Author: Felix

Homeward Bound

Started reading the new Turtledove novel…

I eventually got round to ordering Homeward Bound, the new Turtledove novel based from his WorldWar series.

I have only read the first thirty pages and doesn’t time fly….

Review from Amazon:

Alternate-history maestro Turtledove’s conclusion to his Worldwar and Colonization sagas, about how lizard-like aliens known as the Race invaded Earth during WWII and were fought to a stalemate by the major Allied and Axis combatants, lacks the vividly described battle scenes of its predecessors, but more than compensates by closely examining the Race’s culture and society.

While the Race have colonized much of Earth, they’re amazed by the human ability to adapt to change. (The aliens’ probe some 600 years earlier led them to expect they’d be facing armored knights.) When an American starship makes the trip to Home, the Race’s planet of origin, the lizards fear the loss of their technological dominance and decide to annihilate Earth, their colony included—until another Earth spaceship arrives, this one with the faster-than-light drive the Race never developed.

The question of how much common ground exists between the lizards and humans wouldn’t have been out of place in old issues of Astounding. The author dramatizes the old “nature versus nurture” argument through the moving stories of a human woman raised from birth by the lizards and of two aliens raised as humans. Fans will be pleased that room remains for a sequel.

Order the book from Amazon.

Tankbustas

I already have the metal models and they are painted and finished.

Using components from the Stormboyz metal bitz I am converting some plastic Ork models into Tankbustas.

Tankbustas

The middle model has an Orc Warrior shield arm, which I have drilled a hole through the fist. I then cut one of the Stormboyz grenades in half before putting the two halves through the hole and sticking them with superglue.

I start off with a black undercoat and then do all the metallic bitz with a drybrush of tin bitz and chainmail.

This unit will also have an Ork with a converted Rokkit Launcha.

Stormboyz

I have finished sticking my Ork Stormboyz together.

Stormboyz Rokkit Packs

The models which come as a multi-part plastic and metal kit have also had components from the Orc Warriors Warhammer sprue used.

Stormboyz

They have now being undercoated black. Their jump packs have been undercoated white and I am painting them separately (hence they are glued to a strip of thick plasticard as shown here before being undercoated).

Stormboyz

I am intending to paint the jump packs in reds and yellows.

The jump packs in my mind would make excellent large rockets for Epic Armageddon, however at £2 each they are quite expensive, if you wanted a large number it would be cheaper to buy the Stormboyz boxed set!

Downed Valkyrie

Forge World have announced a new piece of scenery, a downed Valkyrie flyer.

Downed Valkyrie

This large scenery piece would make a great objective to fight over in games of 40K, or perhaps even in a scenario where the surviviors of the crash-landing have to avoid capture and fight their way out of enemy held territory! (Yes, I get excited by new models. Did you not know that by now?) This Valkyrie has certainly taken quite a pounding, with the fuselage riddled with bullet holes and several huge holes in the remains of the port wing. The interior is still fully detailed but half-filled with dirt after the forced landing.

I really like the downed Valkyrie, though I would have thought the front of the craft would have been more damaged in the “crash”.

I also like the fact at £36 it is half the price of an undamaged flyer.