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I think the Beastmaster would look great if I thought he was supposed to be a Homunculus unit... But as a Wych Cult unit, he just doesn't fit the profile... And his torso was sculpted horribly.

I shall call mine Scaramanga.

Again
price them stupidly and they will still be the eternal wallflower, Kanners.
If you are right in your interpretation of Gw's thinking, which seems a fair assessment, they are being overly cautious and regressing from the policy of the first wave release models.

There was no guarantee that they would be successful.
But GW put out excellent sculpts, in a medium most people prefer thses days and they seem to have done well.
This seems to lack confidence. The sculpts are not as good imho, harder to convert and more expensive so they won't sell as well: it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Love or hate the models, but you gotta admit whoever did the paint job on these things did amazing work.

Anyone else see the clawed fiend and think "gundark?"
Don't get me wrong. The resemblance is vague, but that was just the first thought in my head.

Nope sorry Pyronick.

Not a fan of the GW housestyle. Not sure it does any favours to the Beastmaster especially.
The Succubus is succulent and admirable I will have to agree. Some nice painting on the Clawed chap's fur
To be fair the others are okay and show technical skill better than I possess.

Ok, Far better.

*weeps*

Well, this sucks ass.
I think ALL of these models (with exception of the amazingly mundane razorwings) are incredible.
Okay... the Beastmaster is short of incredible... but I like him.
The prices on these things? Pfft! Freaking ridiculous. There's no way I'm paying that. Even if I have a contact that can get them for me at 30% off, it's still too crazy-expensive.

Screw it:


WotC's Abyssal Eviscerators from their Chainmail line will probably be seeing newfound popularity. They will with ME, if I decide to play Clawed Fiends, at least.

I can lean on them for some Khymerae stand-ins, too:













I don't deny that the GW models are better but really, I don't care. I doubt I'd ever want to be playing these things at an official event and... Well, the prices on the official models are just gross.

Eric

NO NO NO!

I don't want to want another army!! I thought I was DE-proof . . .

Someone recently released some really nice beasties recently. but cannot remember who it was.
They had horns on on their heads..
sorry for the brainfreeze

First of I have to say:

I HATE METAL MODELS

It is inconceivable to me that GW would put these out in metal knowing that we would want multiples of these. No matter how good a metal model is you loos the ability to vary from unit to unit. I don't want 2 variations of beasts I want 10 or 15.

Looks like I will be converting these from the outstanding plastic kits in the Dark Eldar range. I will also be looking at the Dark Elves and other now-GW models. Nice job GW you have finally made me look elsewhere.

I actually do not like any of these metal monstrosities compared to the rest of the range. The worst is that Beastmaster. If it really is all metal it is going to fall right off its stand.

The more I get into this hobby the less I like the direction that GW is going. If they want my money fine, give me models from this decade. Metal is dead, at least in miniatures!

Well I guess I have to get that Succubus, the details are slick.

Price aside I think the beast units are overall pretty good. I'll never use them mostly because I don't like the idea of having filthy animals in my army : P

The Beastmaster looks a little burly for a DE but maybe that's just me.

The Khymerae are damn impressive I could belive they're foul warp spawnmade of nightmares (it's the skinned look methinks). The Clawed Fiends are slightly less impressive, but still pretty ferocious.

The Razorwing aren't bad IMO, just not what I expected. I thought they'd be a lot smaller but swarmier, but still look like ravens or what have you. On the plus side because of their "mundaness" they would make good familiars/pets for other characters. Imagine a Psyber Eagle resting on your Chapter Master or Inquisitors forearm.

Prices are over-the-top. I've already converted khymerae from Chaos Hounds and Razorwings from fantasy bat swarms for much, much less. Beastmaster is ridiculous-looking, just continue using spare Hellions instead. Succubus is alright. Too bad you can make them out of the wych box for a lot less...

Overall, disappointed with this semi-pointless offering. Good to see more models, I suppose, but they aren't the ones that most people want (Venoms, Voidraven, Scourges, Wracks, etc.).

All this says to me is that games workshop have thought

''Hmm our new Dark Eldar range has been popular, Lets make the newest models aridiculous price because people will pay it.''

Makes me want too firebomb Warhammer World.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Again
price them stupidly and they will still be the eternal wallflower, Kanners.
If you are right in your interpretation of Gw's thinking, which seems a fair assessment, they are being overly cautious and regressing from the policy of the first wave release models.

Or they're being smart. Blisters are easier, in the end, for them to deal with than boxes.

There was no guarantee that they would be successful.
But GW put out excellent sculpts, in a medium most people prefer these days and they seem to have done well.
This seems to lack confidence. The sculpts are not as good imho, harder to convert and more expensive so they won't sell as well: it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

The sculpts are just as good as the Mandrakes and Incubi.

Of course they're going to be "harder to convert", their goal isn't to make it easy for you to make the models using spare bitz from your box. They want people who want to field them to have to buy them.

Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? To an extent. But if people reaaaaaallly want them, they'll buy them.

And GW will make a decent profit from those people.

Plenty has been said about the sculpts and the price, so I'll just add it's nice to see some new xenomorphs being realised in the 40K universe.

Flashman wrote:it's nice to see some new xenomorphs being realised in the 40K universe.

This is exactly what has me worried. Those things are awesome.

Well, I'm not paying those prices. A five-pack of the newer Heresy Hellhounds are only £3.50 each, and they come with an option for eyeless alien-ish heads, and twice the amount of body poses than GW's offering. If I have to use metal minis, I might as well use metals from a company I respect.

yeah,
warmaster screamers might fit for razorwings?
with a little filing to make the razor wings some green stuff and a different paint job... 3 bases of three for £8.70

Panic...

Kanners

Honestly man they could literally put gakk in a blister and you would defend the policy to the death!

Nice models (the razorwings are just ok), but for the prices it looks like I'll keep using my dire wolves as khymerae.

The succubus I really like, too bad I'll probably never use one...

My only beef really... Is what the heck is that skin flap thinging on the beastmaster above his pants line? It looks like a flap of skin or did the artist paint the cloth skintone on accident?

yeah,
I'm just going to assume by this point you guys will work out why i'm posting alternatives...
no idea how much these cost.


Panic...

Agamemnon2 wrote:Well, I'm not paying those prices. A five-pack of the newer Heresy Hellhounds are only £3.50 each, and they come with an option for eyeless alien-ish heads, and twice the amount of body poses than GW's offering. If I have to use metal minis, I might as well use metals from a company I respect.

I agree with you. I bought some Blights from them (http://www.heresyminiatures.com/hv043.htm) to be used a Plaguebearers and they are fantastic. Quick shipping too.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Kanners

Honestly man they could literally put gakk in a blister and you would defend the policy to the death!

And they could be throwing gold bullion into a crowd and people would complain.

Is it a good policy? No. I mentioned that already, pretty sure of that.

But it's GW's policy. It works for them because there are people who will buy the stuff at their prices.

Kan you are correct as far as your argument goes there, but it is incomplete. I don't think anyone is criticizing the price in order to screw GW, but on the contrary criticize it because it cuts their potential audience. Less profit but more sales is a perfectly acceptable strategy as well.

So yes, I think they are insanely pricey for their function in game, would I have bought anyways, no, I'm not a DE player, but I feel they would have been served better by putting out a product that meets demand and is priced right. I don't think anyone, on either side of the debate, would call them cheap or 'affordable' for general game use.

As to the sculpts themselves, I like them alot. I just wish the 2 DE themselves werent so derivative. Beastmaster - Hellion, Succubus - Lilith. They could have given the Succubus a different hairstyle to do something to make her look less like Lilith with more clothes on...

All in all though, sculpt wise, a big win in my eyes!

And they could be throwing gold bullion into a crowd and people would complain.

GW? Throw gold to people?

We'd be too dumbstruck to complain.
Apart from which it would be a Health and Safety issue.

Sorry if you said it wasn't good policy, must have missed it.

I seem to recall saying these are just not up to par with some excellent, recent GW releases in plastic.
I am not damning everything GW. However temping that would be

MegaDave wrote:I'm going to have to purchase both of the Khymerae, as well as the Clawed Fiend, even though I don't play Dark Eldar. I love the idea of someday having painted monsters from all over the 40k universe sitting in a display case , so I hope they keep making more beasties!

I was thinking the same . Maybe some of the kroot beasts too.
As soon as I have painted some of the models that are waiting on my paint desk (and round it) I plan to buy Khymerae and Clawed Fiend.

Really love the succubus and beasts.

Agamemnon2 wrote:Well, I'm not paying those prices. A five-pack of the newer Heresy Hellhounds are only £3.50 each, and they come with an option for eyeless alien-ish heads, and twice the amount of body poses than GW's offering. If I have to use metal minis, I might as well use metals from a company I respect.

Decent model. Still not as nice as the GW sculpt, but I've already made my feelings known on that.
Thanks for pointing the model out.


Eric

yeah,
It irks me that I'm so against the price of these GW mini's as they are quite good... More counts as from taban minis (prices at maelstrom games)
I think these could all count as khymerae

CHITINOUS HOUND £6


LYCALS £13 for 3


mireling £6


DOMINANT LYCAL £9


with a matchining counts as clawed fiend...
THE BAYAKOYÉ £13


Panic...

Pyronick wrote:My only beef really... Is what the heck is that skin flap thinging on the beastmaster above his pants line? It looks like a flap of skin or did the artist paint the cloth skintone on accident?

A lot of the DE models have flayed skin clothes. That flap of skin is just the roll of his skirt.

It should probably be a bit darker so it doesn't look so close to HIS skin instead of his victim's tanned hide.