Warhammer: Just How Big is Lord Kroak Compared to the Other Demi-gods?
Games Workshop keeps knocking the giant centerpiece kits out of the park. Take a look at Lord Kroak, Be’lakor, and all the other big bosses of the Mortal Realms.
Lord Kroak’s teensy old WFB model is being replaced by the giant one below. As usual, Games Workshop has pulled out the stops on a centerpiece kit to anchor the Seraphon faction, who have really needed some love after their WFB-AoS transition.
“The events of the Broken Realms are so cataclysmic that they threaten the Great Plan of the slann, and Lord Kroak is roused from his contemplation to intervene directly. “
How Big?
So just how big is Lord Kroak? Take a look at his model compared at the same scale to the other big bosses of the Mortal Realms. These mockups have been done by Forgotten Chamber over on YouTube and Instagram. Go check him out – he’s awesome!
Here we see Kroak next to the likes of Be’Lakor (huge wings), Archaon (huge tail), and the Mega-Gargant (huge bones). You can see how GW has taken Kroak, not an innately large model, and really pumped him up with all the spinning arcs around his throne, and the floating trickery of non-obvious connecting points.
We can see many of the same tricks used to pump up Alarielle, (big beetle) and Teclis (big buddy). Only folks like Nagash, and Morathi are actually giant. But still, every one of these is a fantastic mighty leader who you can build your army around and look imposing and great on the tabletop.
What’s Next for AoS and 40K?
This leads me to the next point. What is up for Games Workshop’s future with large models. It’s only a matter of time before they fill out every Age of Sigmar faction with its showcase leader. But things are quite different in the Grimdark. Over in the Grimdark, larger models have a long history, but they tend to not be faction leaders, but key vehicles useable in larger numbers, such as the Monolith, Baneblade, and Knights. You do get the occasional 40K giant leader such as The Silent King, or the Traitor Primarchs, but that tends to be the exception.
While the technology and 3d-design is only getting better each year, GW will eventually hit a size cap for “normal games”. At this point, it’s clear looking at the entire wargaming and scale model industry that if GW wants to make really large plastic kits they could. Things like Thunderhawks and Scout Titans could be knocked out in plastic easily now, and even the largest kits like Warlords and Mantas are possible in plastic if GW really wanted to.
This of course leads into the bigger picture issues as the technology for amazing large-scale plastic models comes within reach.
- How many large-scale models should an average game use before the table size makes them unwieldy, or too game dominating?
- Should Large scale models be kept rare and “big items” moved over to games that have a smaller scale to reflect grand battles – like Adeptus Titanicus, and maybe just maybe… a rumored small-scaled Old World?
- What should Forge World become if everything that was once in their resin wheelhouse is now possible in plastic – with none of the resin drawbacks?
I don’t know what the answers are to any of these, but I’m sure they are being debated in the halls of Nottingham. In the meantime, enjoy Be’lakor and Lord Kroak. For the Mortal Realms at least, the big models look to keep on coming!
