Sunday 26 July 2009

REVIEW: Khurasan Miniatures Pelagic Man of War APC

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I can say without contradiction that this model is the most sophisticated and beautiful 15mm Sci Fi armoured fighting vehicle currently on the market. It is so 'out there' no other manufacturer's 15mm products come close to it. Khurasan Miniatures have just rewritten the rulebook with their new Man of War APC. It is every bit what you would imagine a 'high' Science Fiction armoured vehicle to look like and appears to have stepped out of almost any Asimov book cover illustrated by the great Christopher Foss.


The Pelagic Dominate Man of War APC from Khurasan Miniatures is an all resin kit which comes in 5 main pieces plus a metal flight base.


The parts consist of arrow head shaped hull, barrel troop compartment, turret with twin cannons and two propulsion pods. Assembled it is 95mm long and a maximum of 60mm wide. It is NOT designed to carry humans/humanoids but an entirely different race.

Being all resin and very detailed there is some cleaning and assembly required. Nothing arduous though and well within everyone's ability.

Leaving off the elaborate troop compartment and turret superstructure, as in the photo above, it is still a beautiful model, which can be used as an open back command, troop or weapons carrier.


The Pelagic Man of War is a sleek and very very sexy machine which either deserves a garish colour scheme inspired byone of Chris Foss illustrations, or perhaps something more subtle like this.......


As a tribute to Foss's superb illustrations, I think this camo scheme is perfect:


The Man of War is a stunning piece of workmanship. If you like 'high' Sci Fi rather than gritty armoured boxes on tracks, this is for you! It doesn't matter whether your 15mm Sci Fi armies are Human or Alien, the Man of War APC deserves a place in your collection.

Update Photo:


Availabe soon from Khurasan Miniatures.



Cheers
Mark
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15 comments:

  1. This vehicle is really kind of cool. It reminds me of some of the stuff you see the aliens cruising around in in the HALO games. Not that it looks anythign like any of those vehicles, it's just a style thing.

    -Eli

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  2. Glad you like it, Mark! Relieved too as you are the first person other than John Bear Ross and myself to see it. Just one small point, the final flight stand will be white metal, both the base and the support pole.

    Here are some more pics to see:

    http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/man-of-war-spa1

    http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/man-of-war-spa1

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  3. Very nice APC!!!! I will need a few of these . . . . Any idea what teh price range will be on these?

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  4. Oh, the links don,t work, looks like they are cut off.

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  5. Very very nice, although how it can be described as an APC I'm not sure. It doesn't look like it could take more than two people. Beautiful vehicle all the same.

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  6. Nice but too small for an APC [Armoured Personel Carrier] unless the beings are gnomes or smaller.

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  7. LOL -- that's forced perspective from the photographs guys. Things closer to the lens will appear disproprtionately larger, things further from it disproportionately smaller. The vehicle is very long so the passenger drum appears to be small. It's definitely not small. It's large enough to carry five terrestrials or seven aquatics (aquatics need less room) easily. John Bear Ross, the designer, is a marine and he knows about passenger compartments in vehicles!

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  8. Ah, good, you did the reveal! I'll put up a blog post for this build's development. This was a fun one to make, from sketch to final prototype. I really like how it turned out.

    Best,
    John Bear Ross

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Yay!
    15mm not-space-elves-from-a-popular-franchise vehicles!

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  11. Trust me, about the size issues, it's amazing how many combat-loaded bodies you can squish into an armored box when you have to. Passenger comfort isn't even on the list of priorities when it comes to APC design. We grunts in the back were merely "cargo."

    I also envisioned the aquatic beings were much more flexible than we humans, and would have less "elbow room" requirements. The APC pod on the back isn't the only space I imagined where the troops would be located. There's also the "tub" in the main hull where troops could be stored, since the APC module is a cap on top of this tub. The APC pod would be more of a foyer or airlock/waterlock for exiting troops, though a few could ride in there as well (note the observation dome at the top of the pod).

    Feel free to ask any more questions. However, let me assure you, Eldar were the last thing on my mind when this design was coming to the forefront. I was intrigued by Khurasan's description of the Kark troopers, and how they were fighting in a hostile environment just being above the surface of the water. The "submarine crossed with an antigrav tank" ideas just flowed from there.

    Best,
    John Bear Ross

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  12. But if you want to use them as Space Elves, or proxies for whichever underrepresented property you'd like, feel welcome. The more the merrier, I say.

    Best,
    JBR

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  13. Based upon the UNSC figure in the photos, it appears the dimensions given are off by about 100%.

    I think the vehicle is actually about twice the size listed in the text, e.g. 50mm's x 30mm's.

    My conclusion is based upon the size of the UNSC figure bases (assuming the one shown is not a 6mm figure - looks more like 15mm to me), since they are roughly 10mm - 12mm's in width/length, depending upon the figure. I measured to the same pose, and came up with 12mm's wide.

    So, I believe the squares on the craft mat are one centimeter in diameter.

    If that is true, the vehicle is roughly 90mm's - 100mm's long x 60mm's wide.


    Regards,

    Rob

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  14. Correct rob. which proves one shouldn't write and post reviews at 2am on a Sunday morning. LOL!

    I'll amend the text.

    Thanks again
    Mark

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