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I returned to my local GW today to finish off building the Baneblade I started, and to build a second. The store has three, and many other things (but nothing else new except the command sprue). I will update the Baneblade model info, tell youn a little about the command sprue and about apocalypse, which we played tonight. According to the staff it was the first open Apocalypse game in any Gw store in the UK.

Baneblade.

I was proven horribly right. The store manager had tried to continue building the baneblade, and only build part of one side (I had completed the other thats as far as I got).
Because the tracks were not assembled at the same time as the sideplates the whole side panel was askew. This is a very easy kit to mess up, and at £60 a time noone can really afford that. If you buy a Baneblade, and I do recommend it, please keep this in mind.

I also found that this also applies to the sponson and turret aseembly. Though that is normal for 'box parts' and are easy to construct in one sitting.

Some further warnings.
- While the side plates and road wheels are makered left and right sides other peices are not. The armour plates that fit on the sides, the fuel lines and parts of the sponsons are left and right hand sidde only, look very similar to each other, and are not marked. I had to refit the fuel lines to the main chassis today. and had to mix and match the armour plates.

- The sponsons can be replaced for free with armour plates giving the tank Av14 ion the sides. This helps against aircraft but the loss of firepower is too much. Alternately for 100pts extra you can fit another sponson pair. If you are planning this however the sponson assembly and side platesd are not on their own sprue. So youi will need a BWB spurchase (which will be priced accordingly) opr buy two Baneblades and model one without and one with four sponsons. his is what I did today - the shop has four Baneblades total, the fourth is a Forgeworld kit. While the cost is ascceptable I didnt like the lok of the four sponson baneblade, two is better.

- The Hellblade cannon is warped and doesnt fit together properly, the only part that doesnt. As I had three Baneblades to choose bits from I tried all three, we only wanted one so could try to get a better match with the others. They all had the same problem. This shouldnt be to important, the Hellblade is an inferior design and probably only of interest to those who want to buy many Banebades.



The crew minis are awesome, I love the standing officer/Commissar. I asked for the remaining bits from the tanks I built and was given them. so two plastic officers for me! - and enough toolkit parts for my Cadian mechanic team (counts as Tech Servitors).

After building/part building two Baneblades, I would say its certainly not a job for anyone impatient, definately one of the harder plastic kits, but that was due to poor design of the kit. Some of the pieces dont fit easily, but all except the Hellblade cannon do fit. Average uninterrupted build time (constructed carefully) approx five hours.

Oh, and if you leave off the ammo bins and comms gear one the rear of the turret the rear face has a small gunport with a lasgun. Its quite comical in a way,. one side has the autocannon and primary weapon, the other a little lasgun. But its a warmachine, that lasgun chooses its own target, so it may count for something after all. Though the Apocalypse rulebook makes no mention of it on the datasheets.

COMMAND SPRUE

There was one with the Baneblade, not tghat it could use it. I dont think it is part of the kit, just part of the box of junk w head office sent the store. each piece assembles and can be added to a bnormal tank of the race. Though the extra defiler head is just an extra defiler head, adn the array that looks like hot rod exhausts are not mentioned on any of the kits shown in the Apocalypse rulebook. They could be for Dark Eldar.
The Guard pack looks good, the large Imperial Eagle is curved and is actually a radar/comms dish. The Space Marines get a large bosx shaped structure containing some lenses that fits on an ordinaery tank chassis. It will be ok on a Rhino but will boscure the gun on a Razorback. Still as a turret piece it can be swapped in if needed on any Imperial vehicle.

The Tau command pack is fugly and the Eldar onje slightly better but both sit on the hull of the respective tanks. Given a small pin or magnet they could become an easily swappable add on.

APOCALYPSE GAME AND BOOK

I didnt watch the game much, I was busy building the tanks. However sdome observations.

- As mentioned in the rulebook it needs preparation. 'Hi do you want a game of Apocalypse' is not a viable proposition. Unless you prepare up a scenario of sorts the game breaks down.
- You bid to see who will set up his force in the shortest amount of time. The [player(s) who bids lower set up first, if they set up on time they go first. If they dont they go second and all remaining forces gfo into reserve. They can choose to keep units in reserve and so guarantee their time limit.
- Only the players who set up second can infiltrate. These two rules should be adopted for normal 40K.
- The rulebook is humouriously written in parts, many of the big things have been upgunned and had their points costs slashed. If you think you will have an esy victory because the opponent has spalsghed out on a biotitan or super heavy think again. With some tyes, but others are now worth their poinjts costs, even when the points went up.
- You need to pay for the special abilities, not just have the correct formation size.
- The open ended codex 'organisation' sucked even from the irst game. Much of the flabvour added by the new units was lost by the cghaotic nature of the game and how open to abuse it is.

