Much like the Scourge one, I nabbed two of these as I wanted one of each variant. The drones could be magnetized fairly easily, but as I had the extra set I just went with having some glued onto the Porphyrion and a base mounted set. I felt it looked a bit anemic with the drones detached, and faffing about in a game with grabbing them off (and then having exposed magnets in view) didn’t appeal to me.
Below are the components from the box taken out to start working on the Alcyoneus (minus the eight drones as those got used for the Porphyrion) and partially assembled. The main hull comes in three pieces, but I started work before realizing I should take a quick picture of the parts; the circled top bit fits in to a slot that passes between the front and back portions. A bit of gap filling is necessary but nothing dreadful.
Casting was mostly fine, but there were two issues. First is two of the legs as seen below, with a mold slip fucking things up a bit. A bit of shaving on the sides might make them recoverable, but if not then I’ll request replacements. The other issue, which isn’t obvious and can’t really be photographed well, is that the armor panel lines seem to be a bit shallower than I’m used to. Not really a casting problem so much as a design one I suppose. This made it more difficult to get clean lines painted on the Porphyrion, so I have a rougher final result on them here than previous PHR models. The Alcyoneus looks like it will have a similar problem.
And just a size comparison between the various walkers:
I’ve seen plenty of negative views on this model! I like the drones in particular as they’re kind of cute, and I think it looks better with the ‘wings’ open. From what I see starting work on the Alcyoneus I think I’m going to end up much cooler on that variant though.
My negative opinions here are that I think it should be able to be built a little taller than it can now, and the back feels too blunt. I wanted the two back legs to both be directed more towards that direction to give some visual interest back there, but losing the support of one of the front legs in order to get the stomping pose meant a more equilateral arrangement of the other legs was necessary to keep it from tipping.