Lumineth Realm-lords Army Set Review for Miniature Painters
Last Updated on July 3, 2020 by FauxHammer
Ok – so here we go with our first-ever Model Boxed Set for Review – I hope this goes well because I’d really like to keep getting these and hopefully next time (Indomitus!!! [Preorders July 11th – Release July 25th]) I could maybe get it sent before release? (nudge-nudge-wink-wink). So anyway, if you guys want me to keep doing these, you know, share this in many many places. But only once you’ve checked out our Lumineth Realm-lords Army Set Review for Miniature Painters.
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So the Army box dropped this last weekend and if memory serves this is the second of these launch boxes we’ve had. The last was the Sisters of battle Box.
I think this is a great way to launch a new Army, though it also airs on that side of driving demand for something by making it limited – Many of us are eagerly waiting for the Ragnar / Ghazghkull individual releases.
Check out that box art! is it just me? I love this stylisation they have added to both this and the sister’s box. It is a much more modern take on the old 90’s era artworks and is definitely a much better evolution than some of the comic art styles we’ve had.
You get a large poster version of this in the box, though it’s greyscaled. A pity – had it been these colours I would have framed it.
Inside the box, you’re greeted with a plethora of bits, though IMHO, I’m not seeing enough grey plastic
This set is 14% cheaper than the Sisters of battle Box, but that set had 36% more models! Here you get 1 hero model, 1 Unit of 10 Pikemen and 5 Horsemen.
16 models!
The Sisters box had 10 sisters, 5 Seraphim (Flying Sisters), 4 Sisters Repentia, a Repentia Superior, 3 Flagellants a Cannoness and a Penitent Engine
25 models, one of which is a walking tank
But hay ho – we get some dice!
Honestly, having had the Sisters boxed set, I feel a little short-changed with this one. It’s less of an Army Box and more of a Start Collecting Box with a book and some other stuff thrown in.
No wonder this didn’t fly off the shelves like SoB did – I had to camp outside Warhammer world to get that! (well, get there early).
As this is a review for painters, all of this extra stuff is superfluous. So – off to eBay we go.
To be fair, getting this on release day really helped as the demand was still high, so I put the extra stuff on a 24-hour Auction.
The Lumineth Realm-Lords Battletome sold for £19, The Tokens for £1.20, reference Cards for £1, Combat gauge for £6 (Really!) and the Dice for £20!
Yeah £20 for dice – Oh, maybe they are worth more than I thought….
A grand total of £47.20, which after eBay and Paypal fees (15%) is £40.12. then about £7 postage. so I got About £33 back.
Taking that off the price of the retail box (£110) – the models cost £77. Which is much more than you would pay for a Start collecting box (RRP £55) which I expect would contain about the same amount of stuff
If however, you get this box from somewhere like Element Games, the cost is only £88 for the whole set. Taking £33 off that and the net total for the models is £55 – Which is a lot easier to swallow, but still, for the first time in a long time A boxed set which doesn’t really feel like it holds that bumper value we’re used too.
I hope this isn’t a taste of things to come, especially with Indomitus on the Horizon! (which we’re getting a copy of to review – yay!).
Please Note: This site uses affiliate links. Our Affiliate Partners are shown below
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Click this link & buy your hobby stuff from Element Games for the UK & Europe to support FauxHammer.com – Use Code “FAUX2768” at the checkout for double reward points.
Our Affiliates / Hobby Stores
- UK: Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games, Mighty Lancer, Goblin Gaming, Forbidden Planet, Model Scenery Supplies, eBay, Amazon
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- Germany: Taschengelddieb
- Europe: eBay (DE), eBay (FR), eBay (ES), eBay (IT), Amazon
- Australia: eBay, Amazon
- Global: RedGrass Games, Warcolours
- 3D Printers: Phrozen 3D, Elegoo, Anycubic
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Lumineth Realm-lords Army Set Review – Models
So, now that all that faf is in the bin, let’s talk about the important bit – these models.
