Don’t miss our unboxing and build for the Space Marines Strike Force Agastus, Brutalis Dreadnought, and Primaris Desloators, as there are some GOTCHAS to be wary of!
Rob is back unboxing the newest release for Warhammer 40k. He’ll see what it takes to get it ready for the tabletop, show you the models’ size, and tell you the GOTCHAS to be aware of when building them. Unfortunately, there are quite a few!
We will show you everything, including the sprues, bits, and, of course, the size. That way, you can decide if this is worth your hard-earned hobby dollars.
Space Marines Strike Force Agastus: $200 (out of print)
Click on these links to order yours for less from these retailers:| Amazon | Dicehead Games | Bazooka Games | Frontline Gaming | Element Games (UK) | eBay | or | Games Workshop’s Store
Let’s first check out the savings in this box, then jump into the builds!
With the new increased 2022 prices for the Redemptor Dreadnought and the characters in general, this kit gained an extra $10 in value.
- 5 Heavy Intercessors $65
- Brutalis Dreadnought $80
- 10 Desolation Space Marines $120
- New Lieutenant $35
Total MSRP: $295
Total Value Versus the $200 Box Price: $95
Space Marines Strike Force Agastus: Unboxing & Instructions
The new Lieutenant has a ton of options, which is just really cool. You could also magnetize up all the bits without much hassle, which we’ll show later.
For the Brutalis Dread, the body build is very similar to the Redemptor Dread.
This is where the trouble really starts, though. The arms don’t work well when it comes time to build them. One thing to note right off the bat, the instructions say the talon fingers are all the same part number, but they are shaped differently, and you sort of have to experiment to see which part goes where.
We’ll go over the trouble later, but before you build the dread up, you might have to cut out some from the shoulder joints because the pieces don’t really fit. This was an issue on the Redemptor, and it looks like they haven’t fixed it, which, for the price tag, is a bit of a letdown…
The Desolation Squad builds up quite easily, and all the bits fit together great. Also, you probably don’t have to magnetize them because of how the weapons are made; you can just use some blue-tac for both of the missile launchers.
Sprues
As usual, the sprues are well laid out, and the bits look very detailed. These have been pretty panned by the community, but at this point, they are what they are!
The Lieutenant has a lot more options than before, which is always nice.
Last but not least is the Brutalis, and all the bits look great, but there are some serious issues coming up.
Built Desolation Squad
The Desolation Marines build up super easily, and because of the rail system on the guns, you can just keep the missiles on with a little bit of blue-tac if you’re really sweating switching out the weapons.
They size up pretty close to the normal Primaris, so that’s good.
He wanted to show more of the magnetization for the Lieutenant, but the dread took so long, he didn’t have a ton of time! So, all you have to do is drill out the shoulder socket, put in a couple of 1/8 x 1/16″ magnets in the shoulder socket, and then do the same on each arm with the weapons, and some are already sort of pre-drilled out.
We get all our magnets for hobbying from The Magnet Baron. Use coupon code Spikey10off to get 10% off your next order with them!
We also love the motorized WOWstick, which makes drilling out barrels and magnetizing a breeze. Find out more by clicking here.
The Brutalis Dread
Up to this point, the dread is pretty easy to build, but from this point on, it’s tough, well, other than the chest weapons.
You don’t really need to magnetize these because you can just throw in some blue-tac, and they will stay quite well.
This is where things go awry. The notches on the shoulder joint do not match up with the arm bit. You are supposed to just slot the arm in so it can rotate all around.
However, it doesn’t work! You can go in and cut it up, so it fits, but you sort of have to do this before you get to this point. So, if you’re building this, try to make it fit before it gets to this point.
The next issue comes with the elbow joint. In the directions, GW says not to glue it. However, the whole thing is only about 1/16″ thick, so it broke when Rob tried to put the arm in the shoulder joint.
So, just be very careful, as it’s a small piece that will want to break when you put any tension on it. Even if it doesn’t break, when you twist the arm, it wants to pop out anyway, so Rob would just glue it and not mess with the extra movement.
Which again is a big letdown for this kit.
Maybe he got a badly molded sprue or something, but this is kind of infuriating, and Rob can’t really recommend this kit. Many of the commenters on YouTube also said they had similar issues with this kit, and the Redemptor from 2017 as well.
The last issue is something we touched on above, but the instructions say all the talons are the same, and they are not! So just dry-fit each one to get the look you like.
Click Here to Get Your Strike Force Agastus!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
