Horus Heresy: Leviathan Siege Dreadnought Impressions

A MKVI Space Marine next to a Leviathan Dreadnought.

Earlier this year, I assembled one of the plastic Deimos pattern Rhinos for the Horus Heresy, one of the first new plastic kits released alongside the new game. While I was excited about assembling the rhino, I was most excited about assembling some of the other Horus Heresy specific kits Forge World made that were always entirely resin. One of these models was the Leviathan Dreadnought. I always liked how massive the dreadnought looked, as though it was designed to be a true-scale Space Marine Dreadnought. I even think I have one of the resin kits somewhere in my backlog of models, but due to it being in resin, I never actually got around to assembling it. So when Games Workshop released the plastic version with assault weapons, I was really excited and had to get one.

Horus Heresy: Deimos Pattern Rhino review

The plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino next to a Primaris-sized Dark Angel.

The second edition of the Horus Heresy was just released, and with it is the promise of GW releasing plastic versions of many of the Forge World Space Marine vehicles, removing many of the assembly woes of their resin counterparts. The first of these releases, alongside the boxed game, was the Deimos pattern Rhino. I always liked the Deimos design, due to its similarities to the original plastic rhino kit, but never bought one because it was a resin hybrid kit, building on top of an already dated plastic rhino (released in 2002). With this new plastic version of the Deimos, I jumped at the opportunity to get one, and in turn see if they were able to improve the basic plastic rhino from 2002!

Inquisitorial Arvus Lighter: Finished

”We're in the pipe, five by five.”

A few months back, I found an old Forge World Arvus Lighter, forgotten and unassembled in a box, and decided to assemble it. With that hurdle surmounted, I decided to do the last step, and paint the model! I do not have much experience painting larger models, having only painted a scale T-26 for Iron Sleet’s Thorn Moon project. Like that model, I really wanted to experiment with using more scale modeling techniques, rather than the more traditional ‘Eavy Metal style. When planning the paint scheme, I watched a lot of YouTube videos by the scale modeler Night Shift, and would strongly encourage you to do the same if you are interested in pushing your painting skills.

Assembling an Inquisitorial Arvus Lighter

“We're in the pipe, 5 by 5”

It is not secret that we at Between the Bolter and Me are not overly fond of resin miniatures. Unless all the stars align perfectly, resin models tend to be defined by mold shifts and bubbles. This is certainly the case when talking about Forge World models. And while this has gotten better over the years, assembling any large resin model from Forge World can be a frustrating experience, particularly if it was designed before the advent of digital sculpting. We have purchased quite a few Forge World models over the years, but have assembled very few of them due to the aforementioned challenges. When searching through my backlog of models, I found one such Forge World model, an Imperial Arvus Lighter that I purchased during the excitement of the Pilgrym and Curse of the Alabaster collaborative games. Pulling out the partially assembled model, seeing many of the pieces were warped, I remembered why it was never finished. I have grown a lot as a hobbyist since that time, and thought now was a good opportunity to finish assembling the diminutive craft, and then paint it!

Dragged into Turbolasters Episode 35: Space Wolves and Forge World, a steady decline in quality

How the mighty have fallen...

With the release of a host of new terrible Space Wolf releases from Forge World recently, we decided to talk a little about what makes them such a disappointment, and how they speak to Forge World’s recent inconsistency in model quality. We touch on how digital sculpting has both helped and hurt many of their designs and how the incredible popularity of the Horus Heresy has put a strain on a relatively small company. We also talk about the newly released Rogal Dorn model, and how he may be Forge World’s best Primarch yet.

Horus Heresy plastics: Cataphractii Terminator Impressions and Resin Comparison

Plastic Cataphractii Terminators!

The Betrayal at Calth was one of Games Workshop's best releases of 2015.  This was largely because it provided plastic versions of many Horus Heresy models that had previously only been available in resin from Forge World.  And while we talked at length about the MKIV tactical kit a few months back, we have seen very little talk about the Cataphractii terminators.  Since we have a bag or two of the resin models kicking around here, we thought it would be worthwhile to compare them with the new plastic models and let you know the strengths of each version!

Leviathan Dreadnought: Impressions

Blood Runs.  War Calls.

