 | My, what a large Codex you are! Indeed Codex Adeptus Astartes Dark Angels is sizeable tome packed with a lot of pretty pictures, extended splash pages, miniature showcases, and more Dataslates than you can poke a stick at! There is a lot here, BUT... is it necessary to have all of this information in one tome when this includes repetition and potentially sacrificing good content. More on that later, but the Dark Angels have a proud and shrouded history in the 40K universe - not only in terms of background but also in look a feel. I was mentioning last week that there was a time where Native American iconography was associated with the Dark Angels - everything from mohawks to face paint to feathers. It's pretty politically incorrect these days and thankfully the Dark Angels are back to being gothic knights for some years now. I do wonder how different this Codex would be if they hadn't. I will leave others to concentrate on rules, this is a review of the book, the look and the feel, the quality and content. + + More After The Jump + + |
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The tabletop version of the game was discontinued in March, 2013, along with games like Epic, Mordheim and Bloodbowl. It has kept a pretty vocal fan following since then - with a rich 3rd party market making miniatures and expanding the rules. This new game is made by Focus Home Interactive using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 which produce some pretty amazing graphics and what looks like fluid gameplay. There have been some shots floating around for a while, but this video goes into quite a bit of detail, especially if you were a player of the tabletop version, as Angry Joe so obviously was. Check out the video, Angrys Joe's enthusiasm, and how skillfully Lord Inquisitor avoids the question of what platform this game will be available on. It'll be interesting to see if this make it to consoles and not just PC.
Forge World aren't the only ones to build Titans from the 40K universe. Back in the late 80s the US company Armorcast produced a number of 28mm scale Titans based on the Epic miniatures of the time. They were only meant to be sold in the US, but thanks to eBay - IT'S MINE!! Now time to do some detailing to bring it up to date...
 The MKVI Space Marine armour is iconic!
In most Games Workshop artwork it has been superseded by the MKVII armour with it's rounded shapes and pig-nosed helmet, but love for the MKVI still resides with certain Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and in the hearts of many Beardys who remember it as the very first Space Marine kit! The MK VI has three halmarks; the beakie helmet, the long greaves and the studded shoulder pad. In the years where we saw very little MKVI product, the studded shoulder disappeared almost all together, but in an age where The Horus Heresy is in vogue, everything that is old is new again with studded shoulders turning up on all sorts of Space Marines. Luckily enough there is no need to stick to the standard kind, because Master Crafted Miniatures have a range of MKVI compatible shoulder to deck your troops out in! + + More After The Jump + +
So I've been using Macragge Blue Spray to paint my War Hounds Legion and it matches the old Mordian Blue exactly. It is perfect!! Unfortunately it's running out, so I went and bought the supposed replacement colour Macragge Blue happy in the notion that it should match the Macragge Blue Spray... Well - what a shock - it's not even a close match!!!  Has anyone else found this? What do you use instead?
I'm having a Hell of a time finding Mordian Blue to buy now so it's a bit of a problem. Any help would be much appreciated!  Dog Soldiers, Jackals, Werewolves, Anubis are all part of Fantasy folklore, but despite that they do not appear as part of the Games Workshop Warhammer realm. So, I decided to give it a go and make my own.
I like the idea of the Ungor body size and shape, so that's where I'd start! I removed all the obvious shaggy fur, trimmed the legs to be more dog-like, added some paws to the feet, did some reshaping of the back, build a tail and then set about turning a Beastman Gor head into a dog head... It all sounds soooo straight forward - and surprisingly it was! As much as the result is a bit rough now, once sanded and trimmed it should come out okay, even if he is a bit foxy. ++ Want a closer look? Read On + +  Picture courtesy of fightingfantasy.com If you're a fan of the Fighting Fantasy books from the 1980s, then news from the Official Fighting Fantasy site will fill you with joy!
It seems that Pure Evil Miniatures are planning on releasing up to 20 miniatures on Kickstarter later this year. My wallet curses you Kickstarter!! Initially only 7 were planned - Shape Changer, Lizard King and Panther, Bloodbeast (letf), Creature of Havoc, Zanbar Bone, Brain Flayer and Zagor the Warlock - but it seems that range may now be expanding. With the vagaries of Kickstarter it will likely be up to the whim of backers as to what gets "unlocked"! - Side note: If you're not familiar with Fighting Fantasy it was a Choose Your Own Adventure-style book series by the co-creators of Games Workshop which rode on the Dungeons & Dragons wave of the early 80s. July the 4th is the date for the brand-spanking-new Warhammer, and apart from a bloody short video on the Games Workshop What's New Today page, there is some hidden text that reveals only slightly more than we already know, which is that the world is shattered and forces spread far and wide. Disparate allies are formed and nothing will be the same - anyway - here's the hidden text (insert dramatic music here)
These were the End Times. ... Sparkly pretty things emptying my wallet... DAMN IT!!
