Forgeworld Open Day 2012 Sneak Peeks & Rumours

Right folks,
time for a round-up of all the various rumours and pics from around the blogosphere, starting of course with the Stormeagle that has been floating around for a few days:

Thanks to SotonShades over on warseer for this, here is a pic in the bare resin confirming this bad boy is real:

Next from Forgeworlds own Facebook galleries we have the Imperial Avenger:

this to me looks like the unwanted offspring of a vulture and a thunderbolt fighter, hope to see some better pics soon but it could be an interesting alternative fighter for Imperial/chaos forces. Here is another view from Warseer:

Next up we have from the FW page again the new updated mega resin version of another Land Raider classic, the Spartan - it wont be long now before all the Old WD conversions are made flesh and I for one wont complain (I can feel this bad boy in my Mentors force too):

Next we jump back to Warseer for a couple of Marine characters/specialists in older armour types, one is clearly an Apothecary, if anyone has any ideas on the second it would be great if you can confirm, but i suspect it is a second Apothecary:

Next from Slaaaaaaanesh (too many A's dude but you get an A* for this one) confirmation of LC Tartaros Terminators:

And thunder hammer and storm shield combo:

Next heresy era assualt marines with mix and match armour to show wear and tear etc:

interesting take on the jump pack, not 100% sure but lets see how the finished kits look

Right thats it for pics of new stuffs but if you want more stuff, such as painted models, comparisons and general FW fun Philbrad over at warseer has created a gallery here: Philbrads Gallery

Finally a write up of new bits and peices, this is via Apocalypse40k and was Originally Posted by SotonShades on BoLS

Where to begin?

The Warlock Titan. Sorry eldargirl, but they won't be upgrading your beloved Phantom until the next time they do a major Eldar book (I'll explain when that is likely to be in a bit).

You want terrain kits? Blake Spence is working on them. He's the gentleman you can thank for the Zone Mortalis boards. Mostly going to be working on Realm of Battle Boards and more expansions for ZM, but other stand alone pieces are planned. Race specific RoB sections are planned, for most armies in 40k AND Fantasy! Could be a while before we see them though. This will include proper Cityfight terrain, possibly trenches in the future and linking pieces between RoB sections and ZM modules, such as stairs/subway entrances.

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Minotaurs will probably appear in several unlinked books, with an overall unfolding mystery about them. The Tzeentch/penal colony stuff will most likely be IA13 now (possibly with a Fantasy Book inbetween) and will most likely cover a Tzeenchian Cult across several legions and renegade space mainres.

No plans for any further Enforcers/Arbities rekeases. In fact, a point was made that if you see it as a show only model, it is probably because they don't feel it would work as an army. Same goes for Primarch models, but for a slightly different reason.

No plans to release any more models for Badab characters, which was why such detailed descriptions were given, to give you chance to convert them.

Next fantasy book is most likely going to be a campaign between Orcs and Goblins and the Emprire.

There are fairly well developed ideas for the next 3 or 4 I story lines. In fact the DE one is having to be rewritten because it is currently too Grim-Dark and bleak for 40k!

Speaking of which, Adeptus Mechanicus MAY appear in the next 2-3 books. Not certain, and probably more as part of a faction than as a force in their own right. They really want to do Knight Titans, but will be a while away yet.

I still have a few more pages of notes to type up, but i need to finish my rapidly cooling chips and collect my painting comp entry in the next few mins. Will carry on when I can

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There are also stirings within the studio for doing Chapter specific Contemptors, similar to their current range of Dreadnoughts. Nothing officially started yet, but it is something various designers said they wanted to work on.

Similar story for Iron Hands but less so. As for Mk VIII armour, the Errent pattern... No real interest I'm afraid. Maybe if their is enough demand for it, but designers are doubtful it would be different enough from the plastic kits to be worth doing.

During the Q&A session, a question was raised regarding some SM chapters getting certain equipment and other not (such as the Thunderfire Cannon). Chaos Marines were also mentioned. Basicly, GW & FW want to keep some disparity between the MEQ lists based on the way they are supposed to play, so not all equipment will go to everyone. This includes chaos not getting a Caestus Assault Ram.

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Yep. I'm afraid there are no plans to revisit them (Elysians) at the moment, or any other IG regiments or previously published lists. There are a few kits from previous books in the pipeline, most notably ran Redmaw, but for the most part what is out is out. Apart from whomever gets in to IA12. Speaking of which;

IA12 is Minotaur Space Marines Vs Necrons. Focus is on sectorwide conflict rather than specific system/planet, so will incorporate IG and probably other races as well. Looking at a facet of Imperial war we haven't really seen before.

To go with the book expect a BIG expansion of FW's Necron range. I have seen Minotaur shoulder pads. Simon Eagen wants to work on helmets, torsos and backpack bits as well (in fact that is where the 2 Minotaur characters came from).

