Necromunda has been slowly expanding from the core Hive City and with Hive Secundus now firmly being fleshed out as a horrorshow of ruin and Genestealer infestation, it's time to expand on that and introduce you to ​Necromunda: Book of Desolation. This is a bit of a leap in Necromunda with the idea of the Genestealer infestation being not just contained to the Hive but also outside, plus there's rules to allow you to have your gang metamorphise into various stages of Malstrain mutation. Not only that but there's also rules for the new Van Saar Tek-hunters and various Spyre Hunters. Van Saar are now not only providing the weapons for the really dangerous jobs, they're also doing the really dangerous jobs. With the help of some "discovered" Xenos tech, the rich and powerful can now take some very expensive options into battle too, donning new armour to become Orrus, Malcadon, Yeld, or Jakara Spyre Hunters. This is a dip back into old lore with the rich kids proving their worth while being nigh-on impregnable in the most expensive weapons systems money can buy. Field these new beauties with the new Spyre Hunting Party Gang Tactics Cards and take your game to a new level. While Van Saar are making their presence known, Delaque's favourite bounty hunter, Yageloth, the Master of Whispers has rocked up - and when Delaque are around you just know something sinister and a little more subtle is going on. With your Spyre Hunters and Tek-hunters, you'll want to give them a hefty opponent, and fresh from the places we should stay away from, we have the Malstrain Genestealer Abomination Gang. Want to guard some assests and take fewer casualties? Well the Trazior Pattern Sentry Guns are for you. You get four in this set, two with twin grenade launchers and two with twin heavy stubbers. Last for Necromunda this week are the Hive Secundus Gang Tactics Cards.
Completely away from Grimdark of the far future, we have the horror and wonder of the far lost past, with The Hobbit: Hunt for the Arkenstone, the new board game allowing you to be one of the Dwarves and hunt for Arkenstone. It's all in the title really...
Warhammer: The Old World keeps on giving with some excellent classic kits, the Watchtower of the Empire, Sigmarite Chapel of the Empire, Walls & Fences, Arcane Ruins and Fortified Manor of the Empire (which is really three of those kits combined) and the very old Warhammer Hills. 
Not everything in the Old World is "old", with the new plastic Dwarf King With Oathstone and Dwarf Slayer of Legend on pre-order this weekend. They can lead a collection of more venerable troops who have reappeared to populate the Old World; the Dwarf Miners, Dwarf Gyrocopters, and the Dwarf Cannon & Organ Gun set. The Orcs also get some backup, with the new resin Ogdruz Swampdigga, Da Troll Calla and a personal favourite, the classic Black Orc Mob back in the range (at a hefty price bump)!
In books we have the ​Krieg Special Edition and White Dwarf #503, which hits the shelves this coming Friday.

Well today's update is a different one, as Australia and New Zealand miss out on almost everything this week. Oh they will enter that mythical realm of "future releases" and eventually sneak in quietly - a bit like your sister late on a Friday night with that rough looking fellow on the motorbike your dad complains about all the time.
​It is really starting to feel like we did something wrong...
Anyway, let's have a look at the two books the Southern Hemisphere will get, then onto the joyous bounty that the rest of the world will be furiously ordering this weekend. Can you imagine being a Warhammer store manager and watching zero people coming through the door due to lack of pre-orders and new products on the shelves? It must be so dispiriting.
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The new novel by David Annandale, Callis & Toll, based around the Saviours of Cinderfall (available to pre-order this weekend) is out and about in hardback, and Dan Abnett's classic Riders of the Dead is available in Black Library Celebration 2024 paperback format.

Now onto the good stuff that the rest of the world can peer at eagerly with an actual release date in mind!
The next in the Age of $igmar series of expansions, Dawnbringers: Book V: Shadow of the Crone is here. Available in Crusty Wings Limited Edition and Colonisation is Not Cool These Days Standard Edition, the two enlightened forces of wonder and light are forging their way across the darkened lands, establishing settlements where they weren't before and pissing off the people they are stealing land from! AAAAH Games Workshop, you picked a bad time for this narrative. You have to laugh!
With this expansion we get some lovely boxes, including the cover girl Krethusa Croneseer available for the first time in the Krethusa’s Cronehost. The minis included with her have been released in innumerable boxes before, but she is a great miniature, and probably an early contender for Golden Demon painters. We spoke about the new Callis & Toll book earlier, well here they are - and their band of friends and fiends - in the Saviours of Cinderfall set. The old lady in this set is a must-have. She would be an amazing Rogue Trader/ Necromunda Lord/ Town Mayor/ Space Marine toothbrush, even! Brining together most of the recent Flesh-eater Courts releases, we have the Spearhead: Flesh-eater Courts. Quite a neat set, if a bit... ghoulish. A free pun for you this weekend, from us to you! Now the forces of good and shiny get a boost with the Spearhead: Cities of Sigmar collecting much of the Cities of Sigmar Army Box, plus the excellent Freeguild Cavalier-Marshall and an Ironweld Great Cannon. Damn good set! Speaking of shiny, the Dominion boxed set lives on with the Spearhead: Stormcast Eternals parceling some of that set with the excellent Stormstrike Chariot. Are you a terrain guy or gal? Well you're in luck, with the Elder Gnarloak, Idol of Motzlpota, and Starfire Pylon (need/want) all available separately, plus the much-loved Ogor Mawpit. 

