delightful.

These are a fantastic example of both how few parts you can get away with on a per model basis and probably the best example of a unit perfectly sized to be on a 25mm base. I don’t really think there’s any complaint you can really field about this kit, they are at exactly the level of detail you want for a bunch of little (presumably) cheap models and you can throw them together in minutes.

Pendulin: Eeeeeeeee! *clapping noises*

Look at these little business bugs! They are all perfect, every one.

Neurotyrant and Neuroloids

Rockfish: The tyranid range has had a handful of larger versions of regular units as characters for a while now, like Broodlords being jumbo Genestealers, but the Neurotyrant takes it to the next level. You can clearly see where the idea starts as a Zoanthrope and then just turns it up to eleven, then snaps the knob off and goes all in on b r a i n s. Not content to stop at their own huge brain and outboard neural boosters integrated into their carapace, this model has a pair of all brains and tentacle buddies that it can send out to spread the good word of the hive mind.

This is such a wildly over the top psyker beast that I can’t help but fall in love with the visuals, and honestly the kit is pretty good too. There is some fiddling with getting all the limbs in and around each other, but the build was still pretty quick and satisfying. One future consideration I will call out that’s not inherently a problem, this model shares a sprue with the screamer killer similarly to the Sterguard and the Apothecary for the marines. What this means for the future of both models on the nid side is really hard to say at the time of writing, but I expect it will probably mean that at the vary least it will be a weirdly expensive model to get a hold of from GW rather then the secondary market if we go off what happened with stuff from the last edition boxset.

Pendulin:
Brainsquid is love.

Brainsquid is life.

All hail the brainsquid.

These models are absolutely great, although I was expecting it to be a lot larger. Granted that he still towers over even the chonkiest of marines, but he looked like he’d be a table-defining centerpiece model, when really he’s about as tall as a Dreadnought.

Normally I hate models that have modelled terrain. I want to base models how I want to base models, and I don’t need no designer sculpting some ruins for them to stand on, thank you very much. But I’m actually quite glad they went with modeled terrain in this case. I’ve seen enough models where spindly tentacles are haphazardly glued directly to the base, begging for the slightest touch to snap them in half. With the Neurtotyrant having a strong connection to the pipe below it for support, this model not only looks great, but is nowhere near as fragile as you might expect.

And if the pipe really bugs you, don’t worry. It’s a separate piece of plastic that the Neurotyrant basically slots into. It would take some conversion work, but if you don’t want the pipe, you can build the model without it.

Psychophage

Rockfish: This model rules, it’s a giant squid faced monster that’s chowing down on a marine while vomiting forth a sketchy cloud from its back. It’s worth touching on a comparison from the first time the model was revealed that I will admit is pretty apt, this eldritch friend is basically the hivemind making a biological Venomcrawler look alike. Does that diminish the model any? Of course not, it’s a fantastic model that brings a great hungry menace to the nid range.

As for building and painting the model, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of it basically being two giant two halves which will inevitably have a hairline gap down the middle if you don’t want to spend a while filling it, its not the worst of these GW has done but if you have a lighter scheme it might be fairly obvious. The clamshell design also means that getting a brush inside the mouth is kinda impossible, if you were to take a peek down it’s gullet you won’t find a particularly nice paintjob but it’s hidden in shadow so nothing too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Pendulin: That hairline gap absolutely bugged me. It gave me the most trouble of any model in the whole box. I went back and forth with sprue goo, filing sticks, a moldline scraper, and even after all that, I’m still only somewhat happy with the results. That being said, the model being two giant halves that snap together does mean the model is, well, it’s a snap to build. For a model this big, I was expecting dozens of small parts, but it was surprisingly few, and they all fit together (except for the hairline gap) fantastically.

Screamer-killer

Rockfish: Pictures really fail to convey how huge this model is, the carapace vents peak at a centimeter or two over the top of the Dreadnought in the same box and of course the arm span is like double the width of its counterpart. It’s Big Boi Season when this guy is around and the classic fexes look a bit puny next to it, it can even give the existing big nids a run for their money. To give a reference to a existing kit, the Screamer could just about put their chin atop Hive Tyrant’s head and is many, many times as wide, remember that this on the same base as the Ballistarius! 

On more subjective stuff, I will be the first to call out that it’s head looks very goofy, but beyond that the screamer is about what you would expect from a big bug in the Tyranids range, big clawed limbs, stompy feet and a pose that implies carnage. Speaking of the existing range, this model does have one issue of permeance that I mentioned in the section on the Neurotyrant, there’s a big question as to what the future holds with it sharing a sprue.

Termagants and Ripper Swarms

Liam: The Termagants and Rippers are a single frame (or rather three small frames) together, as is tradition. You get ten Termagants and a single Ripper Swarm per full set of sprues, and the Leviathan box has two of these for twenty and two total, respectively.

The Rippers are four to a base, and they fit together in pairs with a join at their tail/tactical rock area. Meanwhile, the Termagants come in four parts each – the main body and head, a left arm, a gun arm, and then some kind of side piece with a leg and a secondary arm. They’re beyond trivial to clip, clean, and build – which is nice for a cheap horde unit like this. They stand up particularly well compared to their xenos predecessors in this particular slot in a launch box, the Necron Warriors, which have a quite fussy join in the torso.