Speaking of conversion bits, new style Terminators WILL be getting full set of weapon options, possibly including some more esoteric ideas (graviton gun perhaps?) and Assault Terminator options. Assault Termies were on display in Will Hayes's Case.

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Right, more tidbits!

Several people asked about a bulk land pod for the Thunderhawk Transporter. Again, it's another case of "something we'd like to do, but have no plans or concepts for it yet.

For those of you who aren't so pleased with the WD SoB codex... well, FW haven't got that on their radar yet, but really want to do a War of Faith style IA book, with Sister and lots of screaming fanatics. Earliest would be several years down the pipeline though.

Some points were raised about Black Library and FW cross-overs. Basic reply was that they love to draw inspiration from each other, but neither party wants to do any tie-ins because it screws with their creative freedom. Specifically, can you imagine how a BL author would feel if one of his favourite characters to write had a bullet put in the back of his head by a FW writer?

THERE WILL BE MORE MODELLING MASTERCLASS VOLUMES!
Hopefully they will be putting a new one out every year or year and a half. Most likely the next one will be a Fantasy release. That said, it was doubtful they would be releasing and more hobby supplies such as their weathering powders any time soon.

Despite the release of so many older marks of armour and relic style vehicles/weaspon, FW will not be doing any pre/heresy stuff any time soon. To do a book would essentially mean SM vs SM, and would be such a big project it would be very very difficult to manage around doing other releases. They also don't feel it would work too well along the lines of the game set in the 41st millennium, so wouldn't work with/against 41st millennium codicies. After all, the great crusade was humanity expanding across the whole galaxy in a few hundred years, wiping out all but a handful of sentient xenos races.

FW also apologized for dropping a lot of their older scenery kits recently, particularly the old trench system. Basically comes down to not being able to constantly stock enough, with terrain beaing some of the worst selling stuff and too expensive to manufacture for what they can reasonably expect to sell it at. The old foam bits were also too damagable. Hopefully the new hollow terrain casting methods will mean they can stock and create a much greater variety (as I've already mentioned.)

FW want to convert more of the deamon engines and superheavies from epic in to 40k sclae. however, simply blowing up the old models is not a realistic option, so they would need to be completely redesigned, probably keeping little more than the original name. they also pointed out that scale ratios in epic do not work in 40k. mostly, especially on tall models such as titans, they are too short! And the taller the model, the worse this difference is (so my warlord at 40+ inches isnt too far off what they should be)

The FW design team want to keep IG using tracked vehicles, grinding forwards, rather than wheels like trrop trucks or bikes. Don't expect to see too many exceptions like the tauros for the elysians. They will only do it where it makes sense for a regiment in their books.

FW won't be doing any Fellblades for the Space Marines. They dont feel it fits with 40k since the reorganization of the Legions to chapters. There was however talk of doing weapons packs, such as 10 combi-meltas for example only, that would be popular. Similar to the Chapterhouse kits. No firm confirmation on this though.

As they've pointed out before, FW have very few links with the main design studio, so theyk now nothing of 6th Ed and how their stuff will integrate. As far as FW are concerned, anything stamped with the 40k approved logo is balanced enough for regular games, but always ask your opponent (no reason to say no, but...) They haven't even had a chance to get a hold of the new paints yet (so I had to tell Phil what they were like!) Similarly, there is no connection between the FW Demigryphs and the new empirs plastics as far as the FW team are aware.

FW are happy with the rate at which they put out books. They want to cover all the race before they cover any again (though expect Imperials to be in all books, quite possibly mostly Minotaurs for the next few), so we are now expecting Necrons in IA12, Tzeentch later (prob IA13) then DE and Slaanesh before anyone else gets re-done. Necrons are in very early concept phase, so will be a while before we get out hand on them, but there are all ready plans afoot for a BIG kit for Orks when they come round again. They will almost certainly get either a Bomma or a Gargant. Quite possibly both.
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Right, that is about it from me. BTW I love the Imperial Avenger. Wonderful looking aircraft, much nicer than the Lightnings or Thunderbolt (and I have a few of those) but I'm still not keen on the Storm Eagle.

Did we all ready know about the longer base Land Raider that is similar to the original scratch built one, or am I imagining that? Either way, that looks pretty awesome too!

I do have a couple more notes to decipher, but I think they are more clarifications on the points I've all ready made. Feel free to ask me questions if anything is unclear and I'll try to dredge up what I can from my memory.

Roving report Sotonshades, from under the anvil in Bugman's bar, for BoLS News.

Thanks to Alex at Apocalypse40k for posting the text and to Sotonshades for going deep undercover to snaffle these exclusives. Nice work guys.
So there you have it, a solid round up of this years FW openday, great models, intriguing fluff coming and an interesting year ahead!
thanks all, feel free to comment