I think it was inevitable that I got hold of some of the new plastic plaguebearers given my previous excitement. When I opened the box, I must say the even I was impressed with the new sprues (imaged below).
Two things struck me: (a) the level of detail that the designers have been able to sculpt in to the miniatures that I think is superior to previous incarnations of plaguebeareres; (b) the sheer number of components that the production process has managed to squeeze on to the sprue - long gone are the days of large gaps between components. That said, I think these sprues have some advantages over others: the added nurglings and maggots really do justice to the compactness of the sprue. Compared to tabards (etc.) that appear on marine sprues, I think these will see more usage (although I am biased, of course).
I think my only complaint sculpt-wise is that I preferred the musician being a bell ringer, rather than an odd woodwind thing. But that's not a serious complaint -- I still think it looks cool! Paint-wise, I think that the recommended paints on the back of the box are an odd choice (i.e. no Athonian shade?!). anyway, time for some glueing...
Easy enough to give them a bell surely? One from skaven plague monks, for instance.
ReplyDeleteI'll swap you a bell on a chain from the Zombie sprue for your woodwind thingy, I want two so I can make a plaguebearer bagpiper!
ReplyDeleteHi Ben -- true enough. I think I'm going to work with the woodwind and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteHi Knight of Infinite Resignation -- I very much appreciate your kind offer. That said, I'm going to have to decline on this occasion as I want to see how the woodwind piece works out (plus I already have a number of bell / chains from the zombie sprue). The idea about making a bagpipe sounds awesome though -- I'd be interested to hear how that works out!
ReplyDeleteI may well make it from the instrument it comes with, I plan to make two of the pipes into drones by blocking up their fingerholes, and the third into a chanter. They'll plug into a bag under the 'bearers left arm so I can use the hand holding the pipes as is.
ReplyDeleteIts partly because I play the pipes I guess, and partly because the instrument supplied looks unplayable and thus, to me, stupid.
Three chanters all with lots of holes, its going to be impossible to play and some part of me can't stand that!
Wind instruments and pipes in particular are so poorly represented in films and art I guess its a pet hate of mine.
The worst thing is when you see a horn blown and the sound doesn't in any way match the instrument in shot! I make ancient musical instruments for a living and I always think 'Why didn't they just call me!'.
If they'd have called me in this case I'd have referred them to the launedas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launeddas
Thank you for that. Was curious about the sprue and appreciate the photo.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think the bell ringer would have been better.