Comparing old to new Termagants, the main difference is the fineness of the detail – they’re very clearly the same thing, just with 20 years of extra modelling experience to make everything a little bit sharper and more defined. If you’re considering painting a hundred of them that might make you sweat a bit, but personally I painted all of mine with Contrast and they take to it really well.

Pendulin: These new Termagants are easier to build, better looking, on a larger base, and with more realistic proportions. Primaris Termagants. They’re the upgrade I didn’t know I wanted.

When I first saw the preview, I initially thought refreshing the Termagant sculpt was a waste. The originals were fine. Sure, maybe a little less detailed than modern sculpts, but they still looked good. Now that I have them side-by-side, the difference is night-and-day. These new sculpts are an improvement in every single aspect and I enthusiastically recommend picking them up, even if your swarm is already flushed with Termagants.

Rockfish: I can’t say I’ve really painted that many of the old termagants, a mere six or seven kits worth, but I’ve done enough to say that they really really needed the update. While the design holds up, like the other nid infantry from the era the old kits were more mold line and gap then model at times with a ton of seams and softened details.

Honestly the new kit is many times faster to get through then the old, with the crisp details, lack of brutal mold lines, and varied poses you should find these a breeze to get through. I found that a blob of ten was something like five-ish hours, so if you skipped some of the highlights and really go quick you could probably get them out even faster then that. Perfect for big blobs of squishy models!

As for the termagant’s sprue-mate, Rippers are similarly faithfully updated versions of the original models. You might find yourself wanting to cut some of the basing bits that they are attached to out, as they seem like they would get repetitive.

Winged Tyranid Prime

Rockfish: If we are to be honest with ourselves, of all the models in the nid side of this box, this is by far the weakest aesthetically. That doesn’t mean its a bad looking kit by any means, but its awkward and a bit ungainly looking with the wings below the arms and it clearly being in a walking around pose rather then in the act of landing or leaping off. You can also tell I struggled to find any any angle that quite works in pictures, a issue that’s not so apparent when you have it in hand. Like a number of modern GW kits it seems to be intended to be providing visual interest from any angle, but I don’t think it quite sticks the landing.

For having complained about it for a paragraph, this is still a lovely model to build and paint. Accessibility to the details is great and there’s nothing that feels half rendered like you might have seen in ETBs of yesteryear.

Pendulin: I can only echo Rockfish’s sentiments here. The model is neat, but feels like an older design with awkward posing. Especially when placed next to something like the Psychophage or Neurotyrant, both of which look fantastic at just about any angle.

Also you might notice that the tongue on mine is a bit different than any other. My tongue was actually snapped off and missing from the box. Must have gotten damaged in shipping or packaging. However, I was able to clip off a spare tongue from an old box of Tyranid Warriors and, with sprue goo to the rescue, attach it without too much fuss.

Von Ryan’s Leapers

Rockfish: These were the first models I tackled when the box turned up at my place, and holy shit did they sell me on the nid half. Genuinely these are some of the most impressive models out of GW in the last few years, the build is fantastic but the real accomplishment has got to be how they hid mold lines. I almost couldn’t find any when I was working through them, and basically the only clean-up the parts needed was scraping the gates clean. 

It’s worth calling out that these are WAY bigger than they looked in promotional shots, they absolutely tower over normal Primaris models and look suitably menacing when doing so!

Liam: Yeah, these (along with some others, like the Barbgaunts above) are much bigger and more impressive in the flesh/plastic than they are in promo shots on the Internet. It’ll be interesting to see if we do get a new plastic Lictor down the line, and if so what that model looks like size-wise, because these are easily bigger than the old one and they’re supposed to be a smaller strain of the same kind of bug. 

Pendulin: I was confused the first time I saw these models. “Oh cool, Lictors are getting a new sculpt!” But no, they’re just smaller Lictors. Firstborn Lictors.

Smollness aside, these are some pretty great models. However, the armor on the top of their back is a pain to paint. They all raised their talons above their head just perfectly to block easy brush access. It’s not impossible to work around – those arms are rather spindly, but it’s something to keep in mind. And as Rockfish mentioned, a few inconveniences in painting are more than made up by their ease of assembly. Really, that holds true with most of this box. Extremely well designed, and a blast to paint.

Overview

Rockfish: If my biggest complaint about the marine side of the box was that it didn’t feel like the start of a force, rather an expansion to one’s existing collection, then nids managed to stick the landing beautifully. While its clearly a bit of a eccentric set of models, the only one that really feels out of place is the Prime as it’s missing something to lead amongst a force of units that look like they are happy to be getting on with whatever their personal schtick is.

Pendulin: This box is a slam dunk for anyone looking to get into Tyranids for the first time, or looking to expand their current collection. Fresh takes on classic models, great looking new units, it’s all here. And with there being 47 Tyranid models in Leviathan, you get a lot of bug for your buck.