Warhammer 40K Alternatives by Victoria Miniatures

If you are on the lookout for some alternatives to Games Workshop Warhammer 40k miniatures, Check out Victoria Miniatures. They offer some fantastic vehicles which we'll focus on here, but they also have a nice line of figures. Here's the Matilda Fury Assault Tank!

For those who play Bolt Action or other World War Two games, this is a nice hybrid of historic and futuristic! Most of the Victoria products are are sculpted by Victoria Lamb, the owner, and cast in fine resin. Jake Schneider does the designing and sculpting of hardware, weapons and the vehicles. All of the kits are 28mm Heroic scale so will blend well with any Warhammer 40K armies.

The Matilda Fury kit includes 4 turret cannon options: Gatling Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Laser Cannon and the Bombard. Also 2 hull gun options included: Laser Cannon and Heavy Bolter.

The Matilda Boss Battle Tank has the distinct early war style riveted turret and armour plates.

The Boss kit includes 4 turret cannon options: Tank Slayer Cannon, Battle Cannon, Nuclear Fire Cannon and Twin Auto Cannon. Also 2 hull gun options included: Laser Cannon and Heavy Bolter.

The Matilda tanks have insets to accept magnets 1/4 inch diameter x 1/32 inch thick. Two can be used for the turret mount and four can be used for each of the removable sponson side panels.

There is a Matilda tank swappable sponson Panel set available separately.

It includes left and right interchangeable sponsons with Plasma Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter and Fusion Cannon options. An extra Turret Cannon set is also available separately.

If these two beasts weren't enough for you, the Kangaroo APC is now available!

It's a highly detailed alternative transport option for you troops. So check out Victoria Miniatures regiments of the Galaxies Finest figures!!

Have A Great Battle!
The Old Crow

Tau XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit New Release from Games Workshop for Warhammer 40k

The Tau XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit is a formidable display of Tau war technology and is available for Pre-order from Games Workshop.

Place your order now at a cool 75.00 USD, and the product will ship to you on Oct 17, 2015

This huge, deadly and nigh-undetectable weapon of impressive killing capacity, is a formidable display of Tau war technology. Piloted by a single, hand-picked Tau warrior, a lone Ghostkeel Battlesuit is capable of appearing from seemingly nowhere, unleashing a storm of incredible firepower with its fusion collider and disappearing into the mayhem and confusion of battle.

This battlesuit bristles with a vast array of advanced countermeasures, making it invisible to enemy sensors - weapons simply refuse to lock-on and the few that manage to loose off a shot are baffled by a spectacular display of flares and electronic countermeasures.

This multi-part plastic kit gives you everything needed to build one XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit.

This miniature has a truly awesome array of modelling and posing options - arms, legs, head, engines and thrusters can all be set to different poses, and there are two different heads supplied.

The head can be raised and the chest opened to reveal a male or female pilot!

As well as this, you’ll receive two burst cannons, two fusion blasters, two flamers, a fusion collider, a cyclic ion raker and two XV5 stealth drone field projectors.

Offensively and defensively, this battlesuit is armed to the teeth!

You'll get these three sprues with 116 components in total, along with a Citadel 105mm Oval base.

For the Empire!!!

Have A Great Battle,
The Old Crow

New Release: Warhammer 40K Adeptus Mechanicus Onager Dunecrawler from Games Workshop

Haven't been big on the newer Warhammer 40K models, but the Onager Dunecrawler for the new Adeptus Mechanicus is pretty nice. The model will run you 66.00 USD individually or get a squadron of three for 198.00 which is a whopping savings of ..... nothing. Available for pre-order from Games Workshop, will ship April 18 2015.

Owing its origin to the lost knowledge of millennia, the Onager Dunecrawler is based on the Mars Universal Land Engine; itself inspired by the bad-tempered beasts of burden that transported their masters across Holy Terra in ancient times.

The Onager Dunecrawler, rather than being a mere people-carrier, is absolutely brimming with advanced, powerful weaponry capable of reducing worlds to wastelands.

