REVIEW - 28mm Greatcoat Legs from Maxmini

As well as the they're Pith Helmets, the guys at MaxMini were good enough to send me a sample of their brand new Greatcoat legs - and as with the heads they are excellent!

There are three variant sculpts, one running and one kneeling as shown below, and one standing still, cast in resin. There was almost no flash to be removed on any of the legs, with what little there was limited to easy to remove mould lines away from detail (a failing of so many bits GW and otherwise).



The sculpts are incredibly crisp, and there is a real feeling of motion in the way the cloth falls and the legs are posed. They are not overloaded with detail, around the top which is nice as it keeps them uncluttered and allows us as modellerd to better fit them in with whatever it is we're trying to achieve. However, what is there is stonking, right down to the hobnail boots.



The legs match up perfectly with GW heroic scaled Guardsmen (read Cadians), finally giving us a descent and cost effective Greatcoat option that is'nt DKoK expensive (though we're still awaiting cost) or cheap - for a reason - Wargames Factory plastics. You could build DKoK type Guardsmen with them of course - or you could do as I'm doing...



They make for an excellent Greatcoated Dress uniformed trooper look, I'm yet to decide on how to paint these chaps who I'll be using in my Mordian Charity Army Build as Carapace Armoured Veterans - update with painted pictures once I've made my mind up!

My only possible critism of these excellent parts, is that the feet are perhaps a little more for heroic scaled models, though its not particularly noticeable - and if you were so inclined this would be something which could easily be altered.

Keep an eye on MaxMini's website for release details in the near future!

Roughriders Back in Stock

Just an FYI, after a little bit of an absense I've just restocked Roughrider conversion kits, with 70 now available HERE. There are also a very small number of the packs of ten torso's still available - I will not be restocking these once they've gone.

REVIEW - 28mm Pith Heads from MaxMini

A little while ago, MaxMini previewed their new Pith Helmetted heads on DakkaDakka, I came across them by chance (well no actually, I regularly hunt around the net for new Praetorian related goodness!) and after a couple of enquiries they were good enough to send a sample of the new heads for me to review!

There are five variant heads on the sprue, with two sprues in each pack setting you back €5.65, thats about $7.50 or £5.00 for the rest of the world, so they retail pretty much at the same price per head as the other good quality offerings which are currently available. However, unlike the others these are resin cast - and these are seriously good quality resins, exactly how it should be done!



Not only are the casts top notch, with no visible mold lines, and only a small amount of very thin and easy to remove flash which I found literally fell away, but the sculpts are beautifully crisp. Each of the heads is characterful, with various amounts facial hair including mutton chops, bearded and clean shaven, and a couple of variants with simple expressions. Also importantly the helmets themselves are identical (lack of this is a big pet hate of mine!), though they follow a slightly different design to those of the original GW Praetorian models.

The heads are scaled to 28mm heroic, making them a perfect match for the current scale of GW Imperial Guard such as the Cadians, though perhaps a little large for head swaps on classic metal guardsmen. Thus they fit Cadians, and similar third party torso's, such as my own sculpts (indeed, dare I say they could have been made to fit them).



However, due to the design of the helmet it is worth noting with Cadians to get a good look, you'll probably need to cut away the plastic collar as shown - not that this is a huge problem for a competent modeller!



As I mentioned, the detail is crisp, making painting these heads, and especially the faces an actual pleasure - not something Id say is true of all similarly scaled heads. You could quite happily simply basecoat and wash for a very nice result, go really to town, or as I have done a little way in between the two - whatever you do the faces will look good because of the quality of the sculpt.



I'd say MaxMini score full marks from me on these heads, the only thing that would be nice is another sprue with five more variants, perhaps a couple more clean shaven especially. We can but hope!

I've got a couple more nice bits from MaxMini which I hope to post about here very shortly, one of which also has alot of potential for Praetorian players, stay tuned!

If you'd like to pick up some of these stunning new heads, they are available HERE.

BBC Reports on Warhammer 40,000 at 25...

...and manages to not be scathing about it.

I came across these stories on the bus this morning, just thought I'd share!

Why are grown men still launching tabletop war?

Why Warhammer 40,000 is still popular after 25 years

More Roughriders

While I'm gearing up to get on with the Mordians (and keep ploughing through the regular Praetorians - now with greater urgency then before), I'm also clearing the decks a bit. We're preparing to move house in the very near future so I'd like to get as many of my unfinished projects finished ahead of packing it all away. The first bit of sucess there is a second unit of 5 Roughriders now ready to go, the first five models of the 2nd Troop, 79th Praetorian Lancers.

Next up its a Mordian Squad.

Charity Army Build - The 57th Mordian (Part 1)

Following the recent passing of my grandfather I decided I wanted to try to raise some money for the charitable organisations which provided so much support to him, and to the rest of the family - and do the same for so many others.
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The first of the organisations I want to support is Hospiscare, this is a local charity, which covers Exeter, east and mid Devon (there are many similar organisations doing the same work across the country).

In the experience of my own family Hospiscare's support was vital. They made it possible for my grandfather to remain at home throughout his illness, surrounded by family as he wished. This meant providing and/or organising medical and other equipment and the staff to install this, as well as the carers who visited regularly, and in the later stages stayed all night. For the family they were always on hand to talk to, to provide information, and generally help in any way they could, and even now this support has continued. All of this support was; and is, free of charge, but as a charity depends upon financial support.

For me as a hobbiest, and for my grandfather as my greatest creative inspiration, it seems only fitting to fund raise through my hobby. Thus, I hope this will be the first of many charitable projects of varying scales in the future.

Amongst my collection is a good number of Mordian's, probably unsurprising given my Praetorian army. I have decided to put these together to form the core of an army, fully painted as ready for battle, to which I am adding quite a bit more! Once finished the army which will be at least 1500pts worth will be auctioned off on eBay, with 100% of the final value going to Hospiscare.

I've begun to bring together this collection, digging through the various boxes under the bed, at the moment I'm in the process of stripping an Infantry Platoon which will form the core of the army. However I've also painted up a test model.



After some discussion on some of the forums I visit, I'm thinking that the aquilla on the chest will instead be silver - or perhaps yellow. I've also been asking for ideas on basing, and several suggestions of cobblestones have been made. I'm quite fond of this idea, with the idea that I'll perhaps sculpt a large area of them, then make a press-mould. I did think about buying some resin cast bases, but though there are many options most only have a small range in each design which I'd rather avoid.