First up for pre-orders this week is White Dwarf. Now we wouldn't usually lead with White Dwarf, but this issue has a few interesting bits; the reveal of the highly anticipated return of Necromunda (bring on the Adeptus Arbites!!) and also new options for the Tyranid Carnifex miniature. Here's hoping we get White Dwarf early or at least on time this month...!!  
Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire is yet another Games Workshop property centred around the Warhammer world - Interesting the name Age of $igmar doesn't appear anywhere mind you - and today we get the first of the miniature expansions.!
One of the prominent packs in the original advertising for this game were the Sepulchral Guard, awesome undead models, and with them Ironskulls Boyz, minis in the vein of the old Black Orcs (now called 'Ardboyz). Originally the undead had me won, but over time the Orcs have really grown on me and would make an excellent Command unit for some 'Ardboyz. As is the way with GW these days, there are themed dice for four existing factions in Age of $igmar too; Stormcast, Ironjawz, Deathrattle and Khorne. As we discussed the other week, Warhammer Underworlds utilises cards a lot (PLEASE don't turn this into Beyblade) so there are also Sepulchral Guard and Ironjawz card protectors.
In other miniature news, The Hobbit gets some new minis with the Gundabad Orc Warband. These guys are resin, which is a bit of a shame, but they're still pretty cool.
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There are three novels next week - The Last Hunt which is White Scars vs Tyranids, The Rise of Nagash, which is a Warhammer Omnibus collecting the three Nagash novels for a damn good price and finally .Cult of the Warmason which is Sisters of Battle vs Genestealer Cult.

The folks over at Humble Bundle have a great offer on at the moment and you can get your hands on a heap of Privateer Press manuals, books, the video game and even discount coupons for minis from their range of Hordes, Iron Kingdoms and War Machine.
Want to check out this universe and only spend $15 - well that's all you have to spend to get all this stuff. You can spend more if you like, with the money going to charity, so here's your chance!

Been a little while since we did a Shapeways review, but this product seemed so cool it needed to be done. Shapeways itself is quite expensive if you're out of the US as postage can be a beast - but when the free postage week was around, then we knew it was time to add to the Great Crusade bitz for out War Hounds Legion with Plokoone's Thunder Raptors Shoulder Pads.
Like most mini bitz from Shapeways, these are made in Frosted Extreme Detail which gives good crisp details without much if any surface texture. We've bought many detailed shoulder on Shapeways, many from Pop Goes The Monkey, and Plokoone's differ in that the detail on the shoulders is not as high making it look a more to scale. PGTM's do vary in height - the Heresy-era Dark Angels and Consecrators ones are perfect but the War Hounds ones are a little too high for scale.
The pictures below should give you a good idea of the detail on the Thunder Raptors Shoulder Pads which is very very crisp - the Raptor Imperialis is TINY and so so perfect. Just have a look at that detail!
At $17.95 for ten, these are pretty cheap - if you don't count the postage - so I'm very pleased with this purchase. The Shapeways 3D printing I personally don't like as much as the resin that Master Crafted use, but these will be perfect in an army from the Great Crusade to the Horus Heresy!

You know, I kind of feel sorry for the Eldar. The minis are great - some of Jes Goodwin's finest work after the Dark Eldar​ - but to be frank, they're SOOOO angst-ridden! The current fluff has them as this roaming tiny band of losers, with zero link to their former glorious past... OMG, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO PLAY THEM?
It's actually a real shame, because in time past, despite the fact the Eldar are from a once-great empire, they are still a proud people intent on rebuilding their civilization. Now they're so emo!
Anyway, despite all that, the Eldar have some amazing minis - sure the Guardians could do with an update, but overall, the look and feel of them is really original and interesting.
This week sees the new Codex: Craftworlds released (there doesn't seem to be a deluxe version listed though), and along side it, not only a large collection of Made To Order Eldar minis from the past, but also good value Start Collecting Craftworlds.
The Triumvirate of Ynnead gets a straight re-release, which is a bit of a shame because many people were wanting to access these minis individually, there's some Eldar Data Cards, plus two paint sets, one for the Ulthwe and one for Saim-Hann. The really cool part of this release are some themed dice - Dark Reapers, Howling Banshees, Dire Avengers, Swooping Hawks, Fire Dragons and Striking Scorpions - such a great way to use the themed dice! Have different ones for different units. Be amazing on the gaming table, especially those orange Fire Dragons.
Away from gaming, there are a number of novels and even an audio drama to add to the universe this week. On the Eldar theme we get the Hand of Darkness audio drama by Gav Thorpe, the Rise of the Ynnari: Ghost Warrior (what ever happened to the Ynnari? They were going to be the next big thing and then... well nothing!). Crusade and Other Stories meanwhile is about stores set in the wider 40K universe - probably good reading for the train. Speaking of short stories, Age of $igmar doesn't miss out with Hammerhal and Other Short Stories. If onyl the Nurgle releases had been a shorter story!

So with the new Codex: Craftworld being released tomorrow it brought to a mind a discussion we have been having here about Games Workshop and their releases which arrive with much fanfare, and then just disappear into the ether - the Ynnari are a perfect example.
The Ynnari were supposed to be a new 'sect' of the Eldar which united both Eldar and Dark Eldar under the banner of the doomsday cult of the God, Ynnead. This had a bevy of modelling options; mixing Eldar and Dark Eldar bitz together, fielding interesting forces and basically putting a new slant on older minis and allowing fans to try a new way to play. But where are they now? Go to the GW site and there are 4 entries under Ynnari - and most of that is Index: Xenos Book 1.
Now don't get me wrong, it's GW's business to do with it what they will, but why bother with something and then forget it. It's like their constant rewriting of the fluff. Some of that is 30 years old - leave it alone.

