The Unforgiven: MKVI Tactical Space Marine

The MKVI “Beakie” models have come a long way since Rogue Trader.

In a quest to continue to paint more Dark Angels, following up painting a MKIV Space Marine, I finally got around to painting the new MKVI Space Marine that we converted a little while back. As always, I used the same scheme I devised when initially painting my Dark Angels Kill Team, replying primarily on Caliban Green (Citadel) and mixing in Glacier Blue (Vallejo Game Color, 72.095) for highlights.

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.

The Unforgiven: MKIV Tactical Space Marine

Despite the MKIV Space Marine (right) being a much newer model than the Rogue Trader Marine next to it, it retains much of the awkward anatomical elements.

Over the year or two, I have been slowly painting Dark Angels, initially for a Kill Team, but then expanding to painting a variety of Dark Angel models that don’t necessarily fit neatly into a Kill Team, such as a Rogue Trader Space Marine and a converted Lunax7070 model. Having recently built one of the new MKVI Space Marines, I thought it would be fun to paint one of the older plastic MKIV Horus Heresy Space Marines I have had sitting in a case for years, with the hope of comparing its scale to some of the other Dark Angels I painted recently. Look forward to seeing one of the newer MKVI Space Marines painted soon too!

Tutorial: Space Marine Holster

And they shall know no fear.

We were pretty excited about Games Workshop's first “regular” Space Marine release in years with the MKVI Space Marines for Horus Heresy. So much so that we created a tutorial for giving them a smaller, more functional looking boltgun. When building one of the Space Marines, we were dismayed by their gigantic bolt pistol holsters. Out of the box they are so large that they hardly fit on the models themselves. We decided to convert one by cutting it down, and figured it was worth writing a short tutorial on how you can do the same!

Horus Heresy: MKVI Space Marine Impressions

From left to right: Klaasje Akhmatova Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum, MKVI Space Marine, Primaris Space Marine (modified to remove some of the more glaring Primaris details).

After the advent of Primaris Space Marines, we assumed Games Workshop would never make another traditional Space Marine model. To our surprise, Games Workshop used the rerelease of a new edition of the Horus Heresy to redesign a traditional Space Marine in the wake of years of Primaris releases. We were fortunate to be able to get a set of ten of the new Space Marines, and after assembling one, and converting a smaller bolter for them, wanted to tell you our thoughts about the models.

Tutorial: Converting an Umbra Pattern boltgun

From top to bottom: Primaris Auto Bolt Rifle, Umbra Pattern Bolter (MKVI HH marines), converted Umbra Bolter.

Over the years I have converted multiple more realistically-scaled boltguns, including a SMG styled one based on a Delaque flechette pistol and one from a Primaris heavy bolt pistol. I even created a tutorial showing how to convert a boltgun scaled to suit a Sister of Battle. Despite all of these conversions, I never actually made a tutorial showing how to create a boltgun variant for Space Marines. With the recent release of the Horus Heresy MKVI Space Marines, I thought it would be a great opportunity to take one of the new beakie marines and convert their Umbra pattern bolter to be smaller and ultimately more sensible.

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!

Dragged into Tubolasers 93: The Horus Heresy, plastic and beyond

The Horus Heresy!

In this episode, we are joined by an old high school friend, who is well read in terms of the Horus Heresy, to discuss Games Workshop’s newest rendition of the setting: Warhammer - The Horus Heresy. We talk a little about the history of the Horus Heresy in miniature form and how important it is that this new edition has recreated many of the classic Forge World models in plastic. We talk briefly about whether we think the new game will be successful in getting new people to play the Horus Heresy, or simply bolster peoples’ 40k armies. Finally, we predict what Games Workshop will do next with the setting, in terms of new models, and talk about what models we would like to build and paint in the future.

Dragged into Turbolasers Bonus Episode: Thoughts on Necromunda Ash Wastes and the plastic Horus Heresy

Necromunda is expanding to the Ash Wastes!

