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11Dec/200

Adeptus Titanicus – Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix and Magaera

Towards the end of the year we see a new release of Mechanicum Knights by Forge World. Along the regular Questoris Knights (and later upgraded kit) two new classes enter the epic sized battlefield of the Horus Heresy - the Questoris Knights Styrix and Questoris Knights Magaera.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix and Magaera

These being Forge World releases, this means a few differences towards the regular Adeptus Titanicus range. Most present is the direct only availability, as Forge World is only sold through Forge World themself or at Games Workshop events (and at Warhammer World). But they overhauled their shipping costs, making availability through their online shop quite a bit more affordable. And the second difference compared to Games Workshops main range they are cast from resin and not injection mould plastic or finecast. But more on that further below.

Both pattern, Styrix and Mageara were introduced with 2014's Horus Heresy Book IV - Conquest, which covers Horus attack on the northern part of the Imperium, introducing the Solar Auxilia and Questoris Knight Crusade Army Lists. These two patterns are among the rarest examples of Knight armour, similar in pattern as they both have access to ionic flare shields and the Hekaton Siege Claw as a melee weapon, and are armed for ranged atacks with either a Lightning Cannon in case of the Magaera or Volkite Chieorovile in case of the Styrix. Both often saw service as shock troops, as their blessed autosimulacra made them more withstanding against enemy fire and especially the Styrix lust for bloodshed.

Their design is influenced by the Warhammer 40.000 model but not as strongly connected as some of the other designs. Where the 40k models use the regular plastic knights as a base with further parts casted in resin by Forge World to be upgraded into Styrix and Magaera, the Adeptus Titanicus kits are entire resin casts. They come in pairs of two and cost 40 EUR.

Forge World products are often sold in white card board boxes, as you might know them from some of the Mail Order products. In this case they have a plastic clamshell container, that contains all the resin parts, the assembly instructions, a flyer with information on handling resin and the command terminal. The designed boxes are kept for the more exclusive parts of their range, for example the Horus Heresy character series or "full scale" (well, 28mm scaled) warmachines like the titans.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

As the flyer doesn't fit the post card sized boxes, it is folded, but that is no problem. I think this very helpful information, as due to their pricing more accessible to new players and the dominant part of the range is plastic, a large portion of the customers might not yet be familiar with the handling of resin miniatures. The flyer even has a signed part, where an employee from the Quality Assurance signs (or stamps) that he or she has checked the parts.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

A novelty due to the individual packs having supply problems is that Adeptus Titanicus kits now come with the command terminals included. You don't need to buy these individually. They are not the thick cardboard ones anymore, but a stronger paper / thin cardboard now.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

And of course, Forge World supplies you with some assembly instructions on the knights. Read these in detail, as some parts look nearly identical, but aren't. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. The biggest challenge would be the cleaning of the mould flash.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

As for the casting. These are hand-made in small numbers. Here you usually have a (two-part) rubber mould, that the epoxy resin is casted into and then settles inside a pressure chamber. After the epoxy resin is cured, the pieces are taken from the rubber mould. As a two-piece mould, and the inviscid attributes of resin, you don't have the classic mould lines you have from injection plastic, but often thin flash or resin skin, that needs to be cleaned. As the resin has to be poured into the mould and air has to escape the mould, the parts have connection pieces / casting aids, that need to be removed. Usually this can be easily done with a pair of clippers and than cleaned afterwards with a cutter or file.

The amount of details is amazing and you can see the quality of the cast, as there are no air intakes or contamination of the resin itself. Even the steps from the 3d masters, that we've seen one some of the Aeronautica or Blood Bowl resin kits are nearly impossible to see, as they are so fine on these.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

To give you an idea of the size and details on the resin kit, here are a few comparison shots with the plastic Questoris Knights. The casting is on a very close grad of sharpness, the focus was a bit off so that might not come across in full on each of the pictures. And you can see the small alterations the designers made to the armour of the Knight.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

My first step handling resin kits is giving them a good wash in hand warm soap water, to remove any detergents from the casting process. If you come across warped pieces - this might happen with larger resin kits (especially long gun barrels are prone to this) - you can use the warm (or hot) water to bring pieces back in shape. As with Adeptus Titanicus the bits are rather small, I strongly suggest removing the pieces from the casting aids after the wash and not before.