Lumineth Realm-lords – The Light of Eltharion
Beautiful, just beautiful, this is what I think the evolution of the high-elves (or is it High-Aelves now) should be. Mystical, Swirly, Ethereal, Pointy! But now, and maybe most importantly, Dual-Wielding.
It’s an incrediuible sculpt and the silhouette alone is fantastic!
It is so intelligently put together to give the disembodied armour effect. The mould lines are for the most part hidden within the joins of the model. There’s a bit of seam scraping to do and your Citadel Mould Line remover will not get into the smaller gaps – you need a hobby knife.
There’s also only 2 main join lines you need to contend with too.
The one above on the cape which was just filled with plastic cement until it overflowed, – then sanded back
and the one below beneath the sword – I took the same approach to sand this back. But it’s trickier to get to in this area due to all the model around it. The Mini Sanding and Polishing Sticks from Flory Models really helped here.
As for cutting off the mould gates – this is a bit more awkward. Due to all the curves and details on the model, you will be contending with angular cuts. Something like the the Z Series X-acto is a hero here.
There was some extra sprue on the back of both hands below the wrist guard, so this required some risky surgery!
But all in, this model was definitely the best of the set. For its complexity, it was really easy on the modelling side with only a limited amount of careful clean up to do.
In regard to sub-assemblies for this model – due to its style there isn’t really any sensible place to go. The base is what the feet are moulded too and the rest of the parts connect through weapons or the cape – which as I said needs smoothing out before priming.
But the model is quite open and doesn’t have too much restrictuive access for your brush anyway.
Lumineth Realm-lords – Vanari Auralan Wardens
The Auralan Wardens on the other hand, not so fun to build – but again the sculpts are nice.
Once again you need to contend with lots of bends and swirls – in many cases these parts need some precise cutting with a hobby knife to get the mould gates off the model. This is further compounded as the parts are really small and fiddly.
For two of the models in the 10 man unit, one component is a shoe. A teeny tiny little elf (Aelf) shoe!
Who moulds a shoe? Honestly!
When you’re not dealing with cutting gates off tiny parts, you’re left with mould line removal, never fun. Again, not difficult but fiddly.
Consideration has been made where Games Workshop put these lines and they are mostly restricted to places hidden behind joins or across large surfaces where you can easily flatten them smoothly without ruining details. But there are still some places that can catch you out. Like the wrist guards and hands.
But complaining about mould line placement would be like complaining some bits of water are too wet. But at the same time – go check out some Gundam – they know how to do mould lines (well, not do them).
In regard to build options – games workshops community team said the following.
What’s a Warhammer army without models?* The Lumineth Realm-lords Army Set is packed with full, customisable kits for some key units – the Vanari Auralan Wardens and Vanari Dawnriders – led by the breathtakingly awesome Light of Eltharion.
Warhammer Community
I love how they decided to bolden the “full, customisable kits” part of that statement. Yeah, Let’s have a little chat about that…
These 10 warriors come on 2 identical sprues. The two models above are the variants of one model One variant being the commander, the other being standard infantry.
But aside from that your “full, customisable kits” are another 2 lots of 4 identical warriors. The only customisation option you have is what head (different expression) or shield (different Aelven symbol) is to give them. Even then, at least one of your heads must be identical to another.
Its also worth noting that the guide book says you can use any of the heads on each model, but in some cases, I had to shave down the model’s neck and cut out some of the chin beneath the helmet for a flush fit. This was only the case with 2 heads though.
Even the sheathed swords on each warrior’s back have a specific shape peg so that they go with the correct model. You can swap these by removing the peg, but there’s really very little difference between each scabbard and hilt.
There are no weapon or stance options, you can’t even swap the pikes between the warriors as the right arms are different between them.
I wish they could have done more with these, and actually added some variety.
