I painted a Squat! I’ve never done that before. Firstly I’d like to thank G-Dubs for sending this my way with plenty of time to get at least one mini actually painted, and while I would like to have done more, I did have that fun Goliath Mauler to do as well (make sure you check out that post) and a lot of Golden Demon prep is happening right now too. But I had so much fun working on this chap, I can assure you that more will follow eventually.

Now, I could have gone with one of the colour schemes in the book for my Einhyr Champion, but I decided, as we’ve not seen a Squat (or Leagues of Votann member as they are these days) in 40k for a while (not counting all the ones that have popped up in Necromunda), I went full late 80s/early 90s. I channelled not only some old Squat artwork from the days of Epic, but also, apparently, the Manta Force toys I had when I was a young’un (look ’em up if you want to see some sweet space ships). And the League symbol looks unerringly like the old Fila logo, which was not intended, but that too is very much of this era.

The model itself is a lot of fun to put together with minimal fuss. You get some options to play around with, and the base certainly lends this stocky sod a bit more height, so all is well there. I went with the axe because I had this idea to do a white-marble-looking axe blade, and while it’s not my best marble work, I’m happy enough with how it came out.

I would say, if you like putting together Space Marines, you’ll likely have a lot of fun with the Leagues of Votann stuff. While a different aesthetic, that heavy armour with lots of plates and overlapping pieces definitely give off an armoured super-soldier kind of vibe. Not to mention all of the bolters too of course.

I actually like the colour scheme I’ve come up with here and should I do an army of these fellas, I’d likely stick to this. The bright primary colours can definitely help them to stand out, and that nod to the Squats of old also helps to embed them in the setting for me.

What do I think of the rest of the army? I really like the update to the trikes – those hover bikes are very cool, and their vehicles have quite a unique look too. The basic dudes and other squads are great, though I’d like to see some more characters and some more interesting HQ choices – something that GW will no doubt bring us in the future. But yep, as additions to Warhammer 40,000 go, these are a fine one, and I look forward to seeing the variety they bring to the game in the coming months.

And that’s all from me. I need to get back to the Golden Demon prep – not long to go now. But this Champion certainly helped to distract me from that fiddly work, so he gets a thumbs up from me. Onwards!