30 March 2010

LAST CALL: March Free Prize Draw

Well folks there's just over 24hrs until April lands which gives you good people about that long to get your name in for this month's Free Prize Draw to win the Deathwing Conversion piece pictured above.

For full instructions take a look at the original post – you have until midnight (UK time) on Wednesday!

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There will be little or no action from this blog for a good ten days or so. I have two days trying to contend with a work schedule from hell before going away on holiday to see the clan 'up North' who we haven't seen since our wedding. I may manage a sneaky post (especially given I shall be picking up the Blood Angel codex on Saturday from somewhere Derby way) but no new models till around the 14th.

BTW. Myself and Bull are going to SALUTE this year in London at the end of April to support my wargaming mentor Craig in his new venture Critical Mass Games. If you're going, drop by the CMG stand and say hello!

28 March 2010

WIP: Sanguinary High Priest

After the game against the Orks this week I felt in need of adding to the Blood Angels, and in anticipation of the new codex next week I thought I would create a Sanguinary High Priest – according to the rumours a very useful if not essential recruitment.

I wanted an action pose and started with the Salamander medic in the Space Marine codex (love the kneeling pose). I didn't really want a white helmet on the model so went for the Commander head, shouting for help/cover fire/sticky tape. Whilst I didn't want a model as bling as the new Blood Angel plastics I did want him to definitely look like a Blood Angel, as well as a minor character, so out came the greenstuff.


In addition to my familiar raised neckline I also got rid of the skull on the chest and replaced it with a blood drop. More blood drops were added to the lead leg as well as a tabard. As a final touch I added some tread to the bottom of his boot.

I wanted to add more, but patience (or lack of) got the better of me and I decided to stop there, which in hindsight is about right for balance – I'm looking forward to painting some white armour mixed in with the red, as well as a character very different from anything so far.

The next conversion will be my attempt at dynamic Tycho in a couple of weeks, who will be leading the line in my next battle against the Orks, his old enemy.

27 March 2010

Hailed vs Hated: Blood Angel outrage!


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My brothers, news has filtered back to us of an atrocity inflicted upon our beloved chapter.

As you know, the Chalice of Saintly Healing, a holy relic entrusted to Sanguinary High Priest Vassar, was lost to us when he fell in combat during a boarding action many years ago. The enemy vessel disappeared, assumed destroyed, and our chapter wept for the loss of such a revered and holy treasure. We recently heard that this same ship has been spotted re-entering normal space from the warp, albeit twisted and contorted from its incarceration in the ether. We dispatched, under great secrecy, a group of veterans to retrieve the Chalice and bring it home.

It would appear that our brothers walked into a trap so devious that it defies belief. They were cut off from any means of escape and butchered, tortured and dismembered by an entity of sheer malice, with no respect for life or honour. In addition to the holy Chalice, the creature is now in possession of the Banner Encarmine. Only brother Fractus survived, the Emperor alone is holding his mind and body together, and he gave us all the information he could. We also have a limited number of snap shots from his head cam.

Our investigations are but a few days old and we are already making headway. Such butchery will not go unpunished or unavenged. They have defiled what is sacred, and debased those who are honoured by us. And it is done with such intent and spite that we must crush this aggressor with the full might of the 5th Company, regain our honour and those treasures that are holy to us.

In addition, in the last 24 hours, we have found a name for our pain.....Arrugginiti.

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26 March 2010

Game Day: A tale of Gentlemen and Ones

As you may know I had my first game of 5th Ed yesterday (first game in ages at least), and a very enjoyable afternoon it was too (pausing only for an essential bacon sandwich and the odd delivery of household furniture). Let me just say from the outset that perhaps aligning myself with BSmooth at A Gentleman's Ones recently has had an adverse affect on my gaming, hehe, which will become clear later ;)

On to the game itself...

As suspected I was facing Orks, with a Big Mek, two Deff Dreads, six Killa Kans, Vulchas, Kommandos, Deff Koptas, a HUGE unit of Boyz and TWO special characters. I, on the other hand, had a group of individual units so rag-tag that they would not look out of place in the Battlestar Galactica fleet. To say I came unprepared is an understatement, as I knew would be the case (my opponent reads my blog too!). What did throw me was the complete absence of any Ork transport vehicles, so I figured I had time to take down the Koptas and damage the mech before everything reached my side of the board.


