It’s finally time for the Kroot to get an update to their model range, and the Kroot Hunting Pack army box brings five new/updated units – updated Kroot carnivores, two new shapers, new Krootox rampagers, and an updated Krootox rider. We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us free preview copies of this box to write this review.
Kroot Carnivores
Rockfish: I was really impressed with the new Carnivore kit; I got a few more assembled than I managed to get painted and each was a treat. They were pretty restrained with how many pieces made up each model, and the ones that are there nicely fit together with no fuss at all. One detail I liked was that there are three different models that can be built as the Long Quill, the sergeant equivalent, which is a pretty cool thing to have in a modern kit where the parts aren’t indicated as being swappable between bodies out of the box. I haven’t had a chance to check the degree to which bits are locked to any given body; it doesn’t look impossible that they are compatible, but you might have to experiment or shave bits down.
The models themselves are a lovely refresh of the old versions; they are clearly the same concept without a radical departure from the old design, but with the dynamism and details of you would expect from a modern GW kit. Each model has at least one extra bit that you could leave off if you wanted to, and the heads attach via sockets, so you have a little bit more customizability from that.
I found them as much of a joy to paint as build; they have excellent brush accessibility as you would expect from being such open poses on thin bodies, along with presenting a good collection of different textures. If you want your Kroot scheme to match your T’au suits you might have a bit of trouble to get it clear as they are the opposite texturally to the mainline T’au forces; they have their little shoulder plates to transfer the armor scheme onto, but otherwise don’t share anything else. This isn’t a complaint, per se, but it might be a complicating factor for some painters.
Flesh Shaper
Rockfish: This little murder friend is similar to how you might expect any other modern single GW character to be: Lots of pieces that mostly fit together well, with the odd piece that is a bit less obvious as to how it might index (the holstered rifle in this case).
I think I probably could have better differentiated all the leathers that this model is covered with. I do feel that they may be a little too covered, as I personally quite like painting flesh, but that’s hardly major and the contrast to the rest of the forces is good. The textures here are pretty great despite any complaints about them being a bit of a leather daddy; while there is a heavy weighting to organic textures, there is a good variety within those with two or three different leathers, bone, skin, quills, etcetera to be found.
You’ll have a few options of technical and visual intensity to experiment with when you’re working through the model, as you could keep to only a single leather colour or go all out and maybe do five or six distinct ones as they do on the box art.
Since this is a monopose model you might find that repeats in your army get repetitive. You could kitbash them, but that might take a decent chunk of work. I don’t know that this is necessarily a huge concern as they are relatively minor character that live amongst a horde of Carnivores that are distinct enough to take the heat off any duplicate characters.
War Shaper
A slightly more complicated build than the Flesh Shaper, the War Shaper has two different weapon options: Either a bow and Nerd Dagger from aliexpress, or a cool two headed staff thing (and claw on a rope). Assembly on this character is a little fiddly, as neither arm has much in the way of alignment guides but it still needs to be built in a specific orientation. I also found the cape and hero rock annoying, as they don’t lend themselves to sub-assemblies but do block access to some parts of the model.
Krootox Riders
Rockfish: Another refresh of an existing model, and this one is far more extreme a rework in aesthetic than the Carnivores saw. The Krootox itself is a big beefy fella that doesn’t look quite so gorilla-like in proportions and posture. They’ve also gone much harder on the Kroot features, adding a ton of quills and making the face a little more beaky in my opinion. Along with the changes to the critter, they’ve also festooned it with baubles and replaced the little shoulder pack with a proper harness mount for the back-mounted gun that also has been doubled up in size, gaining a second barrel and a more heavy weapon-like appearance compared to the old versions rifle on a jawbone mount. There is a new alternative gun option too, but that’s almost the limit to the customizability, as you won’t find any other options besides the expected alternative heads for the rider and Krootox.
There is one bit that carried over from the classic model almost unchanged: The head option I chose is posed spot-on to the older model, with the rider atop the Krootox in the same squinting and aiming stance.
I found this to be one of those models with rather a lot of parts for the size of it, and while the build was entirely fine, there are a few bits that were just a touch awkward but not in a memorable way. The painting was honestly a bit annoying, as there were a lot of textures that were awkward to get a brush to apply the colour to without taking a while or being unnecessarily rough on it, and some of the brush accessibility was very annoying without subassemblies. I might suggest that you have a plan of attack with this kit before you start into it, but it’s also not so complex that you can’t just wing it if you want.
Krootox Rampagers
Continuing the trend I found in the Krootox rider and war shaper, the rampager builds okay but is a bit lacking on alignment guides, so you have to pay a bit of extra attention while building to make sure everything is in the right place. Some of the sprue connections are also placed along seams, so be careful to get them smooth, as otherwise they can cause gaps. While there aren’t many options, two of the models have arm options (for the rider) and one has two head choices (for the Krootox), plus the rider heads should be swappable with any of the carnivore heads. That’s enough that you should be able to get some variety across either two three-model units or one six-model unit, but going beyond that is likely to end up looking repetitive.
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