I first saw this model a few months ago and my jaw hit the floor. It’s easily the best rendition of Abaddon the Despoiler Chaos Master of Crusade that I’ve ever seen! I don’t do impulse buys, so I pondered buying it for a while before I finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago. I had to have it!
The Price
The Chaos Master of Crusade is priced reasonably in my opinion. At the time of purchase it was €29.99, and the international shipping was €4.99. So, after exchange rates I paid around $42 for it shipped.
Now, that is more than I’ve paid for a model of this size previously. I would have scoffed at that price years ago. However, this is a special character for my army, I’ll only ever need one, and holy hell it’s sexy.
Speaking of Sexy – The Model
As I said, I think the the model is stunning. The sculpting is awesome. There’s so much detail on this model that most of the armor is covered, which is fine with me. The casting is very crisp and sharp as well.
The resin is a softer resin, not the hard brittle stuff Forge World uses. Also, there were no mold lines to deal with. I had to shave a little excess resin from a few pieces, but that seriously took a few seconds.
Assembly
The model is a single pose model. You can move the arms around a bit but that’s it.
All the parts fits together perfectly. The arms had slots in them for the should pads to sit into, and the top of the armor had spots for trophy racks, or the exhaust pipes.
I should note that the model does come with a top-knot option instead of the mohawk I used. It also has the option of the trophy racks I used, or exhaust pipes for the backpack.
The only things I struggled with was the thumb on the claw and the ammo belt for the claw’s gun. The thumb is tiny, so getting it into position and keeping it there took a few tries. It has a spot to sit in, but it’s not really slotted like the arms for the shoulder pads.
I thought the ammo belt was going to be the death of me. I didn’t glue it on until the arm was glued on. That way I could get the hanging angle correct instead of at some physics denying angle. Well, it’s very tiny, which makes holding it hard, plus with the arm glued on there wasn’t much room to reach in, the spot it glues into is equally small, and the whole process was painful.
My suggestion for anyone else working on this model, get the ammo belt into place first. Then quickly glue the arm in, and you’ll have some work life on the ammo belt glue to adjust it as as needed.
Gallery
Chaos Master of Crusade Overall
Despite some minor setbacks on assembly, I really love this model. It’s just such a great looking model, and the quality of the casting is the best I’ve seen. I would highly recommend the Chaos Master of Crusade for any fellow Chaos player looking for something to represent Abaddon the Despoiler. I’m sure we’ll see a new Abaddon model “soon”, but I highly doubt it’s going to match the quality of this Chaos Master model.
Also, if you’re curious to see it painted up then check out my Abaddon painting showcase.
Aside: Caladaris bought some Chaos Rhino conversion kits, also made by Grim Skull Miniatures, if you’re curious.
I love painting miniatures and teaching people how to paint. I also really love blogging, so I've combined those two passions here.
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A solid review for a really tempting model. Looking forward to seeing you get some paint on it.
I literally just put down the blue base coat :) I’m pretty excited to work on this model. I feel like it’s going to paint itself with so many small details.
Good to hear. Blue base coat?
He’s not Abaddon in my army; he’s a counts-as. So, he’s being painted in my usual scheme.
Ah even better.
Very nice. If I didn’t already have the old metal abbadon I would consider getting this guy as a counts as. But having bought from wargame exclusive myself in the past (I bought a mechanic adept female tech priest domina) I can second the excellent casting quality and lack of mold lines.
I couldn’t bring myself to buy the metal one. Years I’ve wanted an Abaddon model, but I’d rather have none than that 20+ year old sculpt.
True enough. I’ve had mine since the 4th ed chaos codex came out (along with kharn, typhus and ahirman all in metal [only kharn really leaves the storage boxes though]), I wouldn’t buy the model now I’d do a conversion or buy an alternative (the one you have reviewed is a great example.)
I was planning on a conversion when I found this one. Conversion would have been cheaper, but never look as good as the one I bought.
What a nice model, now I want it painted soon! Some third party miniatures (where’s the second? ..anyway) are astonishing, you’ve to take a breath twice if you’d like to keep some money in your wallet. However this one is worth of money!
You are the second party. Seriously. 1st is the manufacturer, 2nd is the consumer, 3rd is anyone other than the original manufacturer or end user making things for it.
I’v always thought that it was something like two big competitors and the third as an emerging/specialist/niche competitor, like for example Windows, iOS and Linux. Thanks!
I already started painting it this morning :)
Great!! I’ve noticed now that the classical cartoony top knot is disappeared. Not a fan of crests but this one fits very well.
It came with both top knot and mohawk/crest. I really like the mohawk and I normally don’t.
Very impressive Model. I’m not really in the market for it, as I actually have 2 of the GW Abaddon (a metal one I got back in the 90s, and a FineCast one that I got as part of a bulk lot from someone who was moving and needed to clear out a ton of stuff), but if I didn’t, I’d definitely be picking this up instead of GW’s.
I hear you. If I had a model already then I wouldn’t buy this either, however for anyone in the market this is a must-have.