One of the things I did at the Derby show last weekend was snaffle a couple of the new Gates of Antares plastic sprues – one each of the Concord and the Ghar. These are late pre-production shots as far as I can tell, so the final version may get tweaked to be even better.
As we all know, plastic sprues are the way to get inexpensive armies. It’s also my favourite material to work with, so I’m always interested to see what’s new.
Gates of Antares has just been put on pre-order over at Warlord, with a tentative release date of as early in Nov as they can manage (I’m told this simply depends on when the ship docks with the components). So I thought I’d show you what the sprues look like so you could see if they were something you’d be interested in. The first one I want to look at is called a Ghar Battle Squad (on the sprue itself), so it’s one of these guys:
To start with, here’s the front of the sprue…
…and the back.
I’ve left those pics nice and big so you can click on them for a closer look.
Personally, I think they look like neat little walkers, and I particularly like the choice of heads:
The multi-barel guns look cool too.
The sprue makes a single Ghar battle suit. As far as I can tell, without having yet assembled one yet, the only options are which head you pick (though you do look to have a fair amount of choice in the pose).
My final shot is a nice angled picture of the mould lines. Looking at this on screen, it seems like I’ve managed to find the perfect angle and just the right kind of raking light to make them look far worse than they really are. Sorry Warlord. In real life I think they don’t look like a problem at all (and remember that these are probably not final shots anyway). More importantly, looking at the sprue they’ve clearly put some thought into where the inevitable and unavoidable mould lines go, so that they’re generally on bits that can be filed or scraped off quickly. Putting one together will be the proof of the pudding. It doesn’t look like there will be major swearage required though 🙂
Incidentally, I do approve of these bases. I’m a big fan of minimalist bases, and if you’re not going with clear acetate then this looks like a good alternative – nice and thin with a small lip to hold some ground work.
So, all told, I rather like them. They are crisply cast with minimal mould lines in sensible places. The number of bits for what is effectively a small dreadnought type of model, is a reasonable compromise between getting the detail on, allowing some flex in posing, and not being too fiddly to build.
A good start for GoA.
Quirkworthy 
Nice! Those look like they’d work as mechs at smaller scales from 6mm to 15mm, too.
Should do that rather well – or as small drones in bigger scales. There’s nothing that nails them down to 28mm.
They look like decent plastics. Not a lot of options but that isn’t much a problem in robots/power armour troopers that are probably supposed to all look the same. I don’t care for the design, but then I’m a Grimdark man myself, and GOA is not for me at all.
That’s cool. If you’re wedded to the 40K thing then you’ve got plenty to play with already. Every aesthetic is only for a fraction of the audience. Like you say, decent plastics though 🙂
Have to ask as you have one, what size are the bases on the Ghar?
40mm.
Thanks Jake appreciated.
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The more I see of it, the more I’m being swayed by Gates of Antares. I’m not a fan of the Concord, but the Freeborn, Ghar and spikey red dudes (can’t remember their name right now) on their website really appeal to me. Plus a new set of sci-fi rules by Rick Priestley has an appeal all of its own.
Well GoA won’t suit everyone, just like 40K, Warpath and everything else. However, I expect GoA’s lineage should help it gain a strong initial following, and it will just remain to be seen whether Warlord can build on that.
Great review and makes the wait for my preordered starters more painfull!
Can’t wait to build my Ghar and get them painted!
I’d really like to get my hands on some Ghar sprues. I’m not looking to pick up a new game at the moment, though. I hope Warlord put these sprues on the market separately soon.
I’d expect these and the Concord plastics to be in unit boxes pretty quickly after the launch. Plus Warlord sells a lot of their current plastic range as single sprues.