The Haramaki Zensenbutai are Yu Jing Samurai warriors in powered armour.

Pose & Styling - Box Set

Following Corvus Belli's usual box set system, the Haramaki set includes two each of two different bodies and four different sets of arms.

Sporting an initially odd mix of Hakama and powered armour, the Haramaki have armour and especially helmets inspired by feudal Samurai armour, further following Samurai tradition with their use of the katana and wakizashi. The models have a good amount of movement, largely through twisted waist poses and some inspired arm positioning.

The detail and sculpting is the usual high standard for Infinity models with the hard clean plates of the armour contrasting well with the pleated fabric of the Hakama pants and the under-armour muscle coils.

Equipment-wise all four of the models have shoulder-mounted Blitzens (limited use E/M pulse weapons) on little stalks that fit to the backplate of the armour, similar to the Panzerfausts of the recently reviewed Magister Knights. All four also carry swords. One model also carries a Combi Rifle and one a Contender rifle for extra ranged effectiveness.

Although there are only two body sculpts (one male and one female) the widely-varied arm pairings do a very good job of helping disguise this, making it look like four different models. Stand-out poses for me are the top two models in the studio photo, with sword and warding off palm and sword held in two hands.

Pose & Styling - Missile Launcher Blister

The fifth Haramaki model (to form a full five-person Link Team) is available in a separate blisterpack and has a totally different body, sculpted with one foot up on a rock. The model is equippped with a shoulder-slung Missile Launcher held in both hands and foregoes the stalk-mounted Blitzen but still carries the sheathed katana and wakizashi.

Although the rocky outcrop adds to the dynamic pose it's a potential problem if using scenic resin bases.

Parts & Fit - Box Set

Each Haramaki is a six piece model consisting of legs/torso, right arm, left arm, head, stalk-mounted Blitzen and scabbard bundle.

The leg/torso pieces in the review set were effectively flash and mould line free although there was a tiny mould rip under the female body's holstered pistol but this was thin enough that it was more like flash than anything.

The arms had some visible mould lines and a couple were quite flashy - but the flash was thin enough to remove with a fingernail. There were lots of thin feeder channels on the arms and a couple of thicker ones, but the thicker ones were attached to armour plates or similar (making them easier to remove).

The feeder channels on the heads were flashy but the heads themselves were quite clean. As the main channel attaches to the top of the helmet you'll need to so some filing work to get it flat again.

The Blitzen stalks were very clean while the scabbard bundles were in need of some cleaning along the edges.

The arms fit into a wide indentation with a small hole in the centre and are a good fit with a wide contact area. However, they are body-specific - partly due to the difference in bulk between the male and female arms but also due to different shapes to the indentations and the female arms actually forming the sides of the breastplate.

The necks fit into narrow deep holes allowing plenty of movement.

The Blitzen stalks have a small pin on them which slots well into a hole on the rear left of the torso - it's easy to look at the Blitzens and think they're pointing backwards so look out for the hole & pin.

The scabbard bundles have small nubs on them with fit into small depressions at the waist, These fit fine but have a very small contact point and tend to become detached easily, but the models look OK without them.

Note that the three-point contact for the female model with a two-handed grip on her katana was a perfect fit with no noticeable gaps.

Parts & Fit - Missile Launcher Blister

This is a four piece model with torso/head/legs, right arm/ML, left arm and scabbard bundle.

Mould lines and flash were very minor but some feeder channels needed removing on the arms, ML and scabbards.

The parts fit together in identical manner to the box set models with the left hand neatly fitting under the ML to help support it.

The arms are not designed to fit either of the box set bodies, but you could probably do an arm swap with one of the male models if you were prepared to do some cutting and gap filling.

Pros

• Dynamic poses.
• Fine detail and consistent sculpting quality.
• Five unique models between the box and blister.
• Excellent variety in arm posing considering the duplicated bodies in the box set.

Cons

• Scabbard bundles are very prone to breaking off under any kind of rough handling.
• Arms have very limited interchangeability but this is made up for is more distinctive poses.

In summary, the box set manages amazing poses and variety considering that there are only two torsos, and the full set of five models looks very good together.

Ian