I mentioned these Giant Scorpions from Heresy Miniatures a couple of weeks ago and they’ve since arrived in my letter box. I put one together late last week so here’s a mini review.
This first photo is for scale, showing the assembled, unpainted scorpion stalking up behind a hapless archaeologist from Copplestone Castings. He’s the second figure I’ve managed to finish for my .45 Adventure Nazi ‘Egyptian researchers’ gang.
Scale wise the scorpion is suitably gigantic, with a body roughly the same size as an entire 28mm human figure. The pose of the body is a little static though and I wish the sting was in more of a striking position myself, particularly since these bugs will spend a lot of time grappling with would-be tomb robbers. I have two so I might try sniping the end off the tail, carefully bending it up and out a little more and reattaching the sting with some pinning and green stuff patching.
This figure is by Mike Thorp, the same sculptor that created Heresy’s excellent Giant Spider. Stylistically they’re a good match, with similar heads, fanged mouthparts (unrealistic, but not overly so for a giant insect!) and ball and socket leg system.
Each scorpion consists of the parts you see in this second photo. There’s some mildly annoying flash to clean off between the stinger and tail as you can see, and the tips of each leg and claw needed to be cleaned up with a file. There’s a light mold line that runs down the middle of the body but it’s quite easy to file away. It’s not obvious but the legs are subtly graduated in size, something I noticed only after I’d removed them from their cast rod.
The legs are probably the most annoying aspect of this figure. It makes sense to attach them to a rod like this, but does mean you’ll have to do some cutting and filing to get the ball joint shaped fit the body socket. As far as I can tell there’s also no way you’ll be able to fix the legs to the body without pinning every one and the two large claws. That’s ten limbs to pin and glue which can get a little tiresome. Fortunately the limbs are all sturdy and can easily accept a 1mm wire pin drilled 3-5mm into them. I’d also recommend dry fitting the limbs into a pattern you like before starting to pin them. I just worked my way down the body and of course things started to get a little tight near the end. The Heresy site states this is an “Expert model kit – needs some pinning and filling in with green stuff here and there” which is a fair comment and any potential buyers should take note.
The Giant Scorpion is similar to Heresy’s Giant Spider in this respect, because that figure also requires robust pinning to keep the legs on during gaming. Here are the two together with our unlucky adventurer.
I think the end result is quite pleasing and I’m looking forward to painting them. Since I have two I’m thinking of going with a realistic reddish/brown scheme for one and an over the top jade scheme for the other. That way the first can appear in the desert sands and the second in ancient jungle temples.
Now if somebody could just convince Mr Thorp to create a giant hissing scarab beetle I’d be set for monsterous insects!