Space Marine Assault Squad and Chapter Upgrade Kits

I think it’s fair to say most Space Marine collectors have been excited by this week’s releases. They mark a couple of important changes for Games Workshop. Before looking at the changes let’s look at the new kits.

Assault Squad

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The old Assault Squad kit was showing it’s age when the last Devastator set was released in 2007. The legs on the old kit where very poor sculpts compared to GW modern Space Marines. This new set appears to really up the standard of GW’s Space Marine kits. It uses 2 parts for each set of legs. This results in far more detail on each leg. The other new components are vey similar to the Tactical Squad. However there appears to be far more options for each Space Marine. The new options include Grav Pistol, Lightning Claw, Double Handed Chain Sword and Thunder Hammer along with a great deal more heads to pick from. This set also includes some rubble to help mount the Assault Marines on their 32mm bases. So what has been lost. The old pointed finger power fist is gone. I don’t think that is a great lost. Also the option to make your Assault Marines left handed, again not a great loss. So it there really any significant draw back to this new kit. Well a the price of a Ten Man Assault Squad has gone from £41 to £50. That’s almost a 20% increase. Do the extra options in this kit justify the increase? Well that is for you to decide. At this new price I won’t be rushing out to replace the 20 models in my plastic Battle Company, nor will I be building an Assault Company using this new kit.
Is there any alternative to this kit. Well only one that will save money. Is saving up all your mk5 and perhaps mk6 tactical and Devistator torsos and buying jump packs at £5 a pop direct from GW. That way you can still make an 10 man Assault Squad for £36. The other alternatives that spring to my mind, although not cheaper, is the Vanguard Veteran set. You might want to swap some of the heads for less ornate versions from the Tactical set. Perhaps if you have older Vanguard Veterans you might want to swap the jump packs around as well.

I do intend to pick one of these new sets up, and if the other tens of thousands of  Space Marines collectors do the same, I’m sure the new CEO won’t be too worried. I personally think if this set had been priced at £22.50 I would have already ordered one and would be thinking about a second.

Overall 8/10 great but not great value.

Ultramarine Upgrades

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It’s almost unbelievable that GW have never done an upgrade set for their most popular chapter. This kit which is replaes the Finecast, formally metal Ultramarine Shoulder Pads, looks fantastic. I have the miss pleasure of owning one of the old should pad sets. The shoulder pads where tiny compared to the modem plastic shoulder pads, which forced you to buy a set of the equally poor shoulder pads with squad markings. The symbols where also poor and difficult to paint well. So you ended up spending £10 and getting smaller space marines! This new kit is long over due and most welcome. The fact it comes with other components it fantastic. The one downside of the kit is that some of the shoulder pads are a bit too ornate for a Tactical Squads. Forcing you to buy 2 kits if you want to kit out a full squad. I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing though. The extra components in this set are going to come in very handy. As well as Ultrafiltration of Captains and Sargent models. Combined with Mk4 or Mk6 legs they will serve as excellent plastic honour guard. Finally providing a way to add more Honour Guard without buying a £50 set for the sake of 3 models. I just hope the rumoured removal of honour guard form the new codex turns out to be the lump of stinking scat it sounds like. On price I would say this set makes huge sense. Could it be better? Well yes I think another 5 or 10 shoulder pads, a proper ultramarine honour guard helmet and a coupe more standard Ultramarine helmets with a £10-15 price tag would have been better. Once you have a few of these kits buying more is going to feel like a bit of a waste of all the other components you have to throw in the bits box.

Overall 10/10 and long overdue

Space Wolves Upgrades

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Next is the elephant in the room. What we have here is a drastic downsize of the previous upgrade sprue for Space Wolves. Gone it the still much needed Melta Gun, never mind a Flamer for you Grey Hunters. Gone are the torsos and host of wolf pelts and knives. The total bit count is down by over 50%. 

  
The old Space Wolves Upgrade Kit

 
New Space Wolves upgrad kit (image from Dakka Dakka )

In place of all these goodies there are the Ragnar Shoulder pads. Again the new shoulder pads are a big improvement. Although once you have a couple of these sets the appeal of addition sets is reduced, unlike the old kit. It’s a real shame GW didn’t make a set of 20 shoulder pads and separate upgrade frame. However Space Wolf players already have so many options from other kits. This frame is really just about the shoulder pads. I feel this perhaps wasn’t the best time for GW to put out this kit, but I’m sure there are plenty of collectors who will snap up a few anyway. Price wise I think it’s very reasonable for GW, but not as good value as the Ultramarine set.

Overall 7/10 Good, but not a great replacement.

Blood Angel Upgrades

  

This kit has a better bit count than the Space Wolves set. But just like Space Wolves kit it wasn’t desperately needed. There is plenty of other similar parts in other Blood Angel sets. If anything it’s adding less value than the Space Wolf set as there are already a lot of Blood Angel icon shoulder pads in the other Blood Angel set, unlike Ragnar’s Great Company. This set has very few bits that are really “new”. We have to assume this has just been released to go with the other new Space Marine kits.

