White Dwarf 387. March 2012.

This one had a huge amount of promise! It was released on the day of the 40k anniversary and it has a space marine on the cover, surely it should be packed with amazing 40k articles. Lets find out....

New Releases - I'm not a Tyranid or Space Wolf model but I can definitely appreciate the excitement that those players must be feeling looking at these pages. Essentially There's a load of models that are long overdue released in one go. The Tervigon/Tyrannofex kit looks epic and looks to be based on the Forge World bio-titan. I love the Termagant emerging from the sac underneath the Tervigon.The Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord plastic kit also looks badass and appears to have a huge amount of options, and wings! I remember putting together my 2nd edition metal Tyrant and it being so heavy.

Now the Space Wolves finally get Thunderwolf Cavalry. Whether this means that everyone who bought 3rd party models now has to get these to play officially is unclear. They're a definite improvement to the wolf that Canis Wolfborn rides but there's something intangible that's stopping me really liking these models. As well as those they having rereleased all of the Space Wolf characters in Finecast. Great for people just starting the army, not so great for people that already have them in metal.

Onto Warhammer and the Chaos Hellcannon. This looks incredible and it's crewed by Chaos Dwarfs! The detail looks crisp and it's huge.

Hobby Essentials - Ooh look heres 2 pages all about our overpriced glue.

Devourer of Worlds - There's some 'Eavy Metal examples of Tyranids and a timeline of the most famous fleets. Interesting reading and Nids always look great in photos. Speaking of great looking nids, Phil Kelly's hive fleet Jormungandr is mind blowing. They look like wasps, especially the large models. Definitely inspiring.
There's some writing from Robin Cruddace and some extracts from his Codex which is cool, but nothing new which is a bit disappointing.

Painting Workshop: Tervigon - They've focused on the Behemoth scheme which doesn't appeal to me but apparently the tips can be used for any scheme you like, you just need to change the paints, really?!

A company of Wolves - Most of this looks like fairly bland background from the codex. And why would you call a character Harald? It just reminds he of Neighbours!

Painting Workshop: Thunder Wolves - I'm sure most of these techniques have been covered for other models in previous issues.

Standard Bearer - It's all about Jervis at Games Days, and I met him last year. Once again he skirts around the main questions people would love a straight answer to. We can't blame Jervis, I'm sure his hands are tied just like everyone else, but if you can't write about something. Please don't write about not being able to talk about it!

LotR: Ambush at Amon Sul - Great to see ideas for scenarios here, even if I'll probably never play this game.

Warhammer Civil War - Seriously, is this still going on?! It's been three issues now and there's still another to go next month. At least they put it in here and didn't release it as a book and charge £20 for it.

Citadel Hall of Fame - This month it's all about wizards. Maybe it's the Dwarf in me but they all look the same!

Slayer Sword Gallery - There are some truly stunning looking models here. Stand-out for me are Vampire Count diarama by Mike Anderson using the Garden of Morr kit.

LotR Tale of Four Gamers - Anything that shows someone's personal hobby is a winner with me. I might not play this game but it's an interesting read. Unfortunately no one has chosen to do the Easterlings but I'll be reading this avidly each month.

Armies on Parade: Ogres - More sweet personal armies. I recently picked up the old Ogre Kingdom army book and these models look great.

Know Thy Enemy - The closing page of the issue shows all the miniatures in the Tyranid army and is a great idea, it's like a who's who of xenos awesomeness!

So there we have it. No mention of the 25th Anniversary, More balance between the 3 systems, no actual new exciting content but a pleasant read none the less. I still look forward to checking my letter box on the last Saturday of the month and seeing what Andrew and the gang have put together but I can't help feeling that they could push the boundaries so much further. So rather than just sitting here complaining I'm going to set about making my own 120 page magazine! It might take longer than a month and it might turn out to be total rubbish but I can't criticise other's if I can't do better. More news on this project soon!

I'm going to give this issue a 4/10. It's not awful but it's not quite average. It showed glimpses of greatness but not enough for my liking.

25th Anniversary of Warhammer 40k

Me looking grumpy in the middle!

Yesterday was the day that GW decided was going to be the 25th anniversary for 40k. To my knowledge it wasn't really, it was just a good day to hold it with it being both a Saturday and the 25th.