Some Forgeworld kiots are not included in the Apocalypse book, in fact most were not. So you still have the old points costs uintil GW produces the datasheets. These will apparently be free to download.
They ought to be because the new flagship vehicle for the Marines, the Land Raider Terminus was omitted from the new book.
The artwork was awesome, best yet seen in the book. It is probably worth it just for the pullm, out sections fluff and the odd decent unit.
The Warlord Titan is sick, not quite able to stand up against 2500pts of Broadsides, but that is an obvious tailored mismatch. It candefeat a 2500 pt army on its own though. Void shields are not rerolled like they were regenerated. You roll the number of structure points remaining and regain a shield for each 5+ rolled. So unless you dedicate a lot of firepower and collapse the shields and do some damage the chances are the following turn the titan would be back up to full shield strength. This is not anything you can ignore either. The Gatling Blaster is a heavy 6 battlecannon, and the weapons get harder from there.

If anyone has questions might be able to answer them.

Posted By Orlanth on 09/18/2007 6:26 PM
The Gatling Blaster is a heavy 6 battlecannon, and the weapons get harder from there.

I fail to see the efficacy of a heavy 6 battlecannon.  You can only kill a unit once.  And with no FOC your opponent can have A LOT of separate units.  The Warlord can only target 4 units a turn, right?  What happens when your enemy takes 2500 pts of singleton Obliterators?

Hope you scatter lots?

BYE

Posted By Orlanth on 09/18/2007 6:26 PM

I was proven horribly right. The store manager had tried to continue building the baneblade, and only build part of one side (I had completed the other thats as far as I got).
Because the tracks were not assembled at the same time as the sideplates the whole side panel was askew. This is a very easy kit to mess up, and at 30 a time noone can really afford that. If you buy a Baneblade, and I do recommend it, please keep this in mind.

This is an unfortunate, though I think if one has experience with "proper" plastic model tanks, not an insurmountable obstacle (if you've ever built something by Zvezda or Italeri, chances are working with warped parts and such will be second nature by now). I wonder why they mounted those three pins in the side assembly in a line, wouldn't a triangle been a stabler arrangement?

Would temporarily fixing the tracks in place for the purposes of checking the fit and clearance be enough, or should they be glued on at this early stage? Also, are there any spare track links?

"I fail to see the efficacy of a heavy 6 battlecannon. You can only kill a unit once. And with no FOC your opponent can have A LOT of separate units. The Warlord can only target 4 units a turn, right? What happens when your enemy takes 2500 pts of singleton Obliterators?"

Dont want to completely swallow the thread on the heavy 6 battlecannon but, you do place each template seperately, adjacent to each other. Its a barrage and therefore is not targeted at one squad. You can sling the templates along blowing up whatever is in the way. However accumulative fire is useful for killing a cluster of deep strike carnies.

The Apocalypse Missile launcher uses the big clover shaped template, the gatling blaster does not have to.

Your point about the oblits are unfair. I already mentioned Broadsides anyway, and 2500pts of lascannon anti tank squads in another thread. If an opponent has that army dont field the Titan. I assume the forward planning of the adeptus mechanicus looks at things like that. Titans pick their own battles.

"This is an unfortunate, though I think if one has experience with "proper" plastic model tanks, not an insurmountable obstacle (if you've ever built something by Zvezda or Italeri, chances are working with warped parts and such will be second nature by now). I wonder why they mounted those three pins in the side assembly in a line, wouldn't a triangle been a stabler arrangement?"

It has bween a long time since I built an airfix or Tamiya kit, but honestly they were more intelligently thought out. I havent built anything by Zvezda but the quality looks like it has improved lately, particularly the fantasy range.
Mounting the pins in two lines would have been best, also the sprue had ample room for those side panls and the hull bottom to be molded in one piece. Having it split into two was unnecessary.

"Would temporarily fixing the tracks in place for the purposes of checking the fit and clearance be enough, or should they be glued on at this early stage? Also, are there any spare track links?"