On the subject of weaponry, included in the box are four variants: an eradication beamer, twin phosphor blasters with sensors, a neutron laser featuring a coaxial cognis heavy stubber or an Icarus array - an awesome anti-air assault package comprising twin autocannons, a gatling flak launcher, an armour-piercing missile launcher and a radar dish.

The Onager Dunecrawler, a light walking tank, features four crab-like legs with optional armour plating.

The armoured cabin and reactor are complemented by a huge variety of modelling options, with searchlights, smoke launchers, cognis manipulators and mindscanner probes; and the cupola can be modelled closed or open, featuring a Princeps wielding a heavy stubber.

You get a massive amount of configuration and customisation available even before applying weaponry.

Included with this 119-component multi-part plastic kit, making one Onager Dunecrawler, is a small Adeptus Mechanicus transfer sheet and a 130mm round base.

Have a Great Battle
The Old Crow

Warhammer 40k Ork Air Force Courtesy of The Marden Empire

If you are looking to make your Warhammer 40k Ork Army fly into combat faster than truks can get them, the Marden Empire has a solution for you! The Ork Air Force.

Quite a while ago on the blog we praised the virtues of Martin's Titans and Tanks. This time we'd like to share his Ork Airpower.

These are just a sampling of the wonderful creations created in the Marden Empire workshop. Any Ork Warboss would be thrilled to have some of these babies!

You can follow him on Facebook or his YouTube Channel for the latest updates.








Have a Great Battle
The Old Crow

Battleground Hobbies Terrain Factory

Fired up the Battleground Hobbies Terrain Factory.

Hope to have the first batch on Ebay this weekend! As always if you are interested in something custom made don't hesitate to contact us.

These were designed specifically for the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k worlds where there is constant war.

The land itself being broken under constant battle.

But these terrain pieces will work with any Fantasy or Sci-Fi genre game.

Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow

How To: Warhammer Terrain

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make some easy terrain for Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, or any other Fantasy, futuristic or historical genre of table top gaming. Here is our terrain piece with some Warhammer 40k figures to show scale.

We started with a leftover piece of polystyrene from a large disassembled project and some hardboard cut to the same approximate shape.

Overlap the hardboard past the edges of your foam.

Here is a smaller version...

adding old stone ruins to the top.

Apply hobby or craft glue to the bottom and press the polystyrene firmly on to the hardboard.

We then used coarse drywall screws to hold everything together. If you decide to use this step. carve a bit of the hardboard away so the screw head sets in the board. You wouldn't want to scratch your playing surface.

Our screws were long enough to go through the base and up into the ruin to help secure it on top.

Next we applied liberal amounts of craft glue along the base edges were foam meets base...

and poured coarse ballast onto the glue. Press it in to get maximum coverage.

Using any paint for a base coat, mix in some ballast...

and apply with a larger brush.

The mixed in ballast will give you a nice texture.

We sprayed the whole thing with a black base coat.

Now the real painting begins. We started with a Raw Umber and Charcoal Gray. Use a smaller brush, this is a half inch flat brush which is great for dry-brushing techniques.

On the flat bare surfaces and along the outer edges we applied Chocolate and Burnt Sienna.

The ruins got a coat of Pewter Gray...

and then a dry brush of Slate Gray.

A final light dry-brush of Granite was added to bring out any highlights and add a final contrast to the darker base colors.

Then we stippled on some Olive Green where we plan on adding foliage.

For our dry leaves and grass we use a mixture of herbs and spices mixed with Coarse Turf from Woodland Scenics.

Add in the crevices where blown leaves and old plants would gather.

Here is another example of filling a crevice in the rock.

Don't forget about along the edges of the base.

And there you have it! Ready for the gaming table. You could use lighter and greener colors with more traditional green flocking, These pieces were more cut to facilitate a rocky terrain area.

As we mentioned these can be used for almost any game system and scale. For Fantasy and Dark Age games like Saga add a cairn or load stone to the  base.

For World War II or Napoleonic era games like Bolt Action or Black Powder add barricades or sandbags.

Until next time,
Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow