Squats… Stunties… Space Dwarfs (Dwarves??)… you may remember these half-barreled sized denizens of the Imperium from the early days of 40K. Or not, I can’t comment. I remember thinking that these little characters were a little odd, and were honestly never my cup of tea but Your Mileage May Vary.
Continue reading “Pandemic Lockdown project: Squats. Matt weighs in.”
Bloody hell. September? WTF??? Work has had me with my nose definitely at the grindstone. In fact, I haven’t picked up a paintbrush in over a month, which just won’t do. Since my last post, though, I have been busy painting and playing (yes actually playing!) More after the jump…
Continue reading “Painted stuff!”I almost made a tit out of myself on the train ride into work this morning by (almost) shouting out “HELL YESSSS!”. I saw an email from GW with news from Adepticon that’s happening this weekend, so I took a look. Some relatively interesting stuff, but as I read on and on, I thought there maybe a chance that some Sisters news might be incoming, and in my head, I thought ‘maybe they’ve saved the best till last’.
They did not disappoint:
and here is what they said:
“Yup, plastic Sisters of Battle are on their way. For reals.
We know many of you have been waiting patiently (and impatiently…) for a long time for the Adepta Sororitas, and that for many of you this is more than ‘just’ a new army. So, we’re going to do something we’ve never done before – right up until the release, we’ll be bringing you updates on the Sisters of Battle, sharing images and snippets of info and a whole ton of behind the scenes goodness.
Emperor willing, the Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas will be ready to take the fight to the renegade, the heretic and the unbeliever in 2019.”
So it looks like GW will finally get me back again in some form. Going by the recent Necromunda, Daughters of Khaine, Inquisitor Greyfax, Celestine etc etc, these new sisters plastics are going to be absolutely beautiful, and I for one, cannot wait.
Bravo, Games Workshop, bravo…
Welcome back my lovelies! I apologize for putting that awful Disney song in your head, but it seems appropriate with this first painted mini I wanted to put up, my Siren Maneater:
This beautiful resin miniature is from a game called Deep Wars by AntiMatter Games Which is a small scale skirmish game set “in the watery abyss” and a sister game to Shadowsea. I recently picked up this little gem and another miniature by way of their Blood Reef Kickstarter campaign, and I’m thoroughly in love with the miniatures. The Siren Maneater is a personality character from the Dark Mariners faction, who are I think my favorite faction in the game. She essentially disables enemy models with her siren song which then allows the heavy hitters to move in and wreak havoc. Lots of tentacles, barnacles and slithery Cthulhuesque goodness in this group for sure. I picked up 3 other creatures from this group which I’ll be painting shortly and then I’ll have a playable 300 point force 🙂 I’m really looking forward to making the gaming surface for this too, as most of the items will be from the local pet stores aquarium section!
Now, I’m sure you’ve all probably seen/heard that GW have recently released some new Sisters of Battle miniatures (what the whaaat?), comprising of an $80 box set of Celestine, 2 ‘Geminae’ Seraphim and some big Mechanicus monstrosity; as well as a ‘resin’ Canoness Veridyan. Veridyan is a faithful reproduction of the iconic battle sister as envisioned by John Blanche. Despite my pretty much ignoring GW and their nonsense for the last few years, I was pretty giddy when I saw a leaked picture of Veridyan on my Instagram feed. Then a week or so later I saw leaked pictures of the Triumvirate set and was beside myself with excitement. Had GW finally got their sh!t together and started moving forward with a re-visioned Adepta Sororitas force? Well, the jury is still out on that, as it seems that the Sisters still only have metal miniatures available outside of those I listed above, so thanks GW for giving us sisters supporters some serious blue balls. I guess it’s a step in the right direction, but I’m really hoping these couple of releases aren’t it… If that’s the case, I’ll just look forward to Adeptus Titanicus and the new version of Epic coming out later this year.
Harsh feelings for GW aside (they DO seem to be pulling their socks up lately, and I did pick up last month’s White Dwarf and actually enjoyed it), I bought the Canoness miniature (which still made me grimace at $25). I still can’t find it in myself to drop $80 on the box set with something in I won’t need. I guess I could go halvsies with someone though I suppose.
I’m a little nervous about the material they’ve used for this figure. It seems awfully close to Finecast, and some of the pieces (like the sword blade) are super flexible.
One of the things that kinda jars me about this miniature is the pose. I understand that this is a rendition of the John Blanche painting, but I’d have used a little artistic license on the leg that’s up on the stack of bones. It looks awkward and unnatural, unlike the painting, which works because her legs are a lot more slender. A minor gripe, really. I’m excited to add this to my Sisters force, and I did wonder whether I should paint her the same as the original, or paint her in my army’s colors? I guess her get up is probably her signature gear so stay true to the original, right?
