Forgeworld Tallarn Review

Well... It is amazing how quickly Forgeworld sends toys when you spend enough money. Less than a week from making my purchase I had over a hundred Tallarn guardsmen. Lets get stuck right in shall we?

Where to start..? Well lets just say I am in LOVE!

Welll.... They are slightly smaller than regular GW models (much like the Kriegers), so true 28mil. They are not heroic scale. The models have a realistic scale to their bodies especially the hands and feet.


Model wise I was very pleased with the sheer amount of gear each model comes with. Pouches, knives, shoulder pads, holsters, backpacks. Every model has gear. I feel a little silly for buying two packs of extra Tallarn gear. The only extra gear I really needed that I got out of those packs were two demo charges and a couple of extra las-pistols. The longlas variant rifles look great in person. Those rifles especially give the models a unique profile that I really like.

On the downside, those rifles while looking good are made of resin. And are cast by Forgeworld. Don;t get me wrong. I love FW BUT I have had some miscast crap from them over the years. The rifles will be the death of me. Mark my words. Out of the 120ish rifles I got in order... Maybe 20 are straight. I will be breaking those barrels for years to come even after completing the army.

I was worried that when I bought 20 packs of the snipers to use as las gunners that I would be painting myself into a corner pose wise BUT this was not the case. Out of the 3 in each pack, 1 is 1 piece, 1 is 2 piece (legs and the rest), and 1 is 3 piece (arms/gun, legs, head/torso). These pieces are completely compatible with the heavy weapon troupers who are all multipart and variable.


Mold lines wise the models are pretty good. A few packs are ugly but I've had worse with regular plastics. We'll have to see how bad it will be to clean them up with a knife as I am not fooling with resin and a file.


I like how every heavy weapon team comes with a heavy weapons sprue. I now have 15 of every heavy weapon... Cool side bonus to spending so much cash I guess. Too bad I don't have a single special weapon. (Thankfully I have heaps from other projects)... I also got a huge pile of sandbags... Who would have thought. Some of the detail those are cool too. I really like the heavy bolter bags that have a pile of grenades on them.

I have sprinkled some quick dirty photos in my writing to give you an idea of what has come. 8 days to finish my Tyranids... Back to painting. Before that though, I am not regretting my Tallarn purchase (yet) and I look forward to getting stuck into them soon.

Until next time gang!

B

P.S. I could have mentioned the downside of the price. They are more expensive than the Krieg or the Elysians by a fair margin. But I suppose that price goes without saying when you are buying an FW infantry guard army. OUCH!

Arcanicon 2011 (Yup I already bought my army)

Arcanicon is the largest 40K tourney in the Southern Hemisphere. It takes place in Melbourne every year (the last weekend in January). I was an Arc regular for a number of years but have been taking a break the last couple of years. After my disappointing time at Cancon (in Canberra last year on the same weekend) I thought I would save myself a bundle of money on travel expenses and stay near to home (and go to a much better tourney environment). Don't get me wrong Cancon 40K was run well but I just did not enjoy myself in quite a few of the games that I played. There seemed to be an air of desperation to win running through a majority of the games. This is not to say that Arc is not competitive because it is. It is just a much more fun atmosphere which is important with that many players. Mark Morrison and his WATT crew go to great lengths to ensure a fun weekend on many levels.

Anyway, I took an infantry based guard army to Arc all those years ago (when it was my first time). I think that since this will be my return to Arc I will bring something out of the old list. I sold my Mordian's years ago and while I love my stormtrooper/ swat guard... I want to do something new.

I have been toying for literally a few years with the idea of doing a Forge World Tallarn Army. What's that you might say? FW Tallarn? They don't make an army of those guys... Well they do make a sniper team and heavy weapon crews. I have a feeling that they were making more of an effort here and had to stop to work on something else. The snipers use rifles that are identical to the regular las rifles. There is enough differentiation in the heavy weapon troopers to convert the rest of the army IMO. It is an expensive proposition (costs more than the FW Krieg models by a fair margin) but that has never stopped me before.

Last night I ordered over 100 of these bad boys...

The las-gunners:



Assorted Heavy weapon guys:





In the meantime I continue to paint bugs... Let see how long FW takes this time. Months last time...

A Review of Raven Guard Shadow Captain Korvydae

Well after what felt like forever I got my forgeworld shipment. Good stuff ll around. I got 6 packs of vets with shotguns, some respirator heads, more Blood Angel brass etch and this fine gentleman:



OK OK I know I am not likely to ever use a thunder hammer on a power armoured independent character. Can you say killed before you swing? I know I can. Anyway. I love beakie marines and when I saw this model on the new release pages of the forgeworld site when I was placing an order anyway... I just had to buy him.

Review time. The detail on this model is truly astounding. It is so minute that I am afraid to paint it. I haven't been afraid to paint a model in something like 10 years. It says "Mortis" on his holster flap. Amazing detail. On top of that I really like the way they were able to pose him. He looks like he is actually running. Sometimes you get stuck with a 2 dimensional model with metal and some plastic models. This guy gives me chills. Ok... Sounding alittle too much like a fan boy but I am really excited about this model. (He does come with more purity seals that he knows what to do with though! Thankfully half of them come off the model to start with... I'll be going for a slightly less pure version.)

I really want my valkyries to be done so I can paint him... for an army I don;t have... sigh... Speaking of the army I really like that all of the Raven Guard stuff is beakie helm and matching armour. It is studded on one shoulder pad and even on this guy's backpack. It is a nice touch that differentiates the army on the table top... In a word... I like...

He does have some unfortunate mold lines on his shoulder pads (at least mine did) BUT otherwise the model was relatively mold line free. Nothing is warped which is a nice change from my last FW order. My main gripe is that it took ages to get him... As I wrote before I hate waiting... I really do...


Anyway... Til next time gang...

The Largest Daemon Prince You Have Ever Seen!

So people kept asking me if the kitbashed Storm Raven was the most expensive model I owned. To be fair the combo of forgworld bitz, a valkyrie, and a land raider IS pretty expensive. But not compared to this bad boy. Here is a forge world Abbaddon statue that I chiseled off the pile of skulls and rebuilt to be walking off a smashed land speeder. There is an army that matches this that is a combination of chaos warrior bitz and chaos marine bitz. More photos to come of that in a day or two. In the meantime... Harkov Ironfist in all his Glory!