Gal Vorbak

For my recent birthday, my most wonderful wife surprised me with the gift of miniatures! (Yep - I have a most wonderful wife, and although I suspect that she may not read these words, you never know, she might one day, hence why I'm writing them.). 

One of the miniature sets that I received were the Gal Vorbak from Forge World. These guys are simply awesome! Firstly: the level of detail. These miniatures are certainly on par with the Horus Heresy Character Series miniatures such as Armillus Dynat, as well as older miniatures that were very high quality like the Plague Ogryn play sets. I have a strong feeling that these miniatures will paint themselves with the level of detail present on them.

The miniatures come in several parts. The main torso comes as a single large piece with the legs attached and the arms down to the elbows. The terminus of the arms, including the hands, are distinct and separate pieces. Additionally, the head, and part of the power pack on his back are further parts that come with the kit. There is a small degree of freedom in which direction to point the head, but otherwise the post is pretty much pre-sculpted. Given these constraints, I did not really want to do any conversion work on them and thought I'd build them "as is" for once.

In terms of cleaning up, the miniatures came with a minimal amount of flash to clean away. The various parts came cleanly away from the sprues and the resin was easy to work with overall. I might pair them up with Scibor resin bases that have been knocking around in my bits box for quite a while. But I'm a little way off doing that yet.

One thing that probably doesn't come across in my image above, is the sheer scale of these guys. They're easily as tall as terminators, and frankly, a bit more bulky. They tower over regular space marines and certainly look the part of possessed beings who strayed in the Eye of Terror for a little too long. 

The iconography and other details on the miniature are great. Notice, for instance, the Colchisian script work around the upper part of the greaves, the flames, the Serrated Suns chapter symbology, the daemonic hand that is reaching out from the right kidney area and keeping the script papyrus in place.

Assembling the miniature was simple: the parts slotted together very nicely with a snug dry fit. That said, I did pin the bolt gun arm to the miniature to provide a bit of extra security as that arm was more of a ball and socket joint that seems to require a bit more than just glue to keep it in place. 

In games terms, I'm sorely tempted to have these Gal Vorbak models as the Rewards for Treason in my Alpha Legion army. The background fluff is perhaps a little dodgy for this, but I can't see any reason that the Alphas would not decide to use all tools available to them!