 Being the first Saturday of the month not only do we get White Dwarf we also get Warhammer Visions, the monthly "hobbyist-based" magazine from Games Workshop.
Warhammer Visions changed it's format two weeks ago to a larger magazine size rather than the digest size it had been for over a year. Initially I was .skeptical and probably mainly because the bookshelf wouldn't look as cool now rather than anything else. But as content is king it's all about what's between the cover. The changed size also gave GW an opportunity to get change some things in the magazine, add some new content and change it up. That hasn't happened yet! So what do you get in this issue of Warhammer Visions? Some bloody big photos - most of which are very good and if you've loved this month's worth of releases then you will like this issue. There's also Golden Demon 2014 and two awesome armies. But is it any good? Read on...  The confirmation of a new Devastator squad being released hit the day after the announcement of the Assault squad - that has to be a world record. With recent rumours that GW is behind much of the leaks to the forums, it's interesting that they might choose this path.
That being said it may have backfired because the buzz on the Devastators has not been as intense as you'd expect, especially for a Space Marine release! This week's White Dwarf, interestingly isn't dominated by their release though, instead it's all about Codex: Space Marines. With no fewer than 8 versions of the Codex to buy you'd better hope business was being drummed up. This week's White Dwarf is very much dominated by Space Marines, but aimed at the knowledgeable hobbyist AND the newbie with articles on markings and force structure! So, do you think you NEED this issue? + + More After The Jump + +  The Space Marine is probably THE quintessential character Games Workshop have ever designed. An amalgam of many different designs and designers over the years, the Space Marine we know today is the bastard-child of Jes Goodwin who brought many elements together to make the MK VII Space Marine.
In recent years, Games Workshop have brought out successive plastic kits of these warriors each better than the last. They really got it right when they brought out the Tactical Boxed Set in late 2013. Today's Assault Squad is in the same vein, bringing detailed moulding and new dynamic poses plus some brand new 2015 features including scenic bases and some familiar hybrid armour types. + + Do You Want To Know More? More After The Jump + + The joy of owning your own house/ unit/ flat is that you can decorate it any way you like. You can drill holes in the walls or paint the damn house pink if you want (All Praise Slaanesh!!) Well I decided the other week to do my own geeky project to a wall that is pure gyprock - no studs, not support in the middle at all, so hanging a picture is impossible. It's a large white wall, so I decided to do something truly geeky and make a feature wall using 140 pages of black and white Japanese comics. They were gently stuck to the wall with watered down PVA glue, and using a level I kept each page straight. Once dry, the wall was then sealed with matte spray varnish. Have you done a geeky house project? Show it off! Be geeky be proud!!
 If you are a regular reader of this site you may have seen the fledgling War Hounds Legion force we have been working on. It's been a bit of a slow road - I am very jealous of people who can batch paint lots of miniatures. For me it is one at a time! I've recently worked out the way to get the blue consistent and the weathering of the white as well as squad markings, mixing the limited background fluff with the rules and then translating that onto the models. With that in mind I have now added four Tactical Marines to the War Hounds, experimenting with more dynamic posing as well the the Master Crafted Spikey Veteran Shoulder we reviewed the other week. Below is a brief look at the new additions to the force. If you'd like more info on each, head across to the Project: War Hounds page to check out some of the details and background thoughts.
Here's a group shot of the four new additions. You can see by the first image I was working on some more dynamic poses, and the second image gives you a look at all their extra stabby bits!  A little while back we were talking about Kastelan robots and I was posing some scenarios for their use in alternate forces. After all, the Adeptus Mechanicus only resurrected the Kastelans, they are a machine from the distant past even in the 30K universe. Then when the opening of Warhammer World happened I spotted these pictures on Millest's Mediocre Meanderings blog. I hadn't seen them anywhere else, despite looking and trawling through forums to find any more - no one seems to have any! There's some really interesting ideas in these pics - including the names - which point to a much broader service than we are currently informed. If you're into the Kastelan, and the community seems divided, then have a look at these pics below. From my information coming out of Warhammer World itself, these may be part of an upcoming painting guide or publication. The mystery deepens...!
BTW, thanks so much for all the positive response to both the super-articulated Kastelan video I did and my finished Legio Ballista Kastelan. Really appreciate the comments and feedback!
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