Warhammer: Pistoliers!

Hey Everyone

Thanks again for coming down to toyconstruct, and also to JQ for his posts on Soap MacTavish, a man who sure doesn't have clean hands in the gritty world of Special Ops. And yes...I agree with everyone, JQ please play Modern Warfare 2!!! I really hope you get to play it before MW3 comes out lol.

For this post, we'll turn back to warhammer, and this time looking at the Pistoliers of the Glorious Empire. Humans may only be weak and have low toughness, but the Empire is infamous for their bristling arsenal of guns.

The Pistoliers of the Empire, lead by an Outrider/Champion.

I love to deploy Pistoliers against archers or warmachine crew. It takes some guile and daring to use them as bait and become a nuisance to enemy formations. Just make sure they are not too near friendly units when making "forced flights", where they immediately flee as a charge response and can sap friendly morale.

The pistoliers keeping a disciplined line abreast formation...ready for a skirmish!

Take note, I did not paint these pistoliers...I got them off ebay second-hand, I think they cost about $38 which is a pretty good deal with the detailing and painting done for them. The trade off is that my army collection can seem to be incongruent as it combines units painted by different people...so I limit my second-hand purchases to special/rare units.

Focus on one of the pistoliers, as the unit moves across the battlefield.

Pistoliers in the WFB world are actually sons of nobles, and they serve as pistoliers before they can serve with the famed Knightly Orders of the Empire. The light armor they wear typically comes from family collections, and also do not provide much protection when faced by close combat. What makes them deadly is their pistols, as each of them carry a couple of pistols each and as a unit unleash a deadly barrage of gunfire.

This shot's centered on the champion, who happens not to be just a better shot but also able to wield a larger variety of guns.

On a lighter note, I used to be so demoralized when I played Empire and saw the trailers made for Warhammer Online and the Warhammer RTS. They featured Empire warrior monks, soldiers etc....and after a few moments of glory for the EMPIRE, the same theme always popped out: Empire men get owned/raped by almost invulnerable Chaos warriors. Sheesh. Then and again, when I look upon Emperor Karl Franz, I feel excited and ready to kill some evil in the NAME OF THE EMPEROR, CHOSEN OF SIGMAR!!!

The Emperor leading by example as he contributes to Orc population control.

To borrow some inspiration from the Green Lantern:

"In the brightest day and darkest night,

evil shall face the Empire's Might!"

(famous last words for quite a number of Imperials unfortunately)

Soap MacTavish! Part 2

For those who have watch the Film "True Grit", Soap MacTavish would be the modern day True Grit main man, Rooster Cogburn.


Not really because their storylines are related but Solely because, the guy is as hard and gritty as any of the toughest men on Earth


In this pic, I have interchange his arms to show him holding a sniper rifle. Look at the grit, determination and seriousness in his face.. INTENSE...
Sadly, all but a few who play him behind their computers would have the same physique or skill that he has.. :p


Anyway, this time round I shall be shedding more light on the company that sculpted this figure. Kotobukiya started out as a single toy store for dolls by Jusaburo Shimizu in 1947.


Going along with the times, it became a model kit manufacturer during the model kit era of the 1980s. It was able to obtain license to make the King Gozilla model in 1985 and was the only company other than Bandai to release Gundam Products by acquiring the model kit license for Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, The-O Mecha. Mind you though, Kotobukiya didn't really compete with Tamiya, Pit-Road, Aoshima for the military model kit market.


By 1989, Kotobukiya decided to diversify its market by going into soft vinyl figurines and eventually Active Styling Figure.


"I'm from the UK...SAS.. recognise that"

Today, it has become renowned for its figures and have been gathering talented sculptors to make brilliant figures for Marvel, DC and many other gaming and comic companies. With Kotobukiya making a name for itself in the Toy Collector Industry and being sensitive to the needs and demands of the customers, I am keen to see what they have in store next.

One thing is for sure, I have my eye on another Kotobukiya figure. With some financial planning, I will be able to get my hands on it.

On a side note, for those who are interested in getting this figure, I could only find it available on eBay. They do not really sell it on their main website store. This is probably due to it being a limited edition figure. dedicated exclusively to the Veteran Edition of the Modern Warfare 2 Game in the UK.

For other figures, you can check it out at http://www.kotous.com/

Soap MacTavish!

Soap MacTavish!

While I STILL haven't play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I cannot emphasize how cool this guy is and the great impression he has impose on the first Modern Warfare Game. However, I shall let the pictures do the talking.


I haven't played the game but I am aware that this sculpted figure is depicting a scene from one of the mission in MW2 in which Soap MacTavish was part of.


Sculpted by Kotobukiya and manufactured for Activision, the sculpture is done on a 1:6 scale and is about 12" tall.


It includes interchangeable arms and weapons, which can be stored in the base of the statue when not in use. As you can see here, I have switch the arms to the ones where he is holding dual pistols.


