We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of Warcry: Nightmare Quest for review purposes.Hot off the heels of reviewing Domitan’s Stormcoven, we’re back to talk about Warcry’s new Stormcast warband, the Questor Soulsworn. These are the first Stormcast to be released in a Warcry starter (as opposed to just repackaging existing units), and befitting their highly elite status, there are only 6 models on 40mm bases in this kit.
Assembly
These come on an interesting set of sprues. You’re getting two long sprues, each of which contains 3 bodies, with ample bits and accessories. One of these two sprues is pictured above. I was expecting something more akin to a standard squad sprue here, instead of these cut up little character-style sprues. They’re absolutely packed with heads, weapons, capes and reliquaries, and the details are fantastic. In particular, I love the lady Stormcast with the nose ring, the classically Viking head with a beard and tied back mohawk, and the all-important skelly helmet on the Soulsworn Knight-Relictor. As with most Stormcast kits, I think the pro move is go with as many unhelmeted heads as possible, as they get some of the best bare heads around.
There are 7 different fighters you can build with this kit – a Questor Prime with a halberd and Ghostbusters trap, a Soulsworm Knight-Relictor with a warhammer and skull in a box, an Errant-Questor Duellist (including a superfluous L) with Twinblades, and Errant-Questors with Grandblade, Grandspear, Grandhammer, and Grandaxe options. The poses on these can look a smidge stiff and somewhat repetitive, but by turning the heads on them you can mitigate this to a degree. The heads are all on ball joints and only the plumed and skull heads are tied to a specific character, so you have plenty of freedom in this department. You can’t quite tell at first glance, but the bodies are gendered at 2 dudes and 4 ladies, and if you wanted to put either type of head on either type of body you absolutely could.
I kind of get the notion that these guys are like the Power Rangers, with each represented by their own animal on their pauldron. There are what seem to be a lynx, wolf, lion, bear, bull, and my favorite animal, the skull in here, with a few different variations to mess with. These are generally interchangeable between their spruemates, but not across all the different arms and bodies, due to their weirdly bespoke fittings. I wish they could be fully swapped around more freely, but there should still be enough variation to put together a set (or two!) without too much repetition. Each model also carries a little reliquary with some bones in it, which is a nice detail, but they cover a weird divot so you can’t leave them off. Each body only fits one specific reliquary each, so those details will repeat across each body of the same type.
Each model is around a dozen (often fiddly) pieces, and it took me just shy of 2 hours to build the whole warband. The moldlines are often hidden by the casting process or are easy enough to clean up, save for on the odd spiky halo thing that’s always going to prove a challenge. The only thing I found lacking in detail is the back of the scale mail loincloths on each model in the unit. In an unusual move, it’s totally flat – no surface texture or detail, just a flat panel. I’ve seen the back of sheets of scale mail in the Slaves to Darkness range, and there’s usually some chain links or other realistic detail back there which you don’t get here. It’s not a dealbreaker and most people aren’t going to notice, but there are some angles where it’s pretty plain to see.
Most importantly, my cat Esmeralda thought the kit looked interesting.
Painting
Much in the way Domitan’s Stormcoven seem to be an update to the wizards of the Sacrosanct chamber, this crew feels somewhere between the rangers of the Vanguard chamber with their animal pelts, and the rank and file Vigilors and Praetorians we saw in Dominion. Resultantly, painting these miniatures should feel quite familiar to any Stormcast player, with platemail, capes, scalemail and bare faces being regular features of the warband.
I would recommend leaving the capes off and attaching them later if you can, as painting around the body of each stormcast to reach back there is rather tricky. I did not do this, and struggled somewhat. I implore you to learn from my mistakes, because I sure as hell can’t seem to. Otherwise, these were fairly breezy to paint, with crisp details, a good variety of big and small details, and a multitude of textures to work with.
Final Thoughts, Parting Shots, and What Have You
It should be no surprise that, should you enjoy painting Stormcast, you’ll enjoy painting this particular bunch of Sigmarite stormzaddies. My misgivings about their stiffer poses and weirdly bespoke fittings were largely put to rest once I put brush to model, and I found the level of detail to be just right for a more detailed elite warband. Capes + platemail + fur pelts is a winning formula in any aesthetic, and those details are rendered here with immaculate clarity. They’re a good opportunity to paint a bunch of different textures and shapes as you would find across a whole Stormcast army, and I’d heartily recommend them to any Stormcast hobbyist, new or old. Just leave off the capes for later and don’t mind the flat-backed scale mail.
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