As for Sub-Assemblies, the image above is pretty standard for the whole set.
In many cases, the right pike arm, or at least the wrist guard, is moulded to the weapon. If you want to really go the whole hog and paint it super high end, you can leave this and the sheathed sword (on each warrior’s back) separate. Along with the shield. (the one above just so happens to have the sword & shield as one piece. He also has an optional scenic base as he’s the commander (but I like how they did this).
For me, I glued everything together except the shields, These are the only truly restrictive part of the mode, even with the pikes in place the chest and robes are accessible enough for a high-end tabletop standard
Once you have all these built, there are still a ton of parts left over. which can be seen as either waste or basing materials.
Lumineth Realm-lords – Vanari Dawnriders
Ohh hoo hoo, these guys. If you think Auralan Wardens are fiddly.
Once again, amazing sculpt for these. The details Games Workshop are putting out now is second to none. The move to 32mm from 28mm is just what this company needed in order to really stand out and due to the amount of extra detail you can get in these models.
It’s great that these come as both horses and riders separately, but more on that in a mo.
The horses themselves come in 5 parts. legs on each side, Armour on each side, and the head. Having the head separate was great, I’ve just done the Fenrisian Wolves pack to go with my Ragnar Blackmane and having a join down the centre of ahead and in the mouth was so annoying. One solid head means I only have a mould line to deal with.
The join on the horse itself is obscured by the armour detail, so unless you’re looking for perfection there’s little here to deal with. Just a bit on the tail mainly.
All of the pieces for each horse and rider are appropriately labelled with a letter to show which of the 5 horses the part is for.
This is a new approach from GW and is useful for those of us who like to conserve space but cutting everything off its sprue and putting the pieces in a drawer or box until later.
I had one issue with the first horse I built – the armour would not fit together on the front. I had it apart again a few time to try and marry this up but could not figure out why. In the end, I just glued it like this and decided to gap-fill later. Nobody will notice.
Oh damn, i just told you!
The rest of the horses lined up fine with the plastic cement melting enough plastic to fuse the gap, requiring just a light sanding when dry – let me know if you get issues with this horse in the comments.
I had further issues with the rider – and this was the same for every rider in the set.
Whilst I like the fact that the rider’s and horses are separate (makes Painting Easier). There is a specific rider for each horse and changing them will require some conversion
Firstly the riders have a hole in each leg, and their (erm…) bum which corresponds to equal shaped pegs on each horse, Even then, there are cut-outs in each horse’s armour for that riders specific leg shape. It’s a tight fit and one which makes you keep one leg off each rider should you want to paint them separately.
Some of the helmets were a pain too
The one above was pulled apart becasue the front face of the helmet would not fit fully over the peg at teh back. I had to wait until this was dry and just cut the peg off – so always make sure you dry-fit first.
As for sub assemblies, this is straight forward. Horse, Rider and Shield.
Do not, whatever you do, glue on both legs if you do you are likely to end up with a rider you’ll never get on his horse. Instead of glue one leg on by using the horse to guide it into its required placement. then when it’s dry take the model off the horse.
For the second leg, either blue-tack or super glue (so you can snap it off) the other leg in place for painting. Leave the shield separate so it doesn’t restrict access and this is a straightforward paint job. Detailed, but straight forward.
Lumineth Realm-lords – Painting
Like with the Sisters of Battle Army Set, I was inspired by the box art itself. With the purple and green hue, it gave an ethereal look.
Basecoat was simple enough, Gloss Black primer then some Vallejo Metal Color Chrome, for no other reason than I’m reviewing it (Spoiler Alert – it’s awesome!!!!). Then some Olive Flesh from Pro-Acryl because the coverage is equally awesome, Finally, some spots of Aethermatic Blue and Magos Purple Contrast Paint.
Honestly, you can go whatever way you want with the painting, obviously.