I won the roll but gave the Orks first turn (mistake #1), who deployed in a balanced formation across the board (Vulchas and Kommandos in reserve). I elected to hold my Scouts in reserve (mistake #2) to try the Outflank rule and see if they could cause problems later in the game. I also had my Multimelta Dread waiting in his pod.


I chose the classic Refused Flank, to try and take one group of mech out of the game (or delay them at least). However, I knew the Koptas had a scout move, and with all those rokkits could cause a problem.


++ TURN ONE ++

As expected the Koptas used their scout move to fly down the flanks and positioned themselves for maximum effect. On my right they did no damage, on my left they took out my Predator – not happy about that. In the middle of the board the Ork horde and mech ran as fast as they could towards me.


In response I jumped a couple of units out on the right to gun down the ineffective koptas – including the melta guy – taking down one with the vehicles accounting for another, whilst on the right pulled back a unit into the smouldering ruins of the tank and swung my gunnery dread to face the cheeky buggers who had taken out my pred, also taking out one kopta. Elsewhere the Vindicator dropped its pie-plate on the large Ork unit killing 5.


++ TURN TWO ++

The Ork masses continued their sprint across the board, looking ever menacing but still not yet a threat. On the right flank, as the remaining wounded kopta bugged out, a unit of 15 Kommandos let by their special character (sorry don't know his name) appeared and immediately charged into my exposed troops. The melta guy and his unit fell, the other 6-man assault squad was down to half strength.


On the left, the Dread and unit fell back to avoid being leapfrogged by the ineffective koptas, and managed to take another one down in the process. The vindicator continued to drop templates, and ork boys continued to just drop! The 5-man tactical unit in the centre fell back to avoid the easy assault charge next turn, and on the right the scouts turned up to support the Chaplain's counter attack into the kommandos, wiping them all out.


++ TURN THREE ++

The Ork mech was virtually on top of me now, as the last of the koptas were dropped, as a Deff Dread crashed through the trees to torch an exposed 5-man unit, killing two. The Kans couldn't get to the Chaplain through the wall of vehicles I'd created, so I decided to charge them once my assault turn came around.

In the middle of the action the Multimelta Dread crashed into the Ork line (having scattered way off course) right behind the other Deff Dread. What a fantastic opportunity to stick a melta shot up his backside (taking into account it had shrugged off FIVE strength 8+ shots thanks to my dice rolling).

However, maybe it was my lack of game practice, or maybe the Gentleman's Ones were with me, but I rolled the inevitable. This of course left the impotent Dread surrounded by mech, and looking very much like he was caught with his pants down.


++ TURN FOUR ++

Having barely survived assaulting the Killa Kans (mistake #3 - forgot maines now have krak grenades), the Chaplain and his remaining crew continued to duck life threatening attacks and stick a fist in where they could. The Kans weren't dropping though.

Elsewhere, the fire-immune Deff Dred ignored the Drop Pod and its contents and charge at the Vindicator, ripping off both guns. The Multimelta Dread was left surrounded by Kans, so just went at them mashing one then waited for the impending (simultaneous) payback.

Alas my opponent had also contracted the curse of the Ones with one of the most incredibly awful rolls I've seen in a long time – SWEET!


++ TURN FIVE ++

By the time turn five came around the Multimelta Dread was left facing a single Kan, but the Vulchas (who had arrived last turn and scattered way off course) dived in to support and their special character's funky claws took out the big man.

In the middle of the park the Deff Dred took down the gunnery Dread (who had missed point blank with both weapons at the DD's backside – one blessed piece of mech). The nearby 5-man unit took out the sole surviving Big Mek in combat (his large unit of boyz being torched and gunned to pieces in the previous turn).

On the right flank, the Chaplain and Power Fist Veteran Sergeants finally succumbed to the last remaining Killa Kan, who had been joined in combat by the other Deff Dred.

Not much left in the table, so we called it quits.


