6th Ed. of Warhammer 40.000 will feature Dark Angels
Well, if all the latest rumors were not enough to confirm that 6th edition of Warhammer 40.000 (that everybody points for mid-year) would be Chaos versus Dark Angel Space Marines, now we have some kind of proof:
If you look at the paint kit for WH40k, the miniatures look clearly Dark Angels!
Last edition basic kit was Ultramarines (as the game box then had depicted in the cover), so changing the army to one less known (but still on the "big list") for me is a the final sign that they will come in the near new edition.
I love DAs. They were my first army, I have dozens of miniatures both painted and pending painting, I've read all the books and have two codexes (2nd edition and 4/5th edition).
I fell in love with them not only because of their dark knight feeling (if only were for that I could have chosen Black Templars), but because I like the concept of having a dark secret, inner circles, an endless hunting for the fallen, the unclear but tragic ending of their home planet and primarch, the mysterious Cypher...
And of course, their great Deathwing company (I have all the story in PDF), simply the best Space Hulk theme that Games Workshop has created.
But I also fear the new money-based policies of GW. Even lower points cost to enforce buying more miniatures for the same points army? All new cool models done in Finecast with the huge pile of fails it has? More huge buildings that I cannot almost store at home?
I don't play much, but checking my old points list (from 2nd ed) the difference is abysmal. I can simply ignore the new rules and use the 5th edition ones (as I won't ever go to a tournament).
I can also simply skip buying the new buildings, as I've done in the past.
But with Finecast sometimes you cannot avoid it, as new minis don't have any metal counterpart. I've suffered small bubbles and imperfections in the few Dark Eldar Finecast minis I have, and I can simply return the new ones if have defects, but I directly don't like to buy a defective material product.
It's a matter of principles, I wouldn't buy a defective car or computer, so why I have to do it with miniatures?
My hope is that they just move to finecast all metal Dark Angel minis (I already got the ones I want in metal) and not add many new ones. And my pocket will be happier too :)
Original source of the paint kit image
Tags: Miniatures Warhammer 40000
Where to buy Games Workshop miniatures online
Many people loves Warhammer and/or Warhammer 40.000, but GW has been increasingly rising prices up to the point of making it an elite hobby, at least if you want to keep with it more than one or two years and then move on.
But we are lucky that internet allows also to break barriers and access multiple shopping alternatives.
I am going to mention a small list of online shops where I have at least once bought something, explaining in my opinion the good and bad aspects.
Maelstrom Games (Closed, alternative can be Wayland Games)
The good: Really competitive prices (my favourite shop). Deals and special offers. Free shipping with small shopping cart.
The bad: Small stock on some items. Slow restocking. Limited catalog of products.
The good: You can find virtually anything. From really good deals, to nicely painted full armies, to old goodies like really old boxed games, books or miniatures.
The bad: I am not a fanatic of eBay because I have friends who had bad shopping experiences, so my advice is to stick to good reputation people, well known bloggers, or those announcing at websites like BoLS.
Miniatures Hobby
The good: Insanely cheap. Free shipping with small shopping cart. Cheap Forge World item clones. A few no longer available metal miniatures.
The bad: Resin is low quality (specially in thin areas). Molding lines and general cleaning work needed. No instructions, no box... just pieces. Really slow delivery.
The good: Really old treasures can be found here. 100% reliable (unlike eBay). Some items are real deals.
The bad: Very limited catalog. 1-item stock most of the times. Delivery quite slow (3-4 weeks to Spain, and not free!).
The good: Free standard shipping. Exclusive online-only old models. Best customer support (fast, efficient, solving your problems*).
The bad: Same price as physical stores. No discounts, no special web offers, no extras. Delivery times are also slow (at least in Spain, around 2 weeks).
The good: Exclusive official side-factory of GW for normal/non-finecast resin miniatures. Titans, conversion kits, uncommon miniatures (alongside the Imperial Armor codex-like manuals). Some of the miniatures are awesome. Quality is much better than Finecast.
The bad: Price ranges from expensive to insanely expensive. Some miniatures have shopping tricks (like buying separately the two arms) that make them even more expensive.
I also love visiting physical independent stores. Some might have the normal prices (same as GW website), but others usually have discounts or interesting offers, not mentioning maybe one or two no longer available relics.
Also if you want to avoid Finecast, some will probably still have metal minis.
And lastly, ask your friends if they play WH/WH40k if they have some minis they don't want. You might get a positive reply and be able to negotiate a reasonable amount!
Feel free to add more shop recommendations in the comments, indicating where have you bought from to give a hint of delivery locations.
(To avoid being flagged as spam please keep a limit of two or three web links maximum per comment, sorry)
* I had two different problems (a missing sprue from one item, and a delivery problem) and in quick phone calls they took note and fixed it really fast and easily for me.
When Warhammer 40k Necrons really appeared?
Necrons are an enigmatic and really appealing race, both in how the miniatures look (frightening killing machines without remorse nor pity for the other races) but also due to their background, so I try to read as much as possible about everything related to them.
One curious point that only adds more mystery to them is when Games Workshop really created the Necrons.
Sources say that in 1998 the first miniatures appeared (Necron Raiders), then getting a full army treatment after releasing the third edition of the main game.
