White Dwarf #88 Review + Alt. KV128 Weapons & Tau Helmets

After many moons of Age of Sigmar releases, Warhammer 40K finally gets a sizeable release with a new look at the galaxy's your-either-with-us-or-against-us little blue men - the under loved Tau.
It would be a misnomer to say that the Tau are little blue men, because the Tau Empire is actually not one civilisation, but many united For The Greater Good. Sure, the choice between extermination and joining in isn't great, but in the end everyone is "happy", be they Tau, Kroot, Vespid or one of the many Human worlds that have allied themselves with the Tau Empire. Now here's a thought, I wonder if GW will finally expand the Tau allies or are they too niche?
Anyway - this issue of White Dwarf sees the beginning of a few weeks of Tau releases and in this issue we get our first real look at the new Fire Warrior helmets as well as alternate armament for the huge KV128 Stormsurge.
​So, is this issue worth a look?
+ + More After The Jump + +

The KV128 Stormsurge is a beast! Following on from the XV 104 Riptide and the enormous soon to be released KX139 Supremacy Armour Titan, the Stormsurge is certainly part of a larger (no pun intended) look at the Tau at war! For all intents and purposes, this mech look like a cross between a Riptide without arms and, with those well muscled thighs in a squatting position, a pole dancer! I must add, it is neither - well maybe the latter during lonely times on the campaign trail - it is a different beast all together.
The Stormsurge is in fact a walking tank, a mobile artillery platform to instill terror into an era where (and I quote) "... the war between the Tau Empire and the Imperium escalates...".
​Looks like the Tau are about to move from being ambiguous colonialists into the "bad guy" slot!

An interesting design addition to this so-called 'ballistic armour' are the enormous primary cannons and the dual pilots. Dual crew aren't unusual in Tau vehicles, but this is the first for a Tau Empire mech - and I think it's pretty cool! For something this size it does make sense and having them seated in the front like that (right) does move it away from any comparisons to Gundam (a misguided comparison made when the Tau first came on the scene).

With an absence of arms, the Stormsurge has two large missile batteries - in the tradition of some of the Battletech mechs of the 1990s - which are augmented by smart missiles, and four seeker missiles to shatter armoured foes. There is an incredible amount of detail on this kit (above) - just have a look at the exhaust ports and the multitude of sensors and rockets. Each section is a miniature in itself!
I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but if you took your time with this it would be very rewarding!

There is an extra support weapon on the base of one of the rocket pods with one of three weapons options - the traditional Tau Burst Cannon., twin-linked flamers, or airbursting fragmentation projectors.

Despite being a beasty machine, piloting the Stormsurge doesn't apparently have the prestige of piloting a battlesuit - maybe because it has to be airdropped into combat by a Manta rather than use a jet pack?!
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Away from the Tau, Forge World have released two new Techmarines; a MkIII and MkIV, both of which are pretty cool! Lacking some dynamism in their posing, but still cool...

Three book releases this week - Wolf King about Leman Russ during the Horus Heresy, a collection of Tau shorts stores in Shas'O and Sons of Corax, a collection of seven Raven Guard stories.

Sprues and Glue this week gives some very handy tips on assembling the KV128 Stormsurge, including the information that the leg construction enables you to take the locking pins (right) out and make them super-poseable - just like the discovery we made about the Kastelan Robot.
​The support weapons that go under the missile pod can also be used on other Tau kits.

Paint Splatter does Tau - which is kind of interesting, but don't get too excited. Pity that didn't do the new scheme they have been using in the new promos shots.

Golden Demon takes a look at the winner of the Golden Demon: Tanks - Richard Gray's Fellblade.

Now if you've ever tried to paint one of Forge World's Zone Mortalis boards, then taking one look at this picture will probably make you want to cry - I did a little bit! This is Paul Gayner's Space Hulk set up with two beautifully painted armies; the Crimson Heralds and some really nice Tyranids in almost traditional Space Hulk colours The details added to this set are amazing! Some great work and a pretty good write up too.

As Armies on Parade ends for another year, we get some all-but-completed armies; Nurgle from Warhammer and some Vostroyans in an amazing city scene from Warhammer 40K.

Here's the Dataslates....

In a pretty helpful gesture, the White Dwarf team have shown how sub-assemblies would help with such a large vehicle, and in doing so also give us a closer look at the new Tau helmets. From this it looks liek the front sensors have gone from vertical to horizontal and may have even moved to the other side of the helmet! These do look very similar to the ones we have seen earlier, so it's a reasonably safe bet this is what is happening.

Verdict

This is a pretty good issue if you're a hobbyist rather than a gamer. There are Tau a-plenty and lots of information on the new kit as well as lots of close ups of some great paint work!
In fact all up it's a good issue for hobbyists, so if that is you then this might be a good one to check out!
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You might have spotted my Tau helping to keep this issue open for the photos, so here's a closer look at them if you're interested. I've gone for a dark scheme with white accents. Bit of work to get the scheme exactly right, but well on it's way.