Sunday Salvo: White Dwarf, WIPs and Hobbits.

Welcome to another weekend chunk of hobby love on todays Sunday Salvo. White Dwarf was released yesterday, and theres some interesting bits in there I'll be talking about. Can I just start off with these guys though? 

These miniatures are simply awesome. I've not been interested in the LOTR or Hobbit ranges before, but these look so fun and full of character I'd love to play this scenario. I'm gonna keep a look out to see if my local GW puts on the scenario, I'll be there in a shot! 

Next up, a Fantasy Flight release caught my eye. 

This is really different for me and something I'd love to try. Chaos in the Old World was such a great game and if this recreates half of the enjoyment I had in that it'll be a good laugh. 

Ho. Lee. Shhhhh..... Well you get the idea... A graphic novel set in 40k? They haven't done one of these in years as far as I'm aware! The artwork looks absolutely stunning, and is by Neil Roberts, more about him and his highly talented hand later however! The problem I have, is its £75 asking price. Yeah its leatherbound, but damn, I wanna read this so much without having the luxury of leather. The other release is a new version of Visions of Heresy, the first of which I have. This looks great with tonnes more new artwork, more writings from Alan Merrett, but again, the price is rather steep. £150 for this bad boy, its definately making the Horus Heresy range a very costly part of the hobby to get into. Shame really!

In terms of Parade Ground, Blanchitsu and Kitbash theres a lot to take in this month from Wraithknights and Riptides to Space Marine Dreads and some Armies on Parade from the Memphis Games Day, including the Chaos Dwarfs above who are absolutely stunning. Some great conversions in there and the display board is well done, the magma in particular really draws the eye in. I've always been a fan of the Chaos Stunties so this does appeal to me!

Neil Roberts, the artist behind the new Graphic Novel also shows this off in WD. A great follow up to an older Emperor Horus depictions from many years ago this really does a good job of updating the old art, and gives us a good idea of how FW may create the Emperor and Horus in 'miniature'. They're a wee way off yet, especially the Emperor but I will look forward to seeing them. 

So us 40k fans are 'spoilt' with two new expansions this month. Escalation sees us being able to use a 'Lord of War' in our games, so a Nicholas Cage model? No, as in Harridans, Baneblades and some other superheavies. Do I like this? I'm unsure, depends how their rules have been adapted and just how hard they are. I hope people can't just rock up to a tourney using one, and its a bit like 'Oh mind if I take a Lord of War?' thing where players are happy to ask their opponent if they mind them being used just so they have fair warning. 

Stronghold Assault sees expanded use of Fortifications, with rules and missions based on them. This interests me a little more, as something that can encourage people to build, paint and model terrain is a good thing, but again its all about how the rules work. Unfortunately, theres not much in White Dwarf to tell us about these supplements so we'll have to wait and see. I'm interested, but very unsure as to whether I'll get either. 

Onto some WIP goodness, the Bikers, Vindicator and Land Raider have all got some paint on em!

Nothings 100% done but they're all at the point where I can stick em on the battlefield. They look a little patchy and need some tidying, but my army is certainly growing! Grav guns on bikers are great, especially against large beastly things or elite infantry. It'll be great to use them in more games to see how effective they'll be. 

The raider on the left is the new addition, a Redeemer no less. Still holding a capacity of twelve this has a wee edge on the Godhammer pattern, being able to carry 5 termies and a character, and its redeemer cannons are S6ap3, which we all know is awesome against power armour!

I've also got this guy, he's almost done just some tidying up needed. Thats two newer mark Vindicators plus I do have an old one who is in a bit of a bad shape but its a linebreaker squadron if I need it!

This week, while painting I've been listening to Deliverance Lost. Fair dues I've really enjoyed it too, and its mad me absolutely fascinated with the 'Cabal'. This strange collection of Xenos agents have perked up my imagination and I can't wait to find out more about them, hopefully even seeing some miniatures when FW do the Alpha Legion. The Raven Guard are a great read too, Corax having to deal with losing many of his legion and rebuilding only for the Alpha Legion to cock things RIGHT up. I'd always heard a little about them having some mutated members but hearing about them in more detail and how they came to be in existence was really interesting, and a great idea for modelling. I've always had a thing for the Raptors too, sort of being a Toronto Raptors fan so a Space Marine chapter named the same would interest me, even if the subject is slightly different. They also fight to my playing style which was cool. I also liked the small mention of the Golden Throne when Corax questions the Emperor for advice, some nice little teasers there!

So next will be Know No Fear, looking forward to listening to that while doing some more modelling projects I've got in my head. I'm hoping to get to my local GW for a game of 40k too, I've not played for a couple of weeks and thats not good. Do I build a second Thunderfire cannon or not... do I convert a dreadnought... do I hear the pat of paws on the door? Hmm... Rats...

All images copyright of Games Workshop where applicable

Saturday Salvo: Space Marines

'Saturday Salvo? What the hell is this Kev? Is this some sort of regular feature you're doing? Some sort of regular feature where you'll share your thoughts of the hobby news gone by? Every week? On a Saturday?'

Och aye lad! Ya got me!

I basically wanted something where I'll take a look at whats happening in the hobby and my thoughts on it while mixing it with updates from myself.

So this very morning, I headed to Cwmbran to preorder this sexy little book.

