The Sons of Caliban

Hello all, Schlemazal here (introduction post here, in case you want to know who I am). Now that the world has decided not to end, it’s time to look forward to the next release for my favorite army, the Dark Angels. The DA have been my primary army, through thick and thin, since the tail end of 3^rd edition (mostly because I’m as stubborn as my terminators used to be), so I’m excited to see an update that will make them actually competitive again. I’m going to reserve any real judgment on the rules (or Matt Ward’s fluff) until I can actually see the codex, but we can still talk about the rumors and some of the models that have been shown off.

I hope this is just a bad photo, otherwise that is some ridiculous motion blur

I’m cautiously optimistic about most of what I’ve seen, so we’ll start with what I see as the good:

1 – Army-wide rule making plasma less dangerous to use. I know there’s some question as to whether or not the Dark Angels really have more access to plasma weaponry than other chapters, but I think the preference has been there since 3^rd Edition when we had slightly cheaper plasma cannons and I’m happy to see this preference really becoming official.

2 – Banners conferring army rules rather than special characters. One of the biggest issues I’ve had with the recent codices has been the emphasis on particular special characters being used to define how an army plays, and I’m very pleased to see that GW is finally moving away from this model.

Azrael approves of banners

3 – Models. I like almost all the new models I’ve seen (with the notable exception of the new landspeeder, but I’ll talk about that in a moment). I think the new flyer (Nephilim) looks very slick, and the rules to go with it sound good for an air-superiority fighter. The new terminator models are amazing as well in my opinion, and I will definitely be buying some. I also like that they seem to have finally picked a monkish theme to stick with rather than alternating between Dark Angels being monks/knights and native americans.

I was in the middle of updating these suckers too

4 – Sternguard Veterans. I’ve wanted to be able to field these ever since they came out in Codex: SM, and now I finally can.

Now the bad:

1 – My main complaint with the new codex is simply the lack of attention to most of the chapter. While this may turn out to not be the case at all, the rumors make it seem that virtually all the new units and models are Deathwing/Ravenwing. I get that they are the ‘interesting’ portion of the chapter, but as somebody who has traditionally fielded a company list, I’d like to see some love for the other 80% of the chapter (Occupy the Rock anyone?).

 2 – Land Speeder Vengeance. In addition to simply being an ugly model, I can’t help but feel like this won’t be a particularly useful unit. No matter what the Plasma Storm Battery actually does, having an armament like that in addition to an assault cannon and a heavy bolter is far too many weapons for a speeder. Land speeders die very quickly, and one with that much firepower will only draw more attention, along with a higher points cost.

The Unknown:

1 – Deathwing Knights. I have mixed feelings on this unit. On the one side, it strikes me as very cool, but at the same time, the idea of arming terminators with weapons that can’t even kill marines is frankly insane. This one really depends on how much they cost and what their special rules do.

2 – The Dark Talon. I’m hoping that this one is as cool as the Nephilim, though I will have to wait and see. The Rift Cannon is basically a giant question mark right now.

3 – The Fluff. With Matt Ward writing the codex, I’m desperately hoping that the fluff won’t be mangled. As always, I’m going to be cautiously optimistic in this case. Besides, he can’t possibly come up with anything more insane than the idea that the Dark Angels are actually a chaos sect trying to stop the emperor’s reincarnated spirit/starchild (Cypher) from reaching the golden throne and slaying his own corpse to set his psychic powers free and destroy the chaos gods, right? On second thought, I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that question.

Ask your chaplain if Matt Ward is right for you before use

As always, comments and suggestions are appreciated.

HUMOUR: "Converted" Necron Flyers (and 300th Post Thank You!)

Probably the shortest post I will ever do, but I got a kick out of these "converted" Necron Flyers.

I think the one on the left is a Night Scythe and the one on the right is a Doom Scythe.

I expect to see these entered in Golden Demon at the next French Gamesday, that is if they make it past the mid-game snack.

