Kind of Gross, if you ask me

The long wait for Abyssal Dwarf generals is finally over.  After being introduced in 2nd edition, Mantic has released models for the Grotesques.


These monstrous cavalry truly live up to their name - twisted, mishappen creatures eager to tear into anything (hopefully your opponents units).

First off, the resin casting is back up to the great standard that I have been used to from the majority of the Mantic resin kits.  Very little flash and almost no cleanup required.

The models do not, unfortunately, have any interchangeable parts - each pose being unique (well except for the champion, but I'll get to him later).  What is nice is that each of the resin 'sprues' is clearly marked to indicate which arms/legs go with which body - with one, two, or three dots.

So of course starting with one dot.


Assembly is easy with all of these - there aren't that many parts.  It does take a little fiddling to see how the arms fit into the sockets - as with the entire concept of these the angles aren't natural, but most fit very well.

It took me a bit, because something is off with these, and it finally hit me.  These are LITERALLY twisted creatures - the torso is twisted 180 degrees from what is should be - the knees and feet are all backward (as is the bulge in the crotch).

From the initial pictures, I thought that all the grotesques had three legs, but actually only the third one does.

The second one is similar to the first, and goes together just as well.



I did have a little trouble putting together the third one - the left arm did not want to fit well, and ended up with pretty much the only gap on any of these.  This one has the third leg as well, and the body is a bit bulkier than the other two.


The third leg doesn't actually touch the ground, and as such this one can't actually stand up on his own (it won't make a difference once glued to a base.


Here you can see all three together.


Back when the play test version of the second edition book came out, I remember asking what grotesques were supposed to be, and getting a response (I think it was from Nick, but not sure) that they were there to fill a big 'dragon-ogre' sized whole in the AD list.

Based on that, I had converted my own some time back, using lower bodies from GW dragon ogres, but upper bodies were Mantic ogres.


 So I was interested in seeing how they compared


 Not quite a big, though still much larger than normal cavalry for the AD


 In addition to the regiment box, they also released a separate Grotesque Champion box



If you think it looks similar to the third grotesque - well it does because it uses the same body, but has different arms, leg and head.  (marked with four dots, appropriately).


These actually fit the body better than the 'normal' ones - making me wonder if this sculpt was actually done first (then reused for the regiment), swapping out the pieces.  The head is actually the same head as the other, but with a helmet on it.


I expect to start seeing lots of these monstrosities on the tabletop soon.

 Because it is all fun and games . . .

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