After wards, removing any sprues or flash from the pieces. Some have delicate cables and power lines, that have as casting support some "stronger" (we're still speaking thinner as a mm) flash, which needs to be removed. Use a drill or the tipp of an xacto knife to clean these.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

Always to a dry fit before using glue (with resin ideally super glue), to see if the joints / connection properly fit or need a bit of scraping / aligning. We start with the upper body, the carapace to be precise. The heads are added by a pin and can be slightly rotated to the left and right. On its left shoulder, the Styrix carries a Graviton Gun, which is added by a slot-connection and stays properly in place. The carapace is the same bit for both patterns.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

The upper body itself, again identical with Styrix and Magaera, has an ammunition belt / power lines from the back. These are specialy fitted for the Volkite weapon system of the Styrix. The fit is quite well, I would suggest you glue these first and then align the arm wielding the Volkite Chieoroville.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

The legs are pretty close in design to the regular plastic legs, but have the typical mechanicum cogs as a part of their armour framing. These come in two different stances, to give the duo a bit variation.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

Now for the weapon systems of the Questoris Knight Styrix. We have a Hekaton Siege Claw with rounded tongs as a melee weapon, and the Volkite Chieoroville as a ranged weapon. Please note that the upper arms are not identical, the ones for the ranged weapons have a small pin to fix the position a bit more (and to ensure a better fit with the power cable). Due to the ammo feed, the Volkite weapon can't be swapped to the other arm. With a bit of cutting you could probably modify the siege claw into a closed version. Fit is overall pretty convincing, I had a small gap between the volkite gun barrel and gun mantlet.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

Now for the final assembly. I think it is best to glue the individual "build groups" and assembly these later on. As for painting, I would suggest leaving the arms off at first, or at least glue the hip at last, to have better access to the model itself.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix

The Questoris Knight Magaera is very close to its sister model the Styrix. You get a white box, with the clamshell container, a flyer, the instructions and the card board command terminal.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

As you can see, the instruction on how to handle resin were signed by hand this time. Otherwise the same information as above.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

Same goes for the command terminal. These are now included with the kit, and are printed on thinner card board (not paper).

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

As the main difference between these two patterns is the design of the heads and armament, the instructions are similar to the other one. Again, clear and easy to follow.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

The parts are inside the clamshell container, along with two 40mm round bases. Some of the smaller parts got loose from the sprue, but that is not a problem as these are predetermined breaking point.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

Again the comparison of the small parts casted in resin with the plastic injection mould pieces of the regular Questoris Knights. The amount and crisp of the details is well done.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

For the Magaera we start at the top again. The carapace is the same as with the Styrix, but the head and shoulder weapon is different. Instead of a Graviton Gun the Magaera is fitted with a phased Plasma-Fusil. The head is connected with a pin to the carapace and therefore can be tilted to the left or right.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

The legs and feet are identical on both patterns. Once again two different stances for a bit of variation.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

The close combat weapon on both is a Hekaton Siege Claw, but with the Magaera the design is a bit less rounded and more angled. I assume that with a bit of cutting you could re-fit one as being closed. The Lightning cannon has a power feed, which is connected to the back of the upper torso.

As with the Styrix the upper arm bits look pretty close to each other but have a smooth surface for the close combat arm for a more flexible position and a pin for the ranged weapon, to align the rear part of the gun with the connection point of the cable.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

As we have build all of the minor groups, it is time for the final assemble. I started with the lightning cannon on the right side of the upper torso, to have the weaponry align.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

With this one I suggest as well, that you at least keep the legs of for painting, maybe even one of the weapon arms to have a better access.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Magaera

The Questoris Knights are about the same size, a bit variation in the width of the shoulders.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix and Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Imperial and Cerastus Knights

I really like how the design works at this scale and how close yet different the patterns come along. The different styles of the Hekaton Siege Claw are a nice touch.

Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix and Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix and Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix and Magaera Adeptus Titanicus - Mechanicum Questoris Knights Styrix and Magaera

Conclusion
I am really glad, that we now have access to these more exotic type of knights for Adeptus Titanicus. The Mechanicum specific Knights, along with the upcoming Atropos knight, are an interesting addition and bring more colour to the Knight households as well as themed army projects. I am looking forward to the next supplements and how much deeper the rabbit hole goes.

The quality of these kits surpasses my expectations. Casting with Forge World is usually clean, with little to no amount of air bubbles or discolouration of resin. Nothing to argue here. But with the newer models and especially more technical designs like the knights, you sometimes still see the fine steps from the 3d printed masters. Barely noticeable on these. Warpage was not existant on these as well and the fit was with the exception of a bit of filing along the mantlet for the barrel superb. This comes with a price, regular Questoris Knights are about 32,50 EUR per three, these cost you 40 EUR per two. So a House of Col'Khak army may cost you a bit. Yet, in most cases you will probably field a banner of 2 or 4, so you're still on a moderate budget.

I wasn't sure if we would see a full resin kit or they would go the same route as with the large models and add resin parts to the plastic sprue (in fact, it might have even been an option that they would be full plastic, as some of the Aeronautica variants). But with the rarity of the pattern, I think the way Forge World went with this is a proper solution. It was pleasant to build, with fine details without going for something that would be annoying to assemble.

Warhammer 40,000 and Adeptus Titanicus are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.

Posted by Dennis B.

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