(012) To Infinity and Beyond!

 

I’ve been watching a lot of videos on Beasts of War’s YouTube channel lately. Those guys are obsessed with Corvus Belli’s game; Infinity. They always seem so passionate about it and I can understand why. The Infinity models painted by Angel Giraldez look absolutely incredible and I love their aesthetic and art style.

 

The last time I started watching their videos back in January I bought a copy of the Infinity two-player starter set ‘Operation Icestorm’. But I never got around to assembling or painting any of the models.

 

 

 

Seven months later and the Beasts of War boys have inspired me again. This time I ordered a copy of the limited edition painting guide book by Angel Giraldez; ‘Painting Miniatures from A to Z – Masterclass Volume 1’. It arrived today along with the limited edition figure ‘Joan of Arc’ from the PanOceania faction.

 

 

 

So this afternoon I decided to take a break from painting my Imperial Knights. I finally broke open ‘Operation Icestorm’ and started to assemble some of the models. The first thing that I noticed is the scale. Infinity is 28mm, just like Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000. But whereas Warhammer 40,000 uses ‘heroic’ scale, Infinity seems to be ‘true-scale’. The difference is significant. The Infinity models look and feel tiny and you start to wonder how you would go about painting them with anything other than a fine-detail brush.

 

The second thing I noticed is that all Infinity models seem to be metal, I don’t think they make anything in plastic or resin. I’m not keen on metal models, or on resin ones either for that matter. But the models I ordered from Statuesque Miniatures recently showed me that metal models don’t have to be a nightmare.

 

Infinity models are however a waking nightmare of poorly fitting together pieces and superglue everywhere miraculously failing to hold anything together except your fingers.

 

I assembled five and hated every minute I spent preparing and assembling them. I tried to persevere, but I couldn’t face any more. I nearly lost all interest in table-top wargaming and assembling and painting miniatures. I have discovered that Infinity is not for me, I just wish that I had discovered that before I had spent so much money.

 

 

 

I have decided to sell my ‘Operation Icestorm’ set on eBay. I’m hoping to raise enough money to cover, or offset, the cost of a starter set for the X-Wing Miniatures game or the new ‘Halo: Fleet Battles’ from Spartan Games. I still want to pick up a copy of ‘Warhammer: Age of Sigmar’ but that’s a lot more models to add to the Unpainted Legion.

 

 

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 244 models.

 

 

 

Currently Reading: ‘Scars’ by Chris Wraight.

 

(011) Hobby Progress. Project 001: Imperial Knights (Part IV)



I am still working on my two new Imperial Knights. I haven’t put as much time and work into them lately as I would like. I’ve recently had a mild case of hobby burn-out and I’ve also been distracted by ‘Batman: Arkham Knight’. That said, they are marching ever closer to completion, it won’t be long now until they’re finished.

 

I have a long weekend booked off of work at the end of the month and I’m hoping to have completed the Imperial Knights by then, so I can start/resume work on another project. Working on two similar models simultaneously for an hour or so a day has felt really productive. I’m considering moving on to my two half-finished super-heavy tanks next using the same strategy.

 

 

My Knight Crusader will be armed with an Avenger Gatling Cannon and a Rapid-fire Battle Cannon. I’m not keen on the short, tapering barrel of the vanilla Imperial Knight kit Rapid-fire Battle Cannon. On my first Knight I added a muzzle break to the end, with this one I’ve replaced the barrel entirely with the gun from a Baneblade Super-heavy tank.

 

 

 

 

My Knight Errant will be armed with a Thermal Cannon and a Thunderstrike Gauntlet. I like the look of the Thermal Cannon, but it always seemed a bit stubby for the range it has in the game. So I have elongated mine using the two spare Rapid-fire Battle Cannon barrels that I had.

 

 

 

The bottom-halves of both Knights are completely finished. I might add some more weathering powder once the whole model is assembled and then throw on a coat of Purity Seal though.

 

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 243 models.

 

Currently Reading: ‘Scars’ by Chris Wraight.

 

(010) Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Free Stormcast Eternal.

I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of tomorrow’s White Dwarf a day early. Coming as a surprise to absolutely no one with an internet connection, White Dwarf 75 finally reveals ‘Warhammer – Age of Sigmar’. It also comes with a free ‘Stormcast Eternal’ miniature from the new game.

