The Vortex is a rather unusual miniature. It appears to be a cyclone of lost souls. It’s a one-piece sculpture of resin and stands over 5” tall. For the size, the price of $19.99 is modest.
Because of its simplicity, this is a miniature that’s easy to paint. It consists mostly of bands of air twirling about one another with a few skulls poking out of the windy tunnel. The skulls are large enough to put some decent detail on and have eyeballs within the sockets. One of the best things about the miniature is that the base and figure are one piece. This allows the swirls of the miniature to continue without interruption and prevents the user from having to break out the old superglue.
There’s a minimum amount of flash on the model so preparation is easy. There were no extra bits needing removal on my Vortex. Because it’s one-piece, the figure is easy to prime and paint right out of the box. It’s also a light piece thanks to its resin origin.
About the only thing that might prove problematic, is figuring out why you’d need apiece like this. It’s a tall piece and thanks to it’s appearance, doesn’t have any humanoid features at all. Most air elementals I’ve seen are at least vaguely humanoid. Described as “part spell, part primal force”, the use of the figure seems limited to a spell effect of an air elemental of fiendish origins or a unique creation which could limit it’s overall utility. It’s base would be good, in a d20 based game, for a large creature, but it’s height suggests a huge creature so it would need to be rebased to gain that effect. In other game systems, like Call of Cthulhu, the miniature would make a great dark foe for characters at the end of a campaign or in some super science future setting another example of green house gone wrong.
For utility, the Vortex may lack a home in some campaigns. In terms of detail and ease of use, the Vortex is great to go right out of the box.
Sponsored by the Ennies. http://www.enworld.org/ennies/index.html
