Well, I am quite inclined to not make too much fuss about June’s White Dwarf… so let’s make this short ‘n sweet… what do we have in this issue? Warhammer Fantasy Battles New Releases: little to comment here, as the White Dwarf only brings the new Savage Orc Big Boss and a Goblin shaman, [...]
For a change I am doing this review quite on time for a change… so without further ado, let’s take a look at May’s White Dwarf. Can it be called a good, issue, a fine issue or just a gloriously illustrated catalogue of shiny new products from Games Workshop? Not that it would be that [...]
Well, after reviewing James Swallow’s tales “Faith & Fire” and “Red & Black“, you would have known that I’d continue with the third Sisters of Battle tale, wouldn’t you? So here it is, “Hammer & Anvil“, published by the Black Library in 2011 to coincide with the release of the newest incarnation of the Codices [...]
Before I start I should mention that this is actually the first “proper” Black Library-publication I’ve ever read. Normally I shun reading tie-ins, as it is quite difficult to produce a good book here. That’s because the usual readers of tie-ins are hardcore fans of the corresponding movie or game. They have a fixed set [...]
Well, I am late again, no doubt about that – but as I only returned from Japan last week, I actually only found time to read my Dwarf yesterday… sometimes it can’t be helped… Still, let’s take a look at April’s White Dwarf – is it worth buying or (if you already bought yours) reading [...]
Review: Titan Forge – Demon Slayers Cleansing Squad Shoulder Pads & Robes
Yesterday I had a look at Titan Forge’s Shoulder Pads and Robes for the Demon Slayers Heavy Squad – today I will review to other sets of bitz the folks at Titan Forge generously gave me for just that purpose. If you haven’t had a look at my other review, please do so now. There [...]
Review: Titan Forge – Demon Slayers Heavy Veteran Shoulder Pads & Robes
Titan Forge is a relatively new company from Poland, that hotbed for innovative bitz- and miniature makers (think of Scibor and Micro Art and you know what I mean!). During the last months, they have built up an impressive portfolio of miniatures, bitz and bases cast in resin, with parts for (almost) everybody out there. [...]
It’s astounding, time is fleeting…. as I will be off for a longer holiday later this month, I am running quite out of hobby time and my White Dwarf reviews – while being fun and actually blockbusters on this blog – are taking away quite a lot of them… I thought about abandoning those [...]
And here it is, gentlemen: my 25th anniversary model…
It took Games Workshop and the German Post quite some time to get this one sent to me, but finally my specimen of the limited 25th anniversary model arrived here last Wednesday. Normally I have the peculiar habit of opening my pewter or plastic fix only on my hobby evenings on Friday or Saturday, but [...]
Well, I guess I can keep this one rather short – first, because I am quite tired today, but secondly and foremost because it’s always less fun reviewing the tools of the trade than reviewing the nice miniatures you paint and adapt and convert with them – unless you are some kind of tool-fetishist, of [...]
I said, the mission objective is THIS WAY!
Today I am having a heavy headache, so there’s little to say hobbywise… but I some time ago I finally managed to clean up and mount my Forge World Chaos Dwarf, so here’s a photo for you to enjoy… and isn’t he looking good? Though I am convinced he’s actually facing his comrades, not the enemy…
Now I only need a painting scheme for my Chaos Dwarves old and new… probably I’ll settle for something blueish, but still I’m not sure…
See you tomorrow!
Yeah, somebody out there played Down of War, too… one of the most exciting games out there with some of the cheesiest lines…
But let’s put that aside… during the bygone weeks I have used up some of my free time to work on two more Venerable Dreadnoughts for my Space Marines – the old pewter one and the shiny Forge World one my friend Boswell gave me as a gift quite some time ago. As both of those were special models, I surely took my time and I have to say it was a load of fun, especially the FW Dreadnought.
A company of Dreadnoughts... missing some Firepower at the moment, though...
And here they are, ready to be primed. Even though I will probably regret this while painting, I decided to glue everything in place apart from the weapon arms. Here on the photo I arranged the two with my old Black Reach Dreadnought, as I plan to paint those three together.
Fearless metal - sure to be a centrepiece even with my painting skills...
As you might recall my Forge World Dreadnought sported a broken banner pole and was missing one of the sword handles. Fortunately it was easy to glue the banner pole back together… as for the sword, I finally decided to leave it as it is – after all, it is a broken sword… and no sword handle in my BitzBox would have been good enough for this…
Still this one is quite fragile, so I decided to play it save with the close combat weapon. Unlike the plastic one, the weapon arm from Forge World can be posed in quite a dynamic way, but that would make it too fragile for transporting it to games, I guess… and besides, I like the thought of one stoic mean Dreadnought…
Besides, I have a feeling it won’t be my last Dreadnought… nor my last from Forge World. Really love that one.
I am working on different things tonight (including my review of December’s White Dwarf), so it’s just one or two photos tonight… Forge World just announced another splendid Chaos Dwarf vehicle, the Skullcracker.
