Review: Kingdom Death Preacher Pinup

    
      

After I reviewed two Kingdom Death miniatures yesterday I thought it would be remiss of me not to review one of Kingdom Death's pinup miniatures. Lets be honest here I had a thing or two to say a few months back about sexy miniatures in our hobby. However, just to be clear I don't actually have a issue with their being sexy miniatures, but I do have an issue with miniatures who are overly sexualised and not being honest about what it is. I can't really level that criticism at the Kingdom Death miniatures, simply because they label them pinup's, so you know what you are getting. That discussion aside what do I think of this sexy Preacher Pinup?

Product Description

The Preacher Pinup also comes with her own postcard artwork, as with all Kingdom Death miniatures, although I'm not sure it'll be wise to frame this one and put it on your mantlepiece. As always there is the square Kingdom Death resin base, although if you read my update below that may not be the case anymore. There are 9 high quality resin components in the card box. There are though two hands for one slot, because trust me they're easily lost, thank God they packed two! They are the smallest component I've EVER seen on a miniature and I'm amazed the fingers remain intact. There are also two head variants, one with glasses and one without, you'll only be needing one. The rest of the pieces are her torso and left arm, her exceedingly slender and long legs, her right arm, and a sash of cloth to hang between her legs. The final component is a warhammer, although I'm not too sure I like it on the miniature myself as I'm not entirely sure what it does for composition. That's your lot!

Update: The base I got with this miniature was the square resin one you see in this picture. However, if any of you have purchased any Kingdom Death miniatures recently you'll have noticed that they now come with flat plastic discs with an indentation in them where a second plastic disc can go, or a scenic base insert as is the case of the Illuminated Lady. I'm unsure whether these bases are now shipped with all miniatures in the range or just the latest stuff, but I thought it best to inform you all of it any way!

The new plastic Kingdom Death bases.

Character 7.5 out of 10

This Preacher Pinup is quite frankly exceedingly obvious and overt in what it's all about. I'm not even going to pretend that there is more to this miniature than a waif like waist, a curvacious booty and breasts that are so large they probably have their own small celestial bodies orbiting them. The Preacher Pinup up is a sexy, scantily clad miniature who exists to titillate the viewer. I'm not really sure how to feel about that if I'm honest. Part of me thinks it's a bit puerile and lame, but it was at the very least labelled as a pinup. So if you brought this miniature and were then surprised to find a scantily clad pinup you'd have no complaints. Nope, you'd be an idiot! I guess my issue with sexy miniatures is that all too often they aren't honest about what they exist for, they're scantily clad because... erm... it makes them more mobile. Or they don't need armour because they have magic nipples of warding. In our hobby we ted to come up with ridiculous excuses for why we overly sexualise the female form. She wears pants and f*** me boots to distract her male opponents, yeah right. So you know what I do give Adam Poots and his Kingdom Death range some credit for dispensing with those weak excuses for showing tits and ass, nope he's been honest. This is a pinup and it's there to look sexy. Sure there's a warhammer you can stick onto her somewhere, but I'm not sure it adds much, or indeed anything to the composition. I guess it's there for those who still want to pretend they haven't brought a sexy pinup in miniature form.

Look optional head... erm... I mean heads. I went with glasses to make her look smart.

So is it? Yeah she is. I'm not so sure I'm convinced she's a preacher though, because if we had preachers like that when I was young I'm sure I'd be highly religious now. She is mainly flesh and curves. Sure she has a what appears to be a napkin covering her cleavage and nipples, but it fails miserably in covering all of her breasts and her ample bosom pokes out all over the shop. Although how they manage to stay pointing north without any discernible support is beyond me. I'm told she'd probably fail the pencil test, which means they're fake. Her sashaying stance with her hips kicked out to the side is reminiscent of poses struck by strippers in strip clubs... I'd imagine. As is her outfit too. I mean who the hell else wears a doily over their breasts, arm warmers g-string pants and wedge heels? Nobody that's who, unless they work in adult entertainment. Oh yeah, sorry I forgot to mention the hold-up stockings. It's kind of ironic I guess that the loin clothes that dangle between her legs are the largest expanse of material on the miniature, and all they do is cover thin air! I mean they don't cover her bum, her perfectly formed, digitally sculpted bum. Well I mentioned the 'T' so I may as well talk about the 'A'. It is perfectly rounded and peachy, just as every teenage boy dreams I'm sure, but I guess that's partly where it starts to fall down as a sculpt for me. Sure Lokman Lam's concept art was simply meant to be an attractive looking lady, and Jon-Troy's digital sculpt has captured the female form perfectly. Maybe too perfectly for me. There's little soul in the piece for me, but I can't deny that it lives up to it's design brief.

