If you know Warhammer 40K, as soon as you see the Archaeopter the thought “Adeptus Mechanicus” immediately comes to mind. They’re definitely weird designs, but it’s weird in a wonderful, cool way. It’s almost as if there is a recipe for the designs. Start with a hint of the familiar. Throw in a cup of steampunk. And add in sprinkling of fancifully odd. Finish off with by grating some bizzare over it, and you have your Mechanicus design.
The Archaeopter is no exception. It starts with what basically looks like an old Soviet helicopter design. To that is added some bolts and gears and grab handles. The rotor blades are tossed aside, to be replaced by giant mechanical bat wings. The landing gear are substituted with grasshopper feet, and you end up with the Archaeopter.
Examining The Archaeopter Kit
As with all of the Citadel Warhammer kits I’ve built, the parts are nicely molded, with very sharp, exaggerated detail. Overall fit is good. There is a seam line down the middle of the fuselage that will need some attention. Assembly is quite easy, as there really aren’t a large number of parts.
As the kit features a fairly nicely little cockpit assembly, I started the painting by getting that sorted out first. The instructions have some nice photos to give painting suggestions, but as with all things Warhammer, you can certainly paint it up as you want.
Once the cockpit is place and the fuselage halves are glued together, you’ll want to use a little bit of filler to close the seams up. Once that is complete, it’s ready for priming!
While the kit is designed to be used as a game piece in the Warhammer 40K tabletop game, I’d recommend this kit to anyone. It definitely falls into the “unique” side of scifi, and though it is a bit pricey, the cost to fun ratio is very good on it.
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