40k: Return Of The Dark Templar

Some of you may remember my original Dark Templar marines from seven years ago. They were a test to see if the theory of creating a Mk6 space marine army was viable. They were quite a success, but the project as a whole has not progressed much since. I have collected a lot of Mk6 bitz and have even prepped some for mold making – it would be prohibitively expensive to try such a project by buying everything, so some resin duplication will be necessary.

With the release of 8th Edition 40k my enthusiasm has been buoyed but a project of such magnitude  is daunting and not what I want to take on right now. My Plague Marines are on hold until we see some new kits and a codex, but what to do in the mean time? I decided that the best course of action was to revisit my old Mk7 Dark Templar marines and simply paint them up in the new purple and black colour scheme. That should be simple right? Er, no.

The purple paint I used for my original DT marines was Lich Purple, which has since been removed from the Citadel range. In the years since I have been collecting pots of Xereus Purple, which was it's natural successor. Only when I started to paint and ink my old marines this week did I realise that the results were not the same. The purple colour on the models had lost its life and vibrancy.

Upon closer inspection, nothing in the Citadel line would get close to what I wanted. Indeed I was struggling to find a match throughout other manufacturers' paint products too. It was made more difficult by the fact that colour accuracy online is not great – this would involve some purchases.

I bought a handful of purple paint, spanning multiple ranges, to try and find a match. It came down to a choice of three. Sunset Purple by Scale 75, plus Royal Purple and Violet by Vallejo Model Color. Upon closer inspection, the Violet was too blue and the Sunset Purple too red. The Royal Purple on the other hand was a virtual match. I had found my replacement colour purple!!

So, eventually, I got to put some paint on miniatures. I also discovered that I can recreate my old space marine tournament army from 2000 with the new Imperial index, so that seems like a good starting point – no more purchases necessary, just re-using old models!

The Green Horde Is Coming… To An End

June seems to have been a very long month for all the wrong reasons, but one thing that has kept things interesting is the Zombicide: Green Horde Kickstarter. I had announced to Bull when I first heard about it that I was going all-in and would sign up for every optional extra and splash out big time, given that it's a fourth game at the moment. However, after seeing my pledge pass the $300 mark in the first fortnight I decided that I may have been a little hasty and scaled things back. It is only a board game after all, even if it is a very good one.

Having said that, the amount of loot you get for an initial $120 pledge is growing daily and with less that 48 hours before the Kickstarter ends, now is the time to get on board or miss out on the exclusives (of which there is a lot – see image above).

In the last 24 hours we have seen a stretch goal for a Giant survivor smashed, revealing a stretch goal for a Giant zombie! The stretch goals this time around have been a mixed bag I think, but true to form for a Cool Mini Or Not Kickstarter there have been lots of them as the project races towards the familiar $4M mark. Will it beat the last Kickstarter that managed $4.2M? We will see…

Return To 40k

Every time Games Workshop produce another incarnation of Warhammer 40k I feel obliged to take a look, given that it's played such a massive part in my hobby life over the years.

8th Edition has been slightly different in that GW have highlighted some of the the key changes in the build up to release. I've been intrigued by the simplification of the Warhammer world with AoS (without ever actually playing it) and what I was hearing was that 40k was going to follow suit. This gave me some hope that things may actually change to the point where I could welcome 40k back into my life. It's been a long time time since the glory days of 4th Edition and I've had no interested in the versions since, especially as things escalated towards apocalypse type battle with flyers and war machines.

Then GW played their ace card – Death Guard marines in the starter box – ah, dammit, this was not going to be a cheap return to 40k. As has become the norm in recent years, said models were of the highest quality (even if there are still a few dodgy poses). That was it then, I would have to shell out close to £100 to see what it was all about – even though the rules are technically free (how does that work?!).

I managed to miss the postman on release day and have to wait 24hrs to go to the sorting office and collect my parcel. I was excited, but with a certain level of reservation – disappointment for so many years will do that to you! Upon opening the box I have to say it is a very smart product. The only company I have come across that presents it's products as beautifully as this is Apple (they're in a league of their own, but this was pretty good). Taking the time and effort to present products to this degree makes the unboxing experience so much more enjoyable. It shows that the company cares what the customer thinks.

The contents was pretty solid. The fact that you got the hardback edition of the full rulebook, instead of an A5 lite version, was a good decision. That helped make it feel like a quality purchase and good value for money. The models are as stunning as ever and, again, helps to give a feeling of quality and value. The Primaris marines went on Ebay and sold in less than an hour, so I've made most of the cost back already.

After building my first few Death Guard models I decided to crack out my current army and rebase them on the larger 32mm bases. However, when old and new Death Guard stood side by side I noticed there was a significant scale discrepancy. Not unlike a Primaris marine next to a standard one, the size difference was quite noticeable and looked quite odd – disaster!

Now I'm left with a bit of a quandary. Do I relegate my old Death Guard to be standard nurgle marines and the new plastics are Death Guard? Do I sell my old DG marines and start a new army? Do I stick to the old ones and not bother with the new ones?

To complicate things more, my two favourite conversions of all time – my Nurgle Heldrake and Nurgle Forgefiend – can't be taken in a pure Death Guard army!! Neither can my Nurgle Biker!

So for now I'm simply putting together the models. Just like last time I built some Nurgle on the back of a 40k box set (above), I jumped straight in with a conversion. More on that another time.