I have to admit that I love this model (and I have Necromunda squats), but I love the £125 remaining in my bank account that little bit more! Nice to see it built anyway sir. Fine video, but a heck of a price.
@jeffholt9437 That would be lovely! But sadly not, certain products are listed as "Online Only" and can only be ordered directly from the Warhammer.com website.
This is the space dwarf vehicle that should have been named Hekaton, because of the cost. Looks very cool though, and bigger than I'd thought. A lil Squat James Cameron would love it.
Amazing review! Hearing how much you had to adjust terrifies me, though. Hard to believe these kits require so much fudging when you pay so much money for them.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. All large resin kits are the same, doesn't matter who makes them. It's a bit like low volume sports cars... impressive, artisan items with a lot of character, but expect to deal with a lot of quirks and artisan manufacture related idiosyncrasies. Also, it is in part the challenge why I enjoy models like this. When you get to the point of having decades of model making experience (like old bones here) plastic models are great kits and all that, but they don't test your skills. Skalvian... now I really learnt something building this :)
I like how the turret design mirrors the helmets of the Squat gang. 🙂 If I ever think of a use for this model I'd be very tempted to get one, but given it's a challenging build and rather expensive I don't think I'll be getting one just because I like how it looks.
You truly are the 'go to guy' for GW / FW resin kits - given the amount of preview stuff GW dish out for their plastics, I hope that they're seeing you right!. I look forward to the painting (should you choose to)😊
Been looking into both Skalvian Explorator and the IronCrawler, as I'm looking to maybe build, or rip bits for my own Necromunda Kitbashes, so your videos going over the Explorator has been great and super helpful! Would be absolutely ecstatic if you could do something similar with the IronCrawler. For my kitbash I'm taking the Hekaton Land Fortress, and will likely use parts from one of these kits to convert it into an IronCrawler, or Skalvian Explorator for my games. Probably would be much cheaper just to buy and build the kits straight, but I want to get better at kitbashing and handling resin so here we are lol.
Thanks Sean 🙂 The Hekaton is a great looking kit, I am tempted from time to time to get one to join my collection vehicular curios. Ironcrawler video... yeah it's on my mental to-do list. I'm kinda not keen in a way as the model was such a pig to put together and there's a lot of criticism that needs to be levelled at it's many, many faults. We will see... I've still got the list of the "15 things wrong with this kit" 😆
I've built this model. It's my favourite miniature. Although I'm satisfied with my build, I may buy another at some time in the future to try to do an even better job. It was tough! I'm less satisfied with my Chronos build - also love that model - but I wasn't quite experienced enough to do the model justice.
I don't own a Hekaton unfortunately. Your best bet (aside from buying one and sending it to me to a comparison vid with) is to look online for a size comparison of the Land Fortress to legion vehicles, especially the Spartan. From this video you know the Skalvian is the size of that vehicle, so deducing the comparative size will then be easy.
Love the video Leaky, hopefully that isn't true for the hull.... I was interested in your assessment of the resin nature being a necessity to bring this design to life. With the recent and increasingly higher volume of large plastic models that GW is seemingly willing to produce, how feasible would it be to make this in plastic? Why commit to releasing this in resin? The Legiones Imperialis Direwolves are an interesting point for comparison perhaps, as it shows GW can and will move models from FW to GW mainline, whereas other models like the Javelin landspeeder have remained in resin despite receiving plastic sponson weapons. These decisions, while informed by historic sales data I'm sure, do also inform future consumer purchasing behaviour and will make it continue to be less likely that a particular model will sell well, because another cool but cheaper plastic purchase always remains available.
