On the Warhammer Community website there is a page spread from the next issue of White Dwarf which shows the forces for the Legion Imperialis battle report.
Looks a little crowded to me.
I am looking forward to seeing the battle report.
Tag: white dwarf
Legion Imperialis Batte Report
In the next issue of White Dwarf there will be an early battle report for Legions Imperialis.
From the cover:
Blood Angels take on the Death Guard in our first Legions Imperialis battle report.
The Warhammer Community website says
…and you can whet your appetite for the upcoming Legions Imperialis in an early battle report.
This will be an issue of White Dwarf I will get when it comes out.
Now what does this tell us about the release date for Legions Imperialis? Well, not anything concrete, but I wonder if this means we might see Legions Imperialis before November? If not then in November?
“Original” Space Marine Whirlwind at Warhammer World
The Whirlwind is an Imperial artillery support vehicle based upon the Standard Template Construct (STC) Rhino armoured personnel carrier (APC) chassis that is now primarily used by the Space Marine Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.
This is the kit version of the original Whirlwind artillery vehicle, based on the original Rhino kit. It was on display at Warhammer World.
It comprised a plastic Rhino kit and metal components.
The original Whirlwind was a conversion using a slottabase and plasticard for the rocket launcher. This was published in the September 1989 issues of White Dwarf, #117.
The Rhino APC is perhaps the most common vehicle in the Imperium. As a basic design in the STC system, it exists in thousands of variants, each of which can be considered a vehicle in its own right. Each different design is much more than a simple conversion of the standard Rhino; every one fulfills a different role, and is impossible to better. The Whirlwind is just one of these designs.
Here are the instructions, just in case you want to build your own. Continue reading ““Original” Space Marine Whirlwind at Warhammer World”
Plastic Spartan Assault Tank
Over on the Warhammer Community site they have revealed a new plastic Spartan Assault Tank .
The mighty Land Raider is a design that has stood the test of time ever since Arkhan Land dug it out of the catacombs on Mars – but what’s a Legion Praetor to do when their prized Terminator squads can’t quite squeeze into its armoured hold? They reach for the Spartan Assault Tank – and now, with a stunning new plastic kit, you can too.
I do quite like the new model, the retro vibe, I might get one.
Also known as the Land Raider Spartan, this armoured carrier was designed to punch through the most overwhelming enemy defences and deliver a knock-out blow of massed Astartes infantry. It became a common assault vehicle during the Great Crusade, where its nigh-impervious chassis could shrug off regular anti-tank weapons as it ferried up to 26 Legionaries – or 13 Terminators – into the fray, with a surprising turn of speed for its size.
Of course we have had the Forge World resin version for some time now, though this has been deleted from the Forge World store.
This was based on a conversion from White Dwarf 119.
The article in White Dwarf had instructions for the conversion of a Land Raider and a Rhino into two new Imperial vehicles. One was the Spartan, Terminator Battle Tank using the kit parts with the addition of plastic card or cardboard. and an Imperial Tank Hunter utilising the remainder of the parts from the two kits.
The article also had an overview of the Spartan Assault Tank.
Horus had thrown around the captured Adeptus Mechanics city of Aries Primus. This was then the second city of Mars and the largest single source of war munitions in the Imperium. With the city in Horus’ hands, the besieged Earth stood no chance against the forthcoming attack from his Rebel forces. Only by recapturing Aries Primus and its weapons factories could Earth’s hard-pressed forces be resupplied. Horus had ordered a defensive plasma ring to be constructed around the city and called it the Ring pair can shoot against targets on that of Death. Without vehicle transport, even the Terminators were unable to get through. The Imperium had lost most to hit with each pair – so either both of its armoured carriers in the first battle for Aries Primus, and facilities to replace them were meagre. So, taking what spare parts and production facilities were available elsewhere, the Spartan and vehicles much like it were hastily devised. Although many died attempting to cross the Ring of Death, it was eventually penetrated and destroyed, and the city was carried thanks to the devotion and sacrifice of the Terminator Suicide Squads. The Spartan design proved so successful that it was refined and retained as a standard part of Imperial equipment.
The Spartan is a special conversion based on the well known Land Raider. The extra luggage space and open-top main hatch are designed to accommodate the extra bulk of Space Marines wearing Terminator Armour. The Spartan is armed with two sets of twin lascannon, exactly as the standard Land Raider, and it is provided with an additional forward facing heavy bolter and rear facing bolt gun. Both these hull-mounted weapons are designed to be operated by a Terminator standing in the Spartan.