I do not think that I am out of line by saying that we all love Space Marines.  And for the most part, Games Workshop has created a fantastic line of models to represent them on the tabletop.  There is one notable flaw with them, however, and that is that they simply are not in scale with other models in Warhammer 40k.  Instead of being mythical godlike giants, they stand as tall as Imperial Guardsmen.  Because of this, many talented people have created their own “true-scale” marines.  Just to name a few, MoneyBallistic has some seminal Iron Hands, while Kari has some terrifying Red Corsairs.  Also from Iron Sleet, Migsula is creating a whole army of properly scaled Space Wolves with his Vlka Fenryka project.  The only other thing as iconic as a Marine in power armor is the lumbering armored sarcophagus that is the Space Marine dreadnought, so it stands to reason people would want to try to create a true-scale version.  This task, however, presents a whole new range of challenges.  While not easy by any means, the task of creating true-scale marines is dramatically aided by the availability of plastic and resin terminators, whose added bulk is often a good starting point for such conversions.  But when one tries to move beyond simply creating warriors in power armor, the task becomes substantially harder, because all the Space Marine vehicles are based upon the improperly scaled power armor marines.  There is really only one other plastic kit, besides the basic dreadnought box, that might serve as a base for such a conversion, and that is the Dreadknight.  As a part of his Invitational entry, Kari did exactly this, to excellent effect.  The Dreadknight’s long limbs do not quite mirror the aesthetics of the traditional Dreadnought, so I have been looking for alternatives.  I am excited to say that the search may be over, after seeing Forge World’s newest release, the Leviathan pattern Dreadnought!

Deredeo Dreadnought: Assembled

Dreadnoughts keep getting bigger and bigger!

Forge World has a particular talent for making impressive robots, from the cyclopean Warlord titan all the way down to the more humble dreadnought.  In recent years, Forge World have done a lot with their Contemptor dreadnought, making countless variations and legion specific versions. Just when I thought they had reached a natural end, they released an even bulkier variation of the Contemptor theme, the Deredeo pattern dreadnought.  In the excitement that accompanies any FW release, we promptly purchased one. Despite our excitement, and getting an incredibly well cast version of the dreadnought, other projects pulled us away from the new dreadnought, and it did not get built.  In the last few weeks, however, something pulled me back to the armored giant, and I was able to clean and assemble the model rather quickly (and just in time for FW to release another new dreadnought, the Leviathan Dreadnought?!).  Although it was a fairly straightforward build, I thought that I would give you some of my thoughts about it, along with some pictures!

Tyranid Malanthrope - Musings on Forge World's Tyranids

Creeping death.

When people think of the models that Forge World produces, I believe that most think of their impressive battle titans, tanks, and more recently their vast range of Horus Heresy models. Few, I suspect, think of the tyranids. I think this stems largely from that fact that many of their older, stellar kits have been discontinued with the release of plastic counterparts from Games Workshop.  And while I love the convenience of plastic, many of the Forge World Tyranid models were actually a good example of the increased level of fine detail possible with resin.  But today, few probably even know of the existence of the original resin Trygon, let alone have seen one in person.  I recently had the pleasure of assembling Forge World’s Tyranid Malanthrope kit, seeing the quality of the sculpt first hand. I wanted to spend a little time here to tell you about the model.

Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors: Impressions

'From Iron cometh strength; from strength cometh will; from will cometh faith; and from faith cometh honour.'

Any of you who have been following this blog for a little while know that I get pretty excited whenever Forge World releases a new Primarch model. I was particularly impressed with the fantastic Guilliman release, and would have been content to wait a while before the next.  But Forge World was feeling generous, and during their Open Day earlier this month (July 5th), they revealed their next, the Hammer of Olympia, Perturabo of the Iron Warriors.  Even more amazingly, in less than a week he was already up for sale on their website!  Perturabo marks the 10th Primarch released by Forge World (they are over half way done with all of the Primarchs!?), and the third (and possibly final) one sculpted by the talented Edgar Skomorowski.

Roboute Guilliman: the Avenging Son Impressions

‘A capacity for the theoretical is admirable, but a stomach for the practical is priceless.’

