By the power of Greyskull ...
/Malifaux – Yes I know this is a kit for Warhammer Fantasy. No hell did not freeze over, I haven't started playing that game. When I saw this kit I immediately thought of Nicodems Observatory from Rising Powers. Of course shortly after that I though of He-Man. Then I looked at the price and giggled. Much like most of the kits from GW the price is higher than average but you are getting a nicely detailed hunk of plastic with optional parts (and skulls everywhere).
Unboxing the kit you have two solid parts for the base and a few sprues with the rest of the details. I could see using some of these parts in other projects and will probably check some bit sellers to see if they have any extras. The instructions were very detailed and easy to follow and the kit went together smoothly. In fact I think it took me more time to remove the mold lines than it did to assemble the entire kit.
I opted to leave the observatory and tower ramparts unattached so it can serve a dual purpose. Other than that minor option there aren't any extra parts in the kit. Which is a bit disappointing as most GW kits have a ton of extra stuff that can be used other places.
Overall I'm happy with the kit. It looks imposing on the field and takes up a decent amount of space. I'm slightly disappointed with the number of places models can stand on the piece, for some reason I though the stairs and broken walkway were larger than they are. Combining this with some Citadel Trees, Wyrd Hanging Trees, and two Garden of Morrs should be more than enough terrain to fill a 3'x3' graveyard themed board. I know I could probably build all of this for way less and have it look just as cool, however I'm experimenting with the durability of these plastic kits. Dragging my desert board back a forth from the game store every week has exposed some of the minor flaws in scratch built terrain. Granted three years of constant use and shuffling is pretty solid for a terrain set I want to see what I can do with some solid plastic kits.