Well shock and indeed horror! I actually finished painting something!
It's taken me about a week of converting and painting during short spells of non exhaustion but I've finally completed my pirate bot, Mr Snuggles!
Mr Snuggles in all his glory
I must admit I had rather a lot of fun painting up this fellow, despite not being too sure of the rust effect on him, I do quite like how he turned out and he will make a valuable addition to my fledgling pirate crew.
Mr Snuggles loves his heavy bolter
Discovered on the abandoned Imperial pleasure world of Greenfield, the MkIV autonomous chassis is still operational and with a little bit of reprogramming, the AI has become a solid, if somewhat childlike addition to the crew. Equipped with a heavy bolter, carapace armour and a jetpack, Mr Snuggles is often given the duty of taking out enemy concentrations, or as he is told by his handler, to go and play with them. The simple AI, once used to being a simple playmate and protector of the innocent, cannot understand why his new friends keep falling over and not getting up.
The reprogramming the crew Tech performed is only partially successful in subduing the AI's childlike nature and Mr Snuggles has taken to collecting soft toys and dolls to keep him company as the villainous pirate crew don't care to play nicely with him, instead leaving him locked in the hold when not in action.
Backpack Detail
I decided to make Mr Snuggles a bit of a tragic character that is being used for nefarious reasons by the pirates but the loneliness of spending untold centuries by himself and the butchering of his circuitry has left him being decidedly insane. He's quite a chunky model too and is perfect for my re-imagined Imperium where AI units are not uncommon amongst the Imperium and beyond.
Scale Shot
Now onto the 40k rumour mill which seems to be giving some interesting hints of the near future. It has now been confirmed that Games Workshop is releasing a new edition of 40k this summer and by the sounds of it, it may actually be worth a look at as it seems to be harking back to some of the older editions with the likes of a Psychic Phase and a much welcome removal of limited force lists.
Somewhat unexpectedly, this latter fact seems to have the fanboyz up in arms to the point of lunacy as people are pointing out it encourages you to make beardy armies. What they seem to have missed out on, and is I think, a sign of the rather sad state of the hobby at the moment, is that you are now being encouraged to field whatever you have, play more narrative games and consequently have some fun rather than being forced to choose uber tough units or stuff you don't want to.
In my opinion, many of the so called gamers who are ranting so loudly about it are utterly missing the point of or hobby. A game should be about collecting and painting whatever you like and playing a game to have fun and socialise with your opponents and hopefully have a laugh. It shouldn't be about using the rules to your advantage and creating a frankly boring and undefeatable army of beardiness to destroy your foe utterly.
I personally await the release of the new edition with a certain amount of interest and may even pick up a copy if I like what I see and it does as it sounds like and gives the tired and creaking 40k rules a much needed boot up the bum!
In other news, there is also a rather exciting rumour that GW are planning on bringing back the Specialist Games range but in a new format. From what I gather, it sounds like there will be a stand alone game, much like Dreadfleet or Battle of Five Armies which contains everything you need to play and then the odd box set which contains a new race/army or gang.
The rumours are also hinting that Epic is going to be the first of these games to be getting a reboot and a new scale too! Instead of the traditional 6mm, the new stuff is supposed to be 10mm which is causing equal outroar from Epic fans who instantly find their existing collection supposedly obsolete. I must admit that I felt a little upset to begin with but the thought of being able to field 10mm forces which will include more detail and bigger stuff is rather tempting.
In 6mm scale, a Warlord Titan is big but in 10mm, it would be a proper lord of the battlefield which could make for a really interesting spectacle and I personally can't wait to see what they come up with, especially if its all plastic!
Anyhoo! I am off to get some tidying up done but I'd love to hear what other folks thoughts are on the upcoming re-release of 40k and the rumoured Specialist Games re-vamp!
All the best!
GW have spent ages trying to discourage the uber-competetive, list making, tournament style play for ages. They're just not very successful. I don't think they are happy with their game being perceived that way. It'll be interesting to see how they tackle it this time.
ReplyDeleteMr Snuggles is fantastic. It looks like a figure that will be a lot of fun to play with and against on the table.
ReplyDelete10mm 40k sounds interesting, but its likely about twenty years too late for me. Probably.
I havent the slightest interest in playing tournament 40K. I strongly doubt that the new rules will be a significant enough fundamental change to make for games that I want to play, but I will always be able to find rule sets to field my 40k miniatures from various eras so I dont mind. Im sure that the new starter set will have some cool plastics in it and if they are things that I want (like the cultists last time) then I will pick them up for sure.
If the ruleset shift is as significant as that from 2nd to 3rd it might be worth a look, but Im not seeing "proper" 40k games in my future anytime soon really. I have been wrong before of course, but I dont see it happening this time.
"A game should be about collecting and painting whatever you like and playing a game to have fun and socialise with your opponents and hopefully have a laugh."
ReplyDeleteThat's my jam, man! My total jam.
Mr. Snuggles looks outstanding. Where did you get that toy again? I would love to do something similar.