That’s it for now, I’ll be posting again very soon!
Cheers!
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone had safe and happy holidays, and that everyone got plenty of minis to keep them going in 2015!
Indeed I feel as though the TARDIS has dropped me off not knowing where the hell the last 12 months have gone. Mind you, if I had a time machine, it would be irrelevant. Heck, even WordPress has changed it’s interface since I last posted… zoinks! Anyway, I digress.
I haven’t been following up too much on what’s been going on in the world of gaming. 2014 saw me drifting further away from Games Workshop releases and focusing more on historical, and tinkering with Judge Dredd miniatures. The latter did in fact reignite a passion for the 2000AD comics and I started picking up trade paperbacks etc of Mega City One’s most famous lawman. Great stuff!!!
Whenever I go into my FLGS I always drift around the GW area, probably more now out of habit than anything. Seeing that 2014 saw (yet another) release of Warhammer 40K (along with the new Space Wolves codex), I finally threw my hands up resignation. I hadn’t even had chance to test out my Wolves with 6th ed rules yet, and here we were, only 2 years later, with 7th edition. I frankly couldn’t be arsed to fork out another $75 (or however much it is now) for the rules and another $50 for the Wolves ‘dex. So I stand at this point now: I’ll play with my forces if it’s 5th or 6th edition, and won’t even entertain the idea of buying any more rule sets until my beloved Sisters get a proper codex release and accompanying figures. Get to it, GW!
This decision did help with my ability to not worry too much about getting 40K figures painted. I think I’m the only one in our group now who’s even mildly interested in it at this point anyway, so I turned my attentions elsewhere.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, me and my friend Colin decided that we wanted to venture further into the past (we’d already been playing Flames of War) and thought we’d have a go at getting some dark age armies together, with him fielding Saxons and me leading the Vikings. We’re going to be using the Hail Caesar rules from Warlord Games for this. My 300 pt Viking force comprises an army general, and 3 commanders each leading a division of 4 units of 24 men, for a grand total of 288 foot sloggers… bugger!!! Work is underway on these forces with Colin leaving me standing somewhat in a cloud of dust! anyway, here is a peek at some Viking goodness:
These have been fun paint but holy heck, I have a ton more to do! I love how they look altogether though, and the payoff and satisfaction is quicker than say painting a squad of Space Marines. I can’t wait to roll the whole army out on the table!
As mentioned, Judge Dredd has been getting some paint table time as well. This time I was focusing on his deadliest of enemies… the four Dark Judges! Dodgy scale/size issues aside (see my review on the Judge Dredd Miniatures game), I had a blast painting these little blighters. It also offered me the ‘mid army burnout’ break I needed away from my Norsemen.
Then, tinkering on my phone, I made this:
Also, other mid-army burnout distractions I painted did actually include some GW miniatures. An Adepta Sororitas Sister and a Space Wolf who I don’t even think is table legal (can anyone clarify that for me?). I mainly painted this guy up because I wanted to see how the Max Mini jet packs would look, and they look GOOD!!
Very pleased how they both turned out!
Nine days into the new year, and it looks like my year is already filling up with plenty of projects. A multi-state project will be going on between me and some friends down in Florida. We all picked the Nurgle lord mini as our paint challenge, and we’re going to follow each others progression through out the whole project, an article will be posted here at some point soon. Additionally, a multi-country project will be also taking place with my buddy Matt over in the Motherland and myself spearheading “Project Death Korps”. Again, watch this space. This is all in addition to getting my dark ages forces prepped and ready for battle as well. Some of you may think I have bitten off more than I can chew. I say BRING IT! 🙂 Never a dull moment at the WCF HQ!
On that note, I shall leave you for now, dear readers. Thank you for all your support, your emails and your comments, it really does mean a lot to this old wolf! Stay tuned for lots more to come!!!
With the advent of no inducted Imperial Guard in the new Sisters of Battle ‘Codex’ (Codex being used in the loosest sense of the term) I have decided to part ways with my IG, painted to represent the 32nd Inquisitorial Guard (I wanted to distinguish them from the ‘regular’ IG troops.
I took them to my FLGS last night and put them up for sale in their cabinet for a modest $65 (only $5 more than buying a Chimera and a box of guard). I’ll leave them there for a month, and if they don’t sell, it’ll be off to Ebay with them. Is it sad that I got a little sentimental when I walked out of the store last night? I guess when you invest time, money and passion in something, you put a bit of yourself in what you produce, but it did feel like I was saying goodbye, lol!
Hopefully someone will be able to use them and give them a good home. Here are some pics I took last night before I took them to the game store:
Give ’em hell, boys!
Honestly, WTF? Originally I was going to post something about an incantation of Doomrider, which read very much like a Judas Priest song, complete with double entendre lyrics. That was, until I just opened my email now and saw a newsletter from Grim Workshop. The heading read thus:
Now, having that subject line got me excited, blown into the beyond as quickly as it arrived upon opening said email:
‘Whether you’re looking to start a new Sisters of Battle army, or wanting to add to your existing one, games-workshop.com has the full range of miniatures available to you. Head on over now to see the Sisterhood in all its glory.’
Seriously? are you frakking kidding me? I own ALL of the minis from the range, in multiples too, why the frak would I need more of the old shit? HELLO? the secondary market took care of my Sisters needs, getting a squad of sisters for the price of two blisters. Boring miniatures, boring poses, but hey! check out the website for all the shit you’ve seen already, but we took down for a few months!
Vampire counts have stolen any blood and thunder that could have been used to push the Sisters. Even the GW Facebook page is dominated by VC stuff, with barely anything pushed about Sisters, with the exception of a picture of some >yawn< cosplayers in Sisters gear.
I am now hearing that GW have themselves even said that they have no intention of releasing new minis, or indeed releasing the old shit in Finecast even. What the hell??
I know, i’m just having a belly rumble, but while everyone else (except Necrons and Tau) have new or newish books, minis, plastics etc, we Sisters fans are being royally fisted, and i’m not happy about that. I dunno, maybe Sisters have too much ‘original’ flavor to them still, and that doesn’t fit in with GW’s thinking any more. RARGH!!!!!
I like the idea behind St. Celestine. I bought the model, many moons ago. I couldn’t ever make up my mind if I like the idea of what looked like a curtain being held up by two Cherubim behind her. I like the Cherubim, but decided the cloak/drape/rug/curtain/shower curtain just looked limp, so I decided not to use it. I was strenghthened in my decision by the illustration in the Codex, which shows her as an angelic being with majestic wings. Why, then, not do that with the mini?
Anyway, confusion aside, I’d thought about converting her and giving her some feathery wings in homage to the illustrated version. Finding a set that actually seemed in scale was a bit of a task, and over time she got forgotten about. That is until I found some sweet ‘steampunk’ wings at my FLGS. They are reminiscent of the Imperial Aquila, so I thought these would be even better. I stuck them on with some poster-tac to give you an idea of the vision:
Pretty neat, huh?
I also managed to lose the hand holding her sword (but not after I had already stabbed myself in the thumb while trying to drill and pin the impossibly small join), which brings me nicely to the point of my post. I ramble, I know, but it’s my blog, geddit?
As many of you know, back in ‘the day’, Games Workshop used to sell individual bits. So, every seperate bit of any multi-part mini had a serial number, and could be ordered seperately, for converting, or even missing pieces. Wonderful! Brilliant! Genius even!
Well, they stopped doing that.
I found that out this morning when I called their customer service to inquire about buying a replacement arm for Celestine. The chap I spoke to said they no longer offered that service. Bummer. I figured at that point i’d have to jury-rig something to replace said part. I had an inkling they didn’t do that anymore, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, and it didn’t hurt to ask today, as a few minutes of just shooting the shit with Madison (the CS rep) he asked if I had an account with GW. I said yes, and confirmed my email address, and my mailing address before telling me that he would ship me a whole Celestine mini to me, at no charge! There was much rejoicing. I thanked him a number of times, and tried to get a scoop on SoB stuff (no luck, lol!) and came away from the experience very happy.
So, GW may seem like some tyrannical oppressive multinational corporation, apparently vehemently hated by the gaming community (although they keep buying their products…) and are an easy target for the whiners and nay-sayers out there, but you know what, they’re a business. (gasp!). While they may have some odd marketing ideas, and may be on the higher end of the pricing spectrum, they still know how to take care of their customers.
Today is a WIN + FTW for GW.
It would appear so, along with the disappearance of the box sets from the shelves of both GW outlets and independent stockists. I’m still busting to know what this means, and if it means an overhaul from these forces, when its going to happen.
I noticed in the latest edition of White Dwarf that the WH and DH ‘dexes will be available free of charge in a downloadable PDF format through the GW website in either May or June, although you do have to sign up on there. (it’s still free though!)
So whats the dealio, Games Workshop? there are legions of us out here slavering at the bit for some Inquisition news!
Lastly, what was this piece of art commissioned for???
Did anyone else notice the figure on top of the Titan? St Celestine???
When Cannons Fade... 