Age of Sigmar: Initial Impressions of the Miniatures

The Age of Sigmar begins.

Warhammer Fantasy has seen a slow but steady demise since the release of 8th edition back in 2010. Although they released revised rules for most of the armies in the new edition, they tended to be sparsely updated versions of their previous books, to bring them inline with the ill-favored new rule set.  Interestingly, it took GW destroying everything in the setting through the End Times to renew people's’ interest in Warhammer (admittedly, I think the increased interest had more to do with them finally releasing truly exciting models and remaking old classics, accompanied with new interesting background and artwork, rather than the fact that things were ending, but I digress). Although people were excited about End Times, it inherently left fans uncertain what was going to happen to their beloved game, and we have all been in an uneasy limbo since the Warhammer world ended, waiting to see where Games Workshop would go. After months of vague rumors and unsatisfying teases from GW, pictures of their new game Age of Sigmar have finally leaked across the internet (thanks Lady Atia!).  While these pictures have left more questions than provided answers, they are quite striking, and I wanted to talk a little about my impression of the new models and the direction their design seems to be going.

Putrid Blightkings: Converting additional Death Guard terminators

"In the embrace of the great Nurgle, I am no longer afraid, for with His pestilential favour I have become that which I once most feared: Death."

In an earlier post, we at Between the Bolter and Me described converting a Death Guard terminator by combining parts from the Putrid Blightking box and a set of Catapharactii pattern terminators. While we still have not finished that first Death Guard terminator, we could not contain ourselves and began to forge on ahead by converting two additional squad members, again using the Putrid Blightkings as a foundation. We are excited with the progress on all three and thought people would be interested in seeing them and learning a little about the creative process that went into making them.

Putrid Blightkings: Death Guard terminator conversion

Embrace the madness in your soul!

In our last post about the Putrid Blightkings, we talked at length about how they are uniquely poised to be the foundation of all manner of interesting conversions. In our minds, the most obvious was utilizing them to make a range of interesting and unique plague marines and plague terminators for Warhammer 40k. Since the models are so complex and layered, it quickly became clear that a simple weapons swap would not do the models justice, and that they would require more significant modeling work. I am happy to report that work is well underway for the first of these conversions, an ancient Death Guard terminator! This post is geared around showing my progress on the conversion and talking about some of my thoughts on how I might finish him and what to do with the rest of the squad. Hopefully I can get some opinions from all of you about the unfinished aspects of the conversion!

Putrid Blightkings: Impressions

Grandfather Nurgle is proud.

Since its release, Brian Nelson’s Nurgle Chaos lord has been a key component to countless imaginative conversions.  In particular, it has been championed by the Inq28 crowd to make everything from daemonhosts to weapon servators (JRN’s daemonhost and Migula’s weapon smith, are excellent examples).  It is not difficult to understand why the model has received so much attention, it is both hideous and majestic in its corpulent, rotting splendor, dripping with vile ichors and donned in corroding metal.  It was also one of the first plastic character models Games Workshop released that, while multi-part, was intended to be assembled in one way.  By restricting the the posing, they were able to produce models with astounding depth, with parts layering on top of another (Malifaux plastic miniatures excel in this, as well).  As such, I was very excited when the Putrid Blightkings, a whole unit of foetid servants of Nurgle, much like Nelson’s model, were unveiled.

The End Times: Nagash rerisen

The End Times are upon us.

Games Workshop is regarded as the premier manufacturer of wargame miniatures in the world for good reason but, as with any entity as prolific as Games Workshop, it is not surprising that some of the models they release are not masterpieces.  This is particularly true when looking at some of their older models, where technology and resources were limiting.  I imagine a few models jump to your mind immediately while contemplating Games Workshop’s worst models, but one that I am sure everyone can agree upon (at least if you have been in the hobby long enough to know of the model) is the old Nagash model.  As a being so powerful that he destroyed the great civilization of Nehekhara and devised the art of necromancy, going so far as creating the first Vampires, you would expect an equally impressive model, one that puts virtually everything else to shame.  But instead Nagash was the opposite, a laughable caricature, with balloon feet and hands and a face reminiscent of Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie.  So you can imagine my excitement, and a bit of reservation, when I heard rumors that Nagash was getting a new model after all these years.  With official pictures being released by Game Workshop last Friday, I figured that I would talk a little about my thoughts on this excellent reinvisioning of a classic Warhammer character.