The Realistic/Negative Review Of The New White Dwarf

Most of us will have spent a week with the new White Dwarf so it's time to be realistic about what GW have actually given us... I say given, for the princely sum of £5.50 that is. I think it's fair to say that we all genuinely wanted the new White Dwarf to be a real hobby magazine. Last Saturday I would've said this was what we had now. And although it's certainly more of a hobby mag than in the last incarnation, we really shouldn't fool ourselves. I won't add too much myself, as this review over at Play Unplugged sums up what I'm thinking... to quote...

"It didn’t take long after my purchase for the shine to wear off. Pages 4-51 are not just advertisements in the sense that they are content about the game, they are advertisements in the “Ohhhh… look at this thing we’re selling and here’s where you can buy it way.” Think about that. 48 pages of straight ads. Pretty advertisements for sure, but advertisements non-the-less... That in my mind is where the “new” White Dwarf makes a big misstep. I’m already interested in your products GW. I hate to break it to you, but I wouldn’t be buying your magazine if I wasn’t. Your job is to give me cool reasons to buy more, and tons of front loaded advertisements (at least for me) is not the way."

Follow the link to the full review. In sum: it looks and feels really lovely... but it remains a catalogue. (Sad face). 

That Was The Week That Was #8

This week's roundup captures three aspects of hobby brilliance... in my book at least. That perfect synergy between converting, painting and gaming; a dedication to exploring the fine grain of gaming systems and playability; the raw sculpting excellence that makes sitting down with a new miniature such a joy.

1. Feast your eyes on the incredible Blood Bowl Hall Of Fame at Laughing Ferret's Lab... probably the most inspiring hobby blog page I've ever seen. The Underworld Warp Drivers are one of my favourites:

2. Sink your teeth into an astonishingly detailed discussion of The Lore Of Vampires in The Hoodling's Hole:

3. The brilliant BaneLords and BaneLegions now has a new moniker - DarkLands - and webstore - Mierce Miniatures. I'll be dropping by regularly to drool over their latest releases... simply... wow...

Goblin King Toy From The Hobbit

I just found this picture over at Geek Tyrant - I think it's the first Hobbit movie related mechanise that I've seen. It looks pretty cool to me... maybe a treat for my son at Christmas?! I wonder how GW will deal with this character. Could make for an excellent model...

New Raptors Converted To Regular Chaos Space Marines?

Looking over the new Chaos Space Marine releases I must say that I'm looking forward to them but I'm also disappointed. Why? Well it's because of the lack of any new basic chaos marines. I understand that with the plastic models GW are extremely unlikely to upgrade them frequently due to cost. That leaves us with some absolutely cracking new models - the Dark Vengeance Chosen are wonderful - and some very average normal troops that look tired and dull in comparison. So... what to do? Here's my simple plan, but be warned, it's a pricey one. (...Checks to make sure the wife isn't reading this...). Convert the new Raptors to make basic chaos marines. I've not seen the sprues firsthand but I'm guessing this is possible. Anyone else thinking along these lines?

Converting Dark Vengeance Chaos Cultists, Simple Swaps

Yesterday I de-sprued the Chaos Marine half of two Dark Vengeance boxes, push fitting them together for a sense of tidiness and so I could begin to work out how to convert them. With two sets to work from there are plenty of duplicates. To begin I'm working with the cultists because they're the most straightforward - they can be mixed and matched a bit with what's already there and can take relatively straightforward swaps with a wide range of bits. In my double-box there are eight cultist models with four duplicates each, as well as two each of the cultist leaders and heavy weapon guys. Here are my first three conversions:

1. This cultist usually has an autogun. Here I've swapped in a pistol from one of the other cultists and added a hand/corpse from the crypt ghouls. This chap now fits into the close combat squad, adding variety.

2. This cultist has a new hand weapon from the Empire flagellants. He also has a crossbow. I really like the crossbows that come with the Empire models and I've been itching to use them in 40k to give some figures that mix of archaic weaponry and apparel. Now I have the chance. As crossbows don't appear in the rulebook I can just use them as stand-ins for pistols or autoguns, although this lot with be subs for pistols. I'll think of some fluff reason why the cultists have them and how they work further down the line.   

3. Another crossbow and another swap from the autogun squad into the close combat squad. This guy also needs some greenstuff before he's truly ready. Once I've done a few more of these I'm going to start swapping heads around and moving legs.

The Boring Horus Heresy, OR, Just Say No To 30K

Am I totally out of touch, or is all this hype about the Horus Heresy getting incredibly tiresome already? I just recently read the 'original trilogy' of novels - Horus Rising, False Gods, and Galaxy in Flames - and they were ok as far as pulpy science fantasy goes. Good, well paced reads, and more-or-less instantly forgettable. Cheese, albeit good cheese.

