Painting Table Update: Stormclaw Commission - Warboss

It has been a while since my last update but since then I have started work on my most recent commission job. The commission is for a fully painting / assembled Stormclaw box set so I was more than happy to get to paint some Orks and Space Wolves. I decided to begin the project by painting the Warboss first. You can find some pictures of the nearly completed miniature below:

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Painting Table Update: Ordo Machinum Inquisitor

After completing my recent commission work I thought that it was probably about time that I start working on my own stuff again. I had converted an Ordo Machinum inquisitor but hadn't got around to painting him yet. So after finding a bit of free time I sat down and began to paint up the Inquisitor.

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Painting Table Update: Chaos Gore Beast Chariot Commission Completed

Over the weekend I made the finishing touches to a Chaos Chariot that I am painting as part of a commission. Now that the chariot is completed I can quite honestly say that I did enjoy painting this. A lot of long hours (as opposed to the normal length hours) went into this in order to ensure I got it just right.

What simultaneously made this project a joy to paint but also increased the painting time was the sheer variation of color and materials present on this mini. The silver areas were easy enough, they just involved a silver spray over the top of black primer. This was followed by a series of brown/black washes and a drybrush of Runefang Steel. 

At this point I thought that as the bulk of the model had been finished I wouldn't have much more work to do, how wrong I was. As frustratingly slow as the going was the variation in color and techniques kept the painting interesting. I am especially proud of the red cape, this was achieved with a Dragon Red (Army Painter) base followed by Red Ink and Bloodletter washes to add definition. 

I was thankful that my client opted for the Gorebeast over the Horses as I think the Gore beast looks fantastic. It took me a while to be happy about the skin however, but after numerous washes drybrushes and highlights I finally got what I was hoping for. My favorite thing about this model is the huge fore arms which I applied Blood for the Blood God to for that just 'just finished pulping someone look'.

Here are some pictures of the completed chariot which will be added to my Commission Portfolio soon.

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Painting Table Update: Chariots of Steel

It seems that most of my hobby time has been devoted to commission work recently, which is rather frustrating seeing as how I have quite a few Scions waiting to be assembled and painted. Saying that I am rather enjoying painting Eldar and Warriors of Chaos, having never collected these before it has been a good opportunity to paint some units I would have never normally had the chance to.

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Updated 6th Edition Warhammer 40k Rulebook to Come in Three Parts

Ahead of this weekends official announcement of the Updated Rules for Warhammer 40k we are getting a lot of leaks from the upcoming White Dwarf. The most recent revelation being that the new rule book will be in not one, but three parts.

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Fuel for the Rumor Mill: Blood Angels, Orks, 40k Starter Sets and more being pulled from Retailers

I have just taken a look over at the Retailer section of the Games Workshop site and noticed the following information that GW has released to their retailers. The list appears to detail a number of kits which are no longer required to be Stocked. 

Now some of these may just be stock changes but there are a few which grab your attention, especially with the recent rumors. I have listed the following points in order of likelihood, the first being the most likely. Now please take my speculations with a pinch of salt, they are only my interpretations of the information provided.

1. Dark Vengeance, Warhammer 40,000 Paint Set and WH40k Rulebook are being pulled which helps to back up the rumors of a new Rulebook and Starter kits for 40k
2. Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard, Space Marine Terminator Close Assault Squad, SM Landraider and Space Marine Strikeforce boxes are being pulled as well. These are probably just be re-boxings but this still goes someway to lend credence to a possible Blood Angels re-release coming soon.
3. Ork Battleforce, Ork Battlewagon, Ork Deff Dread are also strong pointers for an Ork re-boxing alongside some new releases. This would be similar to that seen with the release of the Crimson Slaughter Rules and Helbrute kit a few months ago.
4. Finally there is the Dark Eldar Battleforce and the Dark Eldar Razorwing which seem most interesting considering the rumors which suggested they would be part of the new Starter Kit.

Here is the info pulled directly from the GW site, you can find the page HERE. This site has been pretty useful for gauging what will be released in the past. I have previously seen that the old Citadel Tools were getting pulled before there newer versions were officially announced.

