And our alternatives are...

      Upon looking at the assembled miniatures of Khornates and Sigmarines, I believe that the Age of Sigmar starter box has a great value, and the rules are free. However, the latter are seriously flawed for longbeard veteran players, by not having point values, nor army organization chart. Some groups made attempts to invent their own house-rules, but they always will be tainted by local impact and lack of broader acceptance. Another option is using well-comped rules of Warhammer 8th edition, but the "well-comped" term is quite crucial and goes into the same category as above mentioned modifications of Age of Sigmar.
      So, maybe it is the time to drop Warhammer rules altogether and try something different for our precious 28-mm fantasy miniatures. Below are just few propositions, I'm sure many more can be found ... the point is to encourage you for searching a system fitting your taste.

Kings of War 2nd edition by Mantic (free download)

One page rules (for fantasy, sci-fi and historical)

Shadow Storm aka Fantasy Hail Caesar PDF (adyswargamesden.com)

The Shattered Crown: The Fantasy War Game Reinvigorated (KS project)

Afterlife: The Shards of Liberty - 28mm scale tabletop wargame

This interesting KS project needs some help to be funded:

AFTERLIFE : The Shards of Liberty

by Anvil Industry

I have many resin minis from Anvil Industry and they are of very high quality - some of the best casts in the market. 

So, all those Americans were green, you say?

Although KS campaigns lost their novelty feeling long time ago, some of them are still really exciting for me. One example just started and it is about WW2 themed Ork army in 28mm scale:

The green alliance

Below are some interesting photos, imo:

The miniatures look fantastic and cast quality of MaxMini has been proven in the past. The only small disadvantage is the material of ork and gretchin's bodies - white metal. Not because of detail quality (as this is equally good for metal and resin, the metals are just difficult to photograph without paint) but because of sheer weight of the squad :-).

Jungle fighters everywhere!

Seems, the spring is upon us in Europe, and various jungle fighter squads left their winter dens... (No, I am not joking from Ukrainian problems with Putin and his company - they are too serious, and too sad for this).  
.

 

 
Now, I'm waiting for Kromlech...They already made a kind of attempt into this topic...

Then ,  there are these Victoria Miniatures squads, and you will decide if they fit the theme, or not...

P.S. Let me know, if there are some other non-obvious options, which I overlooked...

Sexy legs competition (by IG standards...)

Today, I have short comparison of 3 sets of 28 mm guardsmen legs. They all sport autumn/winter outfit, i.e. greatcoats.

1) Maxmini.eu - set of 6 metal legs costs 7 euros (~9.7 USD). Very good detail and cast quality, although the material (white metal) makes them looking less attractive in the photo. Don't be fooled, upon painting they will be not worse then resin bits. One complaint, they have only 3 unique poses.

2) Blight Wheel Miniatures - set of 5 resin legs costs 8 euros (~11.1 USD). Again very good detail and quality. Resin material makes them more pleasant to work with, and all bits are unique pose. They are also the most expensive to purchase, with only five pieces per set.

3) Mad Robot Miniatures - set of 5 standing resin legs or 6 kneeling ones, each for 8 USD (~5.8 euros). Quality of the cast is the same good like both competitors, however detail is slightly worse, IMO. But this set has its own advantages. They are 7 unique poses in total, at the lowest price and in easy to process resin material.

So, finally, direct comparison of three sets:

I am happy with all of them. Even if some cheap plastic alternatives are in fact easily available since few years (like Wargames Factory troopers below)...

They will fight again... now for Nurgle.

These are conversions made by some skilled Ukrainian modeler, and cast in resin for eBay

(	as DEAD ZOMBIE MUTANTS BLITZ KRIEG KORPS).

Evil Craft(ed) Chaotic Marines

An appearance of new bits company is usually well reported on news sites like BOLS, TGN or TTFix, but this time I would like to add my 5 cents to promotion of new business, because it's Polish company...

Evil Craft

They just started, thus rather limited offer , but it looks like interesting designs...

 These helmets should go smoothly along plastic Raptors from GW...

 Shoulder pads have nice details, and enough generic design for any Legion...

Another nice design with good amount of details...

 I will try to get these bits ASAP, to tell you about casting quality... stay tuned...

Extracted from last Tyrranid rumors (pre-release rant!)

While the blogsphere is flooded today with new pictures of plastic Tyranid models and bits of rules, ther are two things which worry me:
"Unit Kit: Warriors (Includes parts for Prime, but no wings)". Does it mean no shriekes in the codex? bad decision... and this:
"Removed: Mycetic Spores on the game board are gone". This one may be somehow explained by expected poor sales of such uni-purpose kit, but they still could combine it with some living terrain options.

Going back to Iron Warriors (again)

I recently collected some alternative Chaos Marines. They have pretty generic design with some old school flavor, but originally were supposed to represent Iron Warriors legion. Thus, I started some basic comparisons, which I will show here from time to time. Today, just 3 pictures...

 

 

For the next time, comparison with Mark III pattern and some terminators...

Afterlife project on Kickstarter seems interesting (one day left only)

In the past, I've bought several miniatures from Anvil Industry and they are of very high quality. Especially their recent creations are impressive resin casts. For this reason, I believe their Kickstarter project is worthy supporting , if one is looking for some non-standard Marines and Guardsmen...With free shipping it may be a good deal, and delivery time is not so distant (Jan 2014).

AFTERLIFE project link

I suppose that these miniatures will be available in Anvil Industry webstore next year (project is already funded), but during the campaign they should be cheaper.

Women in charge (grimdark, of course)

Just two figures from Bay of E...