EDIT: WOAH, this is my 300th post! That is amazing. Well, I don't plan on stopping any time soon, and I only have a few more months in Japan, so there should be an escalation in the number and quality of posts in 2013 (assuming we all survive past Friday, thanks for that one Mayans). I started this blog 4 years ago, and it has been great. Here is to another great 4 years and I hope I can continue to provide quality hobby related material for all my readers. Thank you everyone for stopping by and listening to my mad rants and rumblings and complimenting me on my work. Some special shout outs to Ron from FTW (really gave me my start with the FTW network), the BOLS guys for keeping my blog on the blogroll while I am on deployment and not posting (allows me to get right back on the horse when I am back) and some cool guys like Admiral Drax, Soviet Space, Mordian 7th and my other truely dedicated readers/commenters (at 0130 I can't remember your names, if I do later, I will try to retro add them. Sorry!). As well, thankyou to my friend Discordian for contributing so much and ranting so well! And thank you Schlemazal and Mesdoram for continuing to talk 40k to me, despite a continent and ocean between us. Last, but certantly not least, thanks to my Beautiful wife, Mrs. Gothmog, for putting up with this crazy hobby of mine and my obsession with it.

On Zues' Anvil: Resurrection of an Imperial Thunderbolt- Part Two

So a while back I posted the begginings of my work to rebuild and ressurect my Forge World Imperial Thunderbolt Flyer. Most of the progress made is in that post (hyperlinked), including what I did to reattach wings, fill in missing parts, prime, and start painting.

Below is just an update on what I have done so far since then. Not much other than to have put down the majority of the basecoat and painted the inside of the cockpit.

Base Coat pain courtesy of Lowes.

Flight Lt Gabriel Constantine at his Controls

And a quick look at those controls

Yes, before you ask the helmet was inspired by this:

I said inspired, not identical

Blood Angel Assault Marine, Honour Guard and Sanguinary Terminators WIPs (CONVERSIONS)

SO sorry I am a little delayed after my last post. And I haven't go to work on my Blood Angels at all since then either, though after this I am watching an episode of 20th century battlefields and doing just that.

BUT for now some WIP photos.

This is just a simple paint update: 10 assault marines in progress. You can notice some kitbashing through out, as well as chapterhouse helmet and a FW chainaxe.

Next for some more COOL stuff. So my angels are based around 2nd Company. As such I need a captain and honour guard. And I need an honour guard to paint a freehand 2nd company banner for to do a tutorial. So here they are.

To run through, the captain is on the left and is based off an Ultramarine champion. He has a little bit of work left to make him a full on blood angel, but I can't wait to show the final results. He will be pretty convincing in my opinion. Next, in back, you have a banner bearer and a Sanguinary Priest. The bearer is kit bashed Death Company and Command Squad with an old metal Death Company Power Sword. The Priest is just an old metal apothecary with a new Death Company chainsword.

Now the two in front, those are currently my favourite of the squad. So the center one is the Tech Adept. For you old BA players, you'll recall that old staple of the honour guard. Well I still adhere to that fluff as discussed some time ago.

So he consits of Sanguinary Guard legs (the tech adepts had artificer armour after all), a tank crew torso, FW character upgrade arm and plasma pistol and Storm Raven pilot helmet. The Axe head is cut off an old trashed techmarine I had lying around and glued to a plastic assault marine axe. I think he looks awesome and I plan on giving him one of the Chapterhouse Studio jump packs (turbo fans!).

The other guy is just a veteran, but a cool one at that.

Sanguinary Guard legs again (it is what I had, plus they really worked for the pose). The torso is from an old metal space marine biker. Just the way he is holding the plasma gun is great. Sure plasma guns may not be the best for jump pack equipped models, but I don't plan on using this squad in game very often at all. They are more for hobby purposes and show than gaming. Anyways, finished up with a normal bolt pistol that went really well with the flow of the model and a knife on the belt for that added umph of detail.

NOW FOR SOMETHING REALLY COOL (well at least to me).

So I really like the new Cataphractii (sp?) terminators from Forge World. They are pretty cool. BUT I thought I could take it a step further and make some really Blood Angel looking ones. Here is what I have so far.

So these just take a normal Terminator Assault Squad for the backs, part of the front and the legs. I then chopped off the front of each torso and added the Sanguinary Guard torso (slightly trimmed in back) and Grey Knight heads.Still have a little green stuff work to do with some gaps, but you can't really see that in the photos.