Currently the Order Forms (January – April) are up to date except for:

No longer required stock for Stockist status:

BS1: Dark Vengeance

BS1: Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook

BS1: Space Marine Terminator Close Assault Squad

BS1: Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard

BS1: Ravenwing Command Squad

BS1: Vampire Lord on Dragon

BS1: Skullcrcushers of Khorne

BS1: Skaven Warp Lighting Cannon/Plagueclaw Catapult

BS1: Fantasy Paint Set

BS1: Warhammer 40,000 Paint Set

BS1: Hobby Starter Set

BS2: Grass

BS2: Scorched Grass

BS2: Purity Seal

BS2: Stippling Brush

Ext: Space Marine Strikeforce

Ext: Dark Eldar Battleforce

Ext: Ork Battelforce

Ext: Dark Eldar Razorwing

Ext: Ork Battlewagon

Ext: Ork Deff Dread

Ext: SM Landraider

Ext: Chaos Marauder Horsemen

Ext: Warhammer Daemons of Chaos book

Ext: Karl Franz on Deathclaw

Ext: Warhammer Tomb Kings book

Ext: Vampire Counts Battalion

Ext: Empire Battalion

Ext: Celestial Hurricanum/Luminark

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All It Needed Was a Lick of Paint - Website Makeover & Ordo Machinum Beginnings

Regular visitors to my blog may have noticed that I have given it a bit of makeover. I have done away with the dark and cluttered design (much like the inside of a Hollister store) and opted to a more minimalist and lighter one. You may experience a few hiccups as the site is still under construction and I haven't yet fully sorted out the links to all of my pages.

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I'm back, for now at least.

So its been a while since my last post and you may wondering what could be so important that I would not be able to post here. Well most of my 'blogging time' has been devoted to writing for Talk Wargaming but now I'm back, for now at least.

So what else have I been up to? Well I have been busy with a couple of commissions, a small detachment for Warriors of Chaos and the beginning of a full Ulthwe eldar army. So far I have completed three Skullcrushers of Khorne which were actually my first ever attempt to paint a Khorne miniature.

My hope is to better balance my time between my own blog and also my Talk Wargaming commitments.

Anyway, here are the finished items which will be added to Gallery shortly.

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White Dwarf Weekly 6 and March 15th Releases Leaked: Hellbrutes confirmed

It is that time of week again where rumors of the upcoming releases a either confirmed or disproved. This time we have some interesting news of a Chaos re-branding along with a new Codex supplement and kit.

With a leaked picture of the cover of White Dwarf Weekly Issue 6 we can pretty much be certain that the a new Hellbrute kit will be coming soon.
From the caption beneath "Dark Glory" we can also be assured that the Crimson Salughter codex will be arriving also.

The release schedule indicates that the 15th March will be when we are getting the new Hellbrute kit, some pictures of which we have already seen floating around. In addition to the new kit we will also be getting the Crimson Slaughter codex supplement as well as an update to most of the current Chaos kits. The Chaos battleforce also appears to be being replaced with the Chaos Space Marine Attack Force. This bundle will contain the following and be priced at about £120 ($205):

1 Chaos rhino

1 Chaos terminator lord

5 Chaos space marine raptors

1 Chaos space marine forgefiend

10 Chaos space marine

5 Chaos terminators

Although there has been rumors of Chaos Havocs getting a much needed new kit they have not been detailed in this wave of releases. However, as they have not been listed as having their box art updated there is still a chance that we will see them in the subsequent week(s). Personally I am hoping to see a couple of characters in plastic much like the Dwarf release. 

