The Lords of Titan have arrived...

The new Grey Knights models are now available for pre-order. Take a look at the some of the new kits, including the Nemesis Dreadknight here.

New Blood Angels vehicles available for order

Finally! An official photo of the Stormraven.

A while back I was scratching around the internet, reading threads on various Warhammer 40,000 forums, and came across a conversation about the Stormraven. Until recently there have been no official photos or even concept artwork of the vehicle. This has not stopped some modellers converting their own Stormravens based on the description of it being able to carry a squad of ten Space Marines and a Dreadnought. While most of these conversions are merely a Land Raider with Valkyrie wings stuck on, there are other very good looking conversions out there.

More recently additional hype was generated over the Stormraven, as in November 2010 a picture of the model was 'leaked' on the Games Workshop website, and quickly disappeared. Today Games Workshop has again released pictures of a Stormraven as part of a Blood Angels Sample Army List: Death from the Skies, as well as make the model available for order.

Three Stormraven Gunships and their passengers. Image from Games Workshop.

As well as releasing the Stormraven model, it appears there is a new kit for the Furioso Dreadnought, which includes additional pieces to assemble either a Librarian or Death Company variant. Either way, they all look part.

Malcador Infernus revealed

Instead of sending only the final piece of the Christmas Jigsaw, Forge World has sent an image of the completed tank. Named the 'Malcador infernus', the business end consists of a fairly substantial flamer. Some of the comments I've seen around the forums suggest that this weapon may even be a Titan-grade flamer like the Inferno Gun. Either way this weapon is sure to have a devastating effect.

I like the look of this tank, as it is thoughtfully engineered. For instance the cockpit is offset, such that the crew's view would not be obscured by the heat haze this weapon is sure to generate when fired. Since the weapon is not mounted on a turret, the tank would have to engage its target head on, allowing for the trailer, which I'm assuming would store the weapons's fuel (perhaps liquid promethium), to be shielded from most frontal attacks. Protection of the trailer could be enhanced if several Malcador Infernus tanks rolled into battle in formation abreast of one another with heavy vehicles covering their flanks. An advantage of having the fuel stored externally on the trailer, is that if hit, the resulting blast may not be as devastating to the vehicles' crew and structural integrity as had the reservoirs been mounted on the chassis.

There is already talk of players wanting to field Ork and Chaos variants of the tank so I am looking forward to seeing some heavily modified versions of this model next year.

Forge World Christmas Jigsaw

Recently I subscribed to the Forge World newsletter. If you've not heard of them before, they are a sister company to Games workshop and produce a wide range of resin pieces for upgrading and customising your Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 miniatures. Last weeks newsletter contained the first piece of the Forge World Christmas Jigsaw, which once completed will give a sneak preview of a model to be released some time next year. The first piece was of a piece of equipment being dragged behind a vehicle like a trailer. From the first piece it was difficult to determine the size of the piece or even the faction to which the vehicle may belong to.

Today's newsletter has however shed a lot more light on what this mystery vehicle may be. Piece 2 provides a better sense of scale and indicates that the 'tank' will most likely form part of the Imperial Guard arsenal. I'm not too clued up on pre-heresy technology of the Imperium, but this looks as though it may represent something from that time.

I took a few minutes to put the two pieces together in PhotoShop and this is what I got

From the looks of it, we'll get a chance to see what the whole vehicle looks like this time next week, unless of course there is a massive dozer blade that fits onto the front of this, or the next few pieces to be unveiled become tantalisingly small.

Recon. Report #1

This morning I decided to be impulsive and stopped by my local Games Workshop supplier with the intention of buying a Space Marine bike. I had decided that instead of waiting till I've saved enough for the Assault on Black Reach (AoBR) box set, or I was on holiday and could get the paper marine going again, that I would buy a Space Marine bike as my first model as they are relatively inexpensive.

Space Marine bike with twin-linked bolters

The stockist however had other ideas, as they had neither the Space Marine bike, nor the Space Marine Scout bike, which I had considered as a back-up purchase. They did have the Chaplain on a bike set though, but I didn't buy it. I plan to rather use a model of Cassius as my Chaplain, which they didn't have either. Taking the limited product range as a sign, I will save my money till the next time I take a wander past the store. They did say that a new shipment is coming in soon, so maybe I'll be able to officially start my army then.