A long night at the bench

News Local National:
Well it looks like the guys over at BoLs have managed to get there hands on some snapshots of the planet strike sprues. After looking at the Aegis defense line I can safely say that that is about the best budget item in the pack, and while they only showed a sliver of the Imperial Bastion I have good feelings about that kit, the number of components and hinting visuals that have led up to its official release announcement are leaning towards a much more dynamic piece of terrain that we have not seen before. The construction of the bastion would seem to be that you can assemble it as either a squat bunker or a tower including several defensive emplacements and decorative bitz.

A few interesting points
-Planetary empires will be retailing for $60
-There is a new unannounced terrain piece called the Shrine of the Aqulia
-The official price changes are now in effect but will retailers raise the price of there previous inventory?
-French GW store Manager now sentenced to 20 years in prison for violating NDA and releasing IG Codex.
-Hints relating to the possibility of a new Tau Devilfish kit

On The Work Bench:
Alright so I wanted to keep this a secret tell I got a chunk of it done but I just cant hold out on you guys much longer. Yesterday I got my order in from WCC and it was a big one.


I just couldn't wait to tear into this project, and let me tell you this is no small feat, hand painting all the rivets is especially gruelling, however I will say that for some reason this is simply the easiest kit I have ever assembled, the directions are pretty accurate and the body assembly is pretty straigh forward and when I combine that with my painting on the sprue it wasn't hard to see about 20% of the project done in about 5 hours. On the table this is a dominating piece and not just in battle the build is actually making me re organize my storage areas again so make sure you have some space for this one, ok so something helpful for you on this project, get all the turrets done first, free up the sprue and get the big stuff done first, if you are in a pinch to get this on the table by game night then if you must go unpainted make it the small details, this is a big piece, but if you have the time sit down and brush your bolts and at the very least paint one tank commander and possibly the machine cult shrine (my favorite part by the way) sadly the price of this monster is now $99 but if you order from WCC like I did then you could probably get it for about $80.

A Helping Hand:
Ok since my big project was the Baneblade I have some advice for you all. Painting rivets is not a hard thing to do, how ever there is a right and a wrong way to do it, starting with the brush, I use a IMEX .003 with a sable tip, alright make sure the brush has been washed and the tip worked down to a fine point, then watch as you ever so slightly dip the tip into your paint you should only has the tiniest glob on the end, now roll a little bit of the paint off so the paint is covering the tip but not in a glob, now move the brush in at an angle over the rivet a stroke over it once making sure the tip just touches the tip of the knob, never push the brush back over just a single stroke will do, if you did it right you wil have just the right amount of paint. Always check after about 10 rivets to see if you need more paint on the tip if so just repeat the above.

New in Box:
Of course this goes here but I also got some cadians.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor