Well it's hard to now what's going to be the big hit next week - the release of the Shadow War: Armageddon rules or the next part in the Kharadron release window...
Suffice to say that5 Shadow War: Armagaddon was a hit, and Games Workshop limiting the stock was very smart because there was a big buzz about it and now the release of the book (half of which are the faction rules available for free on the Games Workshop site) sees people wanting more. At $70, I'm not sure it's great value.
Meanwhile the Shadow Wars: Armageddon Collection, isn't really the "collection" because it's missing a piece of the scenery!
Meanwhile, what we think are the best minis to come out of the Kharadron, the Grundstock Thunderers are inbound! There are the military guys and are kitted out just for that task. Also Kharadron-related, the fighter/ bomber air support is in town in the shape of the Grundstock Gunhawler. Not as pretty as it's stablemates, but still pretty cool.
Two new books are also on the way, Space Marine Battles: Calgar's Fury sees the Ultramarines take centre stage, while Scythes of the Emperor: Daedelus is a audio drama following the super-cool Emperor's Scythes, an awesome Space Marine Chapter who - if this goes the way of history - will all die in the end. Tempted!

Getting a whole squad done one miniature at a time is a long process, but when you're done it's exciting.
Today I finally finished my Veteran Tactical Squad for the War Hounds Legion and having been the first squad I started it's good to have them now being able to sit proudly next to their completed Tactical Squad brothers. Having finally worked out markings and how to inject a bit of character really helped bring each one of these guys to life - and not just have a whole lot of "gun pigs". 

More images and write up HERE

You may have seen our various adventures through the world of terrain, which can be expensive and time consuming - but what if we told you a trick you could buy pretty easily and was cheap for what you get?!
Look no further, Fellow Traveler, for today Beardy Hammer has a pretty cool little product we think you'll like - if the kids don't get to it first!
So scatter terrain; boxes, barrels etc is all over the place, but we were looking around on line the other week and found this... (left)
Not a bad looking barrel, right? well the keen-eyed observer might recognise it as... LEGO!

Well to be fair it's not real Lego, it's from a Chinese company called Si-Dan Toys and many of the aftermarket Lego dealers sell them as well as custom modern weapons to pimp out your mini-figures.
Now I hear you say "Lego is expensive" and yes it is, but one of these barrels will set you back between $1 and $1.40 - not bad - but it doesn't start life looking like this, you get to customise it! Woo, go hobby!

SO this is how they come (above) with the typical Lego-compatible hole in the bottom. There are two main varieties - one with liquid and one without liquid. The liquid is removable but actually looks really cool.
As you can see, this does look a bit plastic at first, so I just took some sandpaper and sanded the thick mould line around the centre off, then gave it a wash and applied the undercoat.
Paint to your desire, we went with the military green and a blue top as many of these sorts of barrels have blue tops in Australia, so why the frakk not?!
Too much work? Well you will be happy to know that it can also come with a design if you so wish (above).
Glosscote it, dullcoate it, weather and I guess you could count that as done! Might try that actually...

So here it is, pretty much to scale. You wouldn't spot it as being Lego-compatible necessarily and for the price you could pick up a fair few for not much at all.
Also, if you really wanted, you could take the lid off, stack them and make some columns... just a thought.

The Kharadron burst onto the scene quite quickly. For over a year now there have been whispers about steampunk Dwarves, and now they are finally here. In action figure terms we would call this Wave One, so Wave One of the Kharadrons is your base infantry, your line troops, the Arkanaut Company, the mid-sized airship the Arkanaut Frigate, an awesome looking Arkanaut Admiral and the Battletome - pretty much all you need to get started.
Having a look over these, the first thing you notice is that the Arkanaut Company sprues are packed full of weapon options - BUT - they also aren't as poseable as we might like, with the torsos and legs being one part. Thankfully the heads are separate, but not having multi-pose models is a bit disappointing!
The Arkanaut Frigate is very cool, providing transport for your front line infantry. This isn't as many pieces as we'd thought, so be interesting to crack this open and see how it goes together.
Also next week, the much-anticipated Shattered Legions anthology novel is out Shattered Legions is the new Deathwatch for 30K, with the ability to take multiple Legions in one squad! No nuts hobbyists.

