It’s interesting how things change/develop/progress over time, I never thought I’d be sitting here writing about how Warhammer 40k has changed a lot of things for me recently. I haven’t played (or painted!) any 40k miniatures for a long time (2013 actually, I went through my videos and noticed I started painting some Imperial Fists again) but recently with the release of the new box set Indomitus, things have changed a little.
I’ve always been a more fantasy orientated gamer than I have a sci-fi one, but something about 40k has always stuck with me even though there was a time when I was riding strong on the ‘anti-GW bandwagon’, in fact I even uploaded a video to my personal YouTube channel about it in 2011 … you can watch that here if you’re interested in watching young Viv rag on about Games Workshop (language warning) …
I uploaded that video in November 2011 and I rode on that bandwagon for several years, carrying around an aura of bitterness and disgust. I still think their rules aren’t amazing (I’ve played many games that I enjoy FAR more!) but you have to admit, there is something about the universes that Games Workshop have created (for both Fantasy and 40k) that just “keep you coming back”. You also cannot disagree that their miniatures are amazing and the engineering that goes into their plastics is absolutely next-level. Whilst I ranted on about how crap I thought GW were, I still loved looking at my miniatures … obviously there was still ‘something’ that made me keep them up until a few years ago when I finally sold most of them off.
As I was saying, the recent release of the Indomitus box set from Games Workshop, something was peaked again. I think it was mostly the fact that we don’t really have any terrain ranges designed specifically for 40k, and given a new edition (9th) was being released it thought it worthwhile (from a business perspective) to grab the rules and see what we could do to make some terrain for one of the most popular game systems in the world. I didn’t have any expectations that I would actually play the game, and I still don’t, but I also didn’t think I’d be stupidly excited about painting the miniatures … after all, I’ve been painting much simplier figures for many years that aren’t packed full of details that take time to pick out and highlight.
BUT! As you can see from above … I painted the marines in my chosen faction, Imperial Fists in 10 days! That was mostly because I had to quarantine at home whilst I waited for a COVID-19 test results to return, but I’ll admit that I had so much fun painting the miniatures and sharing my progress on various groups on Facebook.
Whilst I enjoyed painting all the marines in the box set, I especially enjoyed painting the characters … and I actually took some time (more time than I normally would!) to pick out details, highlight them … I even did a little wet blending here and there! You kind of need to with these miniatures, they are after all a little more complex and involved than simple Dark Age figures.
So how has this new boxset changed things here at Knights of Dice?
Well, we’ve started working on some new terrain designed specifically for Warhammer 40k, and it’s also caused a mind-shift in how I create content and where I share it. If you read my recent article entitled Perfectionism vs Procrastination – how it affects our articles!, you’ll know that I have for many years been conflicted about what I share here on the Knights of Dice page … believing that I cannot show you anything that is not 100% complete, or perfect if you will.
That has all changed, and it’s changed because I thoroughly enjoy the process of painting some miniatures from Games Workshop and sharing that progress with people on Facebook! I’ll be sharing MUCH more here now, and not just things that are 100% related to Knights of Dice but everything related to the tabletop and wargaming industry … after all, you’re reading this article because you either follow what Knights of Dice are doing, and are most likely interested in the wargaming hobby in general.
I uploaded the image above to the KoD Facebook page just the other day. It was a prototype Scott designed quite some time ago when we were talking about a lack of terrain in our range for 40k. In a separate post on the KoD Community Group, we mentioned we were working on a new range for the game and needed help coming up with a name (it’s probably one of the hardest parts of designing models, giving things names!), and after loads of suggestions we finally settled on “Terminus Australis”.
Thanks to all the wonderful community engagement, across various pages and groups on Facebook the pace has been furious and Scott has actually been enjoying working on this new range. I don’t think that was something either of us expected as neither of us are really ‘into’ 40k, and given that most of the terrain ranges we’ve designed over the last 5 years have been because we had personal interests in seeing those ranged develop, making something for 40k (despite it being one of the most popular gaming systems!) was not something we thought we would enjoy!
There is still a lot of work to do before anything is ready for release but it is coming along quickly, and I think both Scott and I are excited to see the range continue to expand to cover lots of the factions from the Warhammer 40k universe. Obviously what is being worked on now has been designed from the perpsective of the Imperium, Space Marines, Imperial Guard (or what ever they are called now) and I can’t wait to see what we come up with for Necrons, Eldar, Tau etc.
There is so much to explore and I have to admit that this new passion and enjoyment is all thanks to a game system and a company that for many, is known as the ‘Evil Empire’.
Thank you Games Workshop, not just for the wonderful models you create but for helping me unlock a renewed enthusiasm for sharing my hobby with those people that might be interested in seeing what I’m working on.