Only I didn't get to Cwmbran. Upon waking up, I found my face swollen and vision ever so sightly scuppered by the swelling which has taken up residence on my left cheek. Sorta looks like I've been punched by a powerfist, but being a Space Marine theres no pain it just feels weird. Anyhoos, I console myself with the thought of going downstairs, ramming some tablets down my throat and having a read of the new White Dwarf. Only the postman is a heretic and hasn't delivered it. FFS!!!! I then think 'ah well, I'll just ponder the new releases on the GeeDub website instead' when the site goes down to everyone else trying to get on there too. So today, hasn't been the greatest of starts. Luckily though, my good friend Bam is able to head to Cwmbran and is picking me up a copy of White Dwarf ( another mate normally asks me to get him one so he can have mine when it arrives) so I can chat about that laters.

I won't do WD reviews often, as there are some good reviews out there that will do a better job than me but as its Space Marines heavy I'm joining in on the action. I'm hoping to be able to keep up with the painting too, if I ge too far behind then it could mean a tiring week ahead for me which I don't want! Far too much to do for a week Sunday. 

 The last thing I'll be chatting about this morning are the prices for the new Space Marine stuff. The new Centurions weigh in at £47.50 for a box of three. Thats pretty pricey. When you take into consideration thats £15.50 per model, its not so bad... but its still almost £50 in one go. I'm still undecided on these, theres things I like and dislike about the models so it could depend on how effectively they would fit into my force. Vanguard are £25, Sternguard are £30. I find these not bad considering the amount of bits in them and the bare heads in the sterguard are fantasically sculpted. I need me some of these! 

Tactical Squads are now £25, but again it looks like there are new parts inside and some of the parts have been updated, I spotted a new torso piece in there along with a couple of new heads. The AA Rhino's are £40, which seems a little over priced considering they're very one dimensional in game terms. I love the Hunter variant though so I may be suckered into unloading a wad of cash at GeeDub for one of these. he Codex itself is £35, but its much bigger than a regular codex and I know I'll love that book like its a never ending footlong subway steak and cheese sandwich. And I'd love one of those A LOT.

I'm seriously excited about the new codex, I love the Space Marines and making my own chapter is a big part of that so it'll be interesting to see what I can do in there that may help further my fluff.

Apocalypse Progress

Welcome! Heres another look at my progress into painting my army ready for the big apocalypse game on the 8th of September. Its been a busy day, I've built 10 tactical marines, 4 command squad models and finished painting the tactical squad I was working on. Theres also a predator basecoated but I need to switch the sponsons around before I do anymore, and possibly repaint one or two parts as it isn't quite balanced for my liking. Getting there slowly though! 

Tomorrow will consist of hungrily feeding the new White Dwarf into my eyes, rushing down to GW Cwmbran and preordering the codex and also picking up a Venerable Dreadnought for my matey Bam. Then I'll hopefully be able to finish those guys above when I get back! Well, the standard bearer is another story... as I don't know what direction to go in. Do I try some sort of freehand piece or keep it simple? We shall see!

Iyanden Supplement. Retro.

Faiet212 and GW... Thoughts.

It seems that many people are angered with Games Workshops latest legal warnings that the 40k rumour blog, Faiet212 has been closed down. Its a shame the whole site is closed, and not just the blog posts that GW thought broke the rules. Much outcry from the internet then...

But why? Its been stated that Natfka had been issued warnings before, yet he kept on posting rumours knowing full well it could happen. It seems many people do not agree with the way Games Workshop release information, and in some ways I can understand this. If we knew what was coming out, we could save up and be better prepared for new releases. I posted many months ago about rumours and the sense of having Christmas day spoiled. I used to love getting the latest White Dwarf and seeing those nice pictures of new things and being genuinely excited. These days however, I seem to have to be aware of these things through badly taken pictures OF pictures and multiple rumours, where some are true and others arent. This can hurt those people who save, as if rumours are not true when the new product is released then they wont want the new shiny things.

While its a shame that the entire site has been shut down, I understand the reasons why. I don't however understand the amount of rage people are coming out with about Games Workshop wanting to do things their way with THEIR products. Do I sound like a GW fanboy? Well, it bothers me little. I love playing 40k, I love playing Blood Bowl and Necromunda so perhaps I am.

What are your thoughts?

The Hobbit. Best and Worst.

I've never tried The Lord of the Rings games, although I'm a fan of the films. Theres always been something I just didn't seem to fancy when it came to the rule set. With the Hobbit coming out however, intrigue was rising and I began to think to myself, "maybe now is a good time to have a go, I'm sure the models will be great and perhaps it will be fun." 

Well, after all the advance orders had been released, two things struck me.

Radagast the Brown. This is one of the best Tolkein mini's I've ever seen, and I'm gutted it won't be released seperately as its the limited edition extra. Ebay will be trawled through! I love the pose on this guy and all the little details, it just screams 'PAINT ME!!!' 

Unfortunately there was an incredibly bad point too...

What on Middle Earth? £45 for four, very averagely sized miniatures? Yes, they're well detailed and look nice, but £45??!?!!? You're totally taking the elvish bread there GW. That in itself has put me off getting into this game. The thing I like about 40k and my Space Marines is that through the basic tactical squad I can convert (even with my basic skills) some fairly decent HQ models that look fairly decent. This means I save money on not having to fork out on top dollar mini's and have a fully customised set of HQ miniatures. This however, you'd need to be a pretty good sculptor to do that, and then some! Its completely put me off getting into this game, and I think I'll only have a go IF someone at the club decides to pick it up. I love the set of Trolls but they're £50, thats £15 for each Troll and a fiver for the camp fire in effect. I understand that they have pay the license out of this but its still an incredible amount of money that I simply will not have. 

Shame!

Games Day 2012: In Pictures

 So Games Day Uk 2012 has come and gone. There were some amazing things to see up there, and instead of waffling on about them all, I'll let these pictures say it all. 

 Thanks to Jason for taking us up, and good to meet Ieuan at last! Hope you enjoy the Dwarf team man=]