To finish them they are going to get Chapterhouse Studio shoulderpads and thundershields (all will be TH & SS termies)

SO there you go. Just a quick update on my work.

2012 Goal Status, Looking towards 2013

So 2012 is nearly over, and possibly the world with it if the Mayans have it their way, but this isn't a cosmic burger king, so I think the world will go on.

Most likely explanation IMO

2012 has seen ALOT for me. I am a dad now! I have a 3 month old son and he is AWESOME. Backtracking on that thought, that meant for the first 9 months of 2012 I had a pregnant wife. Career wise I have been underway somewhere around 6-7 months this year. I got my Officer of the Deck qual back in march, my Surface Warfare Officer qualification in June and I promote to LTJG in less than a week! I have traveled all over (Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Guam, Phillipines, Okinawa and all over Japan). It has just been crazy.

In all that time, I have had very little time for Warhammer as you can imagine. Plus I have nbo one to play, and that makes motivation tough to work on models, especially painting as I have no one nagging me. But I haven't forgotten about it and I look forward the work I will be doing this month.

So lets see how I did against my Hobby Goals for 2012.

1- Finish painting/basing my 2000 pt Blood Angels Army.
STATUS- INCOMPLETE: I have made progress but not nearly enough, for all the above reasons. Plus 6th ed really shook this up as I wasn't sure what to paint. And my Sanguinary Guard really slowed me down. They took forever and were tough. This inport period. is dedicated to an Assault Squad and Terminators though. And what awesome terminators they are. Tomorrow I will have some WIPs up. I have actually been working on painting 10 marines this week and I am about 30% done with them. This will eb a great leap forward if I get them done. Goal date by 18 dec (1 more week).

2- Finish buying/building my Genswick army to accommodate all list variants.
STATUS- 85~90% Complete- This would be more complete had I not changed some aspects of the project, such as my plan for strom troopers. However, I am close to owning everything and just need to put a few things together. Work on my Thunderbolt also stepped in the way of this one, but with 6th ed, that may yet become a vital piece (as well expect a WIP update on this this week). As a break/distraction from BA I have 2 half done Savlar that I will finish and post up. Test schemes. As well, I have a cool idea/update to do about this army in the near future. Lets just say I was inspired by the book Angel of Fire.

3- Start posting tutorials online.
STATUS- INCOMPLETE: I do have one planned between now and January however. A Freehand Banner Tutorial. I WILL paint my second company banner. I will I will I will. Overall I am sorry on this one as it benefits the reader the most. The first paragraph really explains why this didn't happen.

4- Continue expanding my Terrain collection.
STATUS- 50% Complete- So I have more terrain then I had in the past. But I virtually had none in the past. I also need to paint/flock what I have. I also want to get some GW plastic buildings, but that is more of a money issue and will happen in due course.

5- Resume some of the old blog series I did.
STATUS- INCOMPLETE: In all honesty I doubt I do ressurect these dinosaurs. The only one really worth saving IMO is the Free Missions. As I get more into 6th ed, this is more likely to happen, but I really have to familiarize myself with it. And find a place to store them online. The only thing I will likely do more of is book reviews.

6- Try to write a short story for the BL summer submission window.
STATUS- MISSED. Being on the ship really hampers this one. I have some brainstorms and basic outlines but nothing more concrete. Luckily this one can just roll over if I get on with it.

7- Give my Specialist Games forces some love.
STATUS- INCOMPLETE. Really didn't get enough done on the first two, so why move onto this. I will likely break this down into a smaller chunk for 2013. Probably just stick to my blood bowl team (I hope to find/start a league when I get back stateside, which will happen in 2013).

8- Speaking of requiring a little love: My Bretonnians require alot.
STATUS- THEY STILL DO. Yep, nothing here. Move along folks. I am really out of date on the fantasy scene. I will hold onto these guys for now, and would love to get them into a playable force . I know fantasy can be a great game, but I have heard the current edition is GARBAGE. Really I have heard magic is, but that is a huge part of it isn't it. Back burner indefinately for these guys, and if nothing goes on the up and up, maybe Ebay, but lets not hope it comes to that.

OVERALL- I did pretty poorly, BUT in terms of what I was faced with this year, not to shabby I guess. I will sit and think on what I shoudl do for 2013, and likely scale this all back. Expect to see the new goals on the 1st.