I suggest you:
- Take off every piece for the side file it and prepare it.
- assmeble the drive wheel sections first. As they can ber done in isolation. Ther build guide recommends this as stage one.
- Mix strages two three and four together.
- Assemble each side panel then fix the side panels together. add the front drive wheel
- Take track sections four five and six, the long pieces on the ground see where they fit from (this should be simple enough the first long section angles towards the ground the next too are underneath the tank. Glue these on first. Starting with five. Forget one two and three.
- This will stabilisie the tank side. Then add the rear drive wheel and glue in track seven. The drive wheels are very precariously positioned. They are normally glued only onto one side and are quite bulky. They also need to be positioned correctly.
- Then glue on the single track pieces one, two and three at the front around the front drive wheel. Then add track twelve, a short section that runs up under the track guards.
- Now repeat the same fro the rear drive wheel.
- Then add the top track guard.
- Glue the fuel line to the rear track guard/ mounting for the fule barrels. It is important you have the correct fuel line and rear track guard piece. They are not identical.
- Glue the piece to the track guards and the side of the tank simultaneously. You will need to push it into position. So do this before the glue sets on everything else.

You can stop now, the side of the gank is now stable. You can add the barrels and smoke launchers later at your leisure.




Oh while we are at this.

If you want your lascannon sponson turrets to swivel you will need to drill and pin the holding pin. The lascannon turret sits on the sponson. There is a pin from the top glued directly onto the spionson roof. This sucks. You have to judge the amount of glue you add very carefully (this was impossible with a GW squeezy bottle. Despite all my cares the lascannon were stuck fast. eventually I didnt bother trying.

Also the mounting of the heavy bolters doesnt show which way up it goes. its viewed end on. You ca see which way by looking carefully at other construction diagrams later in the guide. (The piston goes at the bottom.

"This is an unfortunate, though I think if one has experience with "proper" plastic model tanks, not an insurmountable obstacle (if you've ever built something by Zvezda or Italeri, chances are working with warped parts and such will be second nature by now). I wonder why they mounted those three pins in the side assembly in a line, wouldn't a triangle been a stabler arrangement?"

It has been a long time since I built an Airfix or Tamiya kit, but honestly they were more intelligently thought out. I haven't built anything by Zvezda but the quality looks like it has improved lately, particularly the fantasy range.
Mounting the pins in two lines would have been best, also the sprue had ample room for those side panels and the hull bottom to be molded in one piece. Having it split into two was unnecessary.

"Would temporarily fixing the tracks in place for the purposes of checking the fit and clearance be enough, or should they be glued on at this early stage? Also, are there any spare track links?"

I suggest you:
- Take off every piece for the side file it and prepare it.
- Assemble the drive wheel sections first. As they can be done in isolation. The build guide recommends this as stage one.
- Mix strages two three and four together.
- Assemble each side panel then fix the side panels together. Add the front drive wheel.
- Take track sections four five and six, the long pieces on the ground see where they fit from (this should be simple enough the first long section angles towards the ground the next too are underneath the tank. Glue these on first. Starting with five. Forget one two and three for now.
- This will stabilise the tank side. Then add the rear drive wheel and glue in track seven. The drive wheels are very precariously positioned. They are normally glued only onto one side and are quite bulky. They also need to be positioned correctly.
- Then glue on the single track pieces one, two and three at the front around the front drive wheel. Then add track twelve, a short section that runs up under the track guards.
- Now repeat the same for the rear drive wheel.
- Then add the top track guard.
- Glue the fuel line to the rear track guard/ mounting for the fuel barrels. It is important you have the correct fuel line and rear track guard piece. They are not identical.
- Glue the piece to the track guards and the side of the tank simultaneously. You will need to push it into position. So do this before the glue sets on everything else.

You can stop now, the side of the tank is now stable. You can add the barrels and smoke launchers later at your leisure.




Oh while we are at this.

If you want your lascannon sponson turrets to swivel you will need to drill and pin the holding pin. The lascannon turret sits on the sponson. There is a pin from the top glued directly onto the sponson roof. This sucks. You have to judge the amount of glue you add very carefully - this was impossible with a GW squeezy bottle. Despite all my cares the lascannon were stuck fast. Eventually I didn't bother trying.

Also the mounting of the heavy bolters doesn't show which way up it goes. Its viewed end on. You can see which way by looking carefully at other construction diagrams later in the guide. (The piston goes at the bottom.) This is probably not too important anyway asit will be mostly concealed. If you do want a Hellblade you will have to squeeze the heavy flamers through the holes in the curved sponson frontplate. They were not designed with assembling heavy flamers in mind. Though they do sit well after the fact.

Hmm... and here I thought putting the wheel assembleys together for the FW Baneblade was difficult...

BYE

It is more difficult. the fourth Baneblade in the store is a Forgeworld one. Its inferior in almost every way, and the tracks are a real pain. The staff member who was repairing (yes not assembling) one took as long as he did to fix the broken tracks as I did to make nearly the whole tank. But that is because he realised he had to pin each and every single one.