In this bonus episode, we chat about the upcoming Necromunda Ash Wastes game and the new edition of the Horus Heresy. We talk about the new Ash Wastes Nomads warband and their insect-riding Dustback Helamites. We also speak sadly about how awful the new Orlock vehicles look, fitting alongside the previous Orlock gang models. We move on to talk about the upcoming Horus Heresy game, and how they used it as an opportunity to redesign the basic Space Marine, this time with MKVI armor.

Adeptus Titanicus: Warlord titan build

By the manner of their death we shall know them.

Games Workshop recently released an updated version of Adeptus Titanicus, complete with new rules and multi-part plastic models. We talked about the quality of all of the components contained in the Grand Master boxed set, but didn’t actually assemble any of the warlord titans it came with. I recently finished assembling the first and wanted to talk a little about my thoughts of the model!

Adeptus Titanicus: Impressions

The Death of Innocence is Come.

Some 30 years after its original release, Games Workshop has released a new version of Adeptus Titanicus, a game that puts you in command of a maniple of colossal robots called titans. The game has been in development for a few years now, getting delayed substantially when Forge World decided to convert the 8mm scaled models from resin to plastic. It looks like it was worth the wait, as the titans are completely multipart and fully articulated. When pictures were first revealed of the models, including tiny Imperial Knights, my brothers and I knew we would not be able to resist getting some. While they sell the rules and models separately, we decided to buy the boxed game (called the Grand Master Edition), as we felt it was more likely that we would actually play the game that way. And while I am still far from finished assembling, let alone painting, everything that came in the boxed game, I wanted to give you my first impressions of Adeptus Titanicus.

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 12: The Burning of Prospero is upon us, with Blood Bowl soon to follow!

We spend this episode discussing the upcoming Burning of Prospero box game.  We speculate on how it will differ from the earlier Betrayal at Calth Horus Heresy game, as well as comment on the quality of the new models.  In the second half of the episode we switch to talking about the rerelease of Blood Bowl, and decide whether or not we want to start playing it again.  Finally, we talk about our current hobby projects, where Greg and Eric reveal that they are starting to paint models for the first time in many years!

Index Astartes Apocrypha: Impressions

Index Astartes: Apocrypha

To help celebrate 30 years of Space Marines, alongside releasing the Imperial Space Marine model, Games Workshop also released a hardcover book, collecting a range of early Space Marine material called Index Astartes: Apocrypha.  I was fortunate enough to get a copy of the book, despite its limited print run (it is available in a digital format on the Black Library, however), and figured I would let you know what I think of it via pictures!

Horus Heresy Betrayal at Calth: Game Impressions

'They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them .’

When Games Workshop released The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth last year, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the set.  This was largely because it provided plastic versions of many miniatures that had previously only been available in resin from Forge World.  And this enthusiasm was warranted, since the set is significantly cheaper than buying the resin equivalents and most of the models are superior to the resin versions.  But, we talked about much of this before, discussing the the tactical marines and the terminators in previous blog posts.  Instead, today I wanted to talk about the actual game included in the set.  A longtime friend, and fellow Warhammer 40k player, recently purchased the game, and we played a few of the missions last weekend.  I wanted to let people know what I think of it based on those games.

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!

Horus Heresy plastics: MKIV Armor Impressions

Plastic Space Marines have come a long way from their humble beginning. 

For the past few months there have been several rumors going about the possible release of plastic Horus Heresy miniatures. I had done my best to pay them little mind, sure it would be exciting, casting aside that hateful resin, and giving a good reason to give 30k a chance, but why get ones hopes up for something that might not happen? You can imagine my shock to find pictures leaked all across the internet, revealing what appears to be the current tactical squad box redesigned to feature all Mark IV ‘Maximus’ armor. I wanted to take some time to talk a little about why this upcoming release excites me.

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!).