u/elescapo

Finished up Morga for a game later this week. We (Hobby Collab) received a preview of the kit from GW. Mini Review: She's smaller than you expect, about 10-20% smaller than a Stonehorn. Like most GW kits these days, it goes together really well. Quick build, no gotchas. The seams are mostly hidden in the gnarled hide of the beast or under things like straps.

As some people have commented, the design is surprisingly sparse for a modern kit. I felt like she needed a little more flair to match an Overtyrant, so I did some light kitbashing with leftover bits from the SH/TT and Mournfang kits. The weapon swap was very simple--snipped off her hand, and replaced it with a spare Gargant Hacker from the MF kit, with the second holding hand on the shaft spliced out, which made the bottom part the perfect length to rest on the saddle. Including a few bits from the older kits also helps to tie her into the existing range.

Otherwise, I was a bit concerned going in that the large smooth areas of hide on the mount would be too dull, but it ended up being the exact opposite. They made a great canvas to try out some subtle animal markings with airbrush stencils and some extra brushwork. In the end she was a lot of fun to paint.

Paint recipe: too many to list. Her body is mostly contrast with a little highlighting on top. The snow on the base is AK Snow from their Terrains series. It goes on like the kind of paste we had in grade school, then just spread it around with a wet brush to feather it like melting snow.

Thought my fellow eaters might be interested in these. Finished up the first ten Gluttons in time for a stream game tomorrow. More to come. I've also built up the rest of the box, and have some thoughts on the kits:

1. Gluttons are a solid kit. Two different builds for the champion, two different builds for the musician, and all of those use different base bodies for a lot of variety. All the left hands and right hands are interchangeable. It's a shame that all of the heads aren't interchangeable--they've managed this before with the Troll and Squig kits. But at least there are helmeted/unhelmeted options for every body, and sometimes multiple. At the end of the day, every pose is some variation of a heavy dude/lass striding forward, so the unit looks uniform but none of them look identical. Also, there is a random guy in there with a two-hander, as if the kit was designed at a time when special weapon options were a thing. I built them as alternate champions for non-reinforced units.
2. Ironguts - Actually kind of disappointing. Almost NO options. The champion can be built as a non-champ with a different pose, and they can have helmets or bare heads, but that is literally it. If you want to run multiple reinforced units, you will have a bunch of guys that look exactly the same without extensive kitbashing.
3. Maulbeasts - The kit does build two units, but within those unit builds, there is very little opportunity for customization. At first I was relieved that the rider was separate from the mount, but then discovered that due to the way his legs fit on, you have to glue him in. On top of that, the hands holding the reins have to be matched to the mount pose, which means the torso that goes with those hands is paired with the mount pose, which then means that the whole pose of mount + rider is fixed. If you reinforce the unit, you will have two pairs of clones. The Maulbeast heads are swappable, as well as the horns, but these are pretty subtle things. Basically just snarling/roaring. I kitbashed some leftover parts from the other kits to give the second pair different weapons, and modified the heads so they didn't need helmets.
4. TLDR; it feels like their more recent plastic releases are exercises in minimizing the investment in each kit to maximize the number of kits. Only the core troop kits get the suite of options that we used to expect from all kits. The models are great, but you need to invest time in kitbashing to get variety if you reinforce units, or take multiple of a unit.

Edit: These were sent to us (The Hobby Collab) by GW to review.