++ CONCLUSIONS ++

This was always intended to be a fun game that got us back into playing and using the 5th Ed rules. My army list (supported by key mistakes) was not equipped for dealing with this Ork army easily, and after Turn Two I thought I was going to die very quickly. However, a few heroes stepped up to hold the line and drag the game out to Turn Five. In an army full of very ineffective dice rolling the Chaplain managed to make 3 invulnerable saves on the bounce to ensure he stayed fighting against the Killa Kans. After making the worst entrance ever, the Multimelta Dread pulled things around, surviving three rounds of combat aginst the Killa Kans – killing two and turning the third into an immobile, armless statue – before being taken down by a one hit wonder special character roll, which was unlucky.

So the biggest laugh of the day was the dice rolling, with both sides having an enormous amount of bad luck ( I rolled 6 ones in one round of shooting just 8 weapons) with even the armour pen rolls being low overall. Seems gentlemen do roll ones, but in our case just not when it would be useful!

25 March 2010

Game Day ...finally!

So it's 6.45am and I'm getting ready to drive the 100 miles or so up the M20, to the other side of Kent, to play my first game of 5th Edition this year, out of perhaps only half a dozen ever (I'm a 4th Ed veteran).

I took a photo of my 'band of brothers' last night – it's always nice to see a group of miniatures like this, see how they look together. Unfortunately (and somewhat embarrassingly for someone with my artistic and perfectionist tendencies) this particular group look like a random ebay sale that's asking for £500 but will probably go for £30. This is due to being between armies at the moment; trying to put together a playable Imperial Marine army list from the handful of new/part-painted Blood Angels and whatever surviving elements of my Dark Templar force could be scrounged to make up the numbers – on top of having exclusively been a Chaos player for the last ten years. I'm also a stickler for WYSIWYG, so I'd rather have an unpainted model with the correct weapon than a painted flamer that's meant to be a lascannon. There is also a scout unit in there that is barely built – not me at all under normal circumstances, but this game is coming a good couple of months too soon to field something to the standard I'm used to. However, today is about having a bit of fun, nothing more.

I will put up my army list as part of a mini battle-report another time, but you can see it hasn't strayed too far from the list I posted the other day. The idea being that the tacticals break down into 5-man squads, the heavy weapons staying back whilst the special weapons scoot forward in the Razorbacks. The one thing I have learned over time is not to put a unit you want in combat quickly inside a Razorback brandishing a weapon you want to be shooting every turn (like a lascannon) as the two concepts are in conflict – hence the assault troops are in rhinos. Other elements are in there for me to try new rules, such as drop pod deployment and outflanking scouts. You'll notice I've taken nothing with funky new rules, such as special characters, to keep things simple and the game flowing. Both my opponent and I suffer terribly from MES (for which Col Corbane has some suggested cures) so the simpler we can keep things the better.

Next time of course I will have the new Blood Angel codex to work with, and I'll have more special rules than I know what to do with, but for today it's all about simple fun. Expect to see some action pics soon.

24 March 2010

Greenstuff: Shaping Scouts

Here's a little project that is a couple of years old now. I always wanted a unit of sniper scouts to run with my Dark Templar army, but there were only two metal models available. Having painted up a version of each, I wanted a couple more that looked different and preferably kneeling down.

The first conversion was quite straightforward, sculpting a hood on the current kneeling model – easy enough. The second conversion was my first serious go with greenstuff. I hacked up one of the standing models, leaving just his torso and his boots. I pinned them onto a base and proceeded to fill in the gaps with greenstuff, using the current kneeling model as a reference guide. Once the legs had cured I moved onto the cloak, again using the kneeling original as a guide.


The one thing I did learn from this was that you have to let greenstuff cure slightly before attempting to sculpt it at all, then go back every half/hour and refine and smooth, refine and smooth – right up to the point where the thing is solid.

All in all I was quite pleased with the way these turned out. Trouble was, the following month GW released plastic sniper scouts – ouch!

21 March 2010

You Can Keep Mephiston...

More on the blog title shortly.

Got the Twin Lascannon Dred completed, for an unexpected 5 painting points this month. All in all a very satisfactory conclusion, given two days ago I couldn't find the bloody model!


