Metal or Plastic or Finecast or?

Which is best?

The answer is that there isn't any best. It comes down to a subjective choice of what the individual modeller prefers. At my local (independent) store some preferred plastics while here at Artificer's Workshop metal minis are the preferred option. In a sense this post is academic as metal is on the way out as far as games workshop is concerned. And to be fair and impartial the quality of the latest plastic releases have been superb. No doubt everyone has their own preferences but here the plastic Grey Knight Terminators are recognised as superb. 

(Why does blogger insist on american spelling when american english is more and more infiltrated by britishisms these days - a bit like the french hatred for franglais, see recognised. By the way I know the answer - rhetorical question directed at blogger.)

Back to topic. The future as far as metal goes is undoubtedly finecast. Here despite reservations identified in previous blogs it is recognised (that "misspelled" word again) that this is the future. Current problems will doubtless be ironed out.

The question posed on this blog is really what do you prefer to play with on the table top. The answer here is metal minis - hence the focus on Sister of Battle and Steel Legion and Bob Olley Rogue Trader era minis. Why because they are heavier and subjectively seem more substantial when placed on the table. Plastic minis here and there are definitely plenty of them often have a coin glued inside their GW base to give more weight when deploying on the table. Does anyone else do this? Does it produce more wins on the table top - probably. Try and see.    

Steel Legion First Platoon

Imperial Guard allies for the Sisters of Battle. 

The first platoon has been completed.

The design used for this platoon is for assault. Hence no heavy weapons, all assault weapons with grenade launchers and the sergeants having plasma pistols to provide a little bit more bite. Two power weapons with the commissar and the platoon officer.

Platoon Command Squad

1st Squad

2nd Squad

Both Sergeants are minor conversions, replacing the rotting Ork head hand with a hand with a plasma pistol hand. One plasma pistol is Forgeworld. The other is a combination of bits from the scrap box glued to a laspistol but.  The Ork head had to go as the Sisters of Battle would not approve.

Why do I like 40k and not flames of war?

The Steel Legion has not been sitting still. The second command squad has been completed. This squad is armed to provide plasma support plus a medic to deal with those inevitable nasty plasma burns. The next project is the third command squad, armed to support assaults, and after that it's the troops squads.








Admiral Drax's post 334, why I like flames of war set us thinking. As a consequence the question why do I like 40k and Warhammer was considered? A post from "Dont Throw A 1" around the same time was also of interest:- Dux Bellorum. In this post the virtues of Dux Bellorum (Arthurian) wargame rules were extolled (Dux Bellorum is available from amazon). After reading the post and the reviews on the Amazon site Dux Bellorum was duly ordered. Why? The answer to that and the title question is in my response to a comment which referred to a model as a little man, which was, "It's not a man, its made of metal and plastic and its not alive thankfully".

For this workshop abstract and fantasy is easier to relate to for wargaming - 40k or fantasy or Arthurian is comfortable but flames of war is not as it relates to a reality which although cleaned up on the table top, is not in history. These comments are clearly not analysis of the relative costs of the different systems of the playablity of rules systems.

Warlord Traits in 6th Ed

Warlord Traits is another new personalising addition to 6th Ed. It seems straightforward enough. The "general" gets a roll on one of the three tables of your choosing on page 111 and acquires an additional special characteristic for the game. Some traits seem useful such as Strategic Genius or Divide to Conquer. Others as some previous commentators have suggested seem of little value even for adding some fluff to the game.



There are some questions about this rule that might well need clarification unless the answers are there but have been missed. The basic rule states that when choosing an army the HQ model with the highest leadership value must be the warlord and if 2 have the same characteristic, then choose one. What the rule does not say is that the the Warlord must come from the primary detachment.   So it should be possible to allocate the Warlord role to an allied detachment HQ choice. That raises interesting possibilities?

Secondly under personal traits on the table the Immovable Object rule seems straight forward except that it states that the Warlord is a scoring unit even if he is a vehicle. Which vehicles have a leadership characteristic? Or is it a typo and the rule means even if he (she) is in a vehicle?

Steel Legion Lascannon Mods

The Steel Legion Project marches on. Here is the first Heavy Weapons Squad with typical Steel Legion Lascannons, except that for a slight conversion of the lascannons themselves. From the fluff perspective it always seemed impractical for 2 men to lug one of these lascannons, along with its power pack and tripod stand across a battlefield, particularly after the weapons have been fired and got hot. So a simple conversion. The wheels came from space marine bikes minis. The chunkyness of the wheels suggesting balloon tyres adapted to the ash wastes across which the Steel Legion march. The axles for the wheels are the plastic mortar support struts. The third central leg of the lascannon tripod is retained. This is glued to the underside of the lascannon. The axle is superglued to this. A bit of green stuff was used to hide the join under a bit of a military weld and blobs of green stuff used to finish the outer ends of the axles.

To finish the bases were painted to suggest some rain on the ash waste has turned it glutinous.

The plan for the Steel Legion is to provide one squad each of mortars and missile launchers to the heavy weapons support pool.