Isn’t it marvellous? I am not sure it will be too good in actual gaming (unless it includes a scenario in which a castle or fortification has to be stormed), but it has just the right amount of steampunk machinery and chaos magic (and evil dwarves with curly hair) to make me very happy…
Now I only need a lot of money… and time to savour (and straighten out) those resin beauties…
I should probably start with the Tamurkhan book, though. It is splendid, it’s expensive – and it includes the stats I need to make up an army with all those Chaos Dwarf goodies…
Well, another week has passed, another long, dreadful week with much angst and little sleep (oh, and a funeral and some really horrible breath was thrown in by fate, too). Really need some sleep… but just a great photo before I pass to that…
This is Drazhoath the Ashen, the newest Forge World addition to their Chaos Dwarf range. Isn’t he great? Steve Whitehead, the sculptor, did his finest piece with him I think (at least so far). I had been highly sceptical of the Taurus itself when that came out, but Taurus and Lord, they form a great miniature indeed.
Oh, it’s all so dreadful expensive, but those are Chaos Dwarfs I want! I see a huge number of months full of saving before me… there are the Dwarfs, there’s Tamurkhan and I haven’t even started with 40.000… but I think there will be a Forge World order next year… can’t help that…
And with that – to bed!
Even though nowadays I am more a collector of miniatures than a player of tabletop games, I wouldn’t see myself as hunting for miniatures just because they are old and rare. Sure, sometimes miniatures I buy on eBay are old and rare, but I always bought them because I liked it how they look or because I needed some part of the miniature for some conversion project…
Games Workshop has published quite a lot of limited miniatures over the years (you can find some of them on that one true website, Stuff of Legends or that other one true website, Collecting Citadel Miniatures), but I only own a few of them, there’s Aenur and the White Dwarf who were, well, included with White Dwarf issues (when they were still giving you miniatures with the magazine… what glorious days long gone by…), and I have that special Space Marine Sergeant. And, by the strangest of coincidences, I own most of Archaeon on Foot from the Games Days 2004 – I found the badly painted parts in a bag full of Lizardmen bitz I once bought on a flea market from an old geezer who thought it was all rubbish… I pickled the pewter parts some time ago and even though the head is sadly missing, it’s a marvellous miniature… still unsure if I paint it just for fun or convert it to something (a broken statue would be nice, or an inquisitor, though it would be a huge human…) – or I just wait until my playing pal starts playing Chaos and then I have a nice gift…
Talking about the Games Day, that strange line of Games Workshop conventions… every year Games Workshop (Forge World too) sell at least one limited miniature on their Games Days. Often they are nice, sometimes they really get me excited, but of course that’s no reason to actually go to the Games Day, of course… so far, though, those miniatures were not suitable for my armies (either because they were from different armies, of course, or I just didn’t really like them, like all those Space Marines they have released over the years).
But somehow, for me, they did it in 2011. Games Workshop is selling a wonderful Skaven Warlord, actually one of the first pewter/Finecast warlords I really, really like – of course I plan to create my own some day, but I wouldn’t mind filing this one… Forge World conveniently sells two Games Day miniatures this year: one Space Marine with an ancient armour (MK III) and one Chaos Dwarf. Those would be splendid to have, too…
Lucky me… last weekend was the german Games Day. I never go there, of course, I lack the time and, frankly, I am not sure I want to spend a day with all those kids and giving away far too much money… besides, I have lived in Cologne for more than a year and I guess I don’t have to ever go there again, unless being forced to… BUT that means that this week the huge “we sell our Games Day miniatures on eBay to people who were stupid enough not to buy their own“-sell-out has started…
Pretty excited about that… unfortunately I am afraid the prices will get too high for my taste, especially for that Forge World Marine… but I am hoping that both the Skaven Warlord or the Chaos Dwarf will find their way to me… even if it takes some time… it took me more than a year to lay my hands on that Space Marine Sergeant.. but, well, that’s part of the fun…
Let’s go hunting….
Oh, speaking of Chaos Dwarves: when Mantic pulled off their successful take at chaotic little men, many people (including me) thought it sad that they were not the “neo-persian” big hats we used to love… well, fear not, Black Orc Games has decided to bring those back for good…
You know, I had my birthday last month. It was a bit solemn and sad, mostly because I get older and older and my life just doesn’t get any better, mostly… still I got some great gifts (ah, always the materialistic bastard, am I not?). Of course not all of them were connected to my main hobby… but one, one of the best was: some shiney new kits from Forge World, courtesy of my gaming pal Boswell.
You know, during all those years I am in (and sometimes out) of this hobby, I have bought a fair number of kits from a fair number of companies, but so far Forge World was never among them. Can’t really say, why… of course the prices are steep, but so are the prices of products from many other companies, too…
Anyway, my friend knows I like Space Marines and he knows I love dreadnoughts (who, to me, embody what I like about the Marines: bulky design, heavy weaponry, loads of details…), so his gift to me was just that: a dreadnought, but one from FW….