I still needed a solution for my Scout issue. I had found some spare plastic scouts bits that could fill the role, or I had Dark Templar close combat scouts waiting to step in. I wanted to go with the bolters, but I refused to use the scouts heads – they're just bloody awful – so after some digging I found a handful of marine heads from the vehicle accessory sprue that are perfect. I doubt these boys will see any paint before Thursday, but I'm happy for now.


You Can Keep Mephiston...
..cos I've got a Sith Jedi joining my ranks soon!

To be continued...

19 March 2010

Miscellaneous Figures

Whilst going through the attic looking for my missing Dreadnought, I (re)discovered a carry case full of non-GW figures, and thought I'd photograph them and put them online.

When I lived in Tunbridge Wells I used to game every Tuesday (until we discovered WoW, then you didn't have to leave your room to game!), and now and again we'd deviate from the ongoing 40k battles. I got into Warmachine after being introduced to it by my gaming mates back home in Wigan, so brought this to the table as an alternative. As usual I couldn't go with one of the standard armies, so went with Mercenaries, and my warcaster Magnus the Traitor (above).

The other game I really loved was Hybrid. The models were just exquisite, and that is how I was introduced to Rackham and their stunningly painted figures (the first time I was exposed to the NMM technique). I felt like I had been asleep for the last 20 years and woke up over the rainbow.


I went on to collect a whole host of Rackham minitaures for the Scorpions, including a limited edition Sethin figure (which I still haven't finished painting!), and this assassin pictured above. Alas now none of these figures appear to be available anymore, and rackham now seem to produce quite plain looking stuff.


Given the background of the game, and the Scorpions in particular, I went for a very dirty, oily look to the painting. The bases were decorated with a distressed piece of platicard and a very small amount of sand, to represent the dirty, decaying basements and corridors in which the experiments and missions took place.

One day I will go back and paint the hybrid models themselves, of which I have 3 variations – stunning sculpts and altogether scary opponents.

Oh and by the way, I found my three missing Dreadnoughts. I took the one and needed and hope to get a bit of Blood Red paint on him before my game next week, so at least it looks like he knows which side he's on!

18 March 2010

WIP: Blood Angel Rhino

Now that I have completed my first Tactical Squad, I thought it would be a cool idea to fast track the Rhino I had started to build, so that I had a completely finished unit with transport. It also means, if finished on time, I could get a cool 10 painting points in one hit which would get me back on course to meet my yearly target.


I used the same painting technique I have used for my troops, with the exception of giving the model a coat of Dark Flesh instead of multiple Blood Red/Chaos Black layers. More than anything this has saved a lot of time, although it has been tricky getting a solid colour onto all those large flat surfaces with a brush. I have no intention of buying an airbrush to do this in the future, even though it has added a challenge to the process.


The model was washed and highlighted in the same way as the troops, before I went back and started blacking out areas that will become black or metal. There sure is a lot of detail on this model now, but I am confident of getting it finished (with large blood drop on top hatch) before the month's end.

17 March 2010

Game On!

I have a game booked in for next week, with my best man, and must admit to being quite excited about it. The invite was to give my newly painted models a run out (read: kill all the nicely painted stuff that haven't been killed before). I was thinking about what army to take, lists, etc. and given the fact that the new Blood Angel codex is due to land in little over a fortnight I see little point in using the current BA list. I also have a huge restriction on available models (I play Chaos!) so that too will impact on my list.

So, this morning with a cup of tea I sat down to scribble some numbers on a page. Given I know my opponent well I can assume/guess the following:

1. Despite having large Dark Angel and Imp Guard armies he will likely field his true love – Orks!
2. Given the banter on the email this week I am likely to see more than a couple of shiny new Dreds/Kans.
3. Neither of us have played much 5th Edition, so the chosen mission will likely be the "let's just kick the crap out of each other and see what's left after 6 turns" strategic mission, which you will find exclusively in my biro-amended edition of the 40k rulebook.
4. Given the fact that my opponent's Ork army is huge, he's unlikely to want to play a 500 or 1000pt game – 1500 points it is then.
5. This will be a friendly game of 40k (ha, ha, ha).

