Overread

Resin is quite different to work with and some hate it and some love it: 1) First up resin can have bubbles within the casting. This is very rare in properly cast metal; almost unheard of in properly cast plastics, but does happen in resin. Even well cast production resin can have a bubble here or there. These require filling (greenstuff or proper use of liquid greenstuff) and can take a bit of time. The problem with them is that they can sometimes appear in a location that causes them to obliterate detail on the model. If it just a small segment you can often fix it with greenstuff; but if you're unlikely it can obliterate a whole chunk and suddenly you've got to order a replacement part. 2) Resin is softer than metal or plastic, this makes it easy to scrape clean ( mould lines) but you've got to be a little more careful as its easier to snap or break parts if you don't work with it right. It can also have some thick sprue connection parts that have to be sawn off with one of those little jewellers saws. Again careful steady work and its not an issue. 3) Resin comes out of the mould with a release agent on the mould that aids easy separation. As a result you have to give resin a bath when you get it. This is simply a bit of luke-warm water and a drop of washing up liquid. Then scrub with an old worn toothbrush. It's not a hard scrub, you're just cleaning off the residue (that you often can't see though you might just feel it being a little more slippery before scrubbing). If you don't clean it off then superglue and paint might not adhere correctly and, as a result, your model could prove a nightmare to work with. A clean up removes all these issues (note its often good policy to wash metals too). 4) When assembling superglue works great and bonds fairly quick (resin is more textured/porous than metal) though scoring the join areas (just as for metal) is very important. You might also need to pin parts, again just like for metal, to help support some areas of the structure (the WORST model ever for this is probably the Tyranid Titan from Forgeworld which many people put a bit of scenic terrain under the middle of the body as otherwise its a LOT of resin held up by four very thin legs! Others have gone nuts putting and drilling long metal pins up the middle of the legs for support) 5) Resin can bend when under pressure and heat. This means sometimes you get parts which are bent or warped. Hot (not boiling) water or light use of a hair drier (again you're not trying to melt it just soften it). and then bending it should repair this. Note that its best to do it in small bends and rewarm between them rather than trying to do it all in one go. This is safer and reduces the chances for the resin to break (this is the opposite of working with something like metal where the fewer bends is safer). Just like bubbles, sometimes the twist/warp/bend is beyond repair. Forgeworld (and indeed most miniature companies) are very good at replacing damaged/broken parts that are beyond reasonable repair and are the result of manufacture defect. So if you get really bad bubbles or a serious warping take some photos to show the problem and email them. They will typically replace parts without issue and the photos not only help to prove your case, but also help them be more ware of repeat incidents to keep an eye out for them Resin is about the best at holding very fine detail and allowing complex structures and shapes to be cast. Metal follows, then plastics. In general this means resin is often favoured for boutique lines; although there are resin plastic hybrids and other varied materials on the market now - Hawk Wargames uses a very tough resinplastic thingy that holds very fine detail; whilst GW plastics have closed the gap somewhat as well. Resin still rules, but it has its own tricks and trials to working with same as any other material.

@Lysandestolpe - motorized rotating stand You can also get a dirt cheap rotating cake stand but you'd have to turn that by hand. It would let you look really cool and professional and make it a lot easier to do rotating videos of your models

What are these ratmen, these skaven you speak of?

@DantePQ great painting there - very nice daughters! A bright and very bold scheme that works really well and isn't their default black and red and gold approach. The gold on their weapons really stands out powerfully

I can't find any mention of this, However "look out sir" only requires that the hero unit be within range of your other units to get the effect. So it stands to reason that yes our Cauldrons and Shrine do get "look out sir" protection. Think of it not as the whole shrine/cauldron dodging but the units standing upon the structure.

Both are good options so you can't go wrong either way, however the key is to realise that Khinerai are very fragile units so they are best as surgical strikes; support, contesting objectives late game or in an isolated area of the battlefield. As such you might find the ranged version easier to get start with as they can swoop in; fire their spears and then run away from that combat; their initial appearance on the battlefield gives them a bit more rending power too for that turn. They most certainly don't want to start on the battlefield and instead want to strike in from off the table so that they get that bonus and so that they appear where they need t obe without having to travel there on the table (and thus risking being shot up).

Pushfit is a lot more fun than putting arms on things like Slaanesh deamonetts where you are basically holding one smooth bit of arm against another smooth bit of arm and hoping that the glue cures just right that you can't see a seam or that you're not 1mm out of alignment.

*pokes his nose in* So oh mighty Stormcast players and people I'm a bit curious on the use, function, viability and general performance of gryph hounds and how you make use of them and see them fitting into your armies. Both with their synergies with other units and when they are on their own.

Yep in one way the Avatar on the cauldron is protected since whilst it remains on the table its always got a queen with a prayer who can animate it every turn that its needed; whilst one on foot has the modest risk that if your queen(s) are killed off fast it might not be able to activate for a turn or two.