Old Necron Raiders, from Mis Olvidadas Figuras
Actual necron miniatures
But, being an old dog like I am, introduced to "RPGs" at an early age because of HeroQuest, I was trying to remember why those Necrons were familiar to me from earier...
And then I remembered: Space Crusade (aka Star Quest in some countries) was my second boardgame, and was also done by Games Workshop to introduce the Warhammer 40k world to new players (and then try to move them to proper fields with the normal miniatures and games). Exactly like Heroquest but for the futuristic setting.
I won't enter into details because you can just navigate to the wikipedia link and read by yourself, but I will point out one date: 1990. The date where it was released.
And now, look at how one of the most dreaded monsters the game had looks, the so called "Androids":
Space Crusade painted Android miniatures,from the great Zen StarQuest
Don't you agree with me that the similarities are more than noticeable? Excepting the glowing energy bar in the weapon... looks like almost the same model!
We are talking about 8 years before the official first appearance (in a White Dwarf).
It looks quite reasonable to think that GW first thought of a futuristic, alien version of the undead skeletons back in 1990 (probably early while designing the game), and when they wanted to create a new race around 1997 they just went back and redefined the "Androids" (and gave them a better name).
Citadel Finecraft,or should I Say Citadel Finecrap
The first Citadel Finecraft miniatures I have are some Chaos plague space marines. Today I decided to relax and assemble them, and also check how impressive or not was the resin replacement of metal Games Workshop miniatures.
I had read all kind of comments, from not bad to terrible, and seen some frightening photos that scared me. My results? I thank I had the miniatures via a good online sale (so my mind cand "compensate"), but is a pity I didn't buy them in a physical store in Spain, because I would have returned them due to the quality.
I cannot imagine how can they in some cases even raise prices to sell this crappy resin models and not feel embarrased. Surely the resin has detail and quality, but only in those places where it doesn't have bubble holes.
Let me show you some photos:
Sure you can take out the fine layer of resin from the models, but WTF?! Plastic sprues are way better cut than this "finecast" ones!
Three sprues had the thin layer. Also in general al pieces have tons of remains to cut. In general looks like plastic sprues but less professional.
Almost every single piece needed retouches to remove the border of the molds (look at the elbow or the wrist gauntlet). In some places even more noticeable than plastic sprues.
And now come the fireworks... the now famous GW resin bubble holes. I wanted to think that the photos I saw were an isolated uncommon case, but the truth is that the bubble holes are directly defects, requiring green putty and not "a drop of glue" as GW says.
Look at the skull in the sword hilt. The hole is inmense and clearly visible.
You can find the bubble holes because they usually have like a shiny liquid (but is dry). Note that the hand also has another bubble hole.
Another broken piece, the upper right corner of this shoulder pad. Small bubbles you say?
Look at the "bite"...
The only resin backpack... and the skull has also a hole on the left part...
Plus another hole in the left part.
And the one that got me most angry about: One of the heads of the space marines had also a hole!
I always approach miniature assembly as a Zen-like ritual. In this case, I was frightened about what would be the next defect and if I could fix it or not.
I spent 30 minutes with green stuff fixing everything (and I hope my poor skills are enough once painted), fixing huge defects, not tiny bubbles.
My advice? Wait until this first generation of faulty Finecrapt resin models goes away and Games Workshop fixes their machines. In the meanwhile, buy "old" metal miniatures.
And if you must buy resin ones, buy them in a physical store so that you can return them in case of this kind of defects.
I am puzzled how if they also own Forge World (which produces resin models and I don't read complains against them) and they had he technology of quality resin models since years, they messed up so much .
Tags: Miniatures Warhammer 40000
Assembling a magnetized Dark Eldar Chronos + Talos
The newly released Dark Eldar Talos/Chronos is a gorgeous looking flying monster, but it is also expensive to buy two of them just to have both a Talos and a Chronos models.
As they share many common parts, I decided to finally go for a magnetic modding to try to exchange arms, lower body and rear part and have interchangeable parts.
I used a split into two small magnet, nails, needes. Tools I used were a modelling knife, plastic cutter and a modelling drill (tiny one).
The rear Chronos syphon or Talos knives use headless needles to be interchargeable. The needles are glued to the parts, and the rear of the miniature has a deep hole.
Cutting an arm to fit the nail. I do an L shaped cut with the knife, then drill a hole, extend it with the knife, cut the nail head and glue it.
Chronos arm detail.
Cut oval magned glued in the arm placeholder
With the cutter I splitted it into two (it was tiny).
Talos components unplugged.
Chronos version, with the tentacles and the spirit syphon at the back.
Looks really fantastic and here the magnets work perfectly.
Talos version. Notice my fail that makes the scorpion-like tail hang too low.
Also the arms of the talos version seem to be a bit heavy so the magnetized arms tend to rotate down to a hanging position.
For being my first attemp to magnetize a model is not bad, my worst fail has been the positioning of the tail and wasn't due to the magnets but of my dumbness of not properly checking the instructions before.
For the next magnetized model I definetly need magnets on both sides. The trick of the nail heads is not strong enough to allow all arm positions.
But at least I achieved my mission of having both miniatures paying just for one :)
Tags: Miniatures Warhammer 40000
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