Heresy & Heroes

Most weeks, I try to come up with something to talk about here, but on rare occasions, such as this, it’s a case of something and nothing. I’ve got no big topic I want to delve into, no eye-opening, jaw-dropping or any other sort of orifice enlarging statement to make. Nor do I have a posing question that’s confounding me to the extent that I have the urge to share or burden you with it to any great degree. I do however have a few, smaller things that I’ve been mulling over – none of which probably deserves its own post at this stage. And that’s what this ‘sort of’ post is about really. A handful of talking points that probably aren’t worth talking about too much. So, if you’re having a bit of a slow day and want to kill five minutes, you might find this vaguely compelling.

Changing Colours – The Mortifactors Look When I started working on the Mortifactors, I painted my Lord Executioner, and as he was going to be in Artificer Armour, I changed up the colour scheme of the chapter a little. But because I liked the way it looked, I carried it over to all of the marines that I’ve worked on since. The differences are subtle, but it’s still drawn the odd comment ranging from engaged and interested to the nerdrage that declares me to be wrong and evil and more wrong. Personally, I don’t care about the latter and I’m happy to explain to the former that the reason for me doing it like this is simple: I think they look better my way.

Left: Original Mortifactors Colour Scheme. Right: My Mortifactors Colour Scheme.

It’s a purely aesthetic thing. I guess i prefer ‘uggs’ to little black booties (that seems to be the bit that most people seem to notice). Besides, the Mortifactors don’t do anything the way they ought to, and that’s one of the reasons I enjoy embellishing their fluff. To some, my decision to paint them a little differently is as borderline heretical as the chapter itself and I’m quite proud of that.

Dark Eldar – My ‘Vienna’

If you’re familiar with the music of Ultravox, you’ll know that with regards to Vienna, and to paraphrase Midge Ure himself, ‘this release means nothing to me’. That was a rather tortured and awkward way of saying that I don’t care about Dark Eldar. Not in a nasty way – indeed, the new minis look really impressive and the fluff is pretty cool too. It’s just that they’ve never really been on my radar in terms of a hobby project. I’ve thought about it. Their starter box was always one of the better looking kits to get going with, but as ‘interesting’ a place like Commorragh might be, I wouldn’t want to live there. Ergo, I shall be saying little else on the subject, unless some particularly amazing model comes along (the Void Raven does look rather nice, but it’s not really me…), I shall keep my council and stay schtum. To all you DE players out there, I hope you get lots of lovely, sadistic goodies.

Chaos Gods are Gathering I’m not much of a rumour monger as far as hobby bloggers go, but there have been plenty of rumours circulating about the Chaos Greater Daemons getting plastic models soon, as well as resculpts to bring them into the modern era (which is very exciting!). This will be part of WFB’s End Times gig (though of course Chaos transcends both games) and this has already produced some stunning sculpts. By many accounts, this has been revitalising to the game and that’s no bad thing. Even I’ve been tempted to join the Bows n’ Arrows brigade and I’ve been a confirmed bolt gun man for a long time.

I have heard a salty whisper from the warp though – someone I’m vaguely friendly with says that he has seen the new Great Unclean One model. Now, I won’t name names or methods, and to be honest, I have little to go on myself, but it is *apparently ‘considerably’ larger than the existing one (though not quite as big as the FW GUO), that its styling brings it in line with the plaguebearers and particularly the drones from the last release, and that it can be assembled as a specific character. *Apparently it’s somewhere in between looking ‘goofy and terrifying’ which probably fits. I can’t see why this person would have a reason to lie (other than the obvious, though he’s not that sort) but then again I wasn’t wholly convinced – I could probably have guessed all that myself. Make of it what you will…

Plinth Shopping Random question time – I need to mount my Slaaneshi Imperial Knight for Golden Daemon and therefore require a plinth. I was thinking about a simple bit of slate or just a block of wood, but was wondering if anyone else had any better/alternative notions. Anyone know where to buy a plinth for an Imperial Knight? (yes, that is probably the most bizarre question I’ll ask today).

Planning Next Year’s Projects

Ok, so this one will definitely get its own post as we get closer to 2015, but at the moment, I’m trying to decide what I’ll be working on in 2015. I’ve no idea what direction it’ll take, or if it will continue along the same path as 2014, but we’re almost into October now, so I need to get planning. There’s a lot of musing going on regarding how I carry on with the Mortifactors, whether to carry on pursuing Daemons, how I’m going to build on Dios Toros and my Slaaneshi forces, and if I take on something like INQ28 or a Necromunda gang. Loads to think about but it’s early days yet – plenty to consider and who knows what GW/FW will bring out over the remaining days of 2014? The rate they’re going, it could be anything.

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So, there you go. Something and nothing really. It’s almost a study in the random nonsense that goes through this particular hobbyist’s brain during a particular given week. Whether it’s of any interest to you is another matter, but if I’ve done nothing else, I hope I’ve helped you to enjoy five minutes well wasted.

p.s. Apologies for any formatting weirdness. It appears WordPress is having a minor crisis at the moment but I have tried to fix it.