The Forge World Acastus Knight Porphyrion was unveiled at the Horus Heresy Weekender in February put up for sale last week and I can happily say that I have one of these in my hands and what a beast! Weighing in at 1.6Kg and pretty much the same height as a Warhound Titan the Acastus Knight Porphyrion is a true heavyweight in the arsenal of any Questoris household or as a Lord of War option for a Mechanicum army – that’s right folks, with the experimental rules Forge World have released Legion armies can’t field this model. The rules are also only for 30k and we’re being told by Forge World that the 40k rules are “coming soon” – my belief is that they’ll be included in the Fires of Cyraxus Imperial Armour book rather than as a PDF release.
So onto the real reason you’re reading this blog post:
Unboxing the Acastus Knight Porphyrion
The model comes in Forge World’s now classic “big red box”, beautifully sealed and protected with layers of air pocket packaging. Unlike the Titans of old, you don’t get a numbered certificate with this model, which is a bit of a shame as it has a price tag that’s comparable with a Warhound.
How Big…?!
Summary
Overall, I’m very impressed. The model is massive without any doubt, but a lot of thought has been put into how it goes together. There is less movement and options for posing than in the Cerastus chassis but that makes sense for a unit that is much more of a lumbering behemoth. Even for me with my over the top obsession to make sure that everything is perfectly smooth and flush I can see it being assembled fairly quickly. I’m also very impressed with the finish, no mold release agent visible on any surface to the point where I’m likely going to assemble the model before giving it a bath (very few fiddly bits to snap off helps with this).
Painting the beast will take a lot longer. All of the surfaces are significantly larger so applying washes smoothly is going to be quite a challenge.
Knowing how good Forgeworld has been with things like the Fire Raptor, I’m surprised to find no obvious options for magnetising weapons options. The missile pod also appears to need to be glued in place rather than having a pivot (something I may investigate doing). The hull weapons are also ball and socket which is great for modelling but less so if you want the option to change between autocannon and las-cannon. It’s not insurmountable by any stretch.
One curiosity is that I don’t know how/if there are going to be different weapon options (which is what they did with the massive Tau suit). The arms are a single assembly so the only options would be the whole arm or just the barrels. Very weird and will need careful consideration when I put it together.
Going through all of the pieces it was a little disappointing to find a number of parts with mold slippage. Although not uncommon on smaller pieces, to find it on one of the guns and both thighs was a bit annoying.
