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Unboxing: Arkanaut Frigate

4 Minute Read
Apr 18 2017
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Ahoy Matey! Behold the beauty of the Arkanaut Frigate in all it’s plastic glory!

The Kharadon Overlords first wave is hitting shores and we’ve got a peek inside the box of the Arkanaut Frigate.

Let me just say this – I’m excited about this faction. I don’t know if it’s the awesome theme, the lore, the fact that it’s a new faction, or that the plastic kits are just impressive. Whatever it is, I’m just thrilled that these Dwarf Sky-Captains (or pirates if you prefer) are finally here!

The Arkanaut Frigate is my first hands-on experience with the new Kharadron Overlord miniatures. It’s a fantastic full plastic kit that has a ton of detail just as you’d expect from Games Workshop. The amount of care that went into modeling all the little things on this miniature is what makes this such a cool kit. It would have been easy to just leave those nice big, flat panels alone – but GW added rivets to give it that “ocean liner” appeal from the 1900’s.

The rest of the doo-dads on the ship also have that same attention to detail – the rudders for example could have just been flat blades. But the sculptor took time add in some extra reinforcements and depth. Things like that are all over this model.

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Another aesthetic aspect I really appreciate about this model is that it takes those elements of 1900’s ocean liners and mixes it with a submarine vibe. If you’ve ever seen a U-Boat from WWII up close then you probably noticed the wood paneling:

U505 Submarine @ The Museum of Science+Industry Chicago

I’ve actually been to that same exhibit (totally worth the trip, btw) and that really stuck out to me when I was looking at the sprues to this model:

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Overall, I was just really impressed by this kit’s design. I haven’t gotten to build it (yet) but that is next up on my hobby to-do list. Right after finishing up the paint job on the Shadow War Terrain for the BoLS Studio. I don’t know if I can bring myself to start a new army right now – I’m already trying to juggle too many hobby projects. But I think when I get finally get caught up I might just scoop-up a Kharadron Overlords Frigate or two. Air-ships are just awesome.

Arkanaut Frigate $80

The Arkanaut Frigate represents centuries of refinement by the shipwrights of the Endrineers Guild. In its design, a balance was struck between speed, transport capacity and firepower to create a versatile craft that could serve as the mainstay for the airfleets. With its sleek hull and powerful buoyancy endrin, the Arkanaut Frigate is fast and powerful enough to escape the gravitational drag of a density hole, while retaining enough firepower to level a city should the need arise.

This multi-part plastic kit contains the components necessary to assemble an Arkanaut Frigate. Smaller than an Ironclad, larger than a Gunhauler, it dominates the skies by means of its dirigible and is covered in weaponry – a heavy skycannon or skyhook as a front-facing main weapon, with aethershot carbines, grudgesettler bombs, skymines and detonation drills attached to the hull, with belaying valves for ramming-speed assaults.

A huge ancestor figurehead glares balefully from the prow, and the duardin crew is appropriately detailed – a captain stands before the instruments and wheel, a navigator perches in the crow’s nest, sextant aloft and an endrinrigger wields an oil can and hammer, fervently replacing rivets and lubricating components to keep the Frigate skyward. Most of these details can be modelled on the frigate in different ways; there’s plenty of space on the side of the hull to name the ship. Paint it on in duardin runes for authenticity!

This kit comes as 88 components and includes a Citadel 120mm Oval base, with  a 50mm ball and socket flying stem.

 

I’m still deciding if I want a “pirate” or “privateer” fleet…black is really easy to paint…

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Author: Adam Harrison
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