Thoughts on the resin Contemptors from Forge World?

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

I'm considering getting a Contemptor for my Raven Guard. The idea is to get either the basic resin Contemptor, Death Guard Contemptor (with some filing work to take off the Death Guard stuff to make it a plain Contemptor with rivets), Relic Contemptor or the Raven Guard Contemptor. Do they use normal Marine-sized heads like the Venerable? Are they a pain to assemble? Are they a good start to Forge World sculpts?

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

The heads are fairly Marine-sized, however, they're very round with no antenna mohawk at the top, and the entire bottom half of the chin/mouth is removed and flattened. The head cavity should be large enough to accommodate almost all Marine helmets provided you sand flat the bottom of the helmet.

 

I have the Raven Guard Contemptor only, however I once had plans to buy the plain Contemptor and the Relic Contemptor, and if I were to convert one, the Death Guard Contemptor with the symbols filed off makes an excellent Contemptor equivalent to Mk III or Mk V power armor.

 

IMO the Contemptor gets an A+/S for posability, a B+ to A+ depending on which sculpt you like, and about a B- for casting quality, because the kits are so old. The Leviathan, on the other hand, is an S rank all around except for posability. Even buying one almost 3 years after release, the cast was nearly flawless and it was far more enjoyable to clean, dry-fit, and build than the Contemptor. Posability is still good but not anywhere near as dynamic as the Contemptor. I was able to make my Contemptor do a full on sprint (with a small piece of basing under his front foot) while aiming one gun arm level to his face and the other arm flung backwards in a running pose. The Leviathan, on the other hand, catches the shoulderpads on his torso armor and the legs have very limited posing.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Excellent. Thank you for the information, this will affect my decision-making. I like making informed decisions - and dropping about $100 on a Contemptor is definitely enough to warrant asking around.

[Gederas]

I got the Death Guard Contemptor to use as a Contemptor-Mortis for my Dark Angels:

I'll echo what Tyberos said. The Contemptors are honestly one of my favorite kits Forge World offers. I've had no issues with the two Contemptors I've gotten, in either casting or assembling (well, aside from my own inability to pose the first time around :lol:)

[MegaVolt87]

Resin contemptors are easily built and magnitized for great value. The plastic one is poor value and a garbage sculpt. Yeet it straight in the trash as the kids say these days.

[apologist]

I'm considering getting a Contemptor for my Raven Guard. The idea is to get either the basic resin Contemptor, Death Guard Contemptor (with some filing work to take off the Death Guard stuff to make it a plain Contemptor with rivets), Relic Contemptor or the Raven Guard Contemptor. Do they use normal Marine-sized heads like the Venerable? Are they a pain to assemble? Are they a good start to Forge World sculpts?

 

The Death Guard Contemptor's a particular favourite of mine. With little specific Death Guard detailing, it lends itself well to being used for other Legions. Specifically, it has a Death Guard symbol on the shoulder and shin, and a Legion number on its shoulder. All are easily trimmed away with a sharp knife.

 

 

All that I've had from Forge World have been beautifully clean casts, a real pleasure to assemble. The kits all come with two sets of feet; two flat-soled and two slightly tilted, to allow for walking or running motions. Besides that, there are no options. 

 

In terms of assembly, they are wonderfully versatile, which is both an advantage and disadvantage. It's easy to end up with an awkward, unbalanced or unnatural pose, so I suggest planning out a pose, then dry fitting things repeatedly, and building upwards from the base. Place the feet (for naturalism, feet shouldn't be parallel to one another – always have the toes pointing slightly out), then add the shins, and build up gradually, bearing your initial plan for pose in mind.

 

I've also seen quite a few with the shins the wrong way round. While similar, the shins are 'sided', so make sure the left one is on the left, etc.

 

One great aspect of their construction is that they're almost universally combinable with bits from other Contemptors (and with slight modificaitons, with the Deredeo and Leviathan). Not a great picture, but you can see here how I used a Relic, Standard and Death Guard Contemptor to put together an Ultramarines Dreadnought Talon. 

 

 

Do be aware that there are some vagaries for kitbashing – One of the Thousand Sons Contemptors, for example, has a fixed head. Of the ones you've listed, I've used both the Relic and Death Guard Contemptors, and they heads are compatible. I don't have any experience of the Raven Guard one, I'm afraid. 

 

The heads are markedly larger than standard marine heads; roughly 30% or so. Also, be aware that the Contemptor heads are mostly flat-bottomed, in order to sit within the torso. This means that the heads lack any detail below the chin area. This is particularly noticeable in the Death Guard head. Leviathan and Deredeo heads are complete, and have ball-socket joints, so a little modification is needed to swap between. In short, Contemptor heads are mostly cross-compatible, but will require some conversion (and look pin-headed) if you use a standard plastic marine head.

[Ishagu]

I have owned a total of 3 FW Resin Contemptors - one for my sons of Horus and two for my Ultramarines. I have also owned many of the other FW resin Dreads.

 

In short, the kits are great. Pretty easy to prep, wash, assemble and paint. Typically they have very few casting issues, although a few weapon arms might have some problems that need filing or filling.

 

Here's my two Ultramarine Contemptors. One is a much older kit that the other, but both were pretty great casts:

 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

 

I went for an IF Relic as my Black Templar relic. They really are great kits.

 

[Dracos]