The Download Munkey : A Link A Day ;)

Games Day Chicago 2007 must have (possibly) gone down in history as having the greatest number of Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Primarchs on display.

© Chris Borer

The first Primarch entry is of Fulgrim of the Emperor’s Children by Chris Borer, who won the gold for Warhammer 40,000 Single Miniature.

His entry is followed by a whopping six(!) honorable mentions featuring the Primarchs from various Space Marine Legions, which adds up to close to 40% of the 18 known Primarchs.

© Nathan Comanse

Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands by Nathan Comanse. My favourite among all the Primarch entries featured at Games Day Chicago 2007.

© Tom Schadle

Lion El’ Jonson of the Dark Angels by Tom Schadle.

© Angela Imrie

Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists by Angela Imrie.

© Joe Orteza

Jaghatai Khan of the White Scars by Joe Orteza.

© James Craig

Alpharius of the Alpha Legion by James Craig.

© Shawn Welte

Perturabo of the Iron Warriors by Shawn Welte.

BTW, the recently released Horus Heresy : Collected Visions book contains several illustrations of the various Primarchs including an awesome scythe- wielding Mortarion (Death Guard). Worth every cent if you love the imagery of the Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines or the Cult Mechanicus. Available in SG @ Paradigm Infinitium.

My top three for the non-Primarch entries

© John Daye

Tau and Space Marine Diorama (Rubble, Rubble, Toil & Trouble) - John Daye, (Honorable Mention) Open Category. Under attack from Tau gun drones, a Space Marine from the Ultramarines counterattacks with a mastercrafted wooden ladder

© Dave Pauwels

Femme Militant - Ex Inferis - Dave Pauwels, (Silver) Open Category. I wonder which GW game this miniature belongs to?

© Nathan Comanse

Krieg Macharius - Nathan Comanse, (Silver) Warhammer 40,000 Large Vehicle/Model. Finally something different other than the usual Leman Russ tanks, a Macharius Heavy Tank with dual Vanquisher cannons (the cannons look different from the Forgeworld version)

BTW, I found Tyranid player Bill Kim’s blog while randomly browsing through Technorati. Bill also happens to be the winner for the Best Overall and Best General categories at the Chicago 2007 Grand Tournament. Read his battle reports starting with #1 here

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Favourites for Games Day Baltimore 2007 Golden Demon
Favourites for Games Day Altanta 2007 Golden Demon
Horus Heresy : Collected Visions Preview PDFs
Adrian Smith - Warhammer 40,000 Illustrator
Warhammer 40,000 Dark Millenium Card Database

Spotted a couple of freebies from Games Workshop from the past few weeks.

Codex : Blood Angels
First up is the Codex : Blood Angels originally published in White Dwarf 329 & 330 (June-July 2007). Found out about this from Tabletop Gaming News since I didn’t notice the little link over at Games Workshop US.

© Games Workshop

This 28 page official Codex for the Blood Angels replaces the previous Codex : Blood Angels which I believe was published in 1998.

There’s three pages of background information with the rest of pages comprising rules and army lists for Warhammer 40,000 games. No painting information or miniatures showcase in this Codex though.

The artwork is also pretty much reused from Codex : Space Marines and the previous Codex: Blood Angels. At least the PDF is in quite high-resolution so you can enjoy photos of some nicely painted miniatures

Download from Games Workshop US.

Black Library Wallpapers
The wallpapers section at the Black Library have been updated again with latest being the cover art for Lord of Ruin illustrated by Clint Langley.

This time round, the focus is on Malus Darkblade, the daemon-possessed Dark Elf Lord, as he attempts to freeze himself sitting on his throne in the middle of nowhere :p Actually, I think it’s probably somewhere in the city of Hag Graef where he hails from.

© Games Workshop

Download this wallpaper from Black Library along with other goodies in the Free Stuff section.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Blood Angels and Flesh Tearers Index Astartes PDF
Warhammer Monthly 0
Codex Catachans Download
Blood Ravens Index Astartes PDFs

A bunch of cute super-deformed avatars of the Warhammer 40,000 races from the Relic Forums done by forum member Dr Badman. Just remembered them when I visited the official Dawn of War - Adeptus Modificatus forums looking for the excellent DoWXP mod (currently version 4.02) by Riker2800.

