Leviathan Box Set Review
Hey guys, today I will talk about the Leviathan box and its content, what I think of it and of the new miniatures. Games Workshop has extremely kindly sent me a box ahead of release for me to paint and share with you, which is a dream come true for me, as an aspiring content creator.
Rakan will do anything for worms. Including posing for the blog.
Leviathan: Details
Leviathan will be up for pre-order starting tomorrow, on Saturday 10th of June and its pre-order window will stay open for a period of two weeks, or until stock lasts. Games Workshop is reintroducing their queue system for it, and will be limiting order quantities per customer.
It seems they have been hard at work to ensure a bigger number of copies will be available for this box, and I have high hopes that people who want one will be able to get it.
The box contains an outstanding 72 new miniatures, as follow:
25x Space Marines:
✦ 1x Captain in Term. Armour ✦ 1x Librarian in Term. Armour ✦ 1x Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos Armour
✦ 1x Apothecary Biologis ✦ 5x Terminators ✦ 5x Sternguard ✦ 10x Infernus Marines ✦ 1x Ballistus Dreadnought
All the Space Marines, as per the assembly guide.
47x Tyranids:
✦ 1x Tyranid Prime ✦ 1x Neurotyrant ✦ 2x Neuroloids ✦ 3x Leapers ✦ 1x Screamer-Killer
✦ 1x Psychophage ✦ 20x Termagants ✦ 2x Reaper Swarms ✦ 11x Neurogaunts ✦ 5x Barbgaunts
All the Tyranids, as per the assembly guide.
The box also contains the core book, assembly manual, transfers, data cards and all the bases you need.
The art covers are stunning and every element inside the box feels and looks of amazing quality to the touch and to the eye. The book is a hefty tome packed full of fantastic artwork, lore and rules, and makes up for a decent part of the total weight (approx. 4kg).
Please remember the miniatures and rules will be available separately in the future; you do not “need” this box to start playing 10th edition!
It is also extremely likely (if not a given) that the miniatures will make a come back later on as separate boxes.
Leviathan is a truly beautiful and excellent box, with tons of miniatures for the cost and packed full of gorgeous art; if you are interested in these factions or the theme, then this box will definitely please you.
I have been having the most fun painting since Fest with this box; the new miniatures are remarkable, the sculpts are beautiful and well designed, even the assembly has been smooth and enjoyable to me, who has a tendency to dislike this part of the process from time to time.
Miniatures Sprues and Assembly: Review
Technical summary: the miniatures are push-fit.
Positives: no glue, easy and quick to assemble, high detail, very striking or dynamic poses.
Drawbacks: harder to modify, potential risk of visible gaps, a couple of identical sprues which mean you will have repeated poses (Infernus and Termagants).
Fixes: pegs are easy to remove which fixes the potential gap issue entirely and effectively.
Every miniature in the Leviathan box set is brand new, delightful and simple to work with thanks to their push-fit design. This means you do not really need glue to assemble them, they are quick to put together and feature a high amount of details in a striking and unique mono-pose.
Unfortunately, push-fit also has its drawbacks; the miniatures are potentially more difficult to kitbash, convert or reposition, and there might be some unwanted gaps if you cannot quite get the pieces to clip together all the way.
Most of the pegs on these sprues are accessible and easy to cut away, should you wish to; this removes the gap issue entirely and effectively. I ended up respecting the push-fit assembly for approximately half of the box, and removing the pegs for the other half.
Two sprues are repeats in the box; the Infernus Marines, and the Termagants. This means you will have 5 unique Infernus and 5 repeats, as well as 10 unique Termagants and 10 repeats. However, the poses are so cool, it is difficult for me to see issue with this aspect. It is likely (though still an assumption on my part) that Games Workshop will release non-push-fit versions of these sprues in the future, with more weapon/arm options.
Overall, I have been extremely impressed with the design of the push-fit in this box. I had somewhat bad memories of push-fit Stormcast, but none of the miniatures in the Leviathan box has caused me trouble. There were a couple of hiccups however, which I will highlight in my notes about each sprue below.
Before I start, I will quickly list the base sizes for all units in the box:
All the bases are perforated as all the miniatures are ready to be placed on their bases.
