Black box revilation: Avatars of War Dwarf Berserkers

Greetz one and all,

I started these Black Box revelations as a talk about the preview kit GW send to their stores.  As my FLGS doesn’t get these kits any more I’ll have to throw thing around a little bit.  So from now on I’ll discuss any box I see fit and which I’m going to use as is.  First up for this are the Dwarf Berserkers from Avatars of War.

The box:

Simple carton box with some nice artwork by Wayne England, and a detailed list of content.

The models:

5 trooper sprues, each containing:
-4 bodies
-4 legs
-1 two handed weapon
-6 one handed weapons
-4 heads
-5 hairstyles
-1 dwarven beer mug
-4 dwarven ancestor icons
-4 body piercings
-4 left arms
-4 right arms
-2 nose to ear chains
-1 baby dragon skull
-1 raised finger hand

one command sprue contains:
-2 dragon head statues
-1 dwarven berserker statue
-1 dwarven book
-1 hair comb
-1 champion's axe
-1 champion's hairstyle
-1 banner pole
-1 severed orc head
-1 carnix (musician instrument)

And 20 bases (20/20mm)

Assembling:

A very cool sculpt if you ask me; with a lot of great detail and enough possibility’s to mix and match bits so they all look different.  I like the way the head and beard are separate pieces without them looking to far off.  The head crests are separate giving more possibility’s then I’m used to, and the heads look cool without (creating the opportunity for a longbeard of noble conversion for the far future) 

The only real down side is the way they should be put into formation.  Something that is by all means possible but will consider some thinking before gluing (unlike I did :o).  The kit has a lot of pieces and I think that for some it could have one stage to many, I personally like the variation and am glad to sacrifice comfort for the possibility of variation.

The models look different from the GW Slayers, but they are a more then suitable alternative, even more so if you are looking for some skirmish slayers (lets say for mordheim , Bloodbowl, RPG, …)  I’ll be using them in my normal Dwarf army non the less ;o)

Painting:

I gave this one a simple but effective color scheme using blue as the army color on the loincloth and the normal orange for the crest.  For skin tone I used dwarf flesh and several highlights adding bone to the mix.  Red Gems to finish it all up and then a medium dip and a clear varnish to seal it all.

Conclusion:

I’m satisfied with this kit, I’ll have to look out how I assemble the others so they form one unit of 20 slayers.

Cheerz
Griffit