That all sounds straightforward except I have no flamers in my collection (except my new BA Tactical Squad), and most of my marines are geared towards a Black Templar close combat army list. We may need reinforcements! First draft of the army list looked like this:

Chaplain  Melta Bombs
Dreadnought  MMelta / CC / HFlamer / Drop Pod
Dreadnought  Twin Las / Missile / Extra Armour

Scouts  x5 / HB
Tactical  x10 / Missile / Flamer / Razor / HB
Tactical  x10 / Missile / Melta / Razor / Las

Assault x7 / Pwr Fist / Rhino
Assault x7 / Pwr Fist / Rhino

Vindicator
Predator  Auto / HB / Extra Armour

Total: 1497

...I then went to dig out the chosen models from the attic, haha!

The Heavy Support choices would be supplied by my Iron Warriors (they're so fickle). I discovered I no longer have a Scout HB or enough intact combat troops for the Assault Squads. In addition I could not find my Twin Las Dread. To top all that, I had just started repainting my Dark Templars as Black Templars when I put them away, and didn't get far past the Black undercoat. All of which leaves me with a few dilemas.

To be continued...

14 March 2010

Remaking a classic

I love the classic marines. They had passion in their faces, and often the pose to match, something I have been trying to incorporate into my current attempt at army building. The model above in particular became one of my favourites for many years, and I decided to try and create a modern counterpart, given the flexibility of plastic kits nowadays.


Taking into account I decided this last night, the image above was my first attempt. Taking the arms from a Lascannon Devastator, I trimmed back as much of the weapon as I thought necessary and stuck a bolter in its place. I will probably trim off the fingers of the left hand and sculpt new ones around the bolter, but I didn't think this was a bad first attempt given it took all of 15 minutes.

The next attempt will probably involve chopping up the various sections of arms and pinning/sculpting things a lot more accurately. This current version doesn't allow the bolter to come up high enough to match the classic original. I may even use the kneeling legs for variation next time.

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Don't forget my March Prize Draw, to win a free Deathwing conversion – it costs nothing to enter...

..and keep you eyes open, I have something coming soon in conjunction with A Gentlemen's Ones!

11 March 2010

A Legend Retold


Once or twice in your gaming lifetime, much as in real life,  an incident occurs that defies belief. An incident so outrageous, unlikely or just plain heroic that you're not sure whether it just happened or whether you dreamed it up!

This is the story of one such incident.

It was one of my first evenings at a new gaming club, back when 3rd Edition ruled the world. I was playing my Dark Templar marines against a rather crafty, if barely painted, Eldar army. We became bitter gaming rivals over the years, but this may have been one of the incidents that contributed towards this.


I had a Land Raider Crusader full of marines and initiates (the first Black Templar list) parked next to a ruined building, on its way to unload death on the Eldar battle line consisting of a large unit of Reapers backed up by a Guide/Fortune wielding Farseer.

A Falcon performed a drive-by, incinerating the Crusader with a Brightlance. The marines fell out into the ruins, taking a couple of casualties in the explosion, and were promply gunned to pieces by the Reapers and Starcannon-armed Vypers. It was carnage, only one marine survived – the melta gun guy. He passed his 'on his own' test, ran up to the edge of the ruins and blew a hole in the side of the falcon, barely surviving the explosion. The Vypers and Reapers had moved their attention elsewhere, considering the job done.

Next turn 'the melta guy' (the man with no name), leaped over the wall and took a pot shot at a small unit of Guardians, downing one. He then charged into the unit killing a single Eldar trooper – the attacks back, including those from a spear wielding Warlock, all missed. Despite being outnumbered 'the melta guy' had won the combat! The Guardians failed their test and rolled 6" fallback, which was beaten by the marine who promptly wiped them out on the follow up. Diving into cover, it was time to weather the enemy backlash.

Strangely, the Eldar paid no attention, despite the bizarre dice rolls and the loss of a unit. Now 'the melta guy' was within inches of the Eldar line, and tried one last audacious act. He ran through the cover he was hiding in, and fired a melta shot straight at the Farseer not 5" in front of him. Despite casting fortune on himself, and having more saves than an entire Terminator Company (so it seemed), he failed all his rolls and was instant-deathed!!

