In today’s post I’m going to review and showcase the new Militarum Tempestus Scions boxed set from GW.
This new boxed set, priced at £21, contains parts to assemble 5 Scions or 5 Scions Command models.
First impression: it’s a two sprue box, with tons of parts. More than any set I’ve seen in recent times… I really think GW should have split this into two sets, to reduce the cost of the box. I’m using my Scions in a standard IG army, and so I will probably have no use for the Command bits (I know, I could use them in a platoon, but I just don’t see that happening in games of less than 2500 points). So, the reality is that you’ll end up with a pile of unused parts – some useful for conversions (like the Tempestor Command greatcoat), others pretty much useless (like multiple hot-shot lasguns).
You won’t be surprised to hear that the set also includes a single special weapon of each type! That’s very infuriating, as a 5-man Scions squad can have two special weapons. I plan on running a double volley gun squad, but you can’t do this out of the box. I’d much rather that some of the extra bits had been replaced with double special weapons!
The models themselves have very precise, sharp detail. I really like the look of the Scions’ armour and weapons, and even the GW colour scheme (on which my paintjob was based). The general design really takes the “stormtrooper” or special operations stereotype and 40k-ifies it.
Some parts are quite fragile, so be careful during assembly: the backpack aerial broke on one of my figures, and I glued it back into place. Also take care with the sergeant’s helmet spike.
This set is definitely not the fabled “veterans in carapace” plastic sprue we’ve all heard about (but only a friend of a friend has ever seen). The general model design seems to have been a “ground-up” restructure: whereas Cadians and Catachans have a flat joint between waist and torso, the Scions have a rounded ball joint. This means that
The set does come with 17 heads; featuring gasmasks, helmets, berets, etc. These, and the arms, are compatible with the IG range (and you get more than enough of them to fill your bits box!).
Overall, I do like this kit, but it has it’s limitations. It is priced well out of my range for even a 10-man squad (£42!), and building a whole army of Scions (using the Militarum Tempestus codex) would be as expensive as using FW Elysians – and I know which models I would prefer!