I am the ice cube and an entirely painted model collection is the Titanic

The problem with The Hobbit

I for one am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. Tolkien is a literary god and Peter Jackson has made movie classics with Tolkien's work. I first fell in love with the LotR world when I read The Hobbit back in third grade. I loved the Rankin Bass animated films from the 70's, and still have copies of them today that I plan to share with my son (Down Down to Goblin Town, Down Down to Goblin Town! You go my lad! Ho-Ho my lad!)

When the movies came out years ago I was STOKED. They were amazing. Simply amazing. Sure there are plenty of differences from the book, but they do a good job of telling the tale and capturing the epic struggle between good and evil. The problem is though that the epic struggle depicted in the books and movies is very much a narrow and personal one, influenced greatly by a select few individuals at every decisive point. While making for a great movie, book or RPG, this translates poorly into a table top wargame.

Yes, it is this argument again, but bear with me for a while if you would.

So Games Workshop has 3 core systems. First and foremost is their flagship. Their BRAND. Warhammer 40k. It has inspired an entire genre of Sci-fi, Grim Dark, with its own line of novels at the core. In addition there are all sorts of video games and specialists games (which we will revist here shortly). All of this spawns from vast ammounts of proprietary intellectual property and a highly unique view of Science Fiction and the future as a whole.
 Next comes Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Considered the slightly more advanced game, it has a smaller player base but shares much of the same unique IP as its futuristic cousin, especially CHAOS. And it too has specialist games, some of them with very fanatical fan bases (Blood Bowl!)

You have to play to understand that this truly is the greatest GW game ever made

The greatest thing about these systems is the fact that GW can do what ever it wants with the models and it defines its own look and story. And it is ever expanding. There are always new characters, new stories, and new possibilities.

Furthermore, both translate really really well into a table top wargame system. Niether of them are particularly character driven. They are faction driven. What is more important, the tale of Commissar Cain or the feel you get in his novels about the Imperial Guard. In the long run, the Cain doesn't really matter. He is an interesting character, but the Imperium marches on with or without him. This translates well into the table top, where characters can die and the bad guys can win. GW makes their bad guys cool and detailed and strangely empathetic (IE Malus Darkblade). So it is okay when they win a game. And the good guys are slowing loosing anyway, so it is to be expected even. Read any BL book and a main character WILL DIE. It is a given fact and another factor to the faction versus character driven story.

This is where Lord of the Rings games differ. It is a set story with a beggining, middle and end and if any of the characters deviates from the set story, it is unbelievable. And the world is set up to be more character intensive any ways. There is never suppossed to be appeal to the bad guy and empathy with orks or wild men. And the good guys are all suppossed to be outnumbered epic heroes of lore. Not a faceless mass of infantry. So playing a table top wargame where the bad guys are suppossed to win 50% of the time if the game is balanced properly just makes it unbelievable, where as an RPG where you are the good guys and the DM is the bad guys, you should ultimately overcome the challenges set before you, like they do in the book, movie and video games.

This makes me want to watch a movie and read a book, not play a game

So how does this come back to the Hobbit. Well, GW now has tons of new minis and source books to release, that will be drawn out over YEARS as the Hobbit is a multi-part movie. But it will not revolutionize the LotR game in any major way, not like APOC and Flyers has for 40k for instance. They can't even really spin specialist games off of it. The game is already suppossed to be a more skirmish style, and they did a massive battles expansion already, which still doesn't fit in well with LotR for all the reasons stated above. They tried a scale game, Battle of Five Armies, but that is lack luster and based on a single event and very inflexible as a result. Sure they could try with Pelinor Fields, but that would suffer the same. And besides, Battle of Five Armies is the Hobbit, so this ship has already sailed.

But the ship that has sailed the furthest is IP. The books are already all written, the movies all filmed. There is viturally nothing except a game system that GW can add to it, and while the game system is important, it is not what attracted you to the hobby, otherwise we would all just do this game on computers or with proxies. But GW proprietary property does not suffer this limitation. It has so many opportunities for expansion. All of which are being squandered on support of the Hobbit and LotR franchise in my opinion.

