And they shall know no fear.

So the big release in the hobby this month is of course Space Marines. The new Astartes release had a couple of must buys for me - Librarian Anthony Hopkins and the new Tactical squad - and a not so must buy: the Centurians.

Now from the pictures alone the Centurians, or Termitubbies as they have been dubbed locally, look pretty dreadful. I'm pleased to say they look a lot better in person. Not good, but better. They aren't the "poke myself in the eyes instead of looking at them" unit that they appear on the website or White Dwarf.

Anyhow, the two purchases for me were the new Librarian, which i have to say has now replaced Denethor as my favourite GW sculpt of all time. It really is a tiny plastic masterpiece. So much so that i painted it up without taking any "before" pictures. Oops.

But i did grab the old digital camera for the un-boxing of the Tactical squad.

 First up the box itself. I have to say i really like the new style of packaging GW has gone for, it's probably my favourite since the old Aquila box with sleeve packaging. It's nice, clear and simple, with no dodgy Photoshop effects getting in the way.

 The back of the box offers a nice selection of paint schemes for inspiration.

 Always a good sign in any multipart kit...

 ...a nice thick instruction booklet. You can imagine just how much variation is present in the kit when such a tome is required to tell Little Timmy how to glue it together.

 First sprue. Biggest difference is immediately obvious: The sprues are absolutely crammed.

 Gone are the days of wasted space surrounding a few optional grenades, the new Tactical sprues are absolutely packed.

They feature a nice set of upgrades, with a shed load of special weapons to choose from - including the potentially devastating new (well really old actually) Grav family of weapons.

A really impressive update of the perennial Astartes kit. It's been a while since i've bought any bog standard marines, but i am definitely pleased with this purchase and looking forward to gluing it (and my fingers) together.
I have a new project in mind for these Marines, which i will detail in the not too distant future on the Blog, along with a fair few pictures of an excellent Lord of the Rings campaign currently being run at GW Liverpool.

Until next time i remain

Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-pope.