 

 

 

Free plastic miniatures on the cover of White Dwarf is something I remember fondly from my childhood. In fact my first ever Citadel Miniature was a plastic Warhammer Bright Wizard that came free with White Dwarf issue 186 back in 1995!

 

 

 

 

I started this blog with the aim of documenting my attempt to get the number of unassembled and unpainted models I own under control. Warhammer – Age of Sigmar is one of the reasons that that will probably never happen. The models in the starter set look absolutely incredible.

 

I’ve never had a great interest in Warhammer Fantasy, but this set is tempting me to start. Even with no interest in Fantasy the conversion potential of the Age of Sigmar models for 40k is immense. I can easily see a Khorne Chaos Space Marine Lord, five Khorne Berzerkers and twenty Chaos Cultists in that box, and that’s just on the Chaos side.

 

On the ‘good’ side taking a quick glance I can already see ten Thunder Hammer-Storm Shield Terminators, three amazing Vanguard Veterans, a unique Standard Bearer and a ‘counts-as’ Chapter Master on a Space Marine Bike.

 

I’ve taken a couple of comparison photographs with a Tactical Space Marine and a Space Marine in Terminator Armour so you can get an idea of size.

 

 

 

 

(The Stormcast Eternal comes with a 40mm round base. His shield arm is currently held on with blu-tack so it will be easier to paint when I get around to it).

 

 

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 253 models.

 

 

Currently Reading: (Non-Black Library) ‘Broken Monsters’ by Lauren Beukes.

 

 

(009) Review - Statuesque Miniatures.

 

 

Statuesque Miniatures first came to my attention when I was looking for a supplier of 28mm heroic scale female heads. I was planning on building an all-female Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum army, I still might one day, if I can get the unpainted legion under control.

 

In the meantime I decided to buy a couple of complete models from them, just to see what the quality is like and how they compare to other 28mm scale miniatures.

 

All of the models on their website look fantastic and I had to restrain myself from ordering them in bulk. I intended to pick a single figure as a sample, but their prices are so good and the models look so great I couldn’t settle on any one single figure.

 

I ended up buying a set of three miniatures; ‘SM019 Resistance Specialists’. Consisting of;

 

‘SM012 Lila of the Resistance – Sniper’

 

 

‘SM011 Rosa of the Resistance – Machine Gunner’

 

 

 and ‘SM015 Eva of theResistance – RPG’.

 

 

These three models are priced at £4.75 individually, and the set of all three together is discounted to £13.00. I believe that postage is a flat-rate of £3 within the UK. So my order cost me £16.00 in total for three models, which seems more than reasonable to me.

 

I placed my order on Monday evening, it was shipped on Wednesday, and it arrived today, Thursday morning. That’s pretty quick, I wasn’t expecting them to turn up until the weekend at the earliest.

 

Statuesque Miniatures’ models seem to be all metal. In recent years I have become a complete convert to resin and plastic and I have developed a bit of an aversion to metal miniatures. That said I am very pleased with these models, they could not have been easier to assemble. The joints fit together so snugly and flush they’re unlike any metal models I have assembled before.

 

 

 

 

 

Even the mould lines are barely visible, in fact I didn’t even bother to scape them smooth. My only criticism is that on two of the models I bought, ‘Rosa’ and ‘Eva’ the basing tab was wider than the slot in the base it was meant to slot in to. But this isn’t a big problem for me as I will be mounting them on 40mm bases eventually, to match my Raging Heroes models.

 

 

 

The detail is good, very good, but it isn’t as sharp or as extensive as Raging Heroes resin figures. Some people might regard this as a criticism, but not me. Excessive detail on small scale miniatures often makes painting them overly time consuming and isn’t always noticeable anyway.

 

Speaking of scale, they are almost identical in size and proportion to Raging Heroes' figures, and will fit perfectly into my Warhammer 40K setting.

 

 

 

All in all, I am very pleased with my Statuesque Miniatures order. I think that their website is good, their models are great and their pricing and service are fantastic. I will definitely be placing more orders with them in the future.



Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 252 models.


Currently Reading: (Non-Black Library) 'Broken Monsters' by Lauren Beukes.

(008) Black Library - Classic Paperbacks back in print.

I love reading Warhammer 40,000 fiction from Black Library. I read a lot of novels featuring Space Marines, the ‘Horus Heresy’ series and currently Dan Abnett’s ‘Gaunt’s Ghosts’ series. I got a copy of Sandy Mitchell’s ‘The Greater Good’ for my birthday this year and really enjoyed it. The problem was that it’s the ninth in a series and although I wanted to read the preceding novels they were all out of print.

