Saturday 12 April 2014

The collection complete. Alan Bligh deserves a Fugging Knighthood

Well. For me my first Marine were the Beakies from RTB01 Boxset years and years ago. I have been addicted to them ever since I saw a Space Marine on a Space Crusade board, when it first came out. Then, with all of the stories and Codex's that were released, it was fascinating to learn of the Chapters and their founding Legions. 

I liked the Mk7 armour but it could never replace the love I had for my plastic, mk6 Beakies. So when the only marines you could get back in 2nd edition were the metal marines with a ratio of 3 Mk6 to 7 Mk7; I started to purchase blister packs of older armour variants. Mk2 to Mk5 quickly got cut into my Space Wolf Chapter and added that well-needed flare. I practiced and soon became capable of making green stuff pelts, doing a semi-good job for a kid. I managed to mix them in nicely with my Grey Hunters. . . . Grey. . . . I never liked the blue grey. . . . I always looked back at the side of a 40k boxed game - where I had seen a real grey Space wolf in mk6 armour with a stripe down his helmet. 
Ugh. 'Why did they change.' that I asked myself, before I realised that the darker grey was actually their Pre-Heresy scheme. Back then they were grey and a Primarch called Leman Russ lead them, who was a Demi-God and was adored by his Legion as was every other Primarch. 

My Brother and I became enthralled by the tales of the Primarchs; Russ pulling a Kraken out of the Sea and tossing it back as it was "a mere tiddler", Roboute, a once noble and patrician warlord, now sitting on a throne while his wounds were possibly healing ever so slowly in stasis, Angron on Armageddon etc etc. Such was the rich history of 40k expanded upon. The past was glorious, the past was more civilised . . . The present kinda sucks. . . I bought Leman Russ, the old metal model with Freki and Geri, I cherished him even though he was almost a head shorter than the other men. 

We even named our Gerbils after Freki and Geri! 

Khall made a Roboute Guilliman, it was a standard marine with a Hive Tyrant head glued to its waist (We know now they were not in 30k lol). 

We left the hobby twice in our pasts for various reasons; mainly space, time and money, but we have always kept an interest with the IP and novels. 

We started collecting again around the time of the Horus Heresy books being released. The Black Library series is exceptional and we couldn't resist reading more about the 18 most damaged demi-gods ever created. It was the catalyst for us getting back involved. Soon the debates started again "They will be brought back!' 'They will be brought back to 40k, they have to, it's stagnating!' 'The story hasn't moved on since the 13th Black Crusade". 

Then Alan Bligh brought US back. Back to 30k. A Time of awesome. He deserves a Fugging Knighthood! A fresh storyline on rails. Characters which we have read about in the future getting fleshed out in the past. Each one of these Leatherbound books is worth £200 to me or more. I know I can fight some of the most amazing battles from 30k into the Horus Heresy with these books:


Trilogy one complete. Worth every penny. We Have Mechanicum, Legions, Knights and Primarchs to battle with in our Campaigns going forward. 2012-2014 best Hobby years of my life thanks to Sir Alan, Tony Cottrell and the Forge World Staff. 


Drake Seta

8 comments:

  1. I would very much like to echo this. 40k is very much dead to me, since the HH campaign books started being released. I don't like much of the asthetics from the more recent Games Workshop models and Forge World has definitely become a more mature domain for gaming. Without it sounding too cheesy, I am very grateful for the work done by Alan Bligh and the FW team. Thank you for being open, honest, accessible and true to the original works.

    Now, please make sure that Roboute Guilliman has a fantastic model ( dont steal my idea of a hive tyrants head! PS I was 12 years old!) with some great rules! I will genuinely name my first-born after you.

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  2. Forge Worlds Horus Heresy brought me back too.Its darker, grittier and much more adult than GWs 40k offerings. I come to like the fleshed out background, with the Primarchs in its heart and love the fact that the Primarchs are the pivotal points in the story and how everything builds around them. It gives the game so much character and helps me to immerse into the universe. The Heresy is an epic win for Forgeworld.

    Ah and the Models are simply awesome. I got my first Forgeworld order ever in last thursday and was blown away by the the kits. Bought a bunch of random Sons of Horus stuff and Book 1. Man the Abbadon and Loken Kit is so sweet ! Abbadon is such a brute ! Only drawback are the not always flawlessly cast minis/parts. I see lots of touch up hours coming. God thanks I got lots of Green Stuff flying around.

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    1. If the casts are poor always email FW with pictures and the batch number. They will organise replacements or advise best way to correct issues. They are expensive kits, never accept poor quality :)

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    2. I agree. That is one of the best thing about FW. You have miscasts / loss of quality they will always send you out a replacement. Worst comes to worst you can always return. I have had many replacements from FW from Titan Weapons to Khall having new Sicaran tracks sent out.

      But yeah, the background is the most amazing thing about Heresy. I just can't wait for a Primarch now, my Death Guard and Iron Warriors are slightly lacking :)

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    3. Thank you for advice brothers !

      I contacted FW and they ,without much chatter, are gonna replace the Loken main body which was heartbreakingly flawed.

      I am curious : To what degree is Forge World willing to replace miscast models, what is your experience ? I just wanted Lokens main body replaced, since I skillwise wasn't able to resculpt the messed up parts and also because the mini was so heretically expensive.
      My Justaerin torsos weren't in perfect shape either, they had a pretty strong offset and required a lot of work to bring them back into shape.
      So at which degree of flaw do you contact FW for replacement ?

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  3. They're sending me out a new set of BA rhino upgrade plates because of misplaced parts :D

    Best quality service ever

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