As the dust settles from the grand reopening of Warhammer World last weekend, there is a lot to be excited about. The excitement primarily stems from the models that Forge World unveiled, including the long awaited, and utterly cyclopean, Warlord Titan!  But this post is focusing on another God of War that was revealed to the world this weekend. Although only a fraction of the size of the Warlord, this next model is no less mighty, perfectly defining the Emperor’s noble ambitions at the onset of the Great Crusade. I am speaking of course of the next primarch from Forge World, Roboute Guilliman the Avenging Son of the XIII Legion (thanks Recalcitrant Daze for the excellent pictures from the event!).

Deredeo Dreadnought: Unboxing

Iron Within, Iron Without!

Since I became invested in the hobby years ago, I have been enthralled by the design and concept behind the Space Marine dreadnought, and I doubt that I am the only one.  There is something intriguing about these sepulchral walking tanks, primarily stemming from their utilitarian function of saving a heroic warrior from the verge of death, giving them the opportunity to fight once more.  Although they had some comical renditions in the beginning (a walking peanut), since the 2nd edition, they have looked like a squat walking sarcophagus of adamantium, complete with stubby gun arms, a drum-like powerfist, and a rectangular sarcophagi in the center.  This has become a cornerstone in the Space Marine aesthetic. Forge World, always wanting to shake things up a bit, released a new pattern of dreadnought loosely based on some old models a couple years back, the Contemptor.  Although reminiscent to its smaller cousin, it is bulkier, with a more rounded design.  Coupled with its separate head and its more articulated legs, the Contemptor is a far more agile and believable walker.  SInce its release, Forge World has produced numerous Contemptor dreadnoughts, including many chapter specific ones.  Just when we were all getting used to this new dreadnought, Forge World decided to release yet another variant, the Deredeo dreadnought.  Although reminiscent to the Contemptor, the Deredeo is slightly bigger, and serves as a dedicated weapons platform.  My fascination with dreadnoughts made ordering one of these Deredeo variants an inevitability, and a few weeks ago I got it in the mail, and thought you all might be interested in seeing what comes with the model.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Thorian Inquisitor WIP

Innocence proves nothing.

Having largely finished the first inquisitor and his accompanying security officer, I have begun to work on the last model for the Invitational, a second inquisitor.  I wanted this inquisitor to be less cautious about his identity as an inquisitor, instead of wearing run-of-the-mill fatigues and overcoats, he would be wearing a custom suit of power armor.  Despite a more brazen appearance, I wanted to ensure the model still had a reserved quality, giving no indication towards his placement along the thin line of radicalism.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Naval Officer WIP

A mind without purpose will wander in dark places.

Having finished the Inquisitor for the Invitational, I started working on a Imperial Guardsmen to accompany him. I wanted the guardsmen to have a similar reserved tone like the inquisitor, fitting a scene where both are part of a tense audience with a rival inquisitor, one that had just turned towards confrontation.  To accomplish this sentiment, I knew that I needed the model to be drawing a weapon, preferably with a tranquil confidence.  Interestingly, like the inquisitor, I ended up finding just the model that I was searching for in the Death Korp line of models, as well.  The Quartermaster, with his skeletal vistage, calmly drawing a las pistol to perform his grim task fit all my criteria for the model.  And since it too was designed by Simon Egan, it was scaled appropriately to the inquisitor.

Iron Sleet Invitational: Inquisitor WIP

Thought begets Heresy. Heresy begets Retribution.

With only two short months to complete three models for Iron Sleet’s first invitational, I decided to revisit an inquisitor model that I started, but never finished, way back in 2013.  Although I did a lot of the basic conversion work back then (replacing his head and modifying his shoulders), the conversion was far from complete, and still looked a lot like the commissar he was based upon.  To complete the model, I wanted to continue to downplay the commissar look, while enhancing his somber clandestine tone.

A look back: The miniatures of 2014

It is hard to argue with the notion that 2014 has been a remarkable year for hobbyists, one which has seen the release of a huge range of fantastic miniatures. Similar to last year, we thought that it would be appropriate to go back and take a look at some of our favorite models released over the year. Fortunately, it was not just a single company that dominated the scene, with Games Workshop, Forge World, Wyrd, and Corvus Belli, each releasing a host of excellent models.  Without further ado, we are going to go through each of the aforementioned companies and talk about some of their standout models for the year and select our favorite.  Finally we will reveal our overall favorite model of the year.  Now to the models!

Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter: Impressions

"It is better by far to be an object of fear than of respect, for one is a truth of the soul and the other an illusion of the mind."

In terms of model releases, in the last two years, I have come to look forward to and anticipate one thing above all others, and that is the release of new Primarchs from Forge World.  These models are the distilled vision of each of their respective legions, and some of the most iconic characters in the 41st millenium.  If asked three years ago if I thought these characters, legends in 40k history, could be effectively produced as models, I would have said "no" without question.  How could anyone encapsulate all of the lore and myth that has been cultivated over 20 years since their creation?  Thankfully, I was proven wrong by the work of the incredibly talented Simon Egan (as well as Edgar Skomorowski), who not only harnessed all the creative energy surrounding these characters, but also added some of his own personal vision to the characters.  This year has been a good year for Primarch releases, seeing the release of Horus, Mortarian, and Vulkan.  After Vulkan was unveiled at the Horus Heresy Weekender in May of this year, however, word about the next Primarch was scarce.  It was a painful five months of nothing until Warhammer Fest (Oct 11-12th), where another of the Emperor’s sons was revealed, the King of Terrors, Konrad Curze of the Night Lords.  But even this was only a single cropped image, so the wait continued.  Finally, in the first week of December, the Night Haunter was released and shown to the world in his terrible splendor.

The Genesis of a Space Marine: Unboxing Vulkan and musings on a conversion

Another Primarch, as impressive as the last!

By now it is probably not a surprise to anyone that I am a huge fan of Forge World's primarch models (http://betweenthebolterandme.blogspot.com/search/label/Primarch). I have written about them at length on numerous occasions, and eagerly await each new release.  Despite my inherent urge to collect all of them just for the sake of having a complete collection, it is not very practical.  For single models, they are very costly, and often require a  significant time investment to assemble and fix their casting issues. Furthermore, inherent in their nature, they are all from different Legions.  And no matter how fanatical about the models, I simply cannot collect a small army for every Legion such that each Primarch has a place.  To get around this to some capacity, I considered trying to use some of the models for conversions, but their cyclopean scale made me hesitant and I shelved the idea, waiting for some inspiration to push me past those initial musings.  That inspiration came when Migsula of Legion of Plastic, unveiled his newest project, the Vlka Fenryka.  Taking what he learned from his Legion project (creating a true-scale Alpha Legion army), he set his sights on the Sons of Russ, and set out to create a band of warrior-gods from the 13th company.  Unlike his Legion project, which he restricted to only plastic, he has fully embraced Forge World and has begun to create warriors using some of the Primarch models.  And while a talented modeler like Migsula dabbling with some of the finest miniatures in the world is exciting by itself, it was the stream of posts that followed (along with the accompanying discussions in the comments section) talking about his artistic vision, that set my imagination racing and rekindled my desire to use some of the Primarch figures as a basis for conversions.

The Ghost Legion: Building Alpha Legion Headhunters

I am Alpharius. 

It has been a little while since my first post about starting an Alpha Legion strike force for Zone Mortalis. I have been making steady progress on the force and can now finally show the results of my efforts! As I hinted at in my previous post, I have been hard at work on converting a Headhunter squad. The idea of a small cell of Space Marines that excel in infiltrating and sowing dissent and confusion in the enemy ranks is fascinating to me.  Particularly because, although always described as remarkably skilled and determined warriors, Space Marines are rarely likened to assassins (with the exception of the Alpha Legion’s Headhunters). Building a squad of these espionage agents presented an interesting challenge in trying to implement those unlikely themes into a unit of Space Marines.

Basing the Imperial Knight: Dragon Forge

The mailed fist of the Imperium of man!

When I was writing about Forge World’s Cerastus Knight-Lancer a few months back, I mused over basing options for Imperial Knights and ultimately decided that I wanted to use the newly released Dragon Forge resin bases.  To my good fortune, when ordering the bases, I discovered that they had just released a few more variants, increasing their selection to an impressive 13 different styles, including a Tech-deck variant (my favorite of their base themes)!  I recently received the base in the mail and thought that I would show you the process that I went through basing my Knight titan, complete with some repositioning of its feet to fit more flushly on the base .