Actually, when I got the package from Great Britain, I was quite shocked, for it came quite crushed and wrapped in additional plastic.
Upon opening the outer plastic bag I found the parcel torn and wet… sometimes I really wish I knew what actually happened to that package… must have been one hell of a ride from Nottingham to Bavaria…
Fortunately the three little bags with the kits were still fine and dry. I assume they were originally wrapped in some foam material, but when I got the packet, that piece of foam was outside the actual parcel.
I will start my presentation in an ascending order of coolness… let’s start with the right arm/weapon. Knowing my taste, the donor ordered this beautiful two-piece twin Autocannons for me.
And here it is, the cannon. I wanted to show it from this side to show that Forge World is employing the same plug-and-socket connection that is also used with the regular dreadnoughts from Games Workshop.
You can’t really appreciate it on the photo, but to me the amount of detail is just wonderful…. but also the excess resin to this piece is so big, it’s unbelievable… I am already thinking about how I might use that for some other project, as some part of an ancient ruin…
For the left arm, my playing pal kindly provided a Close Combat Arm. In the way I like my dreadnoughts, no machine should ever be without that… one weapon to kill long range, one weapon to shred on close range… I always prefer generalists to specialists, you know…
Unlike the Autocannons the Close Combat Arm will be a tad more difficult to assemble, with all those little parts… though I guess it will be especially hard to decide in exactly which position I will mount this weapon…
Ah, finally the star of this gift, if not to say: the mother of all gifts! To accompany the weapons I got a Black Templar Venerable Dreadnought. The best choice of them all for my own order is based, model-wise, on Black Templar and Dark Angels sprues and is using the Black Templar codex for stats…
And here they are, the main contents of the kit. Normally I would not be tempted by a kit consisting of just 10 parts (11 with the base), but with a miniature that beautiful, my heart as a enthusiast and collector truly rejoices… it’s sad that my photos can never do justice to this piece – as will, I am afraid, my abilities as a painter… but I want to stay true to the wishes of the donor, who always tells me that I should put my qualms away and JUST GET THIS PIECE PAINTED… ganbarimasuyo!
And here are all the parts shown from the backside. There are almost no mold-lines, but loads of excess flash, which will be difficult to remove, mostly because the resin does seem to be quite hard… most probably I will not be able to cut and mostly have to file away that stuff…
Unlike the regular dreadnoughts produced by Games Workshop (both the old and the new ones), the main sarcophagus/body of the Black Templar Venerable Dreadnought consists only of 2 1/2 pieces: one huge piece of resin (with one huge piece of excess flash resin to the back), the engine part which goes to the back (and, as far as I can see, sport some of the flash that will be most troublesome to remove) and finally the head for the sarcophagus (which follows on one of the next photos).
Here are the lower parts of the Dreadnoughts. Actually, with that ball-and-socket joint, I guess that Forge World’s dreadnought is more versatile (concerning positioning) than the normal GW dreadnoughts, who only have a very flat conical joint. Again I am fascinated by the fine details… a pity I am such a lousy painter…
The MKIV feet are really funny, with three “toes” to the front and one to the back… looks like some robotic Donald Duck to me…
Unfortunately, while none of the parts were bent (as far as I know, the askew base of the pennant is meant to be like that), there were two broken parts in the kit. First, the pole of the pennant is broken just below the footrest of the skeleton… well, I do know that Forge World has a generous replacement policy, but I think it’s no big deal… I’ll just glue that and be fine…
Apart from the broken rod, it’s a great pennant… I know that quite a number of people dislikes all the skeletons and skulls that Games Workshop is decorating its models… but you know, I actually grew up seeing a lot of skeletons and skulls (long story…), so I am really fine with it…
Finally, here’s a closeup of the little parts: the broken sword and skull that belong to the skeleton pennant, the head of the sarcophagus and some half-torn loincloth that is actually pretty cool and and heavily detailed…
Unfortunately, the broken sword was itself broken at some point with the round pommel of the hilt staying behind, still attached to the resin sprue. Even worse, one of the crossbars of the hilt must have broken off even before the model was packed – the little part wasn’t in the plastic bag, even though I searched thoroughly for it.
But, again, I won’t complain and see this as a chance. Either I leave the sword as it is (remember it is meant to be broken), or I replace the hilt (or parts of it) with some other bitz of mine… definitely something I’ll have to think about…
Besides all these parts, there was a regular plain base and some copied instructions included, as well as a Forge World 2011 catalogue and a Warhammer Forge poster (unfortunately an older one with almost no Chaos Dwarves on it…). Well, a modelled base would have cost extra… but this is fine with me, I think that a custom-decorated base will add some personal note to the model. Even though I already had some big ideas that I just had to discard – after all, the base should never distract the viewer from the model itself…
Well and that’s all for now. Really can’t wait to get my tools ready to remove all this massive excess resin and get this wonderful toy all mounted up and painted… it’s almost a pity that I first have to finish the commission… but beyond that, it will be time for some dreadnought madness…
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