Source: Faeit212, Astropate

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The Fraying Paintbrush Reviews: Imperial Knight Titan Unboxing

In this video I take a look at the new Imperial Knight Titan release. I show the new sprues in detail and give my opinions on the Imperial Knight. As with my all my Warhammer purchases, these came from Element Games. They are a great independent retailer and offer 20% off the RRP on new GW releases and 15% off everything else! Click the image below the video to check out their online store. Enter the following code at checkout to receive double points: PET818

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Rumor Lock-Downs and Peculiar Announcement Strategies

Now as you may have heard Games Workshop is currently on a rumour lockdown as a result of the early leaking of the Imperial Knights. Now apparently they were hoping to keep this under wraps so to increase the impact of their announcement in White Dwarf Weekly Issue 4. Unfortunately for them images and details of the Knights had been making their rounds across the internet for nearly 2 weeks prior to their official announcement. In response to this they have severely cracked down on any information getting to the outside world.

The leaked cover on White Dwarf Weekly 4

Are rumours drying up?

It seems that we may be starting to feel the effects of this with very little information regarding releases in mid to late March being released. Usual sources such as 40k Radio and Faeit have only had snippets of info recently, with most of this coming from early access to White Dwarf Weekly and Warhammer Visions. But what effect does this lockdown really have on GW and the Warhammer community? Well it only serves to cripple any hype being built by upcoming releases. Now this got me thinking about what else GW do badly when it comes to new releases.

We need more than a weeks notice.

Well to really get to grips with how peculiar GWs announcement strategy is think of it in another way. When you hear about a new film, video game, album or TV show do you hear about it the week before its release? No you are aware of it long before this, several years ahead in some cases. The success of these products relies on building hype and exposure, announcing them nice an early gives the target customers plenty of time to become aware of the new product. It will also expand the audience and, especially in the case of the Imperial Knights, allow them to save money for the new product. Announcing something a week before only serves to put people off buying at release.

The most recent preview is from Warhammer Visions

Why the lack of previews?

Let’s take the Imperial Knight, had Games Workshop announced this in early January they could have really pushed to product to us. GW stores could have had pre-view models that people could see and even use in some in store games. This would have not only given people a reason to visit GW stores again but also get them excited about owning a Knight. They could have seen the rules in action and decided if it was right for them rather than erring on the side of caution and waiting a few months until after release.

In Summary

Well those were my thoughts on the rather odd announcement strategy Games Workshop take. I have thought long and hard and can see no advantage to only announcing products a week in advance of release. In addition to this they shouldn’t restrict rumours (where they do not leak rules), but rather encourage them and take advantage of the free publicity provided by forums and sites such as Faeit 212. By playing their cards close to their chest they only serve to alienate their customers who are, after all, what keep them in business.

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Hammer Time: Thoughts on assembling and painting Dwarf Hammerers

Over the weekend I finally managed to complete my Dwarf Hammerers unit after roughly two weeks of sporadic painting. Seeing as my personal hobby articles on this blog have been a bit thin on the ground recently I thought I would briefly share my experiences.

The Kit
First of all, I have to mention how good the Hammerers/Longbeards kit was. The parts were well detailed and really looked the part for elite warriors, you can see the sprue up close in my un-boxing video. After removing the Hammerer parts from the sprue I was left over with a nice amount of spare parts, namely the longbeard command parts, weapons and heads. As I'm not a Dwarf player these leftovers will probably find there way on to eBay, which helps to reduce the cost of the kit in the first place.

Assembly
Assembling the kit was pretty quick, mainly because I decided to paint the arms, heads and shoulder-pads
separately from the body. Overall there were no really fiddly sections and all of the parts fitted well together. I was quite impressed by how well the beards had been sculpted to ensure that they fit snug against the Dwarfs body.

Priming
I decided to a cheat a little when it came to priming the dwarfs. As I had not fully assembled the parts I was able to use the Army Painters silver spray primers to base coat the body, arms and shoulder pads as these parts were predominately metallic. The heads and the banner on the other hand were primed black as the beards and the banner fabric contributed to majority of these parts.