 

Luckily I stayed up late last Wednesday night watching a movie. I happened to check my e-mail before I went to bed and there was a Black Library newsletter advertising a limited re-release of some classic paperbacks. Included in this limited release were the omnibuses ‘Hero of the Imperium’ and ‘Defender of the Imperium’, which between them cover the first six novels in Sandy Mitchell’s ‘Ciaphas Cain’ series.

 

 

 

Since I was up anyway and my wallet was on my desk I ordered them both. I’m glad I did when I checked the Black Library website on Friday morning barely more than 24 hours later, they had already sold out!

 

My copies arrived today.

 

 

 

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.

 

 

Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.

(007) The Unity Marines: Chapter Organisation & Origins (Part II)

My original origin story for my Space Marine chapter, the Unity Marines, was extremely derivative of the backstory of the Dark Angels Space Marine chapter/legion. Although this was unintentional, I was unhappy with it. In recent years I have been brainstorming a new, and I hope original and unique backstory for the Unity Marines. This is the first time I have tried to extract it from the jumbled mess of half-formed ideas in my head, so it may not be flawless (or lucid) but I will probably refine it over time.

 

 

Inquisitor Helenica of the Ordo Xenos has only recently been promoted to the rank of Inquisitor. She has been sent to the Byridian Sector to work with the famed Inquisitor Pilate of the Ordo Malleus. Inquisitor Pilate is hundreds of years old and has inveigled himself into every aspect of Byridian Sector government, he has friends and allies everywhere, and those friends and allies have eyes and ears everywhere.

 

There are rumours, whispers in the dark places, that Orks have been collecting tainted artefacts of Chaos and even fighting alongside daemonic entities. The Ordo Xenos and Ordo Malleus are to work together to investigate and counter this threat.

 

Inquisitor Helenica discovers that Inquisitor Pilate has been corrupted by the ruinous powers. The Orks are working for him and gathering artefacts of Chaos for his personal collection. Perhaps to begin with, he thought that he could use their dark power to fight against Chaos, but now he has fallen deep within the thrall of the Chaos Gods.

 

There is no one she can turn to for help. She does not know how far the corruption has spread, and she has no evidence, she cannot move against him openly. Inquisitor Pilate knows that she has discovered his secret, but he does not know what evidence she has or who she has told. Until he knows how far his secrets have leaked he cannot move against her openly either.

 

Inquisitor Helenica formulates a crazy and desperate long-term plan to save the Byridian Sector from Chaos and to stop Inquisitor Pilate once and for all. She must found her own Space Marine chapter. Only then will she have the power to stop Pilate’s dark schemes, no matter the odds stacked against her.

 

She begins by travelling far and wide chasing rumours and legends of Space Marines exiled from their chapters. Exiled for breaking the strict tenets of the Codex Astartes and the rules of their chapters, but still loyal to the Emperor and to the Imperium. I got this idea from Graham McNeill’s excellent Ultramarines series of novels.

 

She finds six exiled Space Marines scattered across the sector and convinces them to band together, to regain their honour and to aid her battle against Chaos. She names them the Unity Marines, for they are all from different chapters, come together, unified in their desire to serve and protect the Imperium and its citizens.

 

 

 

Her first objective completed, her second step is to legitimise her chapter. She sends a group of her most loyal acolytes to Terra on a mission to infiltrate the Administratum. There they insert false backdated records of the founding of the Unity Marines, legitimising their existence.

 

Meanwhile she sends her band of loyal Space Marines on a mission to raid an Adeptus Mechanicus transport to requisition, or steal, the armour, weapons and equipment that they need.

 

Inquisitor Helenica now needs to expand her fledgling chapter. She seeks out a Magos Biologis exiled from his forge world for conducting forbidden experiments on Adeptus Astartes corpses. She finds him and his secret laboratory and convinces him to help her make more, new Space Marines.

 

However he does not have the facilities or the equipment necessary to make a new Space Marine. But his research has led him to believe that there may be a piece of ancient technology hidden deep within a space hulk called ‘The Tomb of Knowledge’ that will help.

 

Helenica sends her six Space Marines into ‘The Tomb of Knowledge’ to recover the ancient technology the Magos Biologis requires. They encounter a Tyranid infestation and one of their number is killed. But the others are able to recover and escape with the archeotech, which turns out to be a partial STC (Standard Template Construct) from the Age of Technology which contains advanced medical knowledge and machine schematics.

