Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors review

The Dark Eldar are a race of evil science-fiction elves that inhabit the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

As an army the Dark Eldar has been much ignored of late, the last codex being released in 2001 during 3rd Edition.

The new codex is accompanied by a range of great looking new miniatures, Kabalite Warriors are one of two Dark Eldar core troop choices.

First impressions

The Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors boxed set contains enough parts to build 10 miniatures spread across 2 sprues. A quick glance over each sprue reveals some nicely sculpted, highly detailed parts and what appears to be a good number of options.

The Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors sprues:

On closer inspection

The sprues contain 10 front torsos (6 different types), 10 rear torsos (10 different types), 10 pairs of legs (5 different types), 10 (for want of a better word) posteriors (5 different types)  & 15 heads. In terms of weaponry, there are 9 Splinter Rifle toting arms, and also arms holding one each of the following;  Blast Pistol, Splinter Pistol, Blaster, Shredder, Splinter Cannon, Dark Lance, Agoniser & Power Sword. Finally is also a Phantasm Grenade Launcher and numerous bayonets, knifes and unequiped weapons, if it’s available to Kabalite Warriors in the codex it’s in this Boxed set…

All this means that there is huge scope for adding variety to your units and no two units are ever going to look the same, all in all very impressive. The way the models are put together confers an additional benefit in that the equipment that is sculpted on to the  separate posteriors looks like it forms an integral part of the model rather that than something that is just tagged on, which is often the case with these things.

There are only a couple of slight let downs with regards to pose-ability. Out of the box, the Sybarite’s close combat weapons offer very little scope for variety of pose, also the 2 heavy weapons are similarly locked in position through only being able to be used with one set of arms.  These issues really are just minor grumbles however.

On to the build.  All in all these models were pretty easy to put together, although the rifle arms were slightly tricky to attach, they were no more so than many other fiddly models when you have to bring 3 parts together simultaniously.

Just 2 specific issues arose. The first was while cutting the parts away from the sprue, the right “collar” of the front torsos  often need to be cut away at an angle, upwards from front to back, to ensure you don’t accidentally trim a bit of the model off. Secondly, care needs to be taken when choosing which torso backs to use on which model, this is because two have been adapted to accept backpacks and these will not look too good if given to models without backpacks. I didn’t notice this myself while putting the models together for this review, I now plan to try to switch these parts or cover them up with some of the kits accessories.

Looking at the sculpts themselves, these are a massive step up from the old Dark Eldar Warriors models which were ridiculously spiky, so much so that the doorways on Commorragh would have had to be extra wide to allow them to walk through. The new Kabalite Warriors are much more realistic, I particularly like the Winged Greaves (shin armour). In general they look a lot more like regular Eldar, you can now tell that there is a connection between the two armies and that these are fallen Eldar.

The final point I’d like to make is that this kit represents pretty good value for money, 10 models for £15 RRP with lots of extras, not the cheapest models out there but certainly not expensive especially by Games Workshops standards…

Summary

I’ve not been as excited as this at the prospect of a Warhammer 40,000 release for a long time and the Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors do not disappoint.

The kit offers a huge number of modelling options and contains all the weapons and equipment available to  Kabalite Warriors in the codex.

The sculpts are detailed and full of character, I particularly like the fact that they now look like Dark “Eldar”, the connection between the two armies is obvious in these new models.

Finally the kit is pretty good value for money, especially by Games Workshops standards.

All in all, near faultless.

Overall score: 9/10

*Accurate as of 25th October 2010