As you may have read previously, we have been experimenting with MDF terrain. Last week it was the Miniature Scenery Power Generator which came up well & this week it's the Miniature Scenery Auto Shop.
In Australia we call an "Auto Shop" a "Garage", thus the large word "Garage" over the roller door of this surprisingly large structure - and it is sizeable!
When we first saw the picture of this we hadn't quite thought of the dimensions, but this structure fits two full 10 man squads comfortably - even the size of the stairs and walkways easily fits the larger 40mm bases used by models such at Terminators or Thallax..
Another nice addition was the detail on every surface; tiles on the floor and then a riveted metal plate look to the roof of the garage itself.

As you may know, this is done by the gentle application of a 2B lead pencil to the raised edges. Here you can see I used it extensively on the stairs and also around the lip of the doorway. On the metal roof It's also used around the edges of the plates on on the surfaces. The 2B is used so that it's only really noticeable when the light is on it at a certain angle. Some modelers use 4B so that it's much more subtle also.
The power unit on the side of the building was done as if totally rusted. Not entirely sold on this, but it's okay. The surface was abit plain so I added these storage boxes we found on eBay. They're resin and really nice, but the grey one has lots of little bubbles in the lid, so don't look too closely!
The only thing I'm not sure about this is the roller door. It's well done and can be built so it's partially or full up, the paint job just doesn't do it justice. 

Originally I must be honest and wasn't sure about the $35 price tag - BUT once I started building it and then realised the amount of detail and the sheer size of it, the Miniature Scenery Auto Shop is well worth the money. As a centrepiece for terrain, an objective or a defend-able location, the Miniature Scenery Auto Shop is really great and ultimately flexible. Many stars out of five!

We've recently (and not so recently) been exploring the world of MDF terrain. There's a tonne of it out there, and some of the most interesting and certainly most detailed comes from an Australian manufacturer, Miniature Scenery.
They have a number of different genres including fantasy, sci-fi, Eldar-esque, vehicles, ​and some great cityscape terrain called Battle Grounds.
Today we're going to show the product we bought to test out their kits, the Power Generator!

The first thing to say about these kits is that they are detailed and a little fiddly, but if you follow the instructions they turn out a treat. This entire kit comes on one packed MDF sheet which is also engraved with surface detail. I sprayed both sides of the sheet black before assembly to avoid intricate painting after assembly - it's like an onion of detail - have a look at the underside of the finished kit (below left).
The Power Generator is built in two symmetrical halves which you then obviously glue together - you can see the back side of one of the halves (below right) with it's multiple angles and locking pins.

Once it's together there is a slight join down the middle of the two halves (below left) which you could fill and sand if you saw fit, or leave as a feature. There are surface details like scoring as well as a vent on one side and an aerial on the other. It has a feeling of Tau about it really, but would suit any battlefield I'm sure.
Previous experience with MDF shows that the sharp lines around the edges make it look a bit fake, so once dry I sanded the edges of the entire kit to round them off a bit - you can see where the black spray has worn off leaving the MDF exposed (below centre). I quite like the effect and regret having to paint it!
There are arcs of energy in the middle of the Power Generator (below right) so I left the front plat off to make it easier to paint later on.

All up this took about 2 hours to make, leave to dry and sand which is pretty good for a very detailed kit.
Frankly I really like this. It was a bit of work at first, but once you hit your stride, you're away.
I'd really like to build more of their kits and have ordered some Battle Ground road plates and a few buildings from their Sci-Fi range to test them out.

The last shot on their instruction sheet (which unfortunately are all online only) shows this row of Power Generators together which is an awesome look for a Battle of Hoth-style Star Wars battle, but would be a bit of work - ultimately rewarding as this was a joy to make and have in the growing scenery collection.

I got some paint on it!! Yes the weekend gave me the opportunity to get some hobby done, and this was it.
In a way I really liked the very charred and worn black undercoat, but this scheme will fit better with the rest of the scenery I'm planning. You may also notice I cut out the lightning bolts from the generator. I wanted this to look dormant, so the lightning didn't really fit. Here's a War Hound for scale!
​Probably a bit more work to do, but overall it's come up well as an experiment.