Despite me telling myself not to get too excited about the whole thing I ended up setting my alarm early and heading down the Cardiff GW before work. I aimed to get there around 9 so that I'd have a great chance of getting the pin badge and the poster. When I rounded the corner there were already 13 or so people waiting. After what seemed like forever one of the guys came out and gave everyone stickers, fortunately I'd brought my new White Dwarf to stick it too as I didn't want it on my suit for work. Another bit of luck was the lack of Waaaghs and other uber-nerdy rubbish.

The doors opened and everyone pressed in, they hadn't moved any of the tables so there was quite a scrum around the small section where the goodies were. I grabbed the poster tube and avoided the mouse mat, but was seriously torn about grabbing the Crimson Fist model. It went right down the the wire when there was only one left on the shelf and more people coming in I decided to go for it, grabbed it then joined the queue to pay and get my pin.

I didn't spend enough to qualify for a wristband but I'm not too sad about that.

If I hadn't had to head off to work I'd have been very tempted to hang around and talk to some of the other guys. I've never spent a huge amount of time in the store, usually just popping in for the odd impulse purchase as I prefer to play at the indie club in town, but would've liked to chat to some of the more mature people there.

All in all I think GW had a nice range of products for the event, nothing mind blowing but something for everyone.

Now I've just got to resist opening my model and keep an eye on ebay just in case it goes crazy! I didn't buy it with the aim of selling it, I am addicted to limited edition stuff!

Miniature Monday - Finished Strike Squad

I finished my first Grey Knight Strike squad late last week so here are a couple of photos. The first is of the final member of the unit and the second is a group shot of them all together. Can't really think of much else to say!

Miniature Monday - Yet more Grey Knights!

Yo yo everyone! Hope y'all not too bored of the drip-feed of painted models yet. Well this week I have a special treat in store, I managed to speed up my painting process and actually got 2 marines finished. So without further ado here's the psilencer dude and his mate falchion man...

YouTube Tuesday - Optimus Prime Space Marines

This (hopefully) weekly segment kicked off last week with the trailer for the Lord Inquisitor and I thought that was going to be a tough one to follow but when I found this video I was amazed. It's such a simple idea I couldn't believe there aren't more Transformers armies out there.

What this video sets off in my mind is a crazy Autobot army with Optimus as the HQ choice, then squads of other Transformers like Imperial Fists/Bumble Bee etc.

The people responsible are a group called Worthy Painting, you can find them on youtube here or on facebook here. That's all for this week folks!

Miniature Monday - Grey Knight with Nemesis Daemon Hammer

This weeks #miniaturemonday was the second member of the Strike Squad. I'd really hoped to get the speed going on my painting but he ended up taking all week again. The way that the hammer comes separate to both the arms makes assembly really difficult (putting it mildly) and I wish there could be more variety in pose.

This one is called Tucana, other than that I still haven't worked on any fluff for the squad or the army, one day I'll get round to it!

Catechism of Hate Book Review

This is the latest in the Space Marine Battles series and is a limited edition novella much like Aurelian was a few months back. Only 1500 copies were printed (mine was number 807), each hand numbered and also signed by Gav Thorpe.

It cost me £30 but the postage was free. For that hefty sum I got a 118 page hardback book with a sweet blue embossed cover, and a small double sided poster of either Cassius or a Tyranid. Slightly overpriced I feel but I couldn't miss out on some Ultra action!

It starts off with the prologue (as you do!) of Cassius about to launch an attack on a hive ship when he decides it's time for a story about when he helped to defend a planet called Styxia.

First off there is a great council meeting between all the heads of the Ultramarines chapter; Cassius, Calgar, Agemman etc where they try to decide if they should help the stricken system. Cassius as you can imagine gets quite irate so they let him take a small force to the surface. He's met by the Imperial Guard and quickly sets up a plan of action. Basically the Guard hold the main town, the Ultras head off to meet the Tyranids.

Along the way they encounter Lictors, Spore Mines, all kinds of cool aliens and finally make a big push to destroy the hive mind. Running all through the tale is the theme of hatred towards the xenos for what they did to Macragge.

It's a really well written story, the pace is fantastic and it doesn't get too bogged down in the details. Most of the characters are quite likeable but I feel there could have been a bit more about each of them to flesh them out a bit.

If you can manage to get your hands on a copy I definitely recommend it. I'm hoping that the rest of this series is as good so I think I'll be trying the Gildar Rift next. A solid 8/10.