This is where specialist games can come back in for GW. If they were treated as a whole like a 3rd Core system instead of a 3rd wheel I think they could be a boon to the GW franchise. Why just collect Blood Angels when you can have the entire chapter for Epic and the Fleet for BFG. Only 1 hour left at your club, why nto wrap up the night with a game of Necromunda or Bloodbowl. A slow and steady release and update schedule for these games could keep people interested, garner attention from new comers and please and hold the interest of veterans. And they fit in with the image and methodology of GW. They can grow and change and their image is GW's to determine.

Your IP is what makes you Genuine GW, not the IP of Tolkien and New Line Cinema

LotR and the Hobbit will never again grow after the Hobbit is done. LotR has been diminishing for years now and it will bounce back and then linger even longer untill it has been milked for every penny it is worth. The truly unfortunate thing is that in this time, the GW IP assets in the SG range will do what they have been doing, they will become further irrelevant and decrepit, rather than being used as tools to enhance the true assets of the GW brand. SG can only add to 40k and WHFB, while the Hobbit can only prolong the inevitable demise of the LotR franchise.

Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game was made by the dead and the dead keep it!

Fluff Question: How big is the Space Wolves Chapter? (POLL)

I recently read "The Emperor's Gift" by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, and I have to say it was a pretty good read. Probably going to be doing a book review soon on it and several other books I have read recently. But  it lead me to an interesting question: How large is the Space Wolves chapter. It seems to vary at times between authors, and I think too often it is taken for granted that they are about 1000 strong just because they are a Space Marine chapter.

This is much less of a straight forward question than it seems. Before you go rushing off and claiming "They are a Space Marine Chapter, which means they have 1000 Marines", let me offer a counter point that the Flesh Tearers are only about 400 strong. Yes, a lot of this has to do with battle losses, but for the sake of argument, let us agree if you can have one chapter be a little small, another can be a little large.

So to begin with, we know that the Space Wolves are a non-codex Astartes Chapter. They just don't really care about the law of the Imperium, just about the spirit of it. As such they have 12 Great Companies, or 13 if you include those lost in the eye, but we will come back to them. Each of these companies is at a different strength according to the whims of its respective Wolf Lord (Grimnar's likely being the largest). If each of these is at about 100 marines, we already have a larger than usual chapter. And each chapter has it own Wolf Guard, Long Fangs, Blood Claws, Grey Hunters, Wolf Scouts, and Vehicles. Now most chapters will share resources across companies to fit specific missions, typically borrowing from 8th, 9th and 10th companies for their respective Assault, Devastator and Scout Specialists, and sometimes taking from 6th and 7th just to boost numbers of Tactical Marines. Space Wolves don't strike me as fitting this style, each Wolf Lord being fiercely independent and unwilling to show a need for aide from another Grand Company, meaning each company needs the resources to deal with every form of battle, likely leading to larger that normal company sizes any ways.

Now let us go beyond the mere matter of organization. Let's go back all the way to the Horus Heresy. Note, there are some Prospero Burns spoilers here. Legions were all approximately 10,000 strong. However, from what I gather, Russ' legion was larger than this. Not only was it 13 Great Companies, which in themselves must have been each more massive than a chapter, but it must have been large enough that it could deal with the destruction of other Legions, which from what I gather as well he has done 3 times. Now he likely didn't suffer too bad during the destruction of the Thousand Sons at Prospero, as they had an orbital bombardment, where a larger, fiercer legion, and had allies present at the battle. In addition, even if they suffered horribly losses, they would have had time to recover somewhat before the legions were broken down into smaller chapters. And in addition to THAT, it was primarily the Ultramarines and Space Wolves that harrassed the retreating traitorous forces back to the Eye, so they must not have suffered that bad at Prospero anyways. As well, if he had destroyed legions twice before, he obviously was able to recover his numbers fast enough that by the time of the Heresy, some 200 years into the Crusade that rediscovered the Primarchs (meaning he likely destroyed/forcibly disbanded 2 legions somewhere between 250-150 years before the Heresy). So that leaves the conclusion that the SW were still legion sized at the end of the heresy, even with sending 1000+ Marines into the Eye of Terror behind the Traitor Legions. If they were significantly reduced in number, they would not have likely allowed the 13th company to follow the Legions into the eye, and even if they were allowed, it is likely the 13th Company themselves would have been weakened, and what good would a diminished company do against the vast hordes of Traitors that fled into the eye.