Painting
Now at the time of painting I didn't bother to take pictures as I worked (selfish I know) so this will be no detailed tutorial, just a quick review of what I did.
Metal & Armor - The majority of the models were metal so the silver primer saved a lot of time here as they only need a wash with nuln oil. The gold sections were painted with , washed with agrax earthshade and dry-brushed with runefang steel along with the silver parts.
Beards - For the beards I followed the paint splatter article in White Dwarf Weekly Issue 1.
Fabric - The fabric handles and ropes were painted with screamer pink, washed with carroburg crimson and highlighted again with screamer pink.
Standard - The standard was deathworld forest, washed with athonian camoshade and highlight with deathworld forest and straken green. The free hand symbol was baneblade brown followed by a ushabti bone highlight.
Skin - The skin was based with bugmans glow, highlighted with cadian fleshtone, washed with reikland fleshshade and highlighted with kislev flesh.
Gems - The gems were based with caledor sky, washed with drakenhof nightshade, highlighted with hoeth blue before finally adding ceramite white dots.

Conclusion
To some up painting my first ever Dwarf miniatures I would have to say that they were a joy to paint. They were a little time consuming, but that is probably mainly due to my own slow painting speed. I also tried out a few new techniques with these guys and I think these experiments paid off. Priming in silver saved a lot of
time and painting them partly assembled ensured I was able to easily reach every detail. I also attempted to paint eyes for the first time in a long time. This attempt was much more successful however due to the use of the Army Painters super thin psycho brush.

I would most definitely recommend this kit to any Dwarf player or any hobbyist who is looking for something interesting to paint up.

If you are interested in purchasing the finished hammerers they are currently on eBay and can be found here

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March Week 2 Release Schedule Leaked: Imperial Knight Codex

Well its that time of the week again and the release schedule for the 8th March has been revealed to us.
It appears that this is the first week since the start of the new release format that we will not be getting any miniatures in.

Instead we will be getting the Imperial Knight codex to go along with the kits which will be released this Saturday. The codex will be priced at roughly £25 (based on the £ to $ conversion) which is a little less than other Codexes(Codices?), this could indicate that it will be smaller in content compared to that of any other armies Codex.

In addition to this the schedule also details a Imperial Knight companion book and a 'The Knights of the Imperium' book. Now there are no details as of yet as to what these could be however I would imagine that the 'The Knights of the Imperium' book will be a collecting guide, featuring painting and hobby guides a long with some background on the Knights. It is equally possible that the Codex: Imperial Knights Companion guide is just a a limited edition version of this. This is just speculation but hopefully will we see some more clarification once people recieve White Weekly Issue 5.

Source: Faeit 212

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White Dwarf Weekly Review: Issue 4

In this video I take a look at issue 4 of White Dwarf Weekly. Moving away from the Dwarf releases of previous issues we get the first look at the upcoming Imperial Knight kit. I discuss the articles and give my

opinions on some of the newer miniatures being released.

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New Chaos Hellbrute Kits Sighted - Possible March release?

Now last month you may have seen one of my posts which reported on some rumors of a Chaos Hellbrute kit being released early this year. Well it seems that these rumors have been confirmed with the leaking of some images of some new Hellbrutes.

The first thing that is apparent is that these are styled along the same lines as the Dark Vengeance Hellbrute with the notable difference of the feet. No more weird dreadnought toenails…

It is safe to assume that the kit will be plastic will a multitude of weapon options available. From the pics we can see that we at least have a reaper autocannon, plasma cannon. To compliment these with have a multitude of close combat weapons such as the claw, a hammer and some flailing tendrils.

There also appear to be some head and carapace variants relating specifically to each of the gods. Although there isn’t a Slaanesh Hellbrute pictured you can see a small amount of it just below the Nurgle one.

It appears that these have been sourced from Warhammer visions issue 2 which will be due out on the 1^st March. These means that we can probably expect to see the kits released sometime in March as well as a possible standalone release.

I’m very much impressed with these kits and will most likely be picking 

one up when they are released. It’s about time that Chaos players actually received a decent model for their Hellbrutes.

Source: BoLS

 

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Imperial Knights release date and price confirmation

The release schedule for the final week of Feb (going in to March) has been leaked and with it comes price and release date confirmation for the Imperial Knights. They will arrive in stores on the 1st March being available for pre-order from the 22nd Feb. This corroborates with the White Dwarf Weekly Issue 4 previews and hints in Issue 3.
In terms of pricing they will sold at $140 which equates to £80-£85. This is slightly pricier than the similar sized Wraithknight which makes sense seeing as how it is a lot bulkier.

