Inquisitor Karamazov Progress

Karamazov on the painting table today after the main components which had been painted individually were glued together. While White Dwarf often recommends assembly then painting it often is easier to paint discrete sub components and then paint. For Karamazov these were the legs of the throne, the throne its self minus the engine and exhausts, Karamazov him self and the 2 servitors individually and also the multimelta gun.

Karamzov is the sole finecast mini tried so far. As previous posts have indicated this has been a disappointing first finecast mini. Yes some detail is nice and sharp but there a plentiful mould lines and flashing to be trimmed off. The quality of the moulding seems no better than the previous older metal minis. Perhaps GW is using the same moulds hence the same casting problems remain. Perhaps minis that a originals in finecast come out better.

Why choose Karamazov over Coteaz for a Grey Knight's Inquisitor. Coteaz at 100 points is half the price of Karamazov and allows the use of multiple henchmen war bands as troop choices. In a Grey Knight force expendable IG stormtroopers are of limited value when terminators and purifiers can be taken as troops choices. Karamazov is a complete army by himself. A close combat monster with  a master crafted power weapon, WS 4 strength 5, wounds 4  and a 2+ save. He is also shooty with a master crafted multimelta and to cap it all he can bring down artillery in the form of an orbital strike. Whats not to like.

Here are the previously blogged images of Karamazov showing the amount of flashing and the poor fit of components:

Finecast continued

What are the problems with finecast. One of the consequences of the enhanced detail inherent in finecast are the plethora of mould injection points. Secondly the finecast material is softer than even the plastic that GW uses. This makes it easy to accidentally damage the components as they are removed from the sprue or while cleaning flashing from components.

Secondly and worse is the discovery that fine cast is not so fine cast. Components from the above kit required a good bit of green stuff and trimming to align the front and rear arms of the throne of judgement. If this is a consistent finding with finecast then its not so fine.

Fine Cast - Is That So - Inquisitor Karamazov

Those of you who have followed this blog will know that a fine cast Inquistor Karamazov had been acquired some time ago. The cycle of construction has taken this mini on to the work table finally. Pictures of the kit were posted here some time ago. The finecast components were as advertised finely detailed - but some problems arose with the finecast material. More later.

Finecast Inquisitor Karamazov and Grey Knights Inquisitorial Warbands

The new and only Inquisitor finecast mini has reached the Artificer. The GW site states that due to the expected demand orders for finecast are limited to 5 per customer. In the local independent stockist the boxes sit on the shelf, no restrictions and a 10% discount from list price. Why would anyone want 5 Karamazovs anyway? As a independent character and as a legendary individual how could you field more than one anyway. Actually this is a question I have never seen asked anywhere probably because the rules clearly identify unique characters of which only one is allowed per army. So why would anyone want more than one.

The box was disappointingly small for the price. There is one concept that GW have dropped at the moment which is value added. If the mini had come with a unique sculpted base that would be something perhaps, or a bit of scenery etc. Here are the contents of the box :

The components are highly detailed as promised. The attachments to the sprues and the mould lines on the components suggest a degree of skill required to assemble and paint this satisfactorily. The progress of this mini will feature on the blog, like the immolator and the exorcist - which is still finishing up.

The www has had some debate regarding the worthiness of Karamazov inclusion in a competitive listing. A number of reasons have been suggested but.... In the Grey Knights codex Inquisitorial henchmen warbands listing the Jokaero weaponsmith the question is does the inconceivable customisation rule apply to Inquisitors that join this unit. And if not why not. Imagine Karamazov with a 1+ save, or an on the move multimelta with rending, or an invulnerable save. Worthy of thought. Why shouldn't the JRO not customise his employing inquisitor. It makes no sense that the warband gets it but the Inquisitor does not.