Over the past few years, Games Workshop have been pretty cagey about the creators of their books and miniatures. The advent of the monthly White Dwarf seemed to pout a stop to that, as well as these great creator videos which give us a good insight into the thought process of creative people. You'd have to admit, the excitement exuded by these guys is infectious! 
Check out this new one on the steampunk Dwarves - it's a pretty cool world they've come up with.

Chain Axes - is there anything more brutal that the idea of a super human warrior armed with one effectively a chainsaw embedded in an axe? 
It's an amazingly evocative image and one that has been part of the 40k universe for a very long time, so much so that the fluff surrounding it has seemed to change somewhat! Things do change over time, but when they change in the same book, then I think it's a bit of a worry.
Today we're going to look at the Chain Axe, it's background and also the conflicting background stories, especially in the Horus Heresy - Betrayal book.
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The first time we really saw Chain Axes was on the Khorne Bezerker models back in the early 90s - very evocative considering their love of close combat gore. Once this was introduced though, the Imperial force wanted to use them too, so a little retroactive fluff was invented. We then learnt that the Chain Axe was a favourite weapon of the techno-barbarian tribes of Terra pre-Imperium and during the Great Crusade it was favoured by the very same techno-barbarians (or their descendants) who made their way into the ranks of the Space Marines.
Okay, fair call - that all seems pretty straight forward and kind of cool.
It does however get a little messed up when the 30K rules start to kick in and Forge World decide to start running the fluff - fluff that's really only been touched on before in passing.

​So here's the rub; on page 89 of Horus Heresy Book 1 - Betrayal it clearly states that the XIIth L:egion had taken the broad-bladed chain-axe as a primary close combat weapon. This was before the XIIth were the War Hounds, and way before they were the World Eaters who would later become the Khorne Bezerkers. There's a pretty clear link there showing the way this weapon ended up where it is in the 40K universe.

​Now this is where it gets a bit murky... on page 234 of Horus Heresy Book 1 - Betrayal, we get two changes to the original story on the same page - all contradicting this initial piece of fluff. 
" A savage weapon that had it's origins within the World Eaters Space Marine Legion, and the black-humoured whims of it's master, the Primarch Angron".
Right, so we learn from this that the World Eaters and their Primarch developed the Chain Axe, to bring more gore and a bit of a chuckle to the battlefield. This would mean that the War Hounds would not have been armed with the Chain Axe as it was introduced into the Legion much later.
It would also mean that the background of the Chain Axe going back to the techno-barbarian tribes of the Unification Wars was also wrong, a piece of fluff that transcends the Forge World era.

​en on page 251 of Horus Heresy Book 1 - Betrayal it lists Caedre Weapons - weapons based on the "cyber-augmentic gladiators of the savage world on which their  bloody-handed Primarch was once cast. It was Angron himself who revived the use of the Caedre among his Legions ranks...". 
Among the Caedre weapons... the Chain Axe used by close combat World Eater units like the Rampagers. Further evidence that the Forge World fluff says the Chain Axe did not come from Terra, but actually came from the gladiators of  Nuceria, the brutal home world of Angron.
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​It's at this point that it's important to make a differentiation between fluff and the rules of the game.
Fluff makes the universe go around. Fluff brings the rules to life - but the fluff shouldn't contradict the rules and vice versa.
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As  War Hounds hobbyist I have decided to not have Chain Axes prominently in my Legion - the fluff isn't stable enough in Forge World's hands to equip a squad or two with Chain Axes just to find out it isn't something they could have been armed with in terms of fluff.
In fact this opens it up a bit wider - Forge World could now be saying that including Chain Axes as an option in early Great Crusade forces (as War Hounds were) is wrong - and that kind of blows the doors off a fair few people's minis... unless you do exclusively Horus Heresy or World Eaters... you can just have at it!
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So what do you think? Do you agree? Do you see a hole in this thought process?
​L:et us know!

So it's been a pretty busy time and I haven't updated the hobby projects for a while, and a bit has got done - from a test scheme for the Skitarii Rangers for my DIY Titan Order Legio, to some War Hounds which are really starting to come together in terms of character and look... finally!
This update also gave me the opportunity to test out the crappy cheap photobooth I bought on eBay.
​That was a $20 I won't be getting back anytime soon hahaha! 

