Games Workshop kindly provided these models to Goonhammer for review purposes.
This pair of overbuff scummers were a surprise to most, I imagine, as Goliaths already got their book a long time ago. Still, as Goonhammer’s resident grimdark roid rager enthusiast, I was excited to take on the opportunity to review these two models. While one is a named character, they’re similar enough in construction and detail that I thought I would review them as a pair.
Detail
Both of these models are sharply detailed, well-defined, and have expressive faces with some top-tier mohawks, including a chainsaw hat. The problem is, their poses are both pretty awkward. Durgan’s titular Kill-Fist is enormous and really draws the eye away from his face, which he looks like he’s about to fall onto. The Champion, meanwhile, seems to be drawing on the pose of the 90s plastic Goliaths more than intended, and looks stiff.
While not visible on the Champion, the flat surfaces on all of Durgan’s weapons and headgear have really obvious 3D print lines from the initial masters. Lastly, the chainmail on both of these guys just looks off. The links on the Champion’s loincloth aren’t linked, and look like stacks of rings floating in space. Durgan’s look far better and are actually interlinked like chainmail should be, but end in an ambiguous lump.
However, when I got around to painting these guys, I found that a lot of little details you take for granted – the texture of a strap, the studs on a belt, and so on – were sharper, better defined, and more pleasing to look at than their plastic counterparts. Even the folds on their pants are just a little bit clearer than on the typical Goliath gangers. I’m not sure how much of this is down to these models being resin, their more recent vintage, or straight up better sculpting, but the details on these models are lovely.
Assembly
These models took about 40 minutes each to clean up and put together, which is a bit hefty for an infantry-sized model. The two of them have Renderizer-style serrated weapons, each of which had tons of resin flashing between each tooth. They weren’t quite as bad as the Mercator Sanguis Slaver Entourage in this regard, but it still takes some deft knifework and a fresh blade to carve out the excess material without collateral damage. Moldline cleanup wasn’t too bad, and there was some minor but easily fixable mold slippage on the Champion’s shin armor.
There are no options in either of these kits, but other Goliath heads and weapons should work on these bodies if one so chooses. They both have the pyramidal arm connections typical of Goliath models, which serve to hide most gaps – I still had one with the Champion’s bolter unfortunately. It’s restrictive but preserves detail on the arm joints. In my case I built them stock without any conversion work to better review these models.
For the most part, these were straightforward enough and could be built without instructions. I only had to look back to double check a few things because some bits had broken in transit – namely Durgan’s weapon haft and the Champion’s bolter strap. Once I got those figured out, the rest was easy. The only pain point here is a literal one that any Chaos player should be familiar with, which is applying pressure to a spiky bit until the glue bonds. That meat tenderizer on Durgan Kill-Fist’s Kill-Fist dug into my thumb pretty bad when I was holding it in place, as did the various spiky shoulderpads. My one pro tip would be to turn the Champion’s head a bit towards his gun arm. The stiffness of his pose that I alluded to in the introduction is markedly reduced when he isn’t looking straight ahead.
Painting
Like the Mauler bike before them, I painted these two in the colors of my Goliaths, the Butchers Bloc. There’s not much to them you wouldn’t already know from painting the plastic kits, though the tabards they both have are new textures you’ll need to work into your scheme.
Painting these models really let me appreciate their fine details all the more, with little things like the split lip on the Champion or wackadoo metal headgear on Durgan only showing themselves to me when I got my tiny brush on them. I kind of wish I went for either an even darker or slightly lighter skintone on Durgan for contrast’s sake, but I’m happy with how the two of them came out.
Final Thoughts and Parting Shots
The Champion’s wargear setup is probably not legal, or at best it’s prohibitively expensive. I feel like he’d be great model to represent a Champion with multiple loadouts, and you could just use whichever suited you at the time. Durgan, meanwhile, is an outlaw bounty hunter, but nothing about his model reads “outlaw” any more than your typical Goliath ganger. Whether you use him as a bounty hunter or not, he’s a characterful stand-in for a Forge Boss with a Renderizer or what have you. I won’t say these models are for everybody, but if you can deal with some lackluster chainmail and somewhat prevalent 3D print lines, these are a pair of expressive muscle idiots who will be finding their way into your gang, and your heart, for many campaigns to come.
Thanks for reading, scummers! If you have any questions for us, want to suggest a future article, or just want to show us pictures of your kickass gangs, drop us a line over at Necromunday@Goonhammer.com.