It’s nice that these can easily be broken down into just a few sub-assemblies as mentioned above. leaving you access to the majority of each model’s surface without too much hassle.
Just watch out for those pikes. When the model is angled so you’re looking down the length of the shaft (grow-up) it’s easy to forget that a huge spikey weapon is there.
Let me just say, I’m glad I wear glasses. Otherwise ouch!
I decided to add some gold to the trim but looking back now, I’m not liking the direction these have now gone.
There’s a lot of detail to work on with these and all the trim lines are incredibly thin. I’d normally take an inside-out approach to painting models but there was no easy way to get the effect above after painting the faces.
It’s hard to get in between the armour without touching it – I’m not looking forward to the eyes. but then, I never do.
See some more pics of the army below (like and follw)
Lumineth Realm-lords – Final Thoughts
| Pros | Cons |
| New – Exclusive (for now) Pointy Aelves Long Pikes Beautiful Sculpts Labelled Components | Expensive boxed set Fiddly Some parts don’t fit well Customisable Kits (really?) |
I have to admit I never liked Elves (to spell it all 90s era).
I had a child-minder look after me as a kid. She knew I was into Warhammer and bought me some elves as a Christmas present one year! Being the 10 yr old I was, I just innocently said: “I don’t like elves”. I feel bad for that to this day. But at the same time, I swapped the 6 metal models with my friend, who did like elves. In return, I got a first edition copy of Space Hulk! Winner!
But I set fire to the Genestealers to make them look all burned and interesting. Look I was 10! And it didn’t work, they just looked like melted plastic.
I’ll be honest, had this set not have been for review I wouldn’t have even looked twice at it. I wouldn’t personally have bought it. But looking back, that would have been a mistake – these are some really detailed models which pushed me to expand my painting in a direction I never would have gone otherwise.
Is it for you? well, it depends if you like the models. But if you do, chances are you have already bought this set. if not, maybe wait for the models individually. But if recent history has taught us anything, that could be a while, like a year or more. We’re all being sensible now as Indoomitus is on the Horizon – and we need to save our money for 3 copies of that.
Great Box – too expensive. And released too close to another incredible upcoming boxed set. I’ll bet Covid had something to do with the schedule here. Pity as this was so much fun.
Please Note: This site uses affiliate links. Our Affiliate Partners are shown below
(Affiliate links will result in compensation to the site on qualifying purchases)
Click this link & buy your hobby stuff from Element Games for the UK & Europe to support FauxHammer.com – Use Code “FAUX2768” at the checkout for double reward points.
Our Affiliates / Hobby Stores
- UK: Element Games, The Outpost, Wayland Games, Mighty Lancer, Goblin Gaming, Forbidden Planet, Model Scenery Supplies, eBay, Amazon
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- Germany: Taschengelddieb
- Europe: eBay (DE), eBay (FR), eBay (ES), eBay (IT), Amazon
- Australia: eBay, Amazon
- Global: RedGrass Games, Warcolours
- 3D Printers: Phrozen 3D, Elegoo, Anycubic
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Cracking review mate ??….. the Box never appealed to me, especially with Indomitus being round the corner. But was great to see what you have done with it. Hope to see more of the reviews in the future ??
Thanks so much – yeah i hope I can keep getting them!
Great overview as ever. Not for me this one. I like the models but can’t see me making an army from them so they would be gathering dust on a shelf. Too expensive anyway, using the limited premise for a premium price.
Yeah – totally agreed, not like what we get in any other box of this price.
Are the colors airbrished on?
They are yes
Very nice review! I bought mine a couple of days ago and, although I am not satisfied AT ALL by how Lumineth as a whole have been portraied up to now, this box was a must-have for me. I still have unpainted wood elves (A LOT!) back from WHFB and am actually going to see how the whole Lumineth army is going to be developed, once new models will be revealed (Tyrion anyone?).
Worst case scenario, I am going to mix them with good ol’ wood elves, or just paint them and showcase :)