White Dwarf #62 Review - General Grievous Joins WH40K!

It's been a big release week with the Skitarii getting the Rangers/ Vanguard kit and the Ironstrider walker kit, thus the lateness of this White Dwarf review.
The Adeptus Mechanicus are a mysterious and arcane organisation with many wonders and horrors at their disposal. 
In the week's White Dwarf we get a look at just a few more with the Sicarian Infiltrators/ Sicarian Ruststalkers kit and Codex up for pre-order, but it's not all dudes in red!
White Dwarf also has Miniature of the Year (which frankly seems like a filler in this issue!), some really good background on the Skitarii and their weapons, plus a half decent Paint Splatter which although not breaking new ground, certainly has some handy little tips!
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Now first off - can I ask the question I'm sure you're wondering too? 
Have Games Workshop run out of names? "Sicarian" seems awfully close to "Sicaran" the tank made by Forge World. Surely they saw this coming... 
Are we going to be seeing "Eltramarines" soon? Or maybe "Skervan". Dudes... really!!

So apart from the name, lets move on to the miniatures themselves. First off the blocks are the Infiltrators. These are based on an old drawing from Jes Goodwin that can be seen in his "The Gothic and The Eldritch" book. It's a very cool sketchbook by the way - they have Space Skaven too. Just wait - it'll happen.
Anyway, these bucket heads are one of his many doodlings come to life.
Overall they share almost off of the components of the alternate build in the kit, the Ruststalkers, apart from the swords and the heads - the Infiltrators have guns!

Right - now onto the better option in the kit, the Ruststalkers. Yes their commander looks like he's General Grievous in a hood, but the poses on these guys are very cool! It makes you wonder if they could have actually been another civilisation rather than part of the Mechanicum. These guys remind me of the Commando Droids in Star Wars The Clone Wars a bit, but they were cool, so who cares?!

The obligatory ad for the Codex. Interestingly this write up gave less information that past ones have so I'm serious to see what we are going to get next week. I know there are alternate colour schemes, but those aren't even mentioned in the write up which seems odd!
The appearance of the Mechanicus axe-dude brings back memories. Some of those in plastic, please!!

The usual add-ons include the datacards and a novel, and of course the option for the deluxe edition of the Codex which sold out in no time!

Forge World get to show off Alexis Polux and then there's a filler page of Imperial miniatures...!

The Weapons of Mars section is a great one for delving into the Skitarii. Very well set out and straight forward. They did a great job with these.

And the winner is... the Imperial Knight. YAY!! You'd think there'd be a bit more room for Miniature of the Year wouldn't you? Maybe some great paint schemes. Maybe a look at the Forge World versions?? Maybe even a look at the runners up in more detail. This seems like a throw away.

Couple of nice little tricks here, apart from step 3 on the cables which is frankly yuck!

Here's a look at the rules, there is also datacards for the two units with more detail. 

Now this is what I was talking about the other week - forge world colour schemes!!
The original Skitarii that were attached to Titan Orders were big on them, so it looks like they're not lost forever! These guys look cool!

Verdict

I'm 50/50 on this issue. The detail on the weapons of the Skitarii is good, so if you want to build an army or know more, then that info is good. The pictures of the new Sicarians is limited but okay and the Paint Splatter is... there.
Outside of those, the miniature of the year is disappointing considering they do a 4 page spread on an army that is also in Warhammer: Visions this week.
If you're not into Mechanicum, then this is an issue you can miss.