The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Marines

So you know 6th Edition became available for pre-order today and you know I was told there was a limited edition set? which I mistook for box set. Well, they obviously meant the Gamers Edition in the leather satchel and the Collectors edition [only 4000 worldwide] which is neither the box set I was hoping for. So I went into my local GW anyway, there were free bacon butties afterall and I thought we could paint for an hour and then scuttle back home.

On entering the Store Manager immediately asked me which version I wanted and when I said I was waiting for the box set he said 'what? until September?' Indeed, September  is a long way away. Still I sat down and painted for a bit but I kept tuning in and out of the conversations around me. Of course sitting around painting amongst a quite excited crowd giddy about something no one could actually see or touch is very odd, however the new White Dwarf seemed to be sufficient to fire the imaginations of all those present. It was then I changed my mind.

I realised that the swanky gamers edition in the satchel might be a nice little investment - I could buy it, enjoy it until September, then sell it on ebay and maybe even turn a little profit. Sorry if the mercenary capitalist ideals offends anyone but it's only business and it's not like I can't use it as a whole new source of things to share with folk on the blog. So I started chatting with the manager and he pointed out that if I was really in the market to invest, the Collectors Edition was the one to go for as with only 4,000 worldwide, compared with the 'limited edition' satchel, it was more likely to appreciate in value... At that point Rob, the chairman of my friendly neighbourhood gaming club popped in, also hoping to get a glance at the new rules. We chatted for a bit, he asked me if I was going to the club tomorrow as they have an Armageddon battle going on. Then I was left to decide and ended up going for the collectors edition.

I doubt I'll regret this, Space Hulk was a limited release of 10,000 units and is now selling for double the retail price but I just hope I can part with it come the time. The money's not ideal either, what with the wife's Birthday next month, tickets for Throne of Skulls and my road tax due [does that mean my MOT too? bugger!] Still, maybe this investment will result in recouping some of those costs, fingers crossed.

'nids part 41 - Tyranid Warrior to Hive Guard conversion pt5.

Previously on my 2nd Hive Guard conversion I was short a right rending claw arm. Once again I'm left a little lost as I kit-bashed a replacement together but now I look at it I'm not entirely sure what the components were. I think the arm was perhaps a left arm or at a very different pose as I had to split the arm at the elbow to repose the forearm in that grasping position.

Whatever hand was at the end was removed and replaced with a Genestealer Rending claw left hand. A fraction too small and a digit short I had to cut the thumb claw off a Warrior Scything Talon to get the full four fingers. I can't quite recall what was attached to that 'stirrup' on it's forearm but I put a small ammo tube from a Spinefist in there [cos those Spinefists are seriously useful *sarcasm*]. I figures that whatever discrepancies between the left and right hands wouldn't be too noticeable because there'll be a ruddy great Impaler Cannon on top of it to get your attention, not some shonky arm transplant.

Here's the second Impaler Cannon good to go.

I'm not sur ewhy I took a picture of the first Hive Guard here, I think it's because I've done all the Bonewhite highlights, a small update but an important one.

 

Oh, and there were 5 more Termagants in that ebay goodness that cost me £4 and these'll cost £6 alone as of next month. Funnily enough I've noticed a reduction of Tyranids available on ebay recently, maybe the market's drying up :(

Forgeworld Spartan Assault Tank

I've got the original instructions to create a Spartan out of an original Land Raider and Rhino model but if you're aching to transport 25 marines in one metal box then pre-order the new model from Forgeworld now - £95.

Warhammer World - What I bought - Forgeworld!

As I try and collate the many pictures from my visit to Warhammer World I thought I'd start with what I bought. To be honest I had no desire to buy anything but seeing as my son bought himself a set of Dire Avengers I may have got carried away with the fun I was having and treasures around me and ticked off at least one of the Top Ten Things to do at Warhammer World. I went and got the Forgeworld original Space Marine Weapons pack. 

It's been  something I've been eyeing for a while but hadn't bought it for a number of reasons. I needed the missile launcher for my Devastator Squad and I also needed a Meltagun and a Flamer for my Ravenwing so this ticked all the boxes really. There's obviously a lot of cleaning up to do there's more resin from the casting process to remove than makes up the bits! Still, fun times ahead.

I'd looked at the alternatives but I don't like the 2nd Edition 'pipe' missile launchers that are relatively cheap and available. The current model is better but would be a devil to fit the Devastators. As you can see below this classic design fits the Marine much better.

Return of my Son's Eldar Diving Eagles [Swooping Hawks] 2

Lets catch up with the Diving Eagles. We left them with my test mini and the remaining 5 ready to be painted with highlights after all the washes had been applied by my son So, with this in his hand he went on and painted the remaining 5 miniatures and I was so impressed with the end results. Once again this is my test mini, this time in real sunlight so you can see that although the red oxide primer was tned down a bit by the washes it still adds a bit of contrast between the bodysuit and the armored plates.

My son added the blue gem, I hoped he would spend some time on all the gemstones on his Eldar. A bit of fine detail on these spots would definitely lift all of his figures. It would be an interesting learning exercise in highlighting and the end result wouldbe greater than the effort involved, sadly I don't think he wants to do anymore to them, but he can always come back to address this if need be.

Here's the complete set, including his five painted miniatures.

As you can see there isn't a huge difference between my test mini and his efforts.

You should be able to see this more clearly when comparing mine on the left to his attempt on the right. Even his blue helmet lenses are quite neat. I'd dearly love for him to add a bit of shading, a highlight and a white spot on these jems and even on the lasguns, maybe some OSL effects on the coils there and even do the five gems on the guns muzzle. As I say I hope he comes back to them at some point.

They make quite an imposing squad overall.

And his Exach is particularly cool too. These are definitely better painted miniatures than I was doing at his age so I'm over the moon. I hope he uses this as a benchmark for what he can do.

I could be right I could be wrong?

I was in the Southport GW on Sunday, the manager's away but another guy was covering. He was cagey about what he knew about 6th but promised there would be plenty of fun in store next Saturday for pre-orders. He then seemed to forget being cryptic and dropped a bomb shell that's either completely bogus or very exciting - he was of the impression there would be 3,000 copies nationwide of the box set available as a limited early production run to pre-order on the 23rd ahead of it's August/September release!

Will have to wait and see if this come true...

'nids part 40 - Yet more ebay Warriors

During my recent ebay splurge, I say recent it's about three months back now. I got another 5 Warriors. I think the bargain price in the end was about £11 all in. It was two auctions and the seller kindly combined postage, which was nice considering they hadn't offered it and I got them all for such a steal. Anyway, the plan is to create another 2 Hive Guard and as you can see there are plenty of the required components attached to these to get me the result I need.

I've also got some of the remaining bits from my nieghbour and car-share buddy Mark. I was also looking to try and create a Tyrant guard with the remaining crushing claw components and some of the Mawloc Scything Talons, however initial dry fits are proving problematic in fitting the model on a 40mm base. There's just not enough room to fit everything in. I've seen one example on the internet of a Warrior-Tyrant guard conversion with the claws but I'm pretty sure it sits on a 60mm base which is ludicrous. I may look to see if I can get something a little bigger - 45 or 50mm wooden discs if they're available from my local craft shop. Otherwise some extra bits of slate my add more surface area whilst retaing the official base size. If this is no joy then I'll have to abandon the conversion.

Of course if I have the Hive Guard and Tyrant Guard I'm left with two Warriors, so no Shrike unit. I may definitely do another Deathspitter Warrior to join my existing unit, way we can have three Deathspitters, 2 and 1 Barbed Strangler or 3 and the Strangler. Options ar eextremely useful.