If Slaanesh is going to be the next big event and tied to Sigmar then a January release or into 2019 makes some sense. It gives a decent amount of time from the 2.0 release and the Necroquake events. Enough time to have a few months build up to Slaanesh escaping or otherwise reaching out from his prison to influence his followers (still not sure if he will escape or if he'll remain trapped but able to reach out since at present the Aelf factions rely heavily on harvesting from his belly for new peoples)

I'd only use Khinerai to hold a distant objective that the opponent hasn't secured in the latter part of the game. Whilst they can strike the board fast and hard they are very fragile and thus no good at holding onto anything; even their rules make them want to hit and run - dodge and weave into and out of cover etc.... A tough holding unit is something that, I think, Daughters don't have. Instead its built as a fast alphastrike faction with internal synergies to boost their attack phase, primarily in close combat. The toughest, by her wound mechanic, would be Morathi, though she's an expensive unit to field and has other uses on the battlefield. I think if you want what is essentially a tarpit unit you need to look outside of the faction into the allies for something tough and long lasting. Check/ask in the allies thread (linked in the first post of this thread)

4. Things I heard down the pub from my mate

Aye I can well see them giving Khorne some anti-magic capacity considering all the spells being thrown around. Otherwise it basically requires them to take allies to function as an army in the current edition. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to see a few factions get a cheap mage or anti-spell caster added to them over time. I also wonder if we'll see GW bring back the beasts of chaos faction for Sigmar since its sort of gone right now.

I'm scared to use them but I love the model and the concept of the model - I even want to make an assassin Khinerai as I think putting a shadowblade assassin with a group of Lifetakers makes for a rather neat assassination group - with enough punch to hurt either a tough character or a unit of troops.

@Scythian have you tried assembling Khinerai? They take fiddly and fragile to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. They look fantastic but the entire model is perched atop just their tail! And that tail is very thin. In contrast I've got a Bethany from PP Hordes who is also posed on her tail and she is all metal and the tail is about three times the thickness at least - she's far more stable and doesn't have that scary "wobble" to her

That's a very good point about sub-factions in Sigmar. A Skirmish style game like Killteam would let GW release a handful of models without having to flesh each one out into a faction. When you've got something like the Shadowblades which is basically one unique model and the half-options from another that is shared with another faction - that is a LOT of work to turn that from basically one sculpt into a full faction. Far easier to leave it is a minor faction and then boost it with a single mould with 4 or 5 unique posed models for a skirmish game.

What's kind of crazy is for a snake army that is basically comprised of "elite" unit choices its actually considerably cheaper to build than a full witch army for a similar cost in points! 60 Snakes price £360 1440points 120 Witch aelves price £420 1480points Now granted you can save by buying from independents but its still a big difference in price! Kind of scary that Witches basic troop costs pretty much as much as some full varied armies at that scale!

Magnets are not too tough to use, but sometimes its easier to magnetize some models if you've already put one together to see how all the parts connect. That said the way the Cauldron goes together its one where you don't "need" to have built one to see where to put the magnets. That said magnetizing at least the cauldrons can be a benefit even if you just magnetize the Avatar as otherwise it ends up being a very tall model.

Thing is rumours are just rumours and without any chain of evidence its hard to tell truth from fiction. Even reliable sources might have unreliable sources of their own at times. In addition rumours don't always take account of shifts in the release scheduled. A year away is long enough that GW can likely change things up. So a rumour that was true a few months ago might not be true now.

I think Gorkamorka is coming - its got a slot on the new Warhammer 40K Monopoly board and I doubt GW would put that on there if they weren't going to follow it up with a product. As for Slaanesh I think the big release for that will possibly be the next big Sigmar linked release event. When we consider that the alliance between Death and Order is broken and going rather nuts now its an ideal time for the God of Excess to make his move and have his agents break the seals and escape the prison. Or at the very least if not escaping to spill out enough to draw his legions close for a massive war in the shadow realm.

@Chris Tomlin Another thread to add to the first post please, if it takes off that is

If anything Shadspire is in a stronger position because it gets its own model releases whilst Killteam uses models already released.

Yes, the way the shrine is treated its basically like an upgrade to the Medusa. Just like the Blood Cauldron is an upgrade to the Hag/Slaughter Queens. So long as you set the Bloodwrack to be your general it will count as the Medusa component. Similarly you can use a Bloodwrack/Cauldron for Battalions as well

Question here on modelling rather than playing; but when it comes to the Cauldron how have people approached assembly and painting. Is it practical to assemble then paint it (esp the section with the stone hand gripping in the rear of the unit) or is it really a paint then put together affair?

It's being discontinued so its basically gone from the GW store; however there appears to still be stock around within the distribution network so many stores are still getting it; but I'd expect it to run out at some point. What GW will do then is unknown. They might relist it; they might simply do away with it. What is clear is that Daughters still lack a Getting started boxed set and really could do with one (personally I'd really like to see one with, say, two units of witches and then a group of snakes or harpies - whever happens we could really do with some means of getting Witch Aelves for less - they are very overpriced for a core troop choice!)