This comes factory fresh and mint in the box, with all of the original paperwork. It's a great collector's item for fans of this popular game. One thing that I must add further is that he is really well sculpted and the picture shots only prove how well it is made.


Right down to his skin texture and weathering of his clothes, Kotobukiya is specialize in making really great life-like figures.

In the next entry, I shall focus on Kotobukiya's history and show u more of Soap MacTavish Pictures. On a side note, things are getting real busy, I have barely time to do up my models, but I am trying bit by bit everyday, when I have the time.

Progress is slow, but I have already come up with a list of things I am determined to finish by 2011 end.

Black Orcs!!!!!

Warhammer GO!

The Black Orcs are one of my recent works that I have completed at the start of this year. For those who do not know about them, these elite armour-wearing Orcs are the biggest meanest baddest Orcs one can have in their tribe.

Usually, an Orc Tribe would be lead by a Black Orc as he would be the strongest and toughest. If not, it would be an even bigger badder Orc which would probably have Black Orcs among his troop choice.


The Black Orc Regiment.

Weirdly enough, I have yet to face an Orc Player. And being a Bretonnian Player, Orcs would have been my natural adversary.


ORC SMASH U!!

While I do not play Orcs & Goblins from Warhammer, I do always find the Orcs rather cute, in their ugly and crude way.

It evokes pretty much the same "ugly but cute" sentiment as DOMOKUN from Japan. Hopefully, ppl can understand why I find them cute.



And this is the main reason why I bought these Black Orcs and painted them up.


Their mean, fearsome but clumsy demeanour makes them all the more adorable and endearing.



Of course, Packed with their armour and deadly great weapons, you would think twice than to give them a cuddle.


At first, I wanted to paint the Black Orcs in their normal usual standard colour code but I arrived at the conclusion that it wouldn't be too unique. Went to go check around the net for something that could be a little more unique and arrive at an eBay picture of these Black Orcs painted in Mithril Silver and blue overalls which was a perfect fit.

As of now, I will be painting up more Warhammer stuff and I am already in the midst of building a sizeable Dwarf and Daemon of Chaos Army, so stay tune!

However, in addition to that, for those who have not already realize, Games Workshop have come up with more wonderful reasons to raise their prices again. Unfortunately, Hardcore collectors and gamers like me are but pawns to this inflation. While, there have been some great points on the new Finecast models, Its horrid to just keep on raising prices and kill the community.

Other than that, I participated in Sporecon 2011 Warhammer Fantasy Tournament not too long ago and I Got OWNED BIG TIME. Wanted to take pictures, but was too busy getting my Bretonnian army whooped badly. Never really suffered such a harsh defeat with my Knights before. Moral of the Story: I have much to learn in playing the game well. But it is a refreshing and great experience to get to know more people and be in a bigger community of tabletop gaming.


Trinkets from SPORECON 2011


Custom SPORECON 2011 Dice.

Apart from that, Sorry for the week delay and Weekly posts back as usual again!

Cheers!

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Hey Everyone

Sorry for the delay in articles and I just got back home from a holiday and ready to put up more posts for toyconstruct! Now, the E3 games expo is going on right now, which means a lot of new trailers and announcements for new games coming up on the horizon!


"E3" is the short-form for Electronic Entertainment Expo, which is organized by the Entertainment Software Association, a big-ass body that has top game publishers as members and does a lot of "behind-the-scenes" work such as combating copyright infringement and going against imposed censorship of games. Interestingly, Activision and Blizzard are not members of ESA, and Blizzard itself holds a Blizzcon separate from E3.

As a Star Wars geek, one game that's really exciting is the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). I've played a number of games by Bioware, such as Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect etc, and really love the way they made their RPGs. Cinematic storytelling with absorptive gameplay. Unfortunately, I haven't seen much of the gameplay for this MMO and can't tell if it is gonna be awesome or even a WoW challenger.

Close to what most think would be an epicenter of nerdiness (bestp2pgames.blogspot.com).

One thing's for sure, SWTOR has really fantastic trailers that give the context for the game's setting thousands of years ago from the movie series. Recently at the E3, a new cinematic trailer was released for the game, and interestingly...all the 3 trailers are chronologically reversed. It is cool to see all 3 trailers with respect to release date and notice recurring characters, and I have posted the trailers according to their release dates.

Trailer 1: "Deceived"



Trailer 2: "Hope"



Trailer 3: "Return"



The MMORPG sector has been a tough one for a lot more publishers than one, with Blizzard consistently keeping masses of subscribers in the face of notable competition, such as Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Rift, DC Universe...etc. I've played a few MMOs, and somehow World of Warcraft delivers the most fluid gameplay and highest populations. One thing that WoW lacks is compelling storyline as most quests are just quests...complete a task and gain experience points, without building any connection or making investment in the non-player characters. Perhaps this is where SWTOR would be leveraging on to take on WoW.

Afterall, only time will tell if SWTOR really delivers and penetrates the WoW monopoly.