New Dark Mechanicum Candidates

Ok so the new Necron models are full of disappointment. With the exception of possibly the Tomb Blades, they look more like they belong in a Dark Eldar army rather than amongst the simplicty of a Necron force. Many Necron players around my local GW agree with me too.

However the new models look like great candidates for Dark Mechanicum conversions. As soon as I've got the money, I'm adding a contingent of twisted warmachines to my Blood Pact and Chaos Space Marines based off these beauties.

Leaked Flyer

This was accidentally put up on the Forge World site earlier on:



The picture is titled 'Storm Eagle', which if current popular rumours are to be believed will be the new flyer available to all space marine chapters in the next round of codices. However the fact that it was leaked on Forge World probably means that it's a release they've got lined up rather than GW.

Either way, it looks completely awesome and in my opinion is what the Stormraven should've looked like. The only issue I have with it is that it looks a little too sleek and streamlined for the Space Marine design philosophy, but that's just me.

Overall Verdict: Bring it on! I want at least one for all three of my loyalist marine armies, one for my chaos, plus I'd convert one into a Pre-Heresy flyer for my Thousand Sons too

Broadening the Mind

I'm currently in the process of launching the Khorneguy's Commissions page and generally overhauling the blog in generally, so there may be a few issues in layout or even accessing The Wandering Mind next couple days.

Just bear with me and I should have all of it sorted by the end of the week at the very latest

Ok on the coach on the way back from GD UK. So the plan for pics completely backfired. The camera packed up the moment I went to take a picture of that gorgeous drop pod outside. Instead i will try and put together my recollections.

- First of all I spoke to Jervis Johnson. We had a talk about the lack of army-specific magic items in 8th ed fantasy and he said it was to make it easier to control balance between army books. I tactfully 'forgot' to mention the Ogre Kingdoms Hellheart

- Next was Matt Ward. I tried subtle sarcasm by say 'I really like how you've made the most elite army in 40k even more powerful and elite'. Either he's used to this kind of thing or it went way over his head. I would've spoke to more of the team but a crowd was building by then and i wanted to beat the scrum to Forge World.

- Both new Forgeworld and Warhammer Forge books were on display, with IA11 featuring guard and Space Wolves fighting Eldar. there's a range of Eldar Corsair army lists to draw your army list from, including the Shadow Spectres.

Bram Redmaw is being released. A rather taSty model i must say, but they kept pretty tight lipped about the possiblity of further releases, namely Thunderwolves. They claimed anything from maybe to not even in the distant pipeline, depending on the designer I spoek to. The GW design team kept mysteriously quiet about this too, almost like they weren't allowed to say anything...

- Warhammer Forge was interesting. Apparently they're going to focus on the 'tech and cogs' side of things, being more interested in magic and beasts.

- There will be Elementals for all main BRB lores. For now they're keeping them as bound monsters for Storm of Magic, mainly because of worries of balance and points-cost issues if they had wizards being able to summon them in normal games.

The Fire one will be a pillar of flame with dragons coming out the top and the Metal one will be an orb of metal with carvinal mask-esque faces coming out of it

- No Dark Elf stuff is planned at Warhammer Forge, as they've yet to have an inspiring-enough idea for them

- Warlord Titans are a definate possibility, with the new Phantom Titan being about as tall as a Warlord would be

- The queue for sales was ridiculously long, with Forgeworld, Black Library and mainstream GW sales being crammed into a tiny area, resulting in extreme congetsion, with people queuing through the gaming area and waits of over two hours to buy anything. GW, if you're reading, bad call...

- No mention of future releases from GW, nothing was even forthcoming about next months releases

- There was however a massive WoTR display board witht he Battle of Five Armies. Interestingly, there was an unfamiliar Bear model on one corner of the board (future Beorn release anyone?)

- Specialist Games models and Rulebooks were on sale for the first time at GW that i can remember in my three years of attending Games Day

Right, I'm going to get some sleep. I'll post more as it occurs to me

Plans for Rebirth

Ok I'm back. I've been away for a while, due to the need to move flat and lack of internet, but i'm back and i've got big plans.

1. First of all, I'm going to start doing reviews and maybe even articles on The Wandering Mind, instead of just my few-and-far-between painting and modelling updates. The reasons are twofold really:

- I'm very opinionated when it comes to GW and gaming in general and this blog is going to be my outlet for it all.

- I'm doing a writing degree at the moment, with a view to go into journalism at the end of it, part of which is writing reviews, so it'll be good practice for me as well

I picked up the Sabbat Worlds Anthology yesterday, so i think this'll probably be my first review.

2. Next up I've taken it upon myself to get most, if not all my armies done by the end of the year, (mainly due to the lack of funds to start new ones),so you should be seeing a lot more progress on projects that you've seen me start but never finish.
My first point of call will probably be my Blood Pact. I want to add some of Heritor Asphodels 'Woe Engines' to the mix, including a Stumble Gun and a unique take on a Deathstrike Missile Launcher. I might even get these done in time for Armies on Parade.

3. Finally (and i may regret saying this), I'm going to try and post on here at least once a week. The blog's been a bit neglected recently and in serious need of reinvigoration, so this is hopefully what it needs.

So watch this space i will be back very soon.

Rebirth

Just a post to check in and let people know that The Wandering Mind is not dead, I've just been unable to access the internet to post. I shall be working my magic with a digital camera tonight to bring you rather a lot of hobby goodness over the next few days, and indeed the next few months, considering that I now have a three month holiday from uni.

In case anyone was wondering, I've been working on the following:

Space Wolves - A heavily Thunderwolf-themed list which hopefully should be ready in time for Armies on Parade at Games Day UK

Hochland Engineer Empire Force - the shift in provinces is mainly down to the fact that someone at my LGS already has a Nuln themed list. Also i feel i can explore the background and mindset of Hochland more in my army than if I'd stuck with the Nuln route. And the airship is still coming. Slowly.