I'd say it was done in plastic as it's specific to a side gang, only usable in a specific variant of the game, and a specialist game at that. The previous two large vehicles can at least be used by any gang (barring ash wastes nomads), but this kit is unlikely to get any significant sales volume for use in game
@@sampsonkennedy Oh I see, yeah that does seem like a silly business decision. Make an alternative weapon sponson up top with something a bit more potent than a stubber thing and you could justify it being a 40k model as well. Which to me seems like a no brainer, but then again GW seem insistent on creating niches for its own models. e.g. the entire Solar Auxilia range for just 30k, even though they're perfectly viable stand-ins for 40k
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Technically, there is no specific reason preventing the Skalvian as a plastic kit, the reason it's resin is purely commercial. Firstly let's frame GW's thinking here: resin models are low risk for investment and can be dropped from the product line at any time with relatively little financial loss. A plastic model is a much bigger up-front investment in the form of more design time (the kits are more complex) and the cost of machining the steel injection moulds, and the supporting injection moulding machinery. For these assets, a business will normally depreciate such costs over a 10-year period - drop a model after 5 due to poor sales and that's 5 years where costs are carried every week with no offsetting sales revenue. So from GW's perspective, plastic kits are the big commitment, resin models far less so. In terms of the examples you gave of legion vehicles converting to plastic these show us where they saw the sales being - Rhino chassis tanks including Predators, Land Raiders, Spartans and two Sicarans. The Arquitors, Javelin, Fellblade chassis vehicles and Mastodon less so (hence only plastic sponsons). We can also look to the 3 remaining Sicaran tanks (Punisher, Arcus and Omega) as being relatively poor sellers as these didn't even get the sponson treatment. Hard to say on the Sabres. GW already have a good idea of the sales potential of anything for the Ironhead Squat range, firstly from the general sales of Necromunda over the past 7 years, and specifically the Squats themselves. I just don't see the sales being there for a single faction, optional super-unit in a specialist game. You can also see GW's risk adversity on 40K vehicles. There was quite the kerfuffle over the Rogal Dorn Tank not having a hull floor, but the reason for this again was commercial - Guard don't sell that well so they de-risked the product by removing a 4th sprue, mainly by excluding a large hull bottom component. On the Dire Wolves, converting these to plastic was relatively low risk move as each only requires a single sprue, and the price differential compared to resin is huge (see Acastus Knights - each plastic Porphyrion is only about a third of the resin Asterius cost). Thus big sales potential where plastic will pay off, also combined with the current push behind Legions Imperialis. In my estimation, the Skalvian would be a 4-sprue plastic kit, that puts it in the same league as the Spartan for investment, and there's simply no way this vehicle will sell that well, even if not resin (I'd be surprised if the Skalvian achieved 5% number of kits sold as the Spartans). The price differential on a big kit like this is less severe than the small titans, I reckon it's about 50% of the resin equivalent, so less sale opportunity in that regard also. So that's a bit more detail on why I think the Skalvian is a resin as opposed to a plastic kit. Who knows, if it's a big seller it may one day become a plastic kit? So far, this is what happened with all the plastic heresy tanks bar the Kratos (although I think more will become plastic over the next 2-3 years). Hope this helps answer your question :)
Good video. You talked me right into giving this one a pass. 😁 These days I don't want to have to fight with my models to put them together. I do have some squats, including their exo-suit guy. I've got several old Chimeras, so I'm just going to use one and say it's an Ironcrawler.
well its good one juast the flamer and one gun to bad the cockpit in coled you cude not have a driver in it but will look great painted when do that will see as new vid
I have to admit that I love this model (and I have Necromunda squats), but I love the £125 remaining in my bank account that little bit more! Nice to see it built anyway sir. Fine video, but a heck of a price.
Now that Forgeworld is sold through GW, shouldn't 3rd party retailers be able to supply these miniatures at their usual discounts???
@jeffholt9437 That would be lovely!
But sadly not, certain products are listed as "Online Only" and can only be ordered directly from the Warhammer.com website.
This is the space dwarf vehicle that should have been named Hekaton, because of the cost. Looks very cool though, and bigger than I'd thought. A lil Squat James Cameron would love it.
