My second Forge World order arrived today – I am making use of the lower free postage threshold while it lasts! – and I got my hands on my HQ of choice for the 17th legion – Zardu Layak!
Once a devout believer in all that the Imperium stood for, at the Battle of Calth it was clear to those who witnessed the atrocities he masterminded that Zardu Layak, the Crimson Apostle, had fallen completely into darkness along with the rest of the Word Bearers Legion.
Suffused in dark powers which he used freely to destroy minds and bodies, Zardu Layak walked his bloody path accompanied by a pair of bodyguards, each unnaturally warped and contorted and possessed of great strength. Wielding the Anakatis blades, gifts bestowed upon them by Layak and weapons of unholy xenos influence and malevolent power, they cut a swathe through their master’s foes in a barely controlled hunger for slaughter.
The kit is very straight forward – body, 2 arms and a back pack for the 2 blade slaves while Zardu himself is Body, back pack, staff, arm, head and 2 trophy racks.
The clean up was reasonable though as you can see – the flash on the staff was pretty heavy and had a lot of whispy/stringy resin threads. There were a couple of minor mould lines on the legs to remove but due to the decorations and mutations, if these extended up the main body I could not find them.
You have almost no option when it comes to assembly – for sure they could be with basic weapon swaps to make Gal Vorbak or a sorcerer/apostle and being honest, I would consider doing this myself. That said, they are such nice models I am more than happy with the basic assembly. The whole thing to clean and build took about an hour.
The Blade Slaves, and even Zardu himself (he being a Gal Vorbak) are considerably larger than other astartes from Forge World. The sheer bulk of the blade slaves completely justifies the 40mm bases you get with them!
I grabbed a scale shot to show what I mean…
So we have Zardu, then the Mhara Gal Dreadnaught, then my librarian, a plastic dark vengeance cultist, a blade slave, the Forge World LTD Centurion (converted to a chaplain) and then the other blade slave. All bar the cultist are off their bases (as I will build and paint them separate).
Without the base, the cultist would be about half a head shorter than the librarian or chaplain. They in turn are a head shorter than Zardu or the blade slaves. The blade slaves are much, much broader than any of the infantry – nearly twice that of the standard power armour. Mhara Ghal has the blade slaves almost hit its hip height!
I really need to get a test colour scheme done so I can get started on these – I got a bunch of shoulder pads in this order for the 30, Mk4 marines I have waiting to join the 17th and I really want to start playing with them!
I still have the Gal Vorbak to build and the Forge World parts replacements are on their way from the mispack I got. The 17th legion is going to show their true colours soon – watch this space!