Alternative Big Gunz Review

Kromlech Orc Sparkk Energy Cannon

Kromlech has sent Blood of Kittens products for review and like any good wargamer we sent them off to someone better at painting and hobbying than me, here is a review by one of my favorite players and painters Jody Pez Man. Jody is available for commissions for characters only contact him at pez5767@hotmail.com for pricing and details.

Happy Holidays one and all. It’s time for another Kromlech review. This holiday season orc warlords are hoping to receive the gifts of, more choppa and more dakka. If it’s dakka on your boys list, then the Kromlech Orc Sparkk Energy Cannon should do just the trick.

As you can see, the Kromlech Orc Sparkk Energy Cannon kit is an easy kit to work with, as the assembly is intuitive and even offers a few options if you wanted to differentiate between squads or individual cannons. This kit was, as I have found most Kromlech kits to be, an absolute pleasure to work with. The mold lines were few and the details were crisp. Everything fit as it should and there were no warping or casting issues to speak of.

On my kit I opted for using the largest of the energy globes for the barrel and left of the extra exhaust pipes. As is usually the case, I prefer to work in sub-assemblies and paint the kit in pieces. I think for this kit, that was definitely the right choice as it allowed for ease of access when painting the bottom portion of the cannon, which would have been heavily blocked by the upper gun mounting. Once the base coat was completed, I finished assembly by attaching two parts of the shield and the Iron Reich gunner grot to the upper gun, and attaching the tracks to the main tractor body. As is my usual approach, after finished the basecoat and assembly, I dunked the kits in a water-based wood stain wash and allowed the to dry.

As always, the crisp raised detail on Kromlech kits make them easy to work with and it’s simply a matter of picking out which details you would like to emphasize as you go. I actually opted for a fairly minimal approach on painting this kit, as there was so much detail to pick from that I figured the wash would actually do most of the work. In the end, I think this was a good call, as the upper gun is really the focus of the kit, and any time spent on the lower tractor assembly would have been blocked after completion. Additionally, I could still easily go back and pick out some details all over the kit to allow them to look like more fresh additions on top of the patina of rust and grime.

My only regret is that I do not have any of the similar GW cannon kits to compare for you in terms of size. The Kromlech Orc Sparkk Energy Cannon measures a little over 3.5” long back end to barrel tip, and almost 2” tall at the highest point on the gunner’s shield.

Overall, the Kromlech Orc Sparkk Energy Cannon is a fantastic kit which could work as well as a proxy for a Shokk Attack Gun as would as field artillery. If more dakka is what you’re wishing for, you could do much worse than adding a Kromlech Orc Sparkk Energy Cannon.