Now back to present day 40k. The Space Wolves have only one known second founding, the Wolf Brothers, and they were supposedly given 1/2 of the equipment and Priests of the SW, however this is likely dated info. We do know that they were not just drawn off of the space wolves, like many of the Ultramarine second foundings, and that they were a separate genetic founding. This is evidenced by the Wold Brothers demise and disbanding due to genetic instability and the curse of the Wulfen. Now if they had drawn directly from the SW and were just a new chapter, they should have been just a genetically stable, as all their numbers were Space Wolves and all the priests that administered the rituals creating new Marines were Space Wolves as well, working with directly SW geneseed. So we can conclude that was not the case and that the Wolf Brothers were a separate genetic founding (likely the 21st). And had they truly been given half the SW resources, chances are all that returned to the SW when the Wolf Brothers were disbanded.

Now why talk about the Wolf Brothers. Well my point is that since they are a separate genetic founding and not just a restructuring and that there are no other known descendants of the Space Wolves, then the Wolves must have remained legion sized, unlike the Ultramarines and all other Codex chapters. Diminished by battle loss at the end of the Heresy possibly, but larger than a chapter none the less, as they were able to send the significant resources of the 13th company into the eye. Plus they still had great recruiting stock on Fenris, which was able to maintain their numbers during the Great Crusade, so likely able to replenish their numbers over time afterwards. And for some time they had Leman Russ, who likely remained fiercely independent from Roboute and Dorn, though I can't find how long after the heresy he remained.

So it boils down to this: If the SW are only ~1000 strong, where did the rest go? And if they aren't, how large are they? And if they are still legion sized, why are they referred to as a Chapter? It is a mystery I am sure will never be answered, but feel free to voice your thoughts here and remember to hit the poll on the right!

POLL RESULTS
10000 or more 2 (12%)
5000-9999 2 (12%)
2500-4999 5 (31%)
1500-2499 6 (37%)
1000-1499 1 (6%)
Less than 1000 0 (0%)

SO It looks like we can all agree that they are at least a REALLY BIG Chapter.

Rant: No matter how good 6th ed CSM is, GW still made it "Bad"

So the CSM codex is just around the corner. Dark Vengeance had me pumped for it, even though I don't plan on getting any Chaos. I just looked forward to seeing what craziness was in store in the codex and what people came up with for conversions, paint schemes and whole armies (and ideally throwing down against a good mix of the 3).

Then there were preview pics for more models. Anything Marine/Infantry is pretty great. Those new Close Combat Mutilators look like they have Down Syndrome, but that's not awful. Nor is the lack of fluff behind them (Obliterators have a techno-virus, thus all the weapons. These are clearly based off Oblits, but need a new explanation, which would lead me to wonder "Why are they like oblits?" They look to more have a severe case of Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis (SFW Wiki page, no pictures). But even that isn't terrible.

The Warpsmith is great. As is the Dark Apostle and Aspiring Champion (which is great to be in plastic). The Raptors are pretty sweet. I Still like the feel of the old ones as well though, and I would likely mix the two if I was building a Chaos Army. I wish they had done the Havocs and Oblits as plastics. Hopefully eventually they will, but what ever. I'd like to see new CSM and Khorne Beserker sculpts as well, but that isn't bad either.

And I have no idea of the rules yet either. They may be the greatest set of rules ever written. From what I have seen, they are pretty good (Warlord Traits and Boon Table). But the rules aren't all that make a release "good".

What I assume the special edition cover  looks like.

What is upsetting and ruins the codex, before it is even released is 3 models. You know the 3. The Heldrake, and the Forgefiend/Maulerfiend. I am not even that too dissapointed in the sculpts. Okay, well for the Heldrake at least, that Forgefiend without a face is pretty horrendous.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!

These may play a critical role in the codex. We know that the codex needs a Flyer, but this guy?

