Twitter Primarch Deathmatch Week 2 Result - Corax v Lion

The Lion triumphs and brushes his long golden mane back away from his face with a blood stained gauntlet.

Our qualifying round guest the Fateweaver watches on with a knowing smile before clucking off into the ether knowing that he/she is the top bird in the universe.

So the Lion representing the 1st Legion is past the qualifying round and into the first round proper.
Who will he face? Only time (or the Eldar) will tell but as for Corax you will just have to read his obituary on the blog in the next few days....

Twitter Primarch Deathmatch - Week 1 Qualifying round result & Week 2 Deathmatch 2

Well fight fans there you have it. Regal Adorn (Damn you autocorrect!) takes down the whimpering Perturabo in the qualifying round. He obviously outbored his nemesis as they sat behind their big walls and then crept up to bang him on the head with his hammer while he was asleep.

Whatever happened 56% percent of the vote went to Rogal 'I'll give you a fisting, see if I don't' Dorn and he goes through to the first round proper.

Up next is the last of the qualifying rounds - a battle of the animals as the Raven takes on the Lion.

Yes its Corvus Corax the leader of the sneaky Raven Guard up against Lion El'Johnson, the robed Legolas look-a-like.

Raven Guard v Dark Angels, where will your loyalties lie?

If you wish to vote check out Twitter @4dadsapocalypse and go to the pinned tweet.

Damn your Raven Guard Games Workshop

How do they know? Just how do they know that I am sorely tempted by Corax and his Raven Guard? Damn them and their emails!!

Seriously though I am really into 40k as you probably realise and have two armies that I love painting and playing and so I have no interest in getting into 30k Horus Heresy. However, I do love reading the Horus Heresy books and I really like the Raven Guard rules and their back story. I have always been interested in stealth, surprise attacks and snipers and the Raven Guard definitely fit this bill.

Still I was determined to concentrate on my Flesh Tearers and Astra Militarum armies and leave 30k to Rich and Dave. Then Corax and his Dark Fury Assault Squad landing in my inbox this morning.

What a beautiful set of models, lovely poses, fantastic claws and their jump packs...damn you Games Workshop...

Still I must resist and at least wait for the Blood Angels to come out before I commit to another mortgage to pay for a Horus Heresy army.

What do you think of the Raven Guard? Corax?

Are you tempted to get into 30k?

What 30k army do you have or are tempted by and why?

James

Dave's Primarch Miniature Theory

Firstly, happy Christmas everyone. I hope you all got your hobby-gift wish? (let us know please). My lovely wife (she didn't make me write that, honest... Love you Helen) brought me a copy of Wolf King. I haven't managed to read it yet but the limited edition packaging is awesome. I have never brought a HH limited edition before but I love Wolves and Chris Wraight is a great writer so I thought this would be a good Christmas gift for me.

But, lets get down to the topic of my post... my theory on Forge World's Primarch miniatures and more specifically, why they designers have selected the poses that they have.

When Roboute Guilliman was released there was no doubt it was a fine miniature, but why did they select THAT pose? The one with a single power fist and a sword?! I, like many I am sure based on the comments I have read around the interweb, was so hoping for the twin-power-fist-angry-rage-face pose from the cover of Know No Fear:

Having Guilliman with that pose would have made me buy him, despite my previous lack of love for the boys in blue. That pose and that book made me love the Ultramarines. In fact, every time a new Horus Heresy novel comes along, 9 times out of 10 Neil Roberts' artwork makes me want to start a new army. And I know many in the community feel the same, just read the comments on any blog or forum site.

I didn't buy that miniature in the end. I generally paint the miniatures that inspire me, and that pose didn't get my blood pumping.

So, with Mr Roberts' excellent direction, why has Forge World chosen not to use the Black Library art for inspiration on so many occasions?

Here's my theory: many of the miniatures coming along now represent the two side of the same coin so often thrown up in the literature. We have Guilliman the empire builder, Lord of the Five Hundred Worlds. His miniature pose matches that of Horus, first among equals and builder of the Imperium (whether on behalf of himself or his farther):

Both have a single power first and a power weapon in the opposite hand.
So who else have we got so far? Ferrus and Fulgrim don't really match in terms of pose but they were modelled much earlier, so I'll exclude them.

But we do have Vulkan and Perturabo, arguably two sides of the same coin: both blacksmiths, both artisans, both believers in the strength of Man:

And FW posed them similarly: hammer in one hand, leaning in for the attack.

Then we have the latest addition (which made me think of this whole link in the first place): Corax and Curze. Both from planets enslaved by the dominant elite, both members of the enslaved population. Both could have become bitter and twisted but one chose the dark and the other the light. Look at the way they are posed:

Look at the legs, look at the claws. Both Angels, but one is an Angel of Death and Destruction. Horus and Guilliman aside, these two are definitely, consciously designed as a pair of miniatures I would suggest.

So in summary, the designers haven't gone for the poses depicted by the artwork, they have gone for the poses that reflect that Primarch's character and tied that in with their traitorous (or loyalist, depending on your persuasion) counterpart.

Maybe I'm reading too much in to it.

When I threw this thought out there, Steve (another of the Four Dads group) suggested that the doubling up of poses was inevitable. There are 18 (or 19) Primarch miniatures to design and ensuring that they are all unique whilst remaining dynamic was always going to be difficult. I'd argue that the artwork for the novels is all different and dynamic, so the designers could have easily done this if they had selected images from the novels/novellas/audio dramas/Collected Visions... there are tons of sources.

What do you think?

Dave