Captain in Terminator Armour: 50mm round base
Librarian in Terminator Armour: 40mm round base
Apothecary Biologis: 40mm round base
Lieutenant in Phobos Armour: 40mm round base
Sternguard Veterans: 32mm round bases
Terminators: 40mm round bases
Teleport Homer (comes with Terminators): 25mm round base
Infernus: 32mm round bases
Ballistus Dreadnaught: 90mm round base
Tyranid Prime: 50mm round base
Neurotyrant: 50mm round base
Neuroloids: 25mm round bases
Screamer-Killer: 90mm round base
Von Ryan’s Leapers: 40mm round bases
Termagants: 28mm round bases
Neurogaunt Node-beast: 28mm round base
Neurogaunts: 25mm round bases
Barbgaunts: 40mm round bases
Psychophage: 120mm oval base
The below is mostly here for your viewing; you can inspect the sprues and hopefully this will help give you an idea of how the sprues look and help you plan a kitbash, modification, colour scheme, or anything else you might want to know before receiving or purchasing the miniatures.
DISCLAIMER: These sprues are from the limited edition Leviathan box set releasing in June 2023 and I cannot guarantee the sprues will remain the same if or when they are sold separately from the limited edition Leviathan box set itself. Thank you.
Space Marines + Tyranid Prime Assembly
Captain in Terminator Armour and Tyranid Prime (Sprue A)
The Captain and Tyranid Prime share a sprue. I have had no issue assembling these two; they were straightforward. The push-fit worked as intended, except for one of the Tyranid Prime’s wings, which I removed the peg for an easier fit.
Neither of these two look easy (from my baby kitbasher point of view anyway) to modify. There are no building options for either.
If you would like to see how to reposition the wings of the Tyranid Prime, Chris Frosin (ChrisFrosin on Twitter/YouTube) has a video on how he achieved it.
Librarian in Terminator Armour (Sprue B)
The Librarian in Terminator stands alone on sprue B. Once again, I had absolutely no issue with the push-fit design, and used it for a quick and easy assembly. There are no building options for the Librarian either.
This has to be one of the most detailed miniature in the box!
After putting together pieces B1 to B5, please take a moment to admire the results of never skipping legs day.
Apothecary, Lieutenant in Phobos Armour and Sternguard Veterans (Sprue C)
The Apothecary and Lieutenant share their sprue with the five Sternguard Veterans. Once again, no building options for anyone, which is a worthy drawback for the beauty of the poses.
This sprue is where I encountered a couple of slight hiccups. Nothing miniature-breaking, though!
Firstly, three out of five of the Sternguard backpack's pegs were too big to fit to their intended location; fortunately, once removed, they glued perfectly fine with plastic cement; it might be easier to remove them that try to force things.
Secondly, there were some pretty visible mould lines in some difficult to trim areas. It took a little while to remove them, but it was doable. The Apothecary and Lieutenant will probably have their own sprues in the future and I assume these artifacts will be improved.
Of course, this was specific to my box and this particular sprue.
The Apothecary is, for me, the coolest on here, but it would be unfair not to say I absolutely love all of them.
Please excuse my destroyed fingers. I just wanted to show the mould line!
Terminators (Sprue D)
The sergeant of the Terminator squad comes with an option for bare head or helmet. I had no trouble whatsoever with this sprue, everything was well organised, the sprue gates were easy to clean. Fantastic design, and these new models are simply gorgeous.
In fact, they are to the very top of my list of most anticipated in terms of painting. I highly recommend you to have a look at Richard Gray’s rendition, and to watch Cult of Paint’s video on a comparison between one of the new and one of the old Terminators, by Andy Wardle.
This Howling Griffon has started taking shape! All my WIP pictures land on my socials (mostly on Twitter…).
Infernus Squad (2x Sprue E)
The Infernus marines come in repeat sprues; because of this, there is technically the option to build either two squad sergeants, or no squad sergeant at all, and instead having all 10 standard Infernus.
I personally followed the assembly manual, so I ended up with one sergeant and 9 standard squad members, as intended. The sergeant comes with a bare head, but as I am a really big fan of helmets, I decided to steal the spare helmet that came in the box to give a helmet to my sergeant.
