Yesterday was certainly an exciting day for fans of the Specialist Games range as GW announced that some old favourites would be returning to our shelves as boxed games and stand-alone products. I had always hoped that GW might go down this route as it did with recent boxed versions of Space Hulk and Dreadfleet (a clear successor to Man ‘O War) and now we have official confirmation that it will happen although we are not sure when.
However, you don’t need to wait months, or even years, for some Specialist Games content; there is plenty of Specialist Games coverage here on Miniature Miscellany in the archive.
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Here are a few of my favourite projects from the old Specialist Games range that I have worked on over the last few years.
My Epic scale orks. I have always loved the old-style orks and these models fit the bill perfectly. They are so characterful despite their tiny size plus the ork range is one of the largest in Epic. The great thing about orks is that they field a collection of rag-tag custom-built vehicles meaning you can easily combine models from different eras and this just adds to the eclectic look of the force. For these guys I went for nice bright colours which help such tiny models stand out on the tabletop.
I also have a sizable collection of Epic Eldar hailing from the Saim Hann Craftworld. I always intended to paint up an army of their 40K counterparts but the age of many of the Eldar kits put me off and I switched allegiance to their dark kin instead. The Eldar were my first Epic force and I learned a lot about painting such tiny models from these guys.
I also had a real soft-spot for Battlefleet Gothic and this was the one game that I was really disappointed they discontinued. Here is my Imperial Fleet. They represent the Battlefleet Maelstrom defending the Badab region prior to/during the Badab War. If GW ever release some Space Marine ships I intend to add some Astral Claws vessels to the fleet to tie them in more closely with my Space Marine army in 40k.
I also have a nascent ork fleet which I painted up this test model for. I went for dirty metallics and red for the orks with bright green as a spot colour on the lights/eyes. I also added a tiny check pattern to add interest and emphasise the size of the ship.
Finally, Mordheim was one of my favourite of the Specialist Games range and, unlike BFG and Epic which I came to later, I played it extensively when it was first released. Here are some Mordheim characters I painted up a few years ago. Interestingly, this isn’t one of the games mentioned in GW’s press release. Perhaps this is because it is now set in the ‘World-That-Was’ or simply because the models are not radically different the the regular Age of Sigmar range. Maybe it was simply on oversight (I get the impression GW are still undecided on how many or which games will see a come back).
This is just a selection of some of the Specialist Games content on this blog. If this has piqued your interest why not click on some of the tags below for more.
Battlefleet Gothic, Dreadfleet, Epic: Armageddon, Mordheim
