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Unholy Efficiency


DEVOUT
Soulflayer
Product #
20516
Manufacturer
Suggested Retail Price
US$29.95
UK£20.00


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Revision Log
18 December 1999converted to Miva
11 November 1999page first published

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©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
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This boxed set is part of the Devout series, which is part of the Chronopia product line.

One of the appeals of the Chronopia universe is that it's hard to describe any of the factions in a simple phrase. Who are the Devout? They are an army in the service of the Dark Lord, a demon from outside of this reality. Their leaders are the Dark Prophets (those who rebelled against the Firstborn), and their forces are composed of human cultists, skeletons, and a variety of "monsters" (some from the other planes, and some formed by the twisted effect of the Dark Lord on his mortal minions).

cover of boxed set

The Soulflayer is introduced (with complete stats) in one of the supplements, The Dwarven Labyrinth. It is well described by these words from the back of the box:

These awesome winged demons of the Dusk Realms are massively potent and possessed of a powerful and disturbing presence. Tough and resilient, their veins pulsing with burning ichor, they are mighty opponents. The Soulflayer's main weapons, apart from its cruel and alien intelligence, are the ability to spew forth gouts of bale-fire and the bone cleavers that it wields with unholy efficiency.

parts

The kit is composed of 13 parts:

  • wings (2)
  • head
  • lower jawbone
  • body (2 parts)
  • arms (2)
  • cleaver
  • tail
  • legs (2)
  • base

The head piece includes a flat area with the words "Target Games" - cut this off and discard. On a more subtle level, note that if you can read the writing, you are holding the head upside-down. The parts will fit together either way, so be careful to put the head on with the horns facing upwards.

The arms, legs and wings of this model are not poseable - there is only one position in which they fit, and when you find that alignment, the pieces slip firmly into place. Conveniently, it is impossible to mix-up the right and left wings, legs, or arms.

body seam problems

The only fit problem we noticed was with the body halves. There are no guiding pins or nubs to confirm when the sides are aligned, but it isn't difficult to line the parts up by sight and feel. However, our sample's left side had a slight curve to it, resulting in seam gaps of up to 1mm at the bottom. (This may be a one-time problem in our sample, rather than a general problem with the kit.)

Both arms had substantial flash, but this can be easily trimmed away with a sharp knife and a little filework.

The feet have pegs which fit into holes in the base. An exact fit depends on getting all five pieces - the body sides, both legs, and the base - into the correct alignment. In our case, after we attached the legs in what seemed the best position, we found we needed to file the base holes in order to attach the base. Even then, the right foot sat flat on the base, but the left foot was slightly on edge. We didn't find this to be a major flaw, and expect that any crookedness with the feet will disappear if the base is flocked.

The product includes no assembly instructions. Our suggestions for the order of assembly are:

  1. glue the body halves together
  2. attach the legs
  3. attach tail
  4. attach the base
  5. attach cleaver to the right arm (left arm has the cleaver built-on)
  6. attach arms
  7. attach wings
  8. attach head

To give an idea of what the assembled model looks like, we "tacked" together the pieces and took a few pictures. The finished model stands 4" tall, with a wingspan of almost 4", and a cleaver-to-cleaver width of just over 4".

front view

side view

close-up view

With a model of this size and weight, superglue (cyanoacrylate glue) is probably not good enough - particularly if you plan on picking it up by the wings to move it around the tabletop! We recommend the use of any two-part epoxy, and you might consider "pinning" (drilling a hole and inserting a wire through a joint) for the legs and wings.

Painted model, courtesy of the manufacturer