His reward for the sheer cheek of it was to be gunned down mercilessly by 5 Reapers, but the damage was done, and the rest of the Dark Templar army mopped up.



Needless to say I have never had anything like that happen to me since, but it goes to show – you've got to be in it to win it – sometimes it's worth taking risks. As for 'the melta guy' he got a couple of new shoulder pads to mark the occasion, but his cards were marked and he was taken out early on in every game after that.


To honour the deeds of such a hero and legend, I decided to induct 'the melta guy' into the ranks of the Blood Angels so that he can once again run riot through enemy battle lines and vehicles. I wouldn't normally have bare heads for regular troops but this guy has earned the right. Same legs/arms/body/head/backpack. He may have lost his skull shoulder pad, but we put a skull at his feet to remember his deeds of the past.

All hail 'the melta guy'!

10 March 2010

Painting Points for March


The first painting points for March finally land, also signalling the completion of the AoBR Tactical squad – yeeesss! I'm quite glad they're done, although the three remaining Terminators are waiting impatiently.


As well as the Space Hulk Terminators I mentioned yesterday (who are now stuck together, and to bases, with a 2 pence piece underneath), I also got a couple of the Assault squad guys built.



The whole idea of this squad (so far) has been to build on the pose of their Sergeant, making some dynamic looking models, mid-action, without going over the top. You may have seen the legs make an appearance a few posts ago. I also didn't want to do too much converting as they are only rank and file troops after all.

Aside from the codex itself I've decided not to buy any of the new Blood Angels models at this time. I'm not terribly impressed with the releases, and I have lots of marine bits still around the house – the whole point of this army was to use up my extensive bitz collection, and not spend any money (or as little as possible) turning these guys into a playable force. I guess I just got caught up in the excitement!

09 March 2010

Terminator comfort purchase


Almost as a knee-jerk reaction to my disappointment of the BA new releases yesterday I snapped up a couple of Space Hulk Terminators on Ebay. I've just got in from work – 3 hours late – and they were waiting for me on the doormat.

Well, it would be rude to have a Blood Angels army and not have a couple of these guys! They're going to fill the heavy weapon gap left by the AoBR Terminators, and I can't wait to paint them!

08 March 2010

First Impressions: update


Now that the cat is truly out of the bag, and we have quality pics of the Blood Angel advanced orders at the GW website, has my opinion of the new miniatures changed?

The Sanguinor
I still think the pose is wooden – has he got a broom pole stuck down his sleeves? – his arms and legs are WAAAAAY too straight, which is a real shame as it looks nicely sculpted.

Astorath
Loving the armour, but that could be the Bezerker in me. As per my comments yesterday, he looks a little awkward but I can see me hacking this guy into some kind of conversion.

Seth
This is what the generic Chapter Master minis should have looked like - a shouting head! Whilst I quite like this guy, and he could be the only purchase (ironic since I'm not collecting FTs) from the HQ selection, I still think he's looking far too casual for the Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers – not nearly brutal enough.

Lemartes
He's growing on me a little. Still far too laid back and passive, but with the arms and base cut off, and what's left positioned in a different way there is a lot of potential. Hmmmm.

Vanguard Veteran Sergeant
OMG!! Awful, awful model. Got a scouts head, ballet dancers pose, dislocated sword arm, and clown shoes. Why oh why would you pay £10 for this.

Sanguinary Guard
The Standard Bearer looks like he's about to fall over, and a couple of the other guys look like they've had their legs tied together, but there are some lovely bits in this kit. I think this will have to be on the shopping list.

Death Company
Only 5 in a boxed set for £20!! Outrageous when the unit is 3-30 (allegedly).
Again some nice bits in here, and probably my favourite release, but it too has some dodgy legs in there, one tripping over his scrollage (see above pic - twisted his ankle?). Definitely on the shopping list.

Baal Predator
Like I'm not going to have one of these eventually! Just a bit of a shame there's not more decoration for the vehicles in general.

Rather gutted there is no plastic Furioso – no chance of me buying a metal dread with all those plastic kits kicking about. Overall I'm a little disappointed, like the time I wanted the Millenium Falcon for Christmas – I got myself worked up into a frenzy on Xmas Eve and my Mom got me some cheap lookalike instead. I took matters into my own hands 20 years later and bought it myself – I may have to take matters into my own hands this time too!

