Age of Sigmar: Unboxing The New Slaves To Darkness Wave
There’s a new batch of Slaves to Darkness Minis out there this weekend for Pre-Order! Just look out for those Knights.
Games Workshop sent us a some previews of the new Chaos Slaves To Darkness boxes and we dove in and built them. Some of these kits are much better than the others…
Slaves To Darkness – Here Come The Spikes
There’s a fresh batch of minis out of the fires of the Varanspire this weekend and, as a Slaves To Darkness player myself, I’m super pumped for this release. We’ve got all the kits from the Launch Army set out as individual kits now so that’s super exciting!
The Daemon Prince is gonna go fast because it’s also used for 40k — you might want to get your pre-orders in for that one fast. Additionally, the Ogroids and Chosen are out, too. I’m bringing those up because you can see all of those unboxed already (and built) on a previous video/article.
On To The New Pain
Now, as for the new kits released this weekend, we’ve got new Chaos Warriors, an Exalted Hero, a Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount, and a “new” box of Knights.
Chaos Warriors
This kit is awesome. I’m totally biased though because I’ve been waiting for a modular(ish) Chaos Warrior kit since…well, since I started playing Chaos many moons ago. The old kit is super iconic to me and honestly, I’m still going to use those models. However, I’m looking forward to mixing these new ones in with the old ones to add some more dynamic looks to my battleline. The heads and arms are very interchangeable.
There’s only a few “fixed” options for the musician, the standard bearer, and the unit champ. This kit also comes with a bunch of polearms which is a first, too! These are not the same models from the Start Collecting! Box that’s been replaced either — this whole kit is new and great.
Exalted Hero of Chaos
This is another great kit. I think it took me 20ish minutes to clip, clean, and assemble it. It went together very simply and intuitively. It’s got options for hand weapon/shield or two hand weapons. Plus you can build it with or without a helmet. It’s a good, clean character kit and it looks awesome when done. This is another big thumbs-up kit from me!
Chaos Lord on Daemon Mount / Eternus
This kit was a little tricky as you have a lot more bits that you’ll use and that’s because it’s a dual kit. You can either choose a generic chaos lord with a lance or hammer or you can build Eternus, Blade of the First Prince. I opted for the generic lord with the lance because I have a chaos army that runs with Archaon. That’s where my “loyalty” lies. But as a model/hobby opportunity, it’s going to look good no matter which option you choose.
Dripping with details and pokey with spikes this Chaos Lord is great for being intimidating and imposing. Just what a Chaos Army needs.
Chaos Knights
I have to start off by saying these Knights look REALLY cool when you’re done. The end result is impressive and once you get past the building step it’s only going to get easier. That said…Ugh, that building step is brutal. I had actually unboxed these sprues way back in 2019. It’s the same kit/models from the Start Collecting! Box. And you know what, I never got to build them back then. And boy, oh boy, I was shocked to find out how difficult they were to build.
The only new sprue is a single smaller sprue that’s got extra bits for a standard bearer and a unit champ. Oh and a musician, too. That was actually a nice addition and it fit right in with the old bits. But that’s really the only positives I have about building this kit. I have some tips if you’re going to tackle this kit:
- Work on a single knight and find ALL of that knight’s bits first.
- Clip all the bits out and clean them all very well.
- “Dry” fit them but DO NOT assemble the model without glue.
- Walk away if you get frustrated.
Why those tips? On the first point this kit’s lay out makes absolutely zero sense. The bit aren’t layed out in a useful order and have no logical sequence we could determine. Bit 3 won’t be near bit 4 and might not even be on the same sprue. It’s bad. It’s REAL bad. I say this as someone’s who’s build hundreds (maybe thousands at this point) of GW models. This step will stop most folks in their tracks.
If you can find all the bits clip them out for a single knight and clean them all. Don’t skip on this step because the are “push fit” in the sense that they use those pipes and pegs for assembly. I have mixed feelings at those “helpers” as they just seem to get in the way more than help. And if you aren’t careful you’ll get huge gaps in the models and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The dry fit step is tricky. Because of the pipes and pegs, if you dry fit them completely, you might be stuck — or need to pry things back out. There’s a few cases in particular where this is SUPER annoying/important. The reigns and their shield arms come to mind. Those left arms with the shields were an exercise is patience.
The last tip is one I had to exercise myself. In all my years of building models I don’t think I’ve ever walked away from a kit due to being frustrated at it. I finished two of them and had to set the models down and do other things for a few days before I came back to them. This kit beat me. I hope you’re happy GW.
If they didn’t look so damn cool afterwards I would say just build some Varaguard instead. But hey, they do look pretty cool…so at least there’s that to look forward to. Good luck to anyone else who tackles this ball of pain. It does get easier if you go in with a plan. My second time around went way faster/smoother. So…maybe the next unit won’t make me tap out.
The Chaos Slaves to Darkness kits are going up for pre-order this weekend! Here comes the chaos…
Promotional Product Provided by Games Workshop, PLC