On to the avatars … I like the Khorne Bezerker the most Only the 18 featuring Warhammer 40,000 characters out of the 25 available are shown below.

    
    
    
    
    
    
© Dr Badman

From left to right, top to bottom:
Vindicare Assassin, Chaos Space Marine (Emperor’s Children), Necron Warrior, Eldar Guardian, Tyranid Gaunt, Ork Grot, Imperial Guardsman, Chaos Horror, Grey Knight, Kroot, Ork Mega Armoured Nobz, Space Marine (Blood Ravens), Necron Warrior, Ork Nobz, Ork Slugga Boyz, Tau Firewarrior, Space Marine Terminator (Ultramarines) and Khorne Bezerker.

The original avatars are 140×140 PNGs, over here I have resized them to 120×120 PNGs. You can get the originals by registering as a Relic Forums member and going to Control Panel > Edit Avatar and choosing Dr Badman’s Avatars.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Relic Forums’s Exclusive Dark Crusade Wallpapers
Black Library Horus Heresy Wallpapers
John Gravato - Warhammer 40,000 Illustrator

Below are 5 of my favourites from the award winners for Baltimore’s Golden Demon Awards 2007 on 23 June 2007.

Winner of BOTH the Slayer Sword and Warhammer 40,000 Single Miniature - Natalya Melnik’s Dark Angels Company Master. Natalya also won awards in the Warhammer 40,000 Squad and Warhammer Single Miniature and The Lord of The Rings Group or Large categories.

© Natalya Melnik

Steve Fields’s Offal, Lord of Plagues, was awarded Gold for Staff Large Model category. A very unique looking Great Unclean One with Greek provocator-style gladiator armour.

© Steve Fields

Andrew Wylie’s Centaur Artillery Tractor named Forgeworld’s Best of Show, is very impressive with the rusted, about-to-fall-to-bits look.

© Andrew Wylie

Scott Bowser’s Harlequins is also a favourite because I love the new Harlequins miniatures especially the Solitaire and Shadowseer ones.

©Scott Bowser

Beastlord and Retinue by Bennett Blalock-Doane, Gold winner of the Warhammer Regiment Category, is one of the rare Beasts of Chaos dioramas that I actually like

© Bennett Blalock-Doane

Honorable Mention

Mark E. Williams’s Inquisitor Lord, a Honorable Mention for Warhammer 40,000 Single Miniature category.

© Mark E. Williams

Even if none of the above interests you, the Baltimore 2007 Golden Demon Awards is still a must visit if only for one thing - Chris Stevens’s Pig Waggun, Silver winner for the Warhammer Large Model category featuring the very original Orcs in kilts

© Chris Stevens

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
John Gravato - Warhammer 40,000 Illustrator
Andrea Uderzo - Warhammer 40,000 Illustrator

A couple of Index Astartes PDFs detailing the history and doctrine of two Space Marines chapters in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, namely the Blood Angels - one of the First Founding Legions and the the Flesh Tearers - one of the successor chapters of the Blood Angels.

These two PDFs were (supposedly) released in conjunction with the recent availability of the entire range of Blood Angels miniatures in the UK online store (I always thought the Blood Angels range were available for online purchase but I might be wrong …)

The fluff for the savage Flesh Tearers Chapter is quite interesting - currently there are only 400 (and dwindling) Space Marines (usually a full Chapter has ten companies of 100 men each) left in the Chapter due to losses attributed to the Black Rage inherited from their Founding Chapter, the Blood Angels. Due to the low numbers of active Space Marines, they have no reserves and each Marine is proficient in Assault, Tactical and Devastator duties unlike other more conventional Chapters.

© Games Workshop

A Flesh Tearer Space Marine

Download the Blood Angels Index Astartes PDF and/or the Flesh Tearers Index Astartes PDF from Games Workshop UK here.

Really hope that Games Workshop will release the rest of the Index Astartes articles as free downloads in the future, especially the Chaos Space Marines ones when the new Codex and miniatures come out this year or next year (according to rumors)

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Warhammer 40,000 Horus Heresy : The Collected Visions Previews
The Sound of Warhammer 40,000
Blood Ravens Index Astartes PDF
Lego Warhammer 40,000 Vehicles
Warhammer 40,000 Articles @ The Random Gnome’s Random Lair