By John Lester - images & text © 2005

Scale: 28mm "heroic" or ~1/64

Parts: All resin

Instructions: None

Decals: None

Molding Quality: 9+ - as good as it gets

Detail: 9+ crisply rendered, and plenty of it

Accuracy: N/A

MSRP: Varies; available from Forge World

Overall Rating: 8 - very nicely done, but expensive

Forge World is a subsidiary of Games Workshop that produces resin models and accessories for the Warhammer®, Warhammer 40,000® and BattleFleet Gothic® table-top wargame lines. These kits are intended to supplement the injection-molded wargaming models that the parent company sells. The designs are often pretty funky, and quite a departure from more "mainstream" media types.

The company has an extensive, and ever-expanding, product line. For this preview, I looked at three Warhammer 40,000 Tau sets: Tau Tank Commander (MSRP: £4.00/~$7.63 USD/$9.42 CAD/€ 5.79 EUR), Tau Vehicle Upgrades (MSRP: £3.00/~$5.72 USD/$7.10 CAD/€ 4.34 EUR) and Tau Pathfinder Tetras ( complete kits in the set) (MSRP: £30.00/~$57.27 USD/$71.00 CAD/€ 43.40 EUR).

What You Get

Each item arrived in its own small plastic bag. Aside from a small picture on the label, there are no assembly or painting guides (at least with the sets I bought). There are plenty of images of completed models on the website though, which may be all that's needed. The casting is first rate, with no bubbles or pits, and very little flash. Cleanup should be quite minimal - just scrub to remove mold residue and a few swipes with sanding stick. Detail on all the pieces is top-notch as well. A few engraved lines that could benefit from some gentle rescribing, but that's a minor nit.

The tank commander is one complete piece that is intended to fit in the cupola of the plastic Hammerhead or Devilfish vehicles. He has a couple pour stubs which can be easily removed with a hobby blade. The vehicle upgrades provide decoy launchers and flechette dispensers to add on to the aforementioned armor kits (enough for one vehicle). The Pathfinder Tetra (a small reconnaissance 'speeder') set includes two complete models with their two-Tau crew.

Building these should be painless and fast. All the pieces are thoughfully engineered for easy assembly. Superglue (CA) is the adhesive of choice. Because these are resin, I'd suggest priming the pieces with a lacquer- or enamel-based paint; hobby acrylics tend to scratch off easily when applied directly to the resin - in my experience, anyway (your milage may vary).

If there's a downside to this wholesome modeling bounty, it's the price. The small pieces (tank commander, upgrade set) are about what you'd expect to pay for any similar aftermarket product.

Conclusions

All the Forge World kits I've seen measure up to the high standards of detail and quality that the examples reviewed here display. They're easy to build, and lend themselves to all sorts of interesting diorama and vignette possibilities. You'll have to decide for yourself if the expense is worth it - for me, it is.