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Product Review: Games Workshop's Helstorm/Hellblaster Kit |
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Written by Robert Kendzie
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Friday, 31 August 2007 |
When I first read the rules for the Helstorm Rocket Battery in the Empire army book, I wasn't sure that it would be worth including one in my army, as the machine is soooo incredibly random and I wasn't overly enamored with the model. However, many of my regular opponents bring large blocks of infantry, so I reconsidered and decided to pick up the box. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the kit is one of the better ones that Games-Workshop has released recently.
What's in the Box: There are multiple sprues included, but the bitz break down into five basic categories: The Gun Carriage, the Hellblaster machinery, the Rocket Rack, The Crew, and an awesome selection of accessories. It is worth noting that the model has been designed in such a way that you can keep the Gun carriage, the Hellbaster, and the Helstorm rockets seperate from one another. This allows you to field either the Hellblaster OR the Helstorm: simply plunk down the Gun Carriage, and place the appropriate weapon into the slot on top of it. The crew have multiple head types, and are easy to customize for either weapon. However the best thing about this set is the load of great accessories. There is a phenomenal metal gun case that contains some pistols and a disassembled Hochland rifle. There's a wooden rack for extra rockets. There's a rack full of spare hand weapons. This is the kind of stuff that really dresses up a battlefield, and is perfect if you like to mount your war machines on displa bases.
Assembly: The multiple barrels of the Hellblaster are a bit tricky to put together, but no more so than the previous metal version of the model. Everything else is very straightforward and simple. I do recommend that you NOT immediately glue down the multiple rocket racks, however, as they will be much easier to paint if you keep them separate for the moment. One thing to watch out for: The model is ever so slightly front-heavy. I noticed that when the Hellblaster was mounted, the gun carriage had a very slight tendency to tip forward. This is somewhat more pronounced with the rocket battery, which can fall forward off the carriage if you're not careful. If you don't want to affix the battery to the carriage permanently, a dot of Blu-tak should be enough to hold it securely. To keep the gun carriage from tipping forward, I filled a plastic powder-box bit (from the plastic cannon sprue) with bits of pewter sprue and stuck it on the rear of the gun carriage. You could also glue the carriage down to a base as well.
The plastic version of the Hellblaster is bigger than the old 5th edition artillery piece, but significantly smaller than the 6th edition metal one. Comparing the two, I personally prefer the 6th edition Metal one because the engineering on it looks a bit more realistic, however the new one is perfectly serviceable and still quite detailed. The crewmen are also excellent. I particularly like the one that can be modeled holding a rack of Hellblaster ammo. The lead crewman also has a couple of nicely detailed engineering instruments.
OVERALL: One of GW's better kits. Loads of good gubbins on the sprues and easy to assemble. I give this one a 10 out of 10, and heartily recommend it for any Empire player.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 18 February 2008 )
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