Amazing review! Hearing how much you had to adjust terrifies me, though. Hard to believe these kits require so much fudging when you pay so much money for them.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
All large resin kits are the same, doesn't matter who makes them. It's a bit like low volume sports cars... impressive, artisan items with a lot of character, but expect to deal with a lot of quirks and artisan manufacture related idiosyncrasies.
Also, it is in part the challenge why I enjoy models like this. When you get to the point of having decades of model making experience (like old bones here) plastic models are great kits and all that, but they don't test your skills. Skalvian... now I really learnt something building this :)
This isn't pocket money but most definitely on my birthday list for this year.
You'll get socks again m'lad and be glad of'em!!!
Thankfully I'm at that age where a nice pair of merino wool hiking socks is in fact something I'm glad of haha
I’m really surprised to see how big this one was! Great work on the video, and on your stunning build!
Thanks Edvin!
Great video!! I have a few of these vehicles but no one to put a size comparison to. Thanks a lot you did good work
I like how the turret design mirrors the helmets of the Squat gang. 🙂 If I ever think of a use for this model I'd be very tempted to get one, but given it's a challenging build and rather expensive I don't think I'll be getting one just because I like how it looks.
You truly are the 'go to guy' for GW / FW resin kits - given the amount of preview stuff GW dish out for their plastics, I hope that they're seeing you right!. I look forward to the painting (should you choose to)😊
Thanks Jeff! Who knows what the future might bring eh?
Been looking into both Skalvian Explorator and the IronCrawler, as I'm looking to maybe build, or rip bits for my own Necromunda Kitbashes, so your videos going over the Explorator has been great and super helpful! Would be absolutely ecstatic if you could do something similar with the IronCrawler.
For my kitbash I'm taking the Hekaton Land Fortress, and will likely use parts from one of these kits to convert it into an IronCrawler, or Skalvian Explorator for my games. Probably would be much cheaper just to buy and build the kits straight, but I want to get better at kitbashing and handling resin so here we are lol.
Thanks Sean 🙂
The Hekaton is a great looking kit, I am tempted from time to time to get one to join my collection vehicular curios.
Ironcrawler video... yeah it's on my mental to-do list. I'm kinda not keen in a way as the model was such a pig to put together and there's a lot of criticism that needs to be levelled at it's many, many faults.
We will see... I've still got the list of the "15 things wrong with this kit" 😆
I've built this model. It's my favourite miniature. Although I'm satisfied with my build, I may buy another at some time in the future to try to do an even better job. It was tough! I'm less satisfied with my Chronos build - also love that model - but I wasn't quite experienced enough to do the model justice.
When you pulled out the first word bearer I was hoping you'd talk about it, and you did
Great review and analysis as always.
I see a painted sunfury plasma annihilator in the background. Please tell me that hints at a future warlord titan video.
Hey! Do you know how the size of this compares to the votann land fortress? I kinda wanna’ use it as a proxy
I don't own a Hekaton unfortunately.
Your best bet (aside from buying one and sending it to me to a comparison vid with) is to look online for a size comparison of the Land Fortress to legion vehicles, especially the Spartan. From this video you know the Skalvian is the size of that vehicle, so deducing the comparative size will then be easy.
Love the video Leaky, hopefully that isn't true for the hull.... I was interested in your assessment of the resin nature being a necessity to bring this design to life. With the recent and increasingly higher volume of large plastic models that GW is seemingly willing to produce, how feasible would it be to make this in plastic? Why commit to releasing this in resin? The Legiones Imperialis Direwolves are an interesting point for comparison perhaps, as it shows GW can and will move models from FW to GW mainline, whereas other models like the Javelin landspeeder have remained in resin despite receiving plastic sponson weapons. These decisions, while informed by historic sales data I'm sure, do also inform future consumer purchasing behaviour and will make it continue to be less likely that a particular model will sell well, because another cool but cheaper plastic purchase always remains available.
