Banebeast Minotaur standard bearer review

With a little friend

So this weekend, after proxying the majority of my horde, I decided to splash out on the banebeast minotaur standard bearer whilst there was still the 16% off. I was toying with the idea of converting a plastic BSB for my mino army, but in the end I decided I would rarely use it in a competative list, so took the easy option and went with the £17 banebeast. The Skullbearer of the Taarviks Khaargstrukk (or however you spell it).

Well, I can honestly say I was not dissapointed! What a cracking model. He came in several parts - the body consisted of right arm with weapon (all one piece), body with left arm, and left hand and banner all in one piece. His head and tail came on another sprue, the head being all one piece.

The torso came with...erm..."anatomically correct" lower body. In his gooch was a huge pair of fruits. I thought long and hard (giggedy) about whether to keep it or not. I decided to get rid.

I'm all for realistic sculpting, but he would look out of place being the only model with a scrote. There was not loincloth to hide his modesty and, with no effort to sculpt one or a suitable size bit in my bit box, I just lopped them off.

Our bull, post gelding

So, after I gave him the snip, I put him together. The parts went together smoothly, with just a tiny bit of filling on the right arm. The right arms weapon looks a bit bent and flimsy, but thats the risk of having a long shaft made from resin. The resin is really nice to use and work with, and is perhaps a little nicer than games workshops finecast, just because there was no faults in the casting and the details were immaculate.

So, once I finished putting the model together, I got to putting my own personal stamp on this cheeky chappy.

In comparison to a standard minotaur and my doombull

I took a spare skull dingle dangle (tm) bit from my bits box and attatched it to his gutplate, just to help connect him to his fellow beastmen who have loincloths. I added a minotaur shield to his left arm as BSB he'll be most likely taking as much armour as possible. I finally added a small club from the ogre bulls box to his waist to show his armed to the teeth - a gorebull can never have too many weapons!

Overall, this model is absolutely fantastic. The banner I would have liked to replace as it's a bit bland, but when the models finished it doesn't look too bad.  The axe also rests close to the ground, leading to potential ranking up issues should he be in the second rank of a regiment. The base he came with was also slightly warped, so I just put him on a standard GW 40x40 base.

All in all, a solid 8 out of 10 from me. If the rumours of upcoming minotaur regiment from banebaeasts is true, I will definately to purchasing a box!