Overall 8/10 great, but too close to other kits.

Dark Angel Upgrade Kit

  
This kit is as much of a down size as the Space Wolves kit. The shoulder pads are needed, the other bits are great and I’m looking forward to seeing every other Dark Angel Sergeant sporting a feather head piece. But other armies needed one of these set far more.

Overall 8/10 Good, but not a great replacement.

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I think this looks to be a very exciting Space Marine release. This change in direction for Games Workshop, from just rehashing old kits is both refreshing and welcome, but replacing more extensive kits with smaller ones is not. I just hope some of the other chapters, Chaos Marines included, get the same amount of attention in the future. If GW want to sell more armies they need to support them.

titan knight conclave

Golden Demon 2014 – Open Competition

Pictures of open competition entries at Golden Demon 2014

There were a few outstanding entires in the open competition which I didn’t manage to photo. Even thought there were less people at Golden Demon this year there were no less people crowding around the cabinets. All the open entires were good and deserve to be shown. As always there were some fantastic custom built creations and some off the wall entires.

Eldar Assassin - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Eldar Assassin – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

High Elf  - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

High Elf – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Imperial Psycher - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Imperial Psycher – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Imperial Pilot - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Imperial Pilot – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Inquisitor - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Inquisitor – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Ork Feebooter - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Ork Feebooter – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Ork Bust - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Ork Bust – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Imperial Titan Knight Conclave - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Imperial Titan Knight Conclave – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Goblin Rider - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Goblin Rider – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Space Wolves Contemptor Dreadnought - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Space Wolves Contemptor Dreadnought – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Space Wolf Wolf Guard  - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Space Wolf Wolf Guard – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Howling Banshee Exarch  - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Howling Banshee Exarch – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Skaven Clan Rats  - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Skaven Clan Rats – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Blood Angel Limited Edition Captain - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Blood Angel Limited Edition Captain – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Ratlin Sniper - Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

Ratlin Sniper – Open Competition Golden Demon 2014

More to follow. Jon

Contemptor Dreadnoughts at Golden Demon 2014

There was no shortage of Contemptor Dreadnoughts in the 2014 Golden Demon competition. So let get right to these exquisite entires.

Sons of Horus Contemptor Deadnought Armed with plasma cannon and power fist. – Golden Demon 2014
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Black Templars Crusading Contemptor Dreadgnought armed with power sword and storm shield – Golden Demon 2014
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Spacewolves Contemptor Dreadnought Armed with Assault Cannon and Power Fist – Golden Demon 2014
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Blood Angels Contemptor Dreadnought armed with Multi Melta and Las Connon- Golden Demon 2014
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I would certainly be happy to have any of these as a centre piece to a Space Marine army. I find the Sons of Horus Dreadnought to be the most striking, while for me the Space Wolf Dreadnought holds the most interesting detail to peruse, however the Black Templar dreadnought features some outstanding conversion work and the the is the Blood Angels Dreadnought with much more subtle but still fine details. I’m glad I don’t have to judge Golden Demon, it would go on a lot later if I did.

Blood Angels at Golden Demon 2014

I thought to mark the pending release of the new Blood Angel codex I would post all the photos I have of Blood Angel Golden Demon Entires over the last few years. I was somewhat surprised to discover the was an whole armies worth at Golden Demon 2014, so I’ll save the others for another day.

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Blood Angel Captain

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Blood Angel Contemptor Dreadnought

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Blood Angel Contemptor Dreadnought

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Blood Angel MkV Dreadnought

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Blood Angel Forge World Predator Infurnus

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Blood Angel Standard Bearer mounted on a bike

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Blood Angel Tactical Squad. This is a kit bashed entry not the new Blood Angel Tactical Squad

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Half a battle companies worth of Blood Angel Tactical Squads

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Blood Angel sanguinary Guard

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A pair of Blood Angel esk Limited Edition Space Marine Captains.

Duel

Golden Demon 2014 – Duel Warhammer Fest

Golden Demon Duel

The Golden Demon Duel always provides some interesting and some times funny entires. This years winning entry Beauty and the Best was no exception. The winning entries were off for judging when i got to the Duel cabinet, so I don’t think I have photo’s of any.

Fist up we have Forge World’s Fist Captain Ezekyle Abaddon of the Son’s of Horus vs Former Tenth Captain Garviel Loken of the Lunar Wolves.

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This World Eaters Comtemptor Dreadnought clearly packs a punch. The Blood Angle’s contempt or looks to have met it’s match.

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Who is shouting “turn around” to this Tau Fire-warrior? The merciless Dark Eldar strikes.

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Ultramarines Jetbike vs Ork Jet Bike Deff Koppta

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Tau crises suit vs Commissar Yarkic

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