Unboxing videos and blogs are a pretty common thing with gaming channels and media. WiscoDice has never done one…..until now!!!! For our first unboxing I picked the web exclusive Knight Models Aquaman (Jason Momoa). I have been slowly building and painting a Justice League team for their DC Universe Miniature Game. I love being able to collect some of my favorite super heroes. The thought of being able to even play a game with them gets me even more excited! I hope you are as excited as I am to get into the contents of this model.
The Packaging
The model itself comes in a single blister pack. The art and paintjob of the model look really cool and it honestly has great shelf presence if a retailer were able to actually acquire this and sell it. That said, this model isn’t available as a stand alone model except as a direct order from Knight Models. This isn’t a bad thing though. What Knight Models has done is reduced some product SKUs by combining the previous movie Justice League models into one, five model kit. It’s nice as I had purchased the other models previously to have an option to pick this one up separately so that I can complete the set of movie characters.
The Model
So with excitement I popped open the blister pack. There is a character card (more on that later), a piece of foam to protect the model, and the model itself.
The figure includes a 40mm base, which seems a bit large. Immediately upon opening it I noticed the scenic base that was included. This is more than just a tactical rock! There are actually little bits of what looks like coral, pillars, and various other details sculpted into the base. One miss here is that it doesn’t actually fill the entire inner circle of the included 40mm base. This is disappointing to me. Now you can see the brick pattern that’s printed on the base where the scenic elements will not cover. I will likely cover the brick pattern with some sand and see how that looks. Unfortunately, this is a common thing for Knight Models to do and really frustrates me as a hobbyist.
The detail of the model is really exceptional. The chest portion of the armor has the individual scales. The sockets for the leg and arms all dry fit very well together. Overall the mold lines are pretty minimal here as well. The one thing that detracts slightly is there are a few air bubbles in the crevasses of the fins that I may clean up with some green stuff.
The back side picture of the model you can really see some of the mold lines. The type of resin this model is made of does make scraping the mold lines pretty easy. Overall, the detail is very good. One thing that does become problematic with a model with this much detail is that, if you are not careful, you will risk removing some of that detail as you clean up the mold lines. In this regard, I say it’s worth it for the increased detail in the model.
The arm holding the trident had a few issues. There is quite a bit of flash from the molding process still attached. It cleaned up easily enough, but you can see that larger chunk on the back side of the arm. Removing this did cause some damage to the scale of the armor. I don’t think I will go back and try to model that back with some modeling putty, but it was annoying. I also need to check the movie pictures, but the crescent at the bottom of the trident doesn’t make a full crescent shape. Finally the shaft of the trident with this resin material is a bit brittle and it’s definitely a concern that it could break while being handled as a gaming piece.
The left arm and right leg came attached to the same molding flash. These were easy to pop off the flash and snapped off by hand for the most part, but it took some careful clean up to keep the knee and foot looking correct and to clean up the arm so that it would fit on the model correctly. There are some significant air bubbles in the resin above where the knee attaches to the flash. I will have to use just a very tiny amount of modeling putty to smooth those out because they are very obvious on the model. The detail of both these pieces is still really good.
The Character Card
The character card is carefully folded in the blister pack. After unfolding it, you can see all of the rules. This includes the model’s attacks, defenses, and cost to include in your crew. The bottom of the DC Universe cards, at least in this style, have a damage track on the bottom to track the models life points. It’s really cool that they include the rules with the model. I haven’t played the game itself to really know if the character is actually good in the game.
Summing it Up
The Jason Momoa Aquaman really feels like the character from the movie. The pose, the way he holds his trident, and the detail in the figure really tell a narrative. For me, that’s really an important piece to the tabletop miniature experience. Knight Models has done an excellent job of sculpting a model that matches what we saw on screen.
There are little issues such as the smaller bits being a bit fragile such as the trident. There are also small issues with air bubbles in the resin. These little imperfections in my mind are easily overcome with the quality of detail in the figure.
The included rules of the card all look and feel like the character. The graphic layout seems very easy to follow. I love the fact that the rules are entirely included so that you can assemble and take to the table to play.
Overall, on a one to five scale, Aquaman rates a 3.5 for me. There are a few little flaws that make using this model for table top play concerning. The detail of the model and the cinematic pose do overcome those flaws. If you are looking for a cool model to paint, I would recommend this model.
- When you look at the model can’t you imagine the waves splashing up behind him?
- Do you play or are interested in the DC Universe Miniature Game?
- Are you excited to see this model painted?
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