Well, I've my mind set on painting the tracks separately, so I'll figure something else out. Probably I'll invest in another sheet of 2mil styrene and shim the living daylights out of the interior of the side "box" structures".

As for Zvezda tank kits, they make Tamiya's products look like works of genius. Imagine you're building a square hull "tube" from four panels with only a limited adhesion surface. Imagine all four panels are warped. Outwards. Imagine the aggravation of gluing a stiff vinyl net on a flimsy plastic frame, on the inside of a curved surface. Imagine round parts with a full half a millimeter of mould shift. The list goes on.

Well, I've my mind set on painting the tracks separately, so I'll figure something else out. Probably I'll invest in another sheet of 2mil styrene and shim the living daylights out of the interior of the side "box" structures".

forget it. You must asemble the sides together to get the tank to work. however that is not a problem after undercoating the tank cover the track asemblies with masking tape, then spray the chassis. Then you can paint the tracks later. The track arranglemnt is simple and blocky - ok the detail is good, but unlike a rhino tracks they are eay to isolate with masking tape. You should have no problems painting them seperately even if you airbrush.
If you don't airbrush no worries. The tracks and the hull have a gap all the way around. Its an easy job to paint them seperately.

I am profoundly disappointed if it's indeed impossible. I don't appreciate having to change the way I put together and paint tanks because of GW's incompetence. Oh well, it'l probably still look presentable regardless.

No not impossible, but in all honesty unnecessary. Why do you paint tracks seperately by the way?

I might pick one of these up just so I have more scrap for my orks.

I've found if I don't, some nook or cranny will remain unpainted.

Then your answer is to paint the tracks and road wheels fresh from the sprue assemble the sides and then use masking tape before you spray the main tank chassis.

You know a little overspray on the road wheels and tracks wouldn't be a bad thing. It happens on the real thing all the time.

I have been putting mine together for two days now and am finishing the tracks. I didn't do it in one sitting and I have found by cutting off the locators on the back of the tracks and just glueing them together and to the wheels that I am able to make it look much nicer than if I leave the locators on. I messed up on one side but as this will be a Nurgle Blade I don't really think it will look too bad when I'm done. Of course I can always have that side crushing a Blood Angel or something anyway.

I've put together my Baneblade now, and it really wasn't that hard. I got two of the wheel's the wrong way around, but it made no difference to the construction of the tank (so much so that I didn't notice it until I started the second set of tracks).

Good kit. Easy to put together. Takes a while, but everything fits together perfectly.

BYE

I agree with HBMC. I had no trouble assembling this thing. It took a while, but I had no issues at all. I would like to add that I ended up running a pin through the lascannon into the top of the heavy bolter. The plastic pin is too shallow and the lascannons tend to fall off when you move the tank, etc. With it the pins, the lascannon turrets turn better now.

Capt K

Mine went together pretty easily too. But, now that I'm painting it there's a few things I wish I left off till later. Like for instance the gas tanks on the back make it really tough to get a brush in behind them to paint the rear sides of the body. Also pay attention when you put those tanks together, I didn't notice it but I got my tank pieces mixed up and some of the skulls on the back of them are upside down I followed the included rules when I made mine too, I saw some people complain about the rules in a few places but I didn't have any problem. Just take your time and it should all go together fine

Yep, as mentioned earlier, many of the side pieces are left and right side specific look very similar and you wont know you have the wrong piece until the next doesnt fit.

So long as you are forewarned about the Baneblade assebnly problems its an easykit to put together, but even with the warnings I am seeing plenty of posts where someone or other has saying they have fudged the trck assembly, here and elsewhere.

Posted By Orlanth on 10/25/2007 3:00 PM
Yep, as mentioned earlier, many of the side pieces are left and right side specific look very similar and you wont know you have the wrong piece until the next doesnt fit.

I got two pieces mixed up and it went together without a hitch.

I'm not saying that it's not a complicated kit - it has a lot of pieces - but honestly I had more trouble with Chiemra tracks than I did with the Baneblade.

BYE

I have to add that I think the Baneblade was a fairly non-stressful kit to build. I didn't know anything about the kit going in, and two friends and I built all our Baneblades in one evening without difficulty. .

Any news if Forgeworld will be making kits for it?

yeah they are. If I'm not mistaken, I thought someone posted pics of some new conversion kits they're working on.. maybe it was on warseer

Yep. There's a Shadowsword conversion kit already floating the net.