Look at those individual fingers.

Detail 7.5 out of 10

This is a pretty difficult category to score for this miniature. Because she has undeniably got some fabulously fine detail, her face is wonderfully feminine, delicate and expressive. Her hand is arguably the finest, most delicate piece of detail I have ever seen on a miniature. Honestly it truly boggles the mind. I spent far longer looking at that hand than I ever did her boobs or ass. It's a truly impressive component and the splayed fingers are each unbelievably fine. But, what of the rest of the miniature? Well lets be honest, apart from those two buoyancy aids plonked on her chest and her well rounded buttocks there's not much else to write home about. Sure she has the perfect hourglass figure, but beyond so strapped wedges on her feet, hold up stockings and a book there isn't much in the way of things to look at. I guess there is some interesting an anatomically correct muscle tone I could talk about on her midriff around her stomach and her belly button (she's an innie not an outie in case you were wondering), which is an impressively accurate representation of muscle structure under movement. Then there's the fine pinstripe lines on her clothes and the detailing at the top of her stockings. But there is a piece of detail that lets the side down quite a bit, and that's the hair. Yesterday when taking about the Grand Mother I waxed lyrical about how impressive a job Thomas David had done with the hair, but here on the Preacher Pinup it looks like a blob. There's no shape to the individual strands, there aren't any really, and it's at odd with the rest of the piece. I didn't notice it at first glance, I'm not sure why. Perhaps I was distracted. Any way, it drags the score down because although it's not terrible it's not up to the standards of the rest of the miniature. What can I say, I like my hotties (and why did spellchecker want to change that to hogties?!?!) to look after their hair!!!

Quality 9 out of 10

I can not however fault the quality of the final cast. Given how thin and fine some of the components are, in particular those individual fingers, as well as the sash between her legs. Then there's the hammer, which lets face it if a single air bubble got into, it would be ruined. The haft is that thin, a single air bubble and it'd be broken in half. It all fitted together shockingly well, as you'd expect I guess for a digital sculpt. There was little to no mould lines, honestly it is a brilliant reproduction, I'm sure, of the original 3D master.

the shaft on this hammer is 1mm thick.

Price 7.5 out of 10

I guess if you gauge value for money on how much flesh is exposed per dollar I suppose then that the Preacher Pinup would be exceptional value for money. However, I still think that $25's or £15.50 would be a bit on the steep side for a 32mm miniature, no matter how detailed and high quality it is, there are similar firms who put out miniatures of similar quality, but at slightly more reasonable prices. But like the Butcher yesterday you have to say that I'm really splitting hairs on price here. I'd happily pay that price again for a Kingdom Death miniatures.

I can not convey in words just how small and delicate these hands are.

Overall 7.5 out of 10

The Preacher Pinup won't be for everyone, because not everyone wants such openly sexy miniatures on their display shelves. I'm not too sure I want such openly sexy miniatures on my display shelves either. However, if what you want is a scantily clad, sexy female without the pretense of it being something else, like a lightly armoured warrior or unencumbered mage. It is at least honest, and it is a sassy sexy miniature,which if you'd paid for a pinup is what you'd expect. I'm still not too sure how I feel about the idea of sexy miniatures, I guess I'm OK with them as long as they're not pretending to be anything else, and as long as it doesn't intrude too much into my general gaming. Peace out!