LE24 Sleazy Rider
As with my Ork Warbuggy photographs, I recently found the original photograph of LE24 Sleazy Rider, so I decided to rescan them as I had only low-res ones on the site.
Sleazy Rider was a Citadel Limited Edition released in July 1987. At the time it was £1.95, which though appears cheap today, wasn’t then!
Despite the bike, the hemet and the shotgun this was a fantasy model, Sleazy was an Orc not an Ork!
The advert from White Dwarf #91 has text talking about a fantasy ‘car’ race involving vehicles with steam boilers and Snotling Pump Wagons.
‘Dad was hero,’ gasped Mad Sid, ‘he died out on the track…’ A silence fell upon the tribe as their leader wiped a tear from a piggy little eye. ‘Dad was a real orc, an orc with a dream! All he ever wanted was to win the Undun Appoluz. It was neck and neck coming up to Death Pit Corner. Dad was on the inside with the Stunty Evulcan Evul on the outside. As they went into the bend, Dad opened up and went into the lead. For just one second he was in Evulcan’s sights…’ A lump came to Mad Sid’s throat, ‘the bolt hit the steam boiler. They never found Dad. It took three weeks to fill in the crater.
As Mad Sid bowed his head in memory of his sire, a tall, made-eyed and rather oily orc wheeled the new machine forwards. ‘She’s faster than the Borgheim Bersekers super-charged steam dragster. She’ll leave the Drastic Dik and the Snotling Pump Wagon on the grid. She’ll go like a Stunty rat-catcher with a red-hot poker up its…’
‘What are we waiting for!’ Bellowed Mad Sid. ‘Undun Apollouz Allcomers here we come!’
The bike rear was based on a Judge Dredd bike, but the front had a wooden wheel and an Evil Sunz glyph.
In the advert, the Citadel painted model had a US flag painted on the fuel tank, so when I painted mine I did the opposite and painted the Soviet flay on my model.
As I was writing this blog post I got thinking that maybe there was something here about a new game, a fantasy racing car game. Well Bloodbowl is fantasy football!
I have distant memories of playing a chariot race using the Warhammer rules, and we didn’t just have chariots either, there was probably a Snoting Pump Wagon in the midst as well.
Well that’s got me thinking…
Blood on the Streets
I have been gaming for a fair few years now, my first experience with Warhammer was the first edition when it came out.
There were so many releases back then that I wanted, but alas the pocket money only stretched so far and it never stretched as much as I wanted.
Across the pages of White Dwarf were adverts for lots of lovely models which I was never going to be able to afford to buy. Occasionally I would see something and I would send off for it.
One advert for a product that remains a strong memory for me was the one for the Blood on the Street Arcane Architecture Village Pack One. This was in the October 1985 edition of White Dwarf, issue number seventy.
After the wholesale slaughter and destruction at Orc’s Drift (Citadel’s latest Warhammer supplement) the time has come to rebuild! Now’s your chance with our first Arcane Architecture village pack. This pack heralds a series of card model buildings designed for the fantasy gamer, Village pack one contains 12 different full-colour building models designed by the award-winning and talented David Andrews. Also Included is a complete guide to The Riding – an out of the way part of the Warhammer World where out of the ordinary things are a part of every day life! The villages of The Riding are described In detail, together with their various Inhabitants. Card colour counters and Warhammer stilts are provided for all non-player characters. Background Information, local rumours, events of interest and scenario suggestions are all included – and can be readily adapted for use in a Warhammer game or fantasy role-playing adventure. An invaluable in any role-playing system. Available now at your local retailer – or post free direct from the Citadel Mail Order Trolls.
Playing lots of Warhammer Fantasy Battle at the time, this seemed an ideal way to quickly create towns to fight in.
Now buying stuff back in that day was nowhere as easy as it is now. I didn’t have a credit or debit card, I only had a savings account at the local bank. There wasn’t a world wide web to order form anyhow, and without a bank card I couldn’t phone the Citadel Mail Order Trolls. So I asked a parent to write a cheque which I dutifully sent off to Citadel Miniatures at Chewton Street in Nottinghamshire.