40k Deamons - I'm finishing these up by the end of the month hopefully, considering they've been in the works two years already. The watchword for this army is Zombies. Lots and lots of Zombies.

Dark Eldar Carnivale Macabre - Watch this space for the show of your life. Featuring Wracks, Grotesques and a Harlequin support act, may well steal your very soul away.

Dark Elf Beastmasters - I'm building this force to be ready to use this summer for the Storm of Magic expansion, which i still have mixed feelings about, probably because of the lack of solid information on it. Even if it turns out to be rubbish, I'll still have a fully painted Druchii amry at the end of it, so it won't be a wasted experience.

Orcs and Goblin army - although it's the least of my priorities right now, this force is slowly building up to completion. Just a few tweeks to move it from 7th to 8th edition and it's ready to go.

And finally I want to get Khorneguys Commissions off the ground, because all these projects don't come cheap. A flashy new page for the service should be up within a few days, so if there's anything you want built, large or small, just shoot me an email and I'll see what I can do for you.

So as you can see I will be rather busy over the next few months and I'm planning to document as much of it as possible on here because if I'm quite honest with myself, I've let The Wandering Mind go a bit recently.

So until next time (when I'll have pictures), Happy Gaming!

Khorneguys Commissions

I'm announcing the launch of my commission service.

As many of you are probably aware, I've been extremely short of cash recently to the point where i can't do my hobby. Doing an english degree means i'm likely to be even more permanantly skint this year as well, so i've decided this is a great way to get my hobby 'fix' and still earn money at the same time.

So basically if you want to commission me, shoot me an email at rickyjoy9@yahoo.co.uk and we'll talk.

My prices are on a job-by-job basis, depending on a variety of factors, like complexity of work, etc, but i'm sure you'll find them very competitive.

Some answers at last!

GW has posted upsome new FAQ's for both the 'Nids and Blood Angels. They clear up some major rules debates which have been raging for months now.

First up, the Doom of Malantia's Soul Leech ability does NOT work on units in transport vehicles.

Mawlocs can deliberately come up underneath units, instead of relying on luck to scatter them onto their target

Descent of Angels CANNOT be used on transport vehicles, so no more DoA-ing Land Raiders

BA Demolisher Cannons are exactly the same as the other marine codexes

Vehicles gain cover saves from Shield of Sanguinius - wow, they must really want us to mech up with BA. I'm tempted to do it myself after hearing this, although i've been against the mechanisation of my armies my whole gaming career (about 7 years)

There's a load more, but not as major as these. Check them out on the GW website if you want to know more.

On the whole, common sense has won out, but there's still some odd ones in there, like the fact that Shadow in the Warp doesn't effect units in transport vehicles, but i can forgive them that one, as the other 'Nid powers don't affect units in vehicles, so top marks for consistency.

It seems like GW's finally starting to address the real issues in its FAQs, which can only a be a good thing.

Only time will tell if they'll keep this up

Tauros Venator

Forgeworld have just put this baby up for pre-order

In the words of Will Smith: I have gotta get me one of these!

The Stalk Tank ideas are being shelved for while, i want one of these to convert into my Hellhound. I might make some transport varients of it too.

And it happens to be my birthday next month, so guess what i'm asking my family to get me.

Oh my good god!

Hear that sound? That's the sound of my Soul Drinkers rejoicing, for in april the Blood Angels get their long-promised new codex.

I woke up about ten minutes ago to an newsletter from GW confirming it. Looks like they get assault marines as troops and lots of deep striking units now.

I've always wanted to use my Soul Drinkers as BA, but the pdf codex and the quite frankly awful librarian rules put me off. But this looks like it could shape up to be truely awesome. I'll be keeping a close eye on this

Planetstrike and Me

I've been watching the approach of Planetstrike with mixed feelings. Nothing that was published or leaked about it seemed particularly interesting to me. But I got the new White Dwarf yesterday, covering the planetstrike releases and i have to say, i've been converted (what's not to like about flaming spaceship debris falling from the sky!) and i've been feverishly finishing off my drop-pod based Soul Drinkers in time for it.




I wasn't convinced by the Ironclad when i got the GW preview email a month or so ago, with the banner and HK missiles, thinking it looked ugly in a bad way, with the overly bulky missiles, oddly patterned hull and banner. I think GW made a seriously bad decision when they chose which of the studio's models was going be sent out as a sneak preview, as i don't know about anyone else, but it nearly cost them my business in the dreadnought department.

But seeing the one with what looks like smoke launchers attached to its hull in White Dwarf, I'm convinced that the Ironclad kit might actually be worth £25 of my hard-earned money.

What's more, looking at the pictures in WD, it looks like the front can be left open, giving me the idea to model the wounded marine suspended inside, replacing the visor plate with clear plastic.

Dreadnought with fully modelled and painted interior is on the way!




However, looking at the pics of the land speeder storm, i've realised that it doesn't come with a squad of scouts and, to make matters worse, the scout passengers you get seem to come it just one pose, as no matter what chapter they come from, all of them look the same. Damn. Conversion work is going to be needed.
Still looks cool though and i'm currently trying to figure out how to justify three of them in my Soul Drinkers army. Might even kitbash a few as Deffkoptas for my orks.

The terrain's been firing off all sorts of ideas in my mind too. I'm thinking of making a mountain fastness with two Bastions, a set of defence lines and a few bits of foam.

In other news, assault cannon armed razorbacks are going to be easy, what with the land raider accessory sprues being released next month. I picked a bad time to collect a themed army. I'm tempted to start a Salamanders army just to have all this stuff!