Legio Ballista has been a project that's been in the works for decades. Born as a tribute to the great Bolt Thrower, the look of Legio Ballista has pretty much gone unchanged since the late 90s - no surprise when you look at it! You may have seen this Kastelan before, and there's also a Rhino in the same colour scheme - well now they have a Ranger to keep them company. This was a little bit fiddly to do, but not horrible. The miniature itself has lots of hidden detail, and overall I'm pretty happy with it. Obviously now the photo has been taken I need to go and touch up a few things though!

I'm going to put it out there - I've never been good at painting officers. There's this fine line between too much bling and just a guy with a plume on his helmet! So I set about to practise what an officer in the War Hounds Legion would look like.
Fist up was the Breacher Squad Sergeant. Really happy with the pose of this guy and this is the first time I've painted Lightning Claws. The torso is a Death Guard one, but perfect for this guy. This is also the first time I decided on the symbol on the shoulders of the Breachers, a smaller Assault cross which seems to be okay.
The Assault Squad Sergeant was a bit of fun. Now having double Lightning Claws was interesting and fits well with the War Hounds fearsome reputation. The scroll was added for adornment and I did a similar decoration on one of the Lightning Claws that appears on the Legion Praevian from last month. Notice also the MasterCrafted spiked pauldron. He nearly had two, but thought that was overkill!
Not an officer as such, but the Veteran Tactical Vox guy was a chance to try a different type of comms unit which I built onto his glove with Green Stuff and also the face tattoo which I really like. Bit of a risk but he looks hard as frakk! My first attempt at a Plasma Gun too, steep learning curve there, not entirely happy.

You may remember last week we were a tad upset with the lack of Sector Mechanicus terrain - well it's here! The Galvanic Magnavent, the Ferratonic Furnace and the Alchomite Stack! We got a glimpse of these in store today and they are large and well moulded! Worth the effort, even if a touch pricey. The modular aspect is a great idea.
Meanwhile, there's more Made To Order, this time in the Blood Bowl world; .the Chaos Dwarf team, the Dark Elf team, the Chaos Chosen (bring on the Beastmen!) plus two power players - the Bull Centaur for the Chaos Dwarves and the Assassin for the Dark Elves. Also on offer are the Blood Bowl Trophies, which could make great pieces of scenery for Age of $igmar! (Blood Bowl thoughts below)
Also next week it's a Grumpy Nuns vs. Genestealers novel in Cult of the Warmason.

Now - just thinking a bit here - with these Made To Order Blood Bowl teams, does this mean we won't be seeing the plastic Dark Elf team soon? I know this has been seen by staff at GW, so it exists, but what is the hold up in teams? The concern here is that, like the previous Specialty Games, GW are going to lag the Blood Bowl releases so much that the steam will be let out of the Blood Bowl franchise and it will just die! My local GW doesn't have a Blood Bowl table - does yours? The team boxes are great, but there needs to be more to get more Age of $igmar or even old Warhammer Fantasy players in.

So without starting off with a negative, this week's White Dwarf promised the Sector Mechanicus sets... aaaaand now pre-order morning comes around AND THEY'RE NOT HERE!
What the Hell Games Workshop? *sigh*
So anyway, having praised GW for bringing out the Sector Mechanicus sets at the same time as Shadow War: Armageddon, the boxed set that includes said scenery, we now retract that praise. Speaking of which, Shadow War: Armageddon is out and so are a sizeable selection of Kill Team sets (free rules are linked on all of the set's pages). All these sets seem to be at retail prices. Thus the $$ price tag!
​Also next week is the new Blades of Khorne Batteltome and the new Warscroll Cards to go with it. And finally, next week also sees the release of Warlord: Fury of the God Machine.

April 2017's White Dwarf has probably been the most comprehensively leaked issue so far - maybe that's because of the content - but I wouldn't be surprised to see Games Workshop now delay delivery to subscribers because of it.
This issue has a few surprises, and Games Workshop seem to be a bit better at keeping them for longer. The Kharadron release came out of nowhere - the video appeared on the official online portals and then everyone followed. Now a similar thing has happened with this issue - without a hint we're getting 3 new Mechanicus-themed terrain sets. Granted these are the ones from Shadow War: Armageddon, but to have them released so close to the boxed game is interesting. Even with the high price of Shadow War: Armageddon, it's still a good buy, you effectively get the terrain kits at retail and the troops are free.
Away from those releases - the big miniature releases for this month - this issue has quite a bit of content, swinging away from the hobby angle a little and adding gaming parts.