Man-portable heavy weapons are commonplace in many armies. Easier to bring to battle than artillery or tanks, they allow infantry units to take on foes many times thier size. Today, I'm looking at Evil Craft's Chaos Autocannon Gunner.
This kit retails at £7.08 for one model. This is version one, which comes with a drum-fed weapon. Evil Craft also sells a version with a belt-feed, for added variety to your forces. As well as full models, the guns are available on their own.
The first thing to note is that there are a lot of pieces: 23 in fact. This is a lot of parts for a standard-sized infantry model: there are six parts that make the gun alone. Too much? Probably, but it does allow for endless customisation.
The kit comes in resin, with two extra "rubberised resin" hoses and chains, flexible to allow easy fitting. The main body (torso, legs, shoulders, base and backpack vents) come from existing sets, whilst the gun, head backpack centre and ammo components are unique to the kit. This example comes with a drum-fed autocannon, but there is also a belt-fed variant.
As per the norm with Evil Craft, the model is breath-takingly detailed. Each part is well designed and stylised, and fits well in their current range. I love the way the autocannon goes together, with detailed shells and plenty of trim. IT will be an absolute joy to paint.
Sadly, I think the kit is overly complex: perhaps unnecessarily so. Whilst more parts means more customisation, going from one-piece sections to four or more (i.e. the backpack and autocnannon) is a massive jump in assembly time and complexity. There's no need for some of these sections to be in so many pieces, and it can lead to problems. I had problems getting the gun arms to fit on the body, and was left with some ugly gaps at the shoulders. If your glue is old, I expect you to get very mad very fast with this model.
To conclude, this model is fantastically detailed, but not suitable for the faint-hearted. Its excessive difficulty may put off some, but for the determined the reward is an amazing looking model to bring to the table.