 

The Magos Biologis is able to construct the machines recorded in the STC in his new laboratory on board Helenica’s star ship. He believes that with the machines he has constructed and the knowledge that he has gained from the STC, he will be able to produce new Space Marines, even from older volunteers than is otherwise possible, albeit with possible side effects.

 

But he does not have any of the necessary genetic raw material, the gene-seed.

 

Helenica sends her Space Marines on a distasteful mission. They travel far and wide to the sites of recent battles and harvest gene-seed from fallen Space Marines of numerous chapters, before their own chapters could recover their dead.

 

Now they have everything they need to expand their Chapter. Helenica presents them with a gift a Strike Cruiser, crewed and loaded with equipment, freshly requisitioned from the Mechanicus and painted in their new livery. This will serve as their Chapter headquarters and armoury. She sends them on their way to grow their numbers and to function as an autonomous Space Marine Chapter until they are strong enough to assist her in her coming confrontation with Inquisitor Pilate.

 

Now, many years later they have grown into a full and established, although slightly under-strength and under-equipped, Space Marine Chapter.

 

Unfortunately Inquisitor Pilate has not sat idly by, ignorant of Inquisitor Helenica’s activities. Enlisting the aid of Fabius Bile, Pilate’s forces mounted a raid on the Unity Marines strike cruiser and stole genetic samples, samples which Fabius Bile has used to grow an army of corrupt clones, thus providing Pilate with his own chapter of Chaos Space Marines, ‘The Harbingers of Discord’.

 

 

This is a really brief overview of my current ideas for the origins of my Space Marine Chapter, ‘The Unity Marines’ and my Chaos Space Marine war band ‘The Harbingers of Discord’. I will probably flesh them out in more detail in the future and I would like to try my hand at writing some fiction featuring them at some point.

 

Any feedback you can give me would be much appreciated, particularly if you can point out any continuity errors, logic problems or mistakes in the Warhammer 40,000 setting and lore that I have made. I hope that this second iteration is more original and unique, but if I have unwittingly recycled something I’ve read somewhere else please let me know that too!

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.

 

Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.

 

 

 

(006) The Unity Marines: Chapter Organisation & Origins (Part I)

One of my favourite aspects of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 Universe is the massive scope that exists for creating your own unique armies, characters and places and fleshing them out with backstories. In fact in recent years ‘Forging the Narrative’ has seemingly become Games Workshop’s guiding philosophy, and I couldn’t be happier.

 

I started my Space Marine army during my first year at University, way back in 2002. I had been collecting and playing with a hodgepodge of models since I was about twelve. My aim in beginning a new Space Marine army was to collect a strictly rules-legal force, to paint it in a unified colour scheme and to create its backstory myself.

 

Thus was founded ‘The Unity Marines’. I’ve only settled on this name comfortably in the last handful of years. Before that I toyed with other names like ‘The Lightning Legion’ or ‘The Storm Marines’. Their chapter badge is a black lightning bolt on a white circle. Primarily because that symbol is numerous enough on the Space Marine transfer sheets to kit out an entire army.

 

 

 

In Warhammer 40,000 the lightning bolt symbol was closely associated with the Emperor of Mankind during the Unification Wars, hence the name ‘Unity Marines’, being derived from the lightning bolt symbol.

 

Over the years I have considered writing up the origin story of my chapter. I’ve always wanted to tie it to the origin of my Chaos Space Marine war band ‘The Harbingers of Discord’ in some way.

 

Originally my idea was that they began as a single Space Marine chapter, which divided in a civil war or schism. One half remaining loyal to the Imperium and the other falling to Chaos. They were called to a great battle akin to the defence of Terra at the end of the Horus Heresy. But civil war broke out.

 

After lengthy and bitter fighting on their home world the Chaos aligned marines escaped, only to find themselves too late to fight alongside their dark brethren, the battle being already over in the Imperials’ favour. They were then cursed by the Chaos Gods for failing to lend their aid to the battle.

 

The surviving Imperial aligned half of the chapter rallied and gave chase, only to be lost in the warp, emerging many years later to find themselves declared ‘Excommunicate Traitoris’. Hunted by the Imperium, hounded by other loyalist forces, they sought to clear their name and to fight for the Emperor.

I liked this origin story, until I realised how closely it resembles the backstory of the Dark Angels!

 

 

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.

 

 

Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.