Triumvirate of the Imperium – Belisarius Cawl

To continue with the Triumvirate of the Imperium, the next miniature that I'll be taking care of is the Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl. My take on Inquisitor Greyfax can be found here.

Games Workshop released the box last week at a price of 65 EUR / 50 GBP. As I already wrote about the box, I won't go into detail again. But I want to add a few details, that I noticed while working on this review.

First of all, you'll notice the partial clock artwork on the back. Some people suggest, that there will be further boxes with similar art, to complete the clock. Another hint on this, is the design of the "Gathering Storm", with a roman 1 in the background. There is already artwork / teasers on gathering storm 2 / "II", that is said to be in relation with the Eldar, covering another themed set of characters.

But to stay with the current box, the Triumvirate of the Imperium, we have a proper artprint, instructions and a vacuum formed tray with the sprues inside.

The instructions are bound in a A4 sized leaflet, containing the rules, the assembly and a citadel paint guide for all of the miniatures.

Belisarius Cawl is spread across three sprues, all of them quite full and proper used. The cast is very crisp, but carries a lot of mold lines and unfortunately no optional parts / variants.

Let us start with the build of the Archmagos, we have an medium sized oval base and the three sprues mentioned above.

Beginning with the lower robe and some mechanical legs. These fit quite well together and are already a rather large base for the miniature.

Next up are some mechanical tentacles and further legs, along with cables that are dragged along. These parts are nicely sculpted, but cleaning the mold lines off the ripped cables is rather difficult and time consuming.

As we have the lower corpus finished, it is time to add details. A lot of vials, further cables and small containers along with a servo skull. The later is a tricky piece and is only attached to the main sculpt by a thin cable, that is a breaking hazard.

Ahead of the robe is a spider / facehugger like extension, that is a pretty detail and I could imagine basing that independently on a 25mm round base.

The left foot stands on a - rather large - book. I assume that might be a popular bit later on, and depending on your army bases theme, you could replace this piece with something else, like a rock or some rubble and use the book for a more interesting conversion.

Next up is the upper body. The original instructions suggest you keep it separate until all the additional parts are fitted, but there is no real need for that. Look at the size of that piece, it is taller than a Terminator. Nice split of the sculpt, good amount of details, but terrible to clean the mold lines.

Further details are added to the upper body, mostly cables and the body of the scryer skull. Among them the face, on which I'm not sure about to be honest. It reminds me a bit of Thomas the tank engine, and it would have been a great thing, if there were some options within this kit, like a different face. I am aware, this is a special character, with a fixed design, but like the regular Tech-Priest Dominus has two head options (indeed beside that even options on the weaponry), it would have been nice to have more choice. Even thought about converting the head on this point.

The first weapon is prepared, the solar-atomiser. Mighty, but short range weapon. The angle is fixed, but you could modify it with a bit of filing / cutting. I would suggest to do so in one of the last steps, as further parts are added and might be difficult to add if you change the position.

Belisarius has quite a lot of arms, of which further 5 (!) are added. The body of the scryerskull comes into place as well. A few nice details, like the keys and cane, bring the miniature into a not entirely war driven background. The cane is a continuation of the design, that was introduced with the Tech-Priest Dominus, who although carries one.

On the other side, a interesting looking grippling tool is added, keeping a design pattern that we know from the knights and dune walker.

A focus point of this miniature is the incredible huge master-crafted power axe, that Belisarius is wielding. Almost 4 inch / 10 cm long, it is very present and is an upsized version of the ones, that other Mechanicus characters are carrying. It makes the cane a bit obsolete to be honest, but works quite good with the overall miniature. It is insanely large, but does not feel out of place or like some Anime oversized piece of weaponry.

Last step is the hood, that covers most of Belisarius Cawls head. It saves a lot of the design on this focus area of the miniature, as I don't think that he face design is one of the strengths of this miniature.

I mentioned it a couple of time during this review, and to verify it, this miniature is huge. In the first picture you can see Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl next to a "regular" Tech-Priest Dominus, and he is easily twice the size in every dimension. And to bring that into better perspective (as the Tech-Priest Dominus isn't a small miniature either), the two alongside more Mechanicus miniatures and a Space Marine.

As a last step of this review, a series of images around the complete miniature. A huge amount of details, a lot of overlap as well, and still a bit of cleaning moldlines from what I see on the close ups.

Conclusion
It was great fun to build this character. Very impressively and skillfully planned. It is amazing how all of these parts fit together and give you this great looking result. Due to the high grade of details and the overlap on many parts of the miniature, I wouldn't recommend this set for beginners. Compared to other sculpts, this is no open design, where every part is easily reached by brush. So it might be useful to not entirely glue this miniature together prior to painting. But other than that, I can see Belisarius as a painting project for many non-players, simply for collectors and painters.

Pricewise, well, you are currently "forced" to buy him alongside the other 2 (or for 4) characters in a set. And like already covered in the Greyfax review, the 65 EUR / 50 GBP aren't that bad of a deal. If we compare him to the regular Tech-Priest that already sets you back a hefty 29 EUR, he could be excepted to carry a price tag of at least 35 EUR, more likely a higher price for a clamshell or box.

As for the design. It is well done, looks a bit chaotic, as there are many things going on, but that fits the look of such an ancient character. Never the less, unless you do it yourself, every Cawl will look the same. For such an long living character, with most likely access to quite a broad selection of artefacts, it would have been nice for some choices and variation. At least with the head or some of the arms. Maybe something, that he finds during the campaign of the Fall of Cadia, or something that shows the ongoing tides of war.