Angron - seriously? Anger-on!? A slice of cheese too far

I just can't work out what all the fuss is about. Obviously Forge World are happily cashing-in on people's interest with a whopping load of 30k models arriving and in the pipeline. Maybe others are just more turned on by clanky looking power armour than I am? Fancy a bit of marine-on-marine action, sir? Step right this way!

Then there's he-of-the-very-silly-name: Angron ("grrrr"). On a baseline level, paying £50 for a Primarch model seems ridiculous when there are so many other great models for the collection and gaming table from the excellent Forge World. Or is it just me?

For those who are really wetting themselves over all this Horus business, I simply say: enjoy! If this is really your thing then have a great time with it all. I'm just being a bit of a naysayer - some of the models look pretty cool. For GW I wonder whether it's really a good idea business wise to introduce what is essentially a different game at a time when they've just brought out a widely celebrated version of 40K. Surely gamers and collectors alike will have limited disposable incomes and this could risk splitting the market? Time will tell I suppose. At least they've made a massive improvement with White Dwarf, so they obviously have some kind of idea what they're doing...

That Was The Week That Was #7

It's the return of my semi-regular weekly-ish round-up (of sorts!). And this week it all seems to be about certain colour tones... very much up my street of painterly interests. 

1. Brent has a fair go at painting ethnic diversity over at BoLS:

2. Dr. Willett is busy painting Space Hulk genestealers:

3. There's a good tutorial on painting pink at From The Warp:

The Art Of Godmachine

Just a quick heads-up today for a rather nifty artist who goes by the name Godmachine (and who is originally from my home town, Cardiff) - you can find his work on this tumblr site and there's a store on there for buying prints, but everything seems to be sold out at the moment. I've included a couple of my favourites here: 

BaneBeasts Blood Maw WIP #1

Oh boy is this guy fun to work with! Yes it's the Blood Maw from the fantastic BaneBeasts range and on the basis of this model I would happily have the whole lot because the quality is top notch. As with all large resin kits, this one took some work to put together, but what's a few bits of greenstuff between friends?

Here he is wearing a straightforward base coat. I'm going to make he very fleshy with tons of contrast and depth all over the place. In particular I'm looking forward to doing all the chipped details on his claws and teeth - which will be a bone-white when complete - and that pink slobbering gob. My brother suggested this model might make for a proxy Great Unclean One. That's a possibility. I'll have to see how carried away I get with all that craggy and gnarled skin...

Kissy, kissy

Unobtainium Discovered On The BBC

It took me a while to find this photo of what was an utterly amazing moment on the BBC quiz show Pointless last Friday. The plucky finalists were asked to name chemical elements and came up with this absolute gem as the 'correct' answer they thought no one would've said... Seriously... I worry about basic education in Britain today! 

Folk Art Wicker White - A Review With Pirates

It will come as no surprise to regular visitors that I've been distracted away from one project by the lure of another. But as this temptation is my original Marienburg project I don't see any reason to feel bad about that! However, rather than talk about how that particular army is progressing and the plans I have for it (more on that next week... probably) I wanted to do a quick review of the cheap and cheerful white paint that I've been using to base coat the metal minis I'm using. 

I always seem to have trouble with metal models because I never get the priming and base coating phases right. Not anymore though. Wicker White by Folk Art is a very basic art supply that I've had hanging around for a while and I thought I'd give it a try for achieving a good base coat on my Foundry pirates. The results were exactly what I've been after - a good, strong pigment and a thin runny paint that can be slapped on and moved around with an easy flow and matt finish - happy days. This was important because I've decided to paint my Marienburg folks in a highly stylised 'technicolor' scheme that's reminiscent of the costumes from 1950s and 60s Hollywood movies... should be an interesting experiment!

Important Safety Announcement For Miniatures Painters

That is all.

Foundry Re-release The Citadel Norse Range

Brilliant news today for fans of the old school citadel ranges, particularly those sculpted by the Perry brothers. Foundry have put all the old sculpts that were once the citadel Norse range up for order on their website. It really is great to see all these miniatures available again. How I used to dream of ordering all of these once upon a time!

Cult Movie Posters

I've just been browsing through a collection of posters from cult movies over at Monster Brains. I recommend taking a look as there are some absolute classics. Here are two really cool examples from a couple of my personal cult favourites.

Doctor Who In Wonderland

If you're on the lookout for good gifts for the geek in your life then pop over to Parodies Lost where you can find inspired prints like this one:

When you think about it, it's obvious: of course the doctor would have been to wonderland. Not that my wife ever reads my blog, but HINT... HINT...!