There are a handful of sprue gates connected to the middle of the some shoulder pads; these were a little annoying to remove cleanly with my bad habit of cutting the gate way too close to the miniature. A little bit of sanding fixed it sufficiently.
You could build all the marines and leave their weapons/arms to the side, if you wish to paint in subassemblies.
Ballistus Dreadnaught (Sprue F)
I found the large pieces of the Ballistus Dreadnaught very appealing and easy to build. As I have this tendency to cut the sprue gates way too close to the pieces, I have had a few scuffs and marks on the edges of flat panels; something (for me, I guess!) to keep in mind.
Other than that, the model was straightforward and the push-fit element worked as intended. I did trim some of the pegs, without fully removing them, to make things easier. No weapon or build options, and I whilst you can adjust the arms up and down, I believe the model would be quite difficult to reposition.
The model looks like it has really long legs (at least in the reveal pictures Games Workshop used), but I have not found that to be true in person. Yes, it has longer legs than other dreadnaughts I have painted, but the effect is not nearly as bad as people feared. Plus, eyeing the model from a slightly higher angle (as you would during a game) only leaves its bulkiness and height for you to marvel at. I was very impressed by this design, and it was the first model I finished painting.
I hope Dorn is proud of my very first Imperial Fists miniature?
Tyranids Assembly
Screamer-Killer, Neurotyrant and Neuroloids (Sprue G)
The Screamer-Killer immediately started showing signs of gaps, so I decided to remove all the pegs. Once that done, the assembly was smooth; the only gap I have left on mine is very slight and along the chest carapace; but nothing I would call an issue.
The Neurotyrant and his little friends were straightforward and took on the push-fit assembly really well for me. Marvellous sculpts, all of them! I am looking forward to paint these big brain bugs in my custom Hive Fleet colours (Boreas).
I would also recommend you to watch Sam Lenz’ video on how he army-painted the Tyranid half of his box.
Von Ryan’s Leapers (Sprue H)
The Leapers were remarkably easy to build; the push-fit design worked extremely well for me, and the three of them are in such dynamic and inspiring poses, I do not think I will be resisting painting them much longer.
Again, I had absolutely no issues with the sculpts, sprue gates or mould lines; a perfect sprue.
Termagants (2x Sprue I)
You will receive two of these big Termagants sprues (sprues I in the assembly manual). The Termagants are all very simple to assemble. I removed most of the pegs off as some of them were a little difficult to clip together. I would suggest to keep the peg that serves as a wrist connection between their arm and their weapon; as it has been so very useful.
As you can see on the picture, they all have a sprue gate on their face. It felt a little unfortunate but as long as you cut slightly away from the mini and trim carefully, you shouldn't leave any artifact.
The joints are slightly rounded up, in a very similar fashion to the old kits (they might even be compatible, I did not have spare to test), and I would not be surprised if a single upgrade sprue made of claws would serve to make Hormagaunts in the future. However, in the meantime, there are no building options. There are 10x Gants per sprue, which means you will get two of each pose in the 20x the box contains.
Once all built and mixed up, however, the duplicates do not stand out.
Neurogaunts and Barbgaunts (Sprue J)
Barbgaunts and Neurogaunts come together but should be easy to separate in the future, should Games Workshop have any plans to do so.
The Neurogaunts were really satisfying to clip together with the push-fit design, and have to be the cutest tyranids of all time. I removed the pegs on most of the Barbgaunts. These sculpts will probably be the hardest to kitbash, but they are packed full of details and character as they are. Brilliant designs.
Mini not yet finished; the main colours for my custom Hive Fleet: Boreas.
Psychophage (Sprue K)
This monster is one I will recommend you remove the pegs from the main body. Other than that, this gigantic miniature is nothing short of amazing, and I have already started painting mine. There is not much else to say, like the rest of the tyranids, there are no building options - or issues, for that matter! A gorgeous design that I look forward to see painted by the community.
Hive Fleet Boreas should hopefully pop on the tabletop!
And that’s it for now! I’ll have a few articles and painting guides in the next few days as well! In the meantime, catch me on my social to see all of my WIP pictures, if you do like to see those.
Thank you so much if you made it that far. Please feel free to AMA on Twitter or Instagram, as always.
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If you would consider doing so, you have my most sincere thanks!