All right guys- I know I groaned about how I didn't have even a SINGLE dude of my own to paint for a bit. I've been pretty plain that I was hoping for An Emperor's Champion and possibly a Battleforce box for Christmas for a while. My personal take on the whole "build an army" thing was to do it low & slow- get my feet wet a little and as I get more figs, THEN get into 40K full scale again.
My husband, the AllAwesomeguy, TheDude; decided he knew better. He decided I needed to "sink or swim" and guys, you will be STUNNED at what he got me for Christmas!
Not just a battle box. Not just guys from AoBR. No- he went ALL OUT. He is friends with a guy who was parting ways with his army and the two cut a deal. I wound up with An Army Transport: Battalion AND A Motor Pool bag- each full of foam and the makings of at least 2 ARMIES inside them. Plus, Codexes, rule books and templates. I got it all!
here's the overview:
Troops: close to 100 Space Marines, over 20 Scouts (probably closer to 30).
Elites: Well over 25 Terminators. 6 Dreads.
Fast Attack: 4 LandSpeeders, 3 Bikes and an Attack Bike.
Heavy Support? Land Raider, Predator, and Whirlwind. Plus a Rhino, just for good measure.
That's just a SUMMARY of what he got me. There's so much more in there, it's unreal. Every single thing in the cases are decked out with very cool weapons, too. (MISSILES! At least 5 Typhoon Missile launchers! Flamers, Meltas, TLLC- there's a little bit of everything in there.) I was unashamedly squealing like a girl when I opened up those bags and saw what was inside. The best part? Catch this:
He was telling anyone who would listen: "I know I have a good wife- she's excited to get Space Marines for Christmas".
I think I'm gonna keep him!
Of course, this collection of doods is going to need a little thinking. The previous owner of this pile of awesome was very obviously a Space Wolves player. There's a Grimnar, Ragnar, an Iron Priest, 9 Wolves, and one of the Dreads is a metal Bjorn the Fell Handed model, plus other assorted Wolf Priests and so on. The non-specific models are painted as a SW army, which is ok for now.
The question becomes- do I throw the non-specific guys in the "bug juice" (Mean/Simple Green) to turn them into BT, or do I try them out and see if I like them? A little of both?
To be truly fair, I don't hate the idea of Space Wolves, but for the most part, I don't like the models. I just don't find them super attractive. From what I understand, the playstyle is pretty close to the "brick" standard I try to keep myself to. Of course, the only way to find out is to play them.
Now, just to make a list....
Congrats on the loot. I would paint them however you want them to be, and test them with every codex until you find the one that you're most drawn to.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! Looks like you had a great Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThat is one good bag of loot you've got there, Loq. Kudos to Mr. World of Wonder for putting it together.
ReplyDeletewowww, merry freaking christmas!
ReplyDeletesimple green them all!
Non standards = painting practice and spare parts!
Sounds like a pretty spectacular Xmas present to me. If you're not a fan of the Space Wolves, I'd always encourage someone to play a more general (ie. less "overpowered") codex in favor of the new hotness.
ReplyDeleteBesides, Black Templars just have a great looking scheme, whereas the space puppies are just.. grey.
Like some others have said, try them out as different kit. Then if you don't like the Wolves you could sell off the chapter specific models.
ReplyDeleteTom
Wow, that's a pretty nice gift. My wife let me buy a new army and this is as good as buying it for me. I am not going to get jealous then!
ReplyDeleteIf you are good at removing paint from models and you can do some conversions then go for it. The thing with SW models is that they have various little bits and pieces that imiddiately scream "SPACE WOLVES" to anyone who sees them (from the questionable facial hair to all sorts of little talismans etc). You might have a hard time passing these as Black Templars.
I'm with Dave, strip them all and get to work. Even if you played Space Wolves you'd want to paint them yourself anyway. There's nothing like the pride of fielding a fully painted army that you slaved over.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive! Can't complain about getting almost and entire army for Christmas. lol! :D
ReplyDeleteI'm biased, but they'd make an immediate drip to the Simple Green swimming pool. ;)
Wow! Now that's one heck of a gift... merry Christmas indeed! I'm just another voice in the chorus for stripping all the minis and starting over however you please. Since you have so many to start with you can now try out a bunch of different types of armies before committing to the style/codex of choice. This is a good type of dilemma to be in, enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteOnly 1 rhino? The cheapskate! ;)
ReplyDeleteAs others have expressed, that is an amazing horde you have there. Keep him!
Best of luck with whatever you decide to do with them. Oh, to have such a dilemma...
Ciao!