There is still no sign of a dedicated rulebook however there are rumours that will be getting one and that it will cover 3 armies. For now you will have to use the rules which will be published in White Dwarf Weekly Issue 4. We can probably expect a rulebook to fill make up part of March 8ths releases.

Interestingly there is also a Imperial Knight transfer sheet listed among the releases ($20, £12) which seems rather odd. Surely GW can't expect people to pay for a transfer sheet, something which has come free with most Imperium plastic kits. Especially when it equates to the cost of clam packed HQ choice.

The list also details the release of the Sentinels of Terra Space Marines supplement which will be release on the same day as the Imperial Knight. This will contain rules specific to the Imperial Fist chapter.

Source: Faeit212

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Imperial Knights: More pictures, rules and pricing

As the official announcement of the Imperial Knights draws closer we are beginning to see an increase in volume of early rumours.

First of all, let’s take a look at some leaked images from White Dwarf Weekly Issue 4. These pictures give us our first hints of what the new kit will contain and also how big it is. As expected it is on part with the Eldar Wraithknight and will come with a range of weapon options.



From these initial pics its obvious that the designers have been very true to fluff. As the owners of these Knights are not typically the Imperial Guard but rather Noble Houses of particular planets, it is expected that they come heavily adorned in heraldy. There is a lot of ornate shield work and embellishments which signify the status of their masters house.

A number of rumours have indicated that there will be several types of Knight, with the new kit providing enough components to construct all of them.

As for the price, an anonymous source on Faeit 212 gives us a hint with the following:

preorders for imperial knights are 330 Liras, I guess this kind of confirms the earlier rumor the the knight kit will be

For those of us in the UK that is roughly £90 however this is by no means 100% confirmation. Although this is £20 more than the Wraithknight it does makes sense when you consider the increased bulk and supposed weapon options of the Imperial Knight. I will keep updating with Imperial Knight rumours as and when they appear.

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Dwarf Release Wave 2 Unboxing: Runelord, Grimm Burloksson and Gyrobomber.

After recieving the new Dwarf kits on Saturday, I decided to film a second un-boxing video. Here I show off the kits and give my thoughts and opinions on them. As with my all my warhammer purchases, these came from Element Games. They are a great independent retailer and offer 20% off the RRP on new GW releases and 15% off everything else! Click the image below the video to check out their online store.

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White Dwarf Weekly Issue 3 15th February 2014 Review

In this video I take a look at issue 3 of White Dwarf Weekly. Once again it focuses mainly on the Dwarfs releases but this issue features a Dwarfs vs Skaven battle report. I discuss the articles and give my opinions on some of the newer miniatures being released.

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Imperial Knights to be released 1st March

With the Dwarf releases coming to an end in just over a weeks time, the rumor mill has already switched gears and is now churning out leaked information on the Imperial Knights. A quick snapshot from White Dwarf Weekly issue 3 hints that issue 4 will contain rules and modelling articles on the Imperial Knights. Based on White Dwarf Weekly's current strategy containing information to the releases of the following weekend, it is a safe bet to assume Imperial Knights will be in store on the 1st March with pre-orders from the 22nd Feb.

What are the Imperial Knights?

For those of you who are stumped at the name Imperial Knights, I am not talking about Imperial Guard on horseback, no I'm talking about Titans. 

We first saw the Imperial Knights in epic scale but they have yet to make the cross over into 40k. There have been numerous conversions and third party manufacturers though, such as Dreamforge. The Imperial Knight titans are smaller than a Warhound so expect them to be on par with the Eldar WraithKnight, in both size and price.

There has been little in the way of images of the Imperial Knights except from a rather blurry image which appeared on Facebook a few days ago. If this is genuine then we can expect to see a very nice kit from GW. Much like the Eldar Wraithknight we can probably expect a number of weapon options, such as the multi-melta/melta cannon on the right arm and the giant chain-sword on the left. Keep checking back as I will posting more news and rumors as they appear.

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