+ 40k 7th Edition, Space Marines and Orks +



+ Another version of 40k has been announced. I've always quite liked the turnover of the game – every edition has introduced bits I've liked along with bits I haven't. In any case, I'm of the opinion that a change is as good as a rest, so while I'm not going to rush out and buy it immediately, I'm quite looking forward to seeing what this new edition brings. +

+ Like Ianus, looking forward makes me check backwards, too, and I've been trying to bind a bit of 7th edition forward-thinking together with some Rogue Trader nostalgia. To that end, I decided I'd just have fun digging through my bits box and building some models. No plan, no project; just an excuse to use up those bits that get left over and just seem to grow in the bits box.

+ One happy result of making bigger marines (variously called true-scale, art-scale etc.) is that I've ended up with loads of standard marine bits. Coming back to seeing normal scale marines was quite fun – and being able to assemble things straight out of the box was brilliant fun. I'd really forgotten how much I enjoyed just cutting, posing and gluing! Without the restrictions of a proper project (e.g. this or that style of weapon, or particular considerations of pose and atmosphere), I just concentrated on building some basic marine models.

+ A couple of hours on Saturday saw me building and undercoat the following: 




+ The new tactical marines sprue is awesome! Lovely clean sculpts, better poses than the older version, and the detail is much crisper. I'm not quite sure exactly what GW have done, but the proportions seem to be slightly more realistic than I remember. Perhaps it's just distorted expectation after building the slightly more proportional art-scale models, but I had expected these to look more bobble-headed. +

+ As with all multipose models, they lack a bit of the soul that one-piece models have, but they were just right for a pleasant evening's hobbying. I'd used (or have reserved) a lot of the more esoteric pieces for various true-scale projects, but when combined with the bits box, there were still enough bits left over to make eight marines.

+ I have absolutely no idea how, when or even if these guys will get painted or see the tabletop. As I was building them, I thought it'd be an opportunity to scratch my Iron Hands itch, and I also considered painting them to represent one of the Chapters involved in the ongoing Scallop Stars Purges campaign we're playing. I'm open to any ideas. They'll certainly fit better alongside my Elysian-based guard (which look ridiculously small next to my Ultramarines), so perhaps this is a chance to make a quick gaming army for small games. It'd certainly be nice to have a load of marines that fit on the right size bases, and to have the opportunity to use some of the cool models that are just impossible to convert into truer proportions. +

+ In addition to these, I also started work on some skarboyz for da Black Kuttaz:





1 comment:

Joe McMahon said...

If I may make a suggestion, considering that you've equipped most of the scouts and one of the space marines with rebreathers, you could paint them up as Raptors (in there camo green colours). They could go well with your Lambs World's guardsmen and I think you could do them some justice if they were all weathered and dirty.