Warhammer Fantasy - Empire General & crossbowman

I have started my empire army, I am still unsure of which colour scheme to go for but I feel as though , probably red, black, white and purple. I am leaning more towards a nuln style heavily armoured defensive army.

Head 2 - from greatswords box

Head 3 - from state troop box

The general of the army is a wonderful model, the pose of the horse is my favourite. The only thing I don't like are the legs of the general.

Parts used:

• Horse - General
• Legs & body - General
• Left arm - Knightly order
• Right arm - Greatswords
• Feather - Greatswords
• Cape - Knightly order

After seeing the arm holding the helmet and the large feather I knew the conversion I wanted to make. It will take a little greenstuff to fill in the join between the feather on the helmet & the large feather.

I feel as though the pointing arm, may be a little too normal. I may use the pointing arm, feather hat combo on the champion of the knightly order, as if he is selecting which opponent to fight.

Armoured crossbowman - head swap sallet from greatswords box

I really liked Branganza's besiegers and so I thought I would try and make a paupers version, it was surprising how much difference simply adding the armoured head made! I plan on casting more of these heads to convert the rest.
~M

P3 Pinning Expansion: 1.25mm

I have just picked up the P3 pinning expansion: 1.25mm from my local hobby store. I bought it because I have an increasing number of metal models and having been running out of paper clips!

I previously used paper clips but decided to give this set a go because my clippers were becoming blunt on the paper clip metal. I also found that the drill bits I had were not the same diameter as the paper clip. Therefore, the joint I was pinning was not as secure as I would have liked as the paper clip would have to be secured with a lot of superglue to stop it moving.

In this set you get 6 brass 1.25mm diameter rods ~15cm long, and two 1.25mm drill bits.

As well as pinning I plan on using these as replacement staffs for when the plastic breaks and for conversion work.

~M

Starting a Warhammer Fantasy army - The Empire

I mentioned in an earlier article that, after searching for bits to use for conversions in an inquisitor warband, I was very tempted to start a Warhammer fantasy army. I took the plunge and bought 3 sets of state troopers off eBay, and they came to just over the price of a new set from GW! It is surprising how expensive a fantasy army can be considering they are sold in packs of 10 models and you need 20-40 in a unit.

The codex is in the post and once it arrives I am going to decide on the colour scheme. At the moment it is either going to be black and yellow, like the nights of the blazing sun, or red purple/blue and white/cream.

~M

Warhammer 40,000 - The Rules - Small 40k rulebook

Warhammer 40,000 - The Rules

Warhammer 40,000 - The Rules - £35

From Games workshop:

This portable, small-format rulebook has been specifically designed to be the gamer’s ideal companion. Don't let its size fool you though. Measuring a convenient 205mm x 150mm, this handy book contains the complete rules for Warhammer 40,000.
This premium full colour volume features a red textured skull on its matt white hard cover and red gilt page edges. It’s as beautiful as it is useful. Created with gamers in mind, the three ribbon bookmarks are perfect for marking the rules you use most often.

At last Games Workshop has released a small rulebook, separate to a starter set. But is it worth it?

Why buy the small rulebook?

1. It's smaller. At 205x150mm (~A5) it is almost half the size of the full rule book which is ~A4 size. It's therefore easier to transport & look through.
2. It's cheaper. But you do not get the 2 other books.
3. Easier to replace, if you lose the full size rulebook you would have to buy the whole set of three again or search eBay for a single copy
4. It has three ribbon bookmarks. These are useful for marking reference pages
5. Doesn't come with the other two books. 

Why buy the full sized rulebook?

1. Comes with two extra books - A Galaxy of War, which explores the art of collecting and painting miniatures & Dark Millennium which describes the history of the 41st Millennium
2. You already own the small rulebook from the Dark Vengeance set - you already have a portable rulebook. Admittedly it is not the complete rulebook, but you can use the full sized book as a reference book.

Should I buy the Dark vengeance rulebook instead?

It you don't have a rulebook, no. On ebay it is going for ~£25 buy it now, although I expect this will drop with the small rulebook release. For an extra £10 you receive the full set of rules. Saying that if you don't have the Dark Vengeance set for an extra £40 you receive a lot of beautiful models!

There are a lot of variables to consider, but to summarise overall I do not think the price justifies the product.
~M