Forgeworld/Warhammer Forge... *drool*

This post is just a general musing, and a bit of a 'hats off' moment to GW's premium resin sister company Forgeworld. Since (re-?)opening their Warhammer doors with their 'Warhammer Forge' range, the releases coming from FW have just gone from strength to strength.

To the point that I almost have to buy some....!!

The models I want to highlight today are the new Verminlord, a skaven lord mounted on a rat-beast and a new style of Space Marine Dreadnought. All superb models which look like a real joy to paint

Forgeworld

Here are some pics of the groovy stuff (all taken from the Forgeworld website)

The Ultramarine Veteran on Ebay!

Well, I have finally done it - the Ultramarine Veteran is now up on Ebay

Pop over and have a look, and maybe have a sneaky bid whilst you're at it!

Ultramarine Veteran on Ebay

The Ultramarine Veteran - Complete

Well, I think he's complete...!

He has been a lot of fun to paint, and I like what I have achieved in the relatively short time its taken me (snatched moments build up in the end!). He's the first Space Marine I've painted in a long while, but I don't think he is going to be my last*.

One thing that I am not so sure of is the open space at the back. Now it is painted it feels a lot larger an expanse than when I was building it... I am tempted to add a discarded bolter and some shell casings to that side, but can't decide if its needed...

EDIT: I have now uploaded these pics to CoolMiniOrNot! If you fancy popping over and voting for this guy, you can find him here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/283094

Anyhow, enough waffle, here are some pics:

* I have a lurvely Forgeworld resin one in my drawers

Amazing Duel

I love a good Duel entry at Golden Demons - its probably my favourite category. I love it even more when people think outside the box... and I don't mean cramming the largest rock possible on top of the 50mm base and slapping a huge monster on there. 

Here is an example of something which really floats my boat - a TINY duel by Morbäck:

Everything you need in a tight little diorama - action, movement, direct interaction and great composition all on a base the size of a Euro coin. The painting speaks for itself!

 

 

Ultramarine progress

Bit more progress on the Ultramarine tonight, got a good lot of paint slapped onto the base and the backpack is on. Lots of weathering to be done on the groundwork yet, and some finer details on the marine himself, but he's getting there.

It is meant to be an alien yet familiar terrain with red mars-esque sand and alien green crystals sticking out of the earth.

 

New pics of my Ultramarine

Got some better photos of the Marine - turned all the camera settings back to Automatic, switched on Macro mode and 2 second delay, and as they say, "Robert's ya Mother's Brother"! Not perfect, but they'll do

First Space Marine in a long time

I've been thinking about painting some miniatures to put up on Ebay, but really procrastinating about what to do (as I do)... but I finally settled on a Space Marine veteran of some sort I found in my bits box. I have gone for an Ultramarines colour scheme and based him on a standard GW 25mm round base inset in a 40mm square attached to a plinth...

Its all still pretty WIP, but I have laid down most of the colours on the Marine now, and got the rough layout for the base done, but there is still quite a lot to do. I see his niche in the market being army centrepiece/display model hence the removable base, and an attempt at quick but solid painting rather than an ULTIMATE paint-job... here are some pics:

The base:

And then the bad-boy himself:

 

I seem to be struggling to get good photos of the Marine - I think I need to work harder on the lighting... These were relatively quick shots taken tonight

 

 Thats it for now - more pics soon!

-Peter

Finecast

I thought I'd better post something model related...

So why not look at the new Citadel Finecast models from just a plain 'user' perspective. There was a thread over on Platoon Britannica which looked at it in quite some detail - Finecast Thread - or click 'Read More' below to see my thoughts (lots of pics):

Well, back home now with our haul... was an interesting time and we had a VERY good look at pretty much all of the new blisters in the store. What a mixed bag! Oddly, the Lord of the Rings stuff seemed to be a whole lot worse than everything else, and those Gandalf's they keep showing were disgusting...

The rest of the stuff was also very hit and miss. We picked up a number of blisters but had to go through all of the blisters on the shelves to find ones we thought were acceptable. So we got ourselves a Queek Headtaker, a Vampire Lord and a Urien Rackarth.

The pics are a bit grainy, but I must say, they seem to be of a VERY similar quality to what everyone else has posted above.

After speaking with the Manager we decided to gamble on a small box each under the proviso that we would open them in the shop and return/exchange them immediately if they were sub-par. We both went for orcs riding boards - Toosh got the Shaman and I picked up a Gorbad Ironclaw. The Shaman was fine and actually quite an impressive cast (there were issues such as no fur on the back of the boar, but I think that is a problem with the model - a converted plastic kit - rather than the material change). The rider was really good, with the only slight downer being a wad of flash between his legs. 

 

My Gorbad wasnt nearly as good...
The belly of the boar was really thin but also really rough so any clean-up would definitely have ended up with a huge hole - one which I was not really happy to put up with at that price (£30). This was on both sides, and I showed it to the staff member immediately, and to give them their dues, they replaced it immediately and went through all the replacement pieces of the kit with a fine-toothed comb. I think I have ended up with a model I am very happy with.

Overall the quality in the shop ranged from a 4 to a 9/10 

QC definitely needs improving, to the point that I think we should all make a concerted effort to write/email GW with our concerns. I think in the long-term it will be a great change for the hobby as the models seem to have a whole lot of potential. The resin is much nicer to work with than metal, and if the quality was monitored more they could have blown me away today. I wouldnt recommend buying FineCast by mail order for a while yet...

Well, thats a start - I did go back and buy some more finecast from the store and again made them open the box. It was a box of Dark Eldar Mandrakes and we went through two boxes to get a perfect 5, but what we do have is now really VERY good!

Peter