The Ynnari may be one example, but think of a few others - the Deathwatch, the Corvus Blackstar - oh my God, when was the last time you saw that... anywhere?! Sisters of Battle turned up for 5 minutes and then disappeared.. again. The Kharadrons - great models, but they came and went and then more recently the Chaos Space Marines - no new minis and what was supposed to be a games changing Codex, but now it's popped off the radar too! The Horus Heresy miniatures - now those caused an absolute storm of interest in both the Games Workshop and Forge World communities- but that has now waned too. WHY?

Games Workshop seem to constantly chop and change and it's frankly confusing. It also doesn't leave with a sense of what is and isn't important. The thing is, it's not consistent! We get releases that go forever like the Nurgle, Stormcast or Primaris releases which were so voluminous and never-ending that it seemed to blot out the sun... and then others that just come and go.

The one that was a real shock were the Indexes for Warhammer 40K.... they arrived and within a week or two we were told they would be made invalid by the Codex releases. WTF? Again, a release that was important, but then wasn't important. It leaves a bad taste in the community's mouth and with this new focus on the community, it seems odd they persist with this practice.
​Maybe it's a culture of having to have something new every week... they don't have to! Release some decal sheets, or upgrade sets to existing minis, or maybe a new novel or two, but constant releases that are then forgotten or devalued are a waste of time and it cries wolf to the community as a whole.
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​Do you agree? Are you getting a similar vibe or have you got some examples? Let us know.

​Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire is the first in a new range of games for Games Workshop set in the Age of $igmar universe and, this weekend, it is upon us!
The initial buzz on this was good as the range of miniatures (including the first female Stormcast) is pretty cool. They add to existing ranges but have more dynamic, if fixed poses. 
The game itself is reasonably cheap in terms of new GW games, but with only a handful of miniatures that is not surprising. The pre-orders this week also include some card sleeves to keep the gaming cards safe - we get one for each faction in the starter (Garrek's Reavers and Steelheart’s Champions). . Hot on the heels of this are the Ork and Undead factions, which both look great... & we will probably buy! Dammit - such temptation.
In books there is only one release, but boy is it a dozy! Sanguinius, Girly-man and The Lion head to Terra to head of the Heresy as the forces of the Warmaster close in Ruinstorm which seems like it will be a great study into the Primarchs themselves. Pity The Lion is such a douchebag!

A new project blooms - and I mean who doesn't love walkers?! It seems to me the Tau should have walkers, but they don't at this point in time, so this walker has to fit into another part of the 40K/ 30K universe - but where?
I had a few ideas; Imperial Guard is obvious - but what about a Planetary Defence force, maybe a Mechanicum defence automata, or even a defence platform from a lost Forge World being rediscovered during the Great Crusade.
I want to weather this one up - but the idea is that these would be part of a larger force - mass produced and effectively taking the place of tanks. 

Obviously this is still very WIP, but as far as parts go, this is the Onager Dune Walker legs which I may but the feet on, but not sure until I work out what faction it is. The turret is a cute little tank from Meng. Meng make a series of tanks from the game World War Toons and this is the KV 2 Russian Heavy tank. Not sure what elements I will leave on or add too, but this has to feel mass produced. Underneath the turret, which i shaved down so it wasn't so high, I added plastic card and then the mounting pieces from underneath the original Onager turret. Although fiddly, most will be hidden anyway. On the sides of the turret I added some missile launchers from the Ravenwing upgrade sprue (which is excellent value BTW) then I added a Vindicator sensor.
This is still WIP, but it's working qute well so far, and I'm even thinking of other variants or maybe making two to I can have a kind of squadron. If you have seen Venus Wars, the anime, then the type of armoured street fighting is what I was thinking for this. If you haven' seen Venus Wars, then do yourself a favour an check it out. It's awesome!
Stay tuned for more!

Okay, yes, I'm jaded! The Nurgle release window is ENORMOUS and continues for at least a few more weeks with at least one more Nugle vehicle to come.
This week does see, however, the release of the multi-part multi-pose Plague Marines - the subject of some rumour about their poseability. Thankfully from the sprues it looks like they are quite adaptable. Along with that highly sort after kit, there is also Biologus Putrifier, the Plague Marine Icon Bearer and the Plague Marine Champion. Unlike the Plague Marines, these characters are very much single pose. The little Nurgling with the Champion has been getting a cult following, and looking at the boring pose the Champion is in (even if it does hark back to some of the Rogue Trader era Champions of Chaos) there is little wonder! Not much of a Champion...
The level of detail on the Nurgle kits is astounding, with bespoke Rogue Trader era weapons, plus lots of cues back to their Space Marine past. Despite their gross visage and the lack of poseability in the characters, these are very impressive miniatures!
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In the world of books, the Astra Militarum quasi-release (what a fizzer) gets the Baneblade and Shadowsword books plus we get the next Horus Heresy book, The Silent War, centring around Malcador the Sigillite and his minions in a collection of short stories. Some of these are in print for the first time.