Now I know differently, but at the time I assumed somewhat naively that Citadel would have these in stock and I would get them by return of post. So I remember calculating in my head roughly when it would arrive. I would patiently as long as possible for the post to arrive before heading off to Sixth Form College and if it hadn’t come, rushing home afterwards to see if it had come later. It hadn’t…
In the end it took weeks to arrive. Either they had sold out their initial stock and did a reprint, or more likely they advertised the product before it was actually ready to release. Which it was I would never know. Though this experience did put me off mail order for a fair few years.
When it eventually arrived, I was amazed. I had spent £5.95 on a booklet and a load of card. That’s a little disingenuous, this was a fantastic product which had huge potential.
Knowing what I know now, I probably would have scanned all the card buildings into a computer or copied them onto card using a colour photo-copier. This wasn’t possible, as a) I didn’t have a computer let alone any kind of scanner (or colour scanner). I remember buying a black and white scanner in the mid-1990s for £500 or thereabouts. I don’t think consumer scanners were even a thing in 1985! As for a colour photo-copier, well there was a black and white one at college, but colour, wasn’t that science fiction?
So despite not having a copy, I dutifully cut out all the card building pieces and glued them together. They were fantastic, Dave Andrews had done a magnificent job in designing these.
We used them a lot in too many games to mention. Any photographs you ask (knowing how many photographs I have on this blog)? Well as well as not owning a computer, a scanner or a colour printer, I also didn’t own a camera! I didn’t really start taking photographs of models until the late 1990s. So I have no visual record of these buildings. I am not sure exactly what happened to them in the end, as used them for a fair few years, but I think they may have either been left behind when I went off to university or they got crushed and binned after a move.
Whatever happened to them I have great memories of those buildings and the games we played in and around them. I was always disappointed with Village Pack Two, Terror of the Lichemaster, which wasn’t as good, but added to the building stock.
With the wealth of plastic scenery kits these days, these card buildings look a poor relation, but at the time they were so much better than anything around, and unless you were going to spend hours making your own scenery, they added much needed depth and excitement to games of Warhammer.
An interesting move from that Games Workshop
An interesting move from that Games Workshop.
Their magazine, White Dwarf, is now going to be weekly.
Available exclusively through Games Workshop stores, independent retailers, and games-workshop.com. White Dwarf is an exciting and essential weekly hobby magazine that contains something for every hobbyist, every week – guaranteed!
I think this a strategic approach to get people to physically go to gaming stores. With weekly visits, are you more likely to spend more money? I am sure that is what GW want to happen. However I am sure like others you will remember in the UK when they stopped selling White Dwarf in WHSmiths, that certainly had an impact I am sure, it wasn’t that long before White Dwarf found its way back there.
A physically weekly magazine is an interesting approach and I wonder if it will be digital at some point?
In addition GW are also launching, Warhammer: Visions, a new magazine which will be their monthly journal, and I suspect that it will be available in places like WHSmith.
Experience a visual feast of super high-quality Citadel Miniatures. In more than 230 pages you’ll find a completely new take on the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 in a stunning new extended pictorial style.
Much more of an approach for the casual browser in the newsagents, looking for something visually attractive.
I find it interesting that this is relatively a quick change from the recent big change to White Dwarf. Very interesting approach for sure, will it work? Who knows?
Thrud
Thrud.
Who was Thrud?
Thrud the Barbarian is a comics character created by Carl Critchlow in 1981. Although Thrud himself is a parody of Conan the Barbarian, particularly as depicted in the Arnold Schwarzenegger films, inspiration for the character’s adventures and adversaries has been drawn from several fantasy sources. During the 1980s, a Thrud comic strip was a regular strip in White Dwarf.
This model was painted by me and was done in the 1980s using a blending style and minimal washes, with some dry brushing. The rocks on the base are milliput.
Stompa Variants
I was in the Bristol Games Workshop today and the manager let me have a peek at the March White Dwarf which is due out this Friday (27th February).
Though I flicked through the mag, the main piece which I looked at was the article on Stompa variants. One of the options you can have is a belly gun (which is something that Gargants have) which makes the mean Stompa even meaner!
If I had the money (and the time) I would love to have a horde of Stompas, though I expect I would also have to buy Simon some Shadowswords to compensate for them
Plastic Imperial Guard Valkyrie
The rumours are right it would appear that there is going to be a plastic Valkyrie for the Imperial Guard.
This is from the latest White Dwarf as scanned in by Plastic Legions.
Looks very nice, might get one for my Daemonhunters army, well better get painting the rest of it first.