Chaos Space Marine Bikers – WIP 1

After a good seven hours over the weekend, here’s how they are now.

I’ve decided to make them my Slaaneshi contingent as I figured that the heightened sensations that come from riding very fast on lumps of metal into near-certain death is just the sort of thing these freaks love. The fact that they get +1 Initiative with the Mark and 5+ Feel No Pain with their icon is a nice bonus 😉

I’ve a game next Monday with regular Trenchmate, Tim. They’d better be ready…

Fast & Furious

I’ve a game next weekend and, in addition to my recently finished Heldrake I’m going to field a squad of bikes. That is, if they’re finished in time!

About two years ago I went on a bike buying rampage on eBay and netted eight on-sprue sets for about £20. I then part assembled a couple of them and, as happens, something new and shiny popped up and I forgot all about them.

I finished assembling them last night, I’ll only use five to begin with as that’s all I think I can manage to paint between now and the holiday Monday coming up. Let’s hope I don’t get distracted again…

Chaos Space Marine Heldrake

It’s done! I started this in June but thanks to, ahem, quite an eventful five months it’s only now finished.

I really enjoyed working on this model, I think I’ll have to add a few more to my army in the near future 🙂

Chaos Space Marine Heldrake – WIP 5

Soon, very soon it will be finished. You hear me, Chant?

40K End Times: Why It Won’t Happen (yet)

Yesterday Spikey Bits posted a letter from a hobbyist claiming to be a former GW staffer detailing some ideas regarding what would happen to our favorite grimdark universe should The (False) Emperor finally get around to shuffling off the mortal coil.  You can read the whole article here.

First of all, please remember that this is not presented as something that GW is currently bouncing around its Nottingham fortress, rather this is work of supposition and fan fiction.  Indeed this is not the first (nor will it be the last) attempt for fans to progress the narrative forward from the perennial two minutes to midnight 40K’s been stuck at.  My favorite interpretation has Guilliman healing and assuming the mantle of Emperor by stealing his pop’s corpse and thus angering his also newly returned brothers and instigating yet another civil war.  Such creative endeavors are healthy and can create nice alternative scenarios in which campaigns can be run.

Here’s why I think there won’t be any official Warhammer 41,000 any time soon.

1. Forge World’s and Black Library’ Horus Heresy series.  GW are ploughing major resources into this outstanding series, it’s nowhere near halfway there and it would be foolish to create a third major historical setting without the ability to do it justice.
2. Codexes, Supplements and Campaign Book.  The advent of the seventh edition has created a new paradigm which has allowed a wealth of publications with alternate rulesets and thus far I believe they’ve only released the tip of the iceberg.  I’m sure that over the next few years we’ll see more campaign boxes (Shield of Baal is arriving imminently), a continuing deluge of supplements and codexes to allow players to explore the 41st millennium better than they’ve ever been able to before.
3. Warhammer Fantasy End Times.  While this emerging series is, thus far, absolutely freaking awesome, it’s still not clear how it will play out on the long term.  Is it a new way to play Fantasy or is it eventually going to replace the established universe?  Also, will it make money in the long term?  These questions still need to be answered and I can’t see GW taking another risk until they have them.
4. LOTR/The Hobbit.  Remember this game?  Until GW gets shot of this property I can’t see the wanting to expand further.

Personally, I’d love to see a 40K End Times, but as an optional ruleset.  The main drawback with Warhammer Fantasy is that the Warhammer World is so small compared to the Imperium of Man, there’s less scope for stories in it so it needed a massive upheaval to keep it fresh, interesting and profitable.

When will 41K happen? My bet is a decade from now, after The Horus Heresy concludes.

Unless of course they do the Great Crusade…

TT Combat Sci-Fi Scenics – Shipping Containers

Back in the summer I backed TT Combat’s fourth Kickstarter campaign and have finally got round to painting some of my pledge.  To start with, I decided to get ready my five shipping containers.

As my new office is by the docks in Edinburgh, I decided to paint my containers in colours common to their real life counterparts.  After under and basecoating I applied a Boltgun Metal drybrush followed by a very liberal glaze (more like a bath) of Agrax Earthshade to really dirty them up.

Like real world shipping containers, these are designed to be stacked.

 

The doors are deeper cut so if you prefer you can remove them.

 

What scenery article would be complete without a size comparison?

This terrain will certainly find itself regularly used, I can see applications for Infinity, 40K, Necromunda and Killteam.  I still have a landing pad and a couple of walkways to build, I can’t wait 🙂

You can view The Troll Trader’s full like of scenery and terrain at their website.  I highly recommend giving them your custom.