Our Trip to Warhammer World - Summer 2019 Callback - Part 1

Needless to say, this year has been an absolute bust for travel, vacation, camping, etc. However, it suddenly occurred to me that I'd never posted any pictures of our trip to Warhammer World during the summer of 2019. We spent nearly two weeks in the UK (England and Scotland), and honestly tried to take way too much in during that time including castles, cathedrals, Roman ruins, and even Tankfest! However, as hitting Warhammer World was on my bucket list, we had to at least spend an afternoon there.

Space Marine guarding the car park

Indomitus Made to Order - GW Gets it Right!

After all of the insanity this weekend with the Indomitus box selling out in minutes we've finally gotten a response from Games Workshop, and quite frankly it is the best possible outcome and some of the best customer service I've ever seen from GW. If you go back to my article from yesterday, I'd indicated:

"Given the slim to possible negative margin on the set, I find it unlikely that Games Workshop will end up making more of them - though if they do it would be a really favorable gesture on their part in an effort to improve relations with their customers."

Today on Warhammer Community, there is an announcement revealing that Indomitus will now be "made to order." I can honestly say I'm glad I was wrong in my pessimistic view of their making more sets, but I'll certainly stand by the second half of that statement as the goodwill on web already seems to be spreading.

What I Think I Think About the Indomitus Fiasco

Wargaming can be an expensive hobby. I wrote an article on this a couple of years ago examining the cost of several different gaming systems, and suffice it to say Warhammer products frequently occupy the upper regions of that cost band. While Games Workshop can continue to charge a premium for their products because they own the IP, there are an increasing number of entities trying to create miniatures suitable for 40K and Age of Sigmar. The rise (and slow improvements in quality) of 3D printing is another avenue many seem to be exploring. The problem is that you can't use these at any official Games Workshop event. As a successful company, GW seems to be trying to combat this trend by at least offering entry level sets at a discount - providing substantial value for the dollar and then charging prices with higher margins for the more specialist and advanced units. The new mega-boxed set for 9th Edition was to follow this strategy - a box with the new rulebook, 61 exclusive easy to build miniatures, and a host of other goodies for the (relatively) low price of $199. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, in this case, just about everything...

Genestealer Cult - Forgeworld Rapier!

Because Warhammer 40K has been around a long time, at least in the world of miniatures wargaming systems, there are a lot of "oldie but goodie" units out there that you don't see a lot on the tabletop but may hold a nostalgic place in many long-time gamers' hearts. One of these for me has been the Rapier, currently known as the Rapier Laser Destroyer. Until recently you could pick one of these up on the Forgeworld site for your Astra Militarum army, but it seems to have disappeared recently, though you can still get a Space Marine version for Horus Heresy forces.

Genestealer Cult... They Have a Baneblade...

The Baneblade - an improbably large super heavy tank fielded by the Imperial Guard has been one of my favorite Warhammer 40K vehicles since I first saw the plans for one in late 1990. As a Brood Brothers detachment, my Genestealer Cult army has access to these behemoths, so I figured at some point I absolutely had to paint one up for the cult. Of course, this month's theme for the painting contest at the local Warhammer store is "monster or machine," so I figured a "monster of a machine" would work just fine!

Genestealer Cult - The Heavy Hitters

Games of Warhammer 40K - despite its futuristic overtones - often come down to hand to hand combat. Most armies have dedicated specialists who excel in this sort of close quarters fighting, and the Genestealer cults have a few fun choices. I've got a couple of these painted up so far. One is a standard troops choice, which the other is an elite choice, in this case supplemented by an HQ choice.

Genestealer Cult - First Vehicles!

The new Genestealer Cult forces for Warhammer 40K can take a variety of vehicles as a part of the core Codex list. Some of these are new and unique to the Genestealer Cult army list, and I plan on detailing those in a future blog entry. Others, however, represent Astra Militarum (AKA "Imperial Guard") forces which have either been infiltrated or co-opted by the cult. I'm working on several vehicles of this type, and have a couple done so far.

Armageddon Pattern Basilisk - Done!

You can also call this the "holy crap I actually finished something" edition of the blog. I may ultimately go back and add some mud/dust effect on the vehicle once I get a few more of the ones for the army done, but for all intents and purposes, the Basilisk is ready to roll out. The photos in this entry are taken with my Nikon D90 DSLR camera. Make sure you click on the images for the full size version. The photos ended up being a little bright and some of the more subtle weathering is lost, so I'll likely try another shoot with a bit more diffuse light.

Warhammer 40K - Armageddon Pattern Basilisk - Part 2

Not a lot of photos this time, but I've been making steady progress on the Death Korps Basilisk I detailed in my last entry. I've been working on the exterior at this point, using one of my normal modulation paint schemes - though this is 3-tone camouflage, so it takes a bit of time to build up. At this point I'm using German World War I camouflage as was applied to the A7V tank. For the colors I used the Ammo of Mig World War I British and German Colors set (AMIG7111). The colors used are Dull Green (AMIG-077), Ochre Earth (AMIG-078), and Clay Brown (AMIG-079). For a base coat, I added black to darken the hue, and for the highlight I simply added white and modulated with my airbrush.

Warhammer 40K - Armageddon Pattern Basilisk in Progress

I've finally decided to take the plunge and start a Death Korps of Krieg force for Warhammer 40K. This particular variation on the tried and true Astra Militarum list ("Imperial Guard" for us grognards) was attractive for a lot of reasons - not the least of which was its World War I German aesthetic. All of the infantry and cavalry (including the horses!) wear gas-masks. This not only gives them a unique look, but means I have far fewer faces to paint! As with most lists of the type, they have access to an array of artillery and tanks. There is, however, one drawback. As the force is comprised almost entirely of resin miniatures and kits from Forge World, they're not only expensive, but take a bit to actually build as well.

One of the vehicles I'm starting with is the Armageddon Pattern Basilisk. This is, quite frankly, an amazing kit. The kit includes the plastic parts from the Chimera needed for the conversion as well as a resin fighting compartment and gun. The fighting compartment includes a full interior as even fully "buttoned up" some interior is visible. If you open the rear hatch, then you can see everything - though I'm going to try and find a way to keep my fighting compartment top detachable to people can get the full effect.

As I'm going for a World War I aesthetic, my DKK will be painted up as Great War German infantry, artillery, and tanks. This means their shades will be a bit different from the more familiar World War II versions - at least for the big guns and tanks. That being said, I'm going with Second World War interior colors for my vehicles (where applicable) as, well, that's what I've got handy!

Building the Basilisk is no mean feat. The engineering on the kit is fairly good, but as with any mixed media kit, the build is challenging. The first problem I ran into was that some of the resin parts were warped (in some cases badly so!).