Purge the Xenos!
This week I picked up the Warhammer 40,000 intro box, The Battle for Macragge. I've been painting Warmachine minis for the past year, and it felt like time to switch things up a bit. The 40K universe has always been interesting to me, so when the time came to try something new, it was an easy choice.
The Battle for Macragge box is a great value. You can check out the full contents here, but in short you get 10 Space Marine models, 16 Tryanid models and some pretty nice terrain peices. You also get a book of quick play missions which do an excellent job of slowly introducing you to the 40K rules set. Finally, in a move I applaud, it contains a nice, glossy paged book with the complete rules set. All of the rules found in the $50 hard-cover rulebook appear here unchanged, and the only thing you miss out on is all of the background fluff and the hobby section. It's nice to see a company give you the full rules set in the intro box rather than a chopped-down, unit specific set of "quick start" rules.
I decided to start my painting with the Tyranids. To be honest, the space marines were just a little to close to the unit of Stormblades I've been painting for the last few weeks, and the idea of painting something a little more organic was appealing. I got the models assembled, puttied and primed, and then I just sat there, unsure of what kind of color scheme I wanted. From what I've seen, people tend to paint the Tyranids in either bright, very alien colors (purples, pinks, etc.) or in very camo-organic patterns. I decided that I was going to be part of the second camp, and this is what I eventually came up with:
I haven't hit it with dullcote yet, so it's still a little shiny from various layers of ink washes, but I think he looks nice. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I think an army of them will look pretty striking all clustered together on the table. I really want to see how this scheme looks on a big model like a Carnifex or a Hive Tyrant, but I'm trying to resit buying anything else until I have these painted. I don't want to re-create the mountain of unpainted models I already have for Warmachine. :-)
The Battle for Macragge box is a great value. You can check out the full contents here, but in short you get 10 Space Marine models, 16 Tryanid models and some pretty nice terrain peices. You also get a book of quick play missions which do an excellent job of slowly introducing you to the 40K rules set. Finally, in a move I applaud, it contains a nice, glossy paged book with the complete rules set. All of the rules found in the $50 hard-cover rulebook appear here unchanged, and the only thing you miss out on is all of the background fluff and the hobby section. It's nice to see a company give you the full rules set in the intro box rather than a chopped-down, unit specific set of "quick start" rules.
I decided to start my painting with the Tyranids. To be honest, the space marines were just a little to close to the unit of Stormblades I've been painting for the last few weeks, and the idea of painting something a little more organic was appealing. I got the models assembled, puttied and primed, and then I just sat there, unsure of what kind of color scheme I wanted. From what I've seen, people tend to paint the Tyranids in either bright, very alien colors (purples, pinks, etc.) or in very camo-organic patterns. I decided that I was going to be part of the second camp, and this is what I eventually came up with:
I haven't hit it with dullcote yet, so it's still a little shiny from various layers of ink washes, but I think he looks nice. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I think an army of them will look pretty striking all clustered together on the table. I really want to see how this scheme looks on a big model like a Carnifex or a Hive Tyrant, but I'm trying to resit buying anything else until I have these painted. I don't want to re-create the mountain of unpainted models I already have for Warmachine. :-)
Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine
