Games Workshop - Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Start Collecting! Anvilgard

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I encountered my first issue with the reins Arkhan holds in his right hand whilst they were still on the sprue. As I was holding the sprue up to the light to figure out where best to cut the part from the plastic to ensure no damage would be done to this extremely fragile part, half of the left-hand part of the rein, in spite of not been touched by myself or anyone else since the box had been opened, simply fell off . Here, the guides step up at long last. Every part is labelled, every snip from the sprue and recommended dry-fit mapped out before you in detail. Every effort has been taken to ensure you put this model together properly – and it’s no wonder, this is quite a complicated build. For a novice, this could be seriously tough, but with patience, the guide, all the paints you need at the ready (bits of Arkhan and his mount need to be painted before assembly given his sculpt), and some patience, this could be a seriously rewarding build. Like the new Start Collecting: Chaos Space Marines box, it’s a bit hard to evaluate this one effectively because it’s currently the only place to get Suppressors, which are an insanely good unit for Iron Hands and, to a lesser extent, Imperial Fists armies. That said, everything in this box except the Lieutenant is a solid addition to a competitive Space Marines army, and even the Lieutenant is serviceable in a pinch. Even if you could get Suppressors somewhere else, this box would still be an incredibly good value based on what’s in it. Once again, I’m not as sold on the subsequent colour as I am with an Agrax Earthshade wash. There’s a certain yellow-ness to the bones I’d rather see darkened with brown. Agrax Earthshade is definitely the way forwards for me. Weathered.

If skeletons are your thing, the Deathrattle Sepulchral Guard might be a good place for you to head next. A relatively inexpensive push-fit set, whilst these guys don’t have the personalisation options of the Skeleton Warriors, they’re nonetheless a nice handful of varied and interesting miniatures that would look great at the head of your skeleton army. A little more dynamic than their Skeleton Warrior cousins, the Sepulchral Guard would make a nice addition to any skeleton army. Tech-priest Dominuses have fallen out of favor recently, which is a shame because Ad Mech still field Vanguard and Rangers on a regular basis to fill out Battalions and the Dunecrawler is a legitimately good unit that sees lots of competitive play. It’s still a great boxed set to start building off of, but some of the savings are mitigated by the fact that you probably won’t want a Tech-Priest Dominus in your army. The Craftworlds box is extremely weird. It’s an incredible saving over buying the kits individually – if you want any two of them, you might as well buy this instead and get the others essentially free – but as a place to do what it says on the tin and start collecting Craftworld Eldar it’s woeful, since there’s no actual Troops in here. There’s only two elves, even, and one of them is piloting a War Walker. Still, most of the units are at least passable to good, and it’s quite a hefty chunk of points, too. In spite of the build issues I had with the Start Collecting! Skeleton Horde box, I ultimately came to the conclusion that this is still a smashing buy for anyone looking to get into Grand Alliance Death, or just bag themselves some spooky models – though this is not a set for the faint hearted, and definitely not one for total beginners. I decided I loved painting skeletons when I painted the banner of my Stormcast Eternal Lord-Relictor. This fellow is using one as a banner and is waving him around above his head as if he’s no heavier than a scrap of cloth.

Contents: 1 Herald on Blood Throne/Skullcannon (HQ or Heavy Support), 10 Bloodletters (Troops), 3 Bloodcrushers (Elites) Contents: 1 Tech-priest Dominus (HQ), 10 Skitarii Vanguard/Rangers (Troops), 1 Onager Dunecrawler (Heavy Support) Today, we’re looking at a few examples of how you can add to these units to help turn your set into a thematic Battalion Detachment ready to join your wider collection or engage in larger battles as an army in its own right. First up, it’s the mighty Angels of Death… Start Collecting! Vanguard Space Marines For your second and third Troops choices, grab a set of Incursors and field them as two five-man squads, offering you another pair of infiltrating units, each equipped with a haywire mine for awesome area denial . It was a real shame, because I had a fantastic time painting Arkhan. To have the experience soured at the very last hurdle was sorely disappointing.

Arkhan and Razarak took me (that is, a reasonably competent, middle-of-the-road painter with not a huge amount of experience) around five days to get him looking like this.

Start Collecting! Chaos Space Marines

Nothing on Arkhan is so minutely small and detailed as to be overly difficult for the inexperienced painter to get a brush around, and as a whole, Arkhan and his beastie are a satisfying pair to paint. There are a lot of details to get to grips with, but with a handful of reasonable brushes and a good eye for details, even a complete beginner stands a good chance of getting a decent look out of Arkhan. No matter what, he’s going to look pretty impressive when he’s done. Start Collecting: Skeleton Horde Review – Price and Availability Skeletons are also a great way for beginners to practice some highlighting techniques. When I painted my first batch of Stormcast Eternals and started edge-highlighting in light gold, I found the process to be really unrewarding and dull, as gold on gold still looks like gold, so the effect isn’t obvious to a more unskilled painter. I only started noticing a real difference when it came to spot highlighting. But with skeletons, I find the difference is clear from the get-go.