I have to say though, after seeing the anorexic Space Wolves (how skinny are their thighs?!!) these are much better sculpts generally. I think it says something when Jes Goodwin's marines still stand head and shoulders above a lot of the new releases, some of them 10 years after they were sculpted. He sculpted an awesome marine bare head in the first release of the Tactical boxed set, full of passion and drive, and no bare heads since have come close.

I wondered whether I was being too critical, but I've concluded that I just have quite high standards, and expect more 'considered' creativity when a price tag of £10+ per model is shoved in my face. Needless to say I will probably be spending a small fortune come April!

07 March 2010

New Blood Angels: First Impressions


I've just come back from a weekend away to see that painted Blood Angels pics have made their way onto the net. Together with the rumoured rules that were seen last week I thought it was time to air some first impressions.

Given my latest hobby-horse being the dynamic poses (or lack of) of released GW models, and my own personal mission to redress the issues with my own miniatures I should look at these first. So, looking at the BoLS pics linked above:

Sanguinary Guard look quite good. I was intending to do my own Tycho conversion, sculpting my own armour, but this new sprue will save a lot of grief. Leg poses look a little awkward but this can be remedied with a scalpel and some glue. Still not sure about the winged jump packs, so will wait till I hold them in my hand to judge. Sanguinator? Oh dear, the model may be made of metal it's just wooden to me – posed like a scarecrow, not an angel – no passion in there at all, will not be purchasing that model.

Astorath looks quite good, if a little awkward again. This could be an excellent starting point for an HQ conversion of some kind. The Assault Troops look good, some excellent bits in there – I just don't think the studio show them off as best they could, very pedestrian poses.


Death Company look very good, some excellent bits in there also, clearly sharing a sprue or two with the regular assault troops. Lemartes is another disappointing sculpt. Don't get me wrong, a big improvement on its predecessor, but a missed opportunity, for all the reasons I repeat in this blog till I'm blue in the face.

Overall, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the plastic sprues and conjouring some awesome looking models. Independent character models leave a lot to be desired, and if I were to use these characters in my army lists I would probably convert my own.

Having not played much 5th Edition at all I'm not really in a position to comment too deeply on the rumoured rules. From what I've seen it's looking very intriguing, and I'm looking forward to composing new lists from the codex. Having played IW for so long, I'm looking forward to getting into people's faces – up close and personal. Roll on April!!

04 March 2010

PRIZE DRAW: Win A Deathwing Conversion

OK, so here's the deal.

I was given a boxload of bits by my former tournament team mate and in it I found the above model. It is a test piece for his Deathwing Chaplain and has a significant amount of greenstuff sculpting on it. It has no base, no arms, no weapons, no head, but it is unique and could make a great centrepiece for a marine army.

I am giving it away as the prize in a FREE draw for March.

To qualify, all you have to do is:

1. Sign up as a follower of this blog (if you're not already);

2. Register your interest to be part of the draw by adding a comment to THIS post saying "include me please";

3. Make sure I have a means to contact you by either an email link in your blog profile or leave an email address in your comment as part of step 2.




On the 1st April (no joke) I will get my wife to pull one of the qualifying names out of a hat (or bucket, or plastic bag). I will contact the winner for a postal address, and mail the figure out to them, gratis. Kind of like Ebay but without the Paypal bit.

For those missing the dropped penny, the competition closes at midnight GMT on Weds 31 March. Entries received after that will be ignored.  

If I cannot contact the winner because they have not provided an email, another name will be drawn.

Even if you don't win, you get to follow my exploits with my Blood Angels and, at a later date, my Dark Templar! Everyone's a winner!


For the record, the model comes as seen in the photos. There is no alternative prize, refunds or returns. If you don't want the model, please don't enter the draw, simple as that. I reserve the right to post the winner's name on my blog once the draw has been made and the winner notified. Postal address details will not be shared with anyone, other than perhaps the country of residence. I cannot be held responsible for damage or loss in the post, and no compensation will be given. In the case of any disputes, my decision is final.

Good luck everyone!