I'd say it was done in plastic as it's specific to a side gang, only usable in a specific variant of the game, and a specialist game at that. The previous two large vehicles can at least be used by any gang (barring ash wastes nomads), but this kit is unlikely to get any significant sales volume for use in game
@@sampsonkennedy Oh I see, yeah that does seem like a silly business decision. Make an alternative weapon sponson up top with something a bit more potent than a stubber thing and you could justify it being a 40k model as well. Which to me seems like a no brainer, but then again GW seem insistent on creating niches for its own models. e.g. the entire Solar Auxilia range for just 30k, even though they're perfectly viable stand-ins for 40k
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Technically, there is no specific reason preventing the Skalvian as a plastic kit, the reason it's resin is purely commercial.
Firstly let's frame GW's thinking here: resin models are low risk for investment and can be dropped from the product line at any time with relatively little financial loss. A plastic model is a much bigger up-front investment in the form of more design time (the kits are more complex) and the cost of machining the steel injection moulds, and the supporting injection moulding machinery. For these assets, a business will normally depreciate such costs over a 10-year period - drop a model after 5 due to poor sales and that's 5 years where costs are carried every week with no offsetting sales revenue.
So from GW's perspective, plastic kits are the big commitment, resin models far less so. In terms of the examples you gave of legion vehicles converting to plastic these show us where they saw the sales being - Rhino chassis tanks including Predators, Land Raiders, Spartans and two Sicarans. The Arquitors, Javelin, Fellblade chassis vehicles and Mastodon less so (hence only plastic sponsons). We can also look to the 3 remaining Sicaran tanks (Punisher, Arcus and Omega) as being relatively poor sellers as these didn't even get the sponson treatment. Hard to say on the Sabres.
GW already have a good idea of the sales potential of anything for the Ironhead Squat range, firstly from the general sales of Necromunda over the past 7 years, and specifically the Squats themselves. I just don't see the sales being there for a single faction, optional super-unit in a specialist game.
You can also see GW's risk adversity on 40K vehicles. There was quite the kerfuffle over the Rogal Dorn Tank not having a hull floor, but the reason for this again was commercial - Guard don't sell that well so they de-risked the product by removing a 4th sprue, mainly by excluding a large hull bottom component.
On the Dire Wolves, converting these to plastic was relatively low risk move as each only requires a single sprue, and the price differential compared to resin is huge (see Acastus Knights - each plastic Porphyrion is only about a third of the resin Asterius cost). Thus big sales potential where plastic will pay off, also combined with the current push behind Legions Imperialis.
In my estimation, the Skalvian would be a 4-sprue plastic kit, that puts it in the same league as the Spartan for investment, and there's simply no way this vehicle will sell that well, even if not resin (I'd be surprised if the Skalvian achieved 5% number of kits sold as the Spartans). The price differential on a big kit like this is less severe than the small titans, I reckon it's about 50% of the resin equivalent, so less sale opportunity in that regard also.
So that's a bit more detail on why I think the Skalvian is a resin as opposed to a plastic kit. Who knows, if it's a big seller it may one day become a plastic kit? So far, this is what happened with all the plastic heresy tanks bar the Kratos (although I think more will become plastic over the next 2-3 years).
Hope this helps answer your question :)
Good video. You talked me right into giving this one a pass. 😁
These days I don't want to have to fight with my models to put them together.
I do have some squats, including their exo-suit guy.
I've got several old Chimeras, so I'm just going to use one and say it's an Ironcrawler.
Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks.
And valuable consumer advice is one of the things my channel is all about 🙂
It really looks as if the cabin could be detached and then it would become a submersible.
well its good one juast the flamer and one gun to bad the cockpit in coled you cude not have a driver in it but will look great painted when do that will see as new vid
this kit i found a total pain, prefer to build a fire raptor than another one of these
Wow..... rather build a Fire Raptor than this!
I think I preferred the land sub, but yeah both challenging builds for sure.
Hope it isn’t piloted by using an Xbox controller 😂
PS5 controller
I hope not! I decided not to make reference to Titan in the video out of respect for those who perished aboard its final voyage.