CAW CAW CAW

HE IS NOT THE ANSWER. Don't get me wrong, it looks cool. It look Chaotic. But it isn't CSM. It should have been released a few months ago along with the mini Chaos Daemons release. They need a flyer, and this is PERFECT for them. Daemons only have one Daemon engine, the Soul Grinder, why not more? Especially needed ones. As we have seen, 6th ed is an edition where shooting is needed more than CC. CD is almost entirely CC, so the Forgefiend fits a perfect roll in that codex, and the Heldrake would be the perfect flyer for them. And then the Maulerfiend just looks daemonic.

Chaos Biovore

But these are not CSM units. Codex CSM needs to be the fallen forces of Humanity, not the forces born of the Warp. They still use equipment and technology based on Imperial tech. The biggest evidence of which is in Battlefleet Gothic to be honest. None of they ships are super crazy. Even the Planet Killer has some logic about it.

So yes, CSM does have one daemon engine, the Defiler, but that looks like it was built by humans and then possessed. The Fiends look half daemonic and half robotic, like the Soulgrinder, so they are clearly from the Warp. They may have worked if there had been Dark Mechanicus Adepts in the codex, but there aren't so it is a miss.

GW just really missed the mark here. We are talking about a codex of fallen humanity, many of them 10,000 years old. That's Heresy old. Wait a second. Isn't someone doing the Horus Heresy? Oh yes, Forge World is. Shouldn't Chaos being using alot of that tech? Yes they should. See what the design studios should've done is cooperated on the two projects a little. Codex CSM should have one or two heresy era vehicles, with possession/chaotic kit to them. Then FW could produce cleaner versions/conversion kits for the plastics (so people could afford it and be more likely to buy HH stuff) and produced complete kits of the more esoteric items and vehicles that didn't last or aren't that common. A perfect vehicle for GW to have done would have been a Predator Executioner (plasma pred), Jetbikes or a Spartan Assault Tank

Super Land Raider

This thing hold 25 Space Marines. Sounds like a legion relic. Oh, and can't CSM take squads of up to 20 guys? Sounds like a great transport for them. And not too hard to make a plastic kit. And it fits with Space marines.It is PERFECT! Where this is not:

Polly wants a cracker

These new models just totally miss the feel and mark that CSM should have. They belong in Codex Chaos Daemons, and I wish they had been incorporated into that instead. Plus, then instead of the ridiculous Dragon, CSM could have a real fighter, backed up by Fluff and Fans alike (and super easy to make a plastic kit of IMO).

This even looks like it flies better.

Blood Angel Emperor's Champion/Custom Seth with Freehand Banner AND 1st Genswick IG Test Model

So a little bit ago I posted a WIP for a converted Chapter Master Gabriel Seth of the Flesh Tearers. The reason I was scratch building my own was because I for one do not play Flesh Tearers. I play Blood Angels. However, in 6th edition, the list I am testing right now works best with Seth, so I wanted a way to incorporate him into my BA army. Best way was to make a new model from scratch. Then I had to figure out what to make him. I didn't want him to be a Captain, as I would want a Captain in an Honour Guard to fit with the fluff. Plus I have a Second Co Captain, and he has a Jump Pack. And the 8th Company Assault Marines I have don't have a Captain, but they will and I plan on making that a Biker. So I am left with not much, but if you read the other article, you'd learn why I concluded on this: An Emperor's Champion. All Chapters can have one fluff wise, not just Black Templars. Plus, Seth has a big BIG Sword, albeit a Chainsword, but Big and Cool = Black Sword to me. Who is to say that the BA just have always used a massive eviscerator instead.

If you want to know the parts, read the WIP article. The only change is I took off the 2nd wreath and moved the grenades to the other side so I could attach a Death Mask to his hip. Seemed a fitting helmet for an Emperor's Champion if he ever need to don head gear (e.g. in a Vacuum). Anyway, pretty picture time.

The Banner is based off an image in the 3rd Ed BA Codex Supplement. The slogan on it is "Ave Imperator" with several letters hidden.

NOW onto the Genswick. I painted this guy really quickly (for my standards. Took 30 min, and this was with me figuring out what colours to actually do!) and I have a feeling my future guard will go even faster now that I have a scheme selected and basic technique established. Much faster than Marines at least. For more Genswick WIP click here.

Well there you go folks. I probably won't get more photos up for a while as I head back to my ship, but I will try and keep some content going for the next few months as I am away, but expect more Marines and Guard upon my return.