The Beard Bunker

  The Holy Book Games Workshop released Inquisitor in 2001 and it blew my nerdy teenage mind.  I engaged with it like I never had any game before, and it has fundamentally defined me as a hobbyist going forwards.  Everything I do in the hobby now is rooted in Inquisitor.  But as games go it was, objectively, quite bad. The Scale Titans? They're just like anything else. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. 54mm be real big, yo. The thing that most obviously makes Inquisitor stand out amongst GW’s games is the scale.  Uniquely the models were in 54mm, pretty much double the scale of most other games.  GW has gone smaller plenty of times, with Epic, Man’O’War, Battlefleet Gothic and more recently Aeronautica Imperialis, but this is the only game where they went bigger instead. This of course meant we had no suitable scenery to play on.  We improvised as best we could, and built a few bits of scenery that could work in 28mm and 54mm, but mostly I rem...

An honest review of a product I bought, Anvil Industries has not sponsored this in any way (I highly doubt they know we exist).  This is my first experience buying virtual 3d models, rather than physical, and I jumped right into the deep end with a large highly customisable vehicle model. (Please note, as mentioned later, the chainsword on its back is a custom addition and not part of the base kit.) What is it? The Light Assault Mech is a highly customisable digital model from Anvil Industry’s “Digital Forge” range, designed for you to print yourself.  What you purchase is a .zip file full of digital files you can use to customise your own model.  The end result is about a dozen separate pieces printed out that you need to stick together to build the finished model. Customising Anvil seems to have tried quite hard to provide for the full spectrum of customisation here.  At one end of the spectrum they have provided the files to build this standard model as is, withou...

Today is the third and final short story covering an incursion into Imperial space by the Word Bearers. Part One covered the fleet engagement in Hasmides, Part Two covered the ensuing boarding action, and now, we have an Inquisitor talking to an imprisoned Heretic Astartes. This story references Joshua Reynolds' novel Apocalypse , although today's story doesn't contain any spoilers for Reynolds' effort. Inquisitor Eidan Drake of the Ordo Hereticus Side note: would I recommend Apocalypse ? Well, I enjoyed it. You get some fun insights into the conflicts within the Word Bearers, and the tensions between primaris and non-primaris Imperial marines. There's also some fun stuff about the Ecclesiarchy and some vigorously take-no-prisoners Sisters of Battle. In general I enjoyed the characters, although the cast was big enough that none of the characterisations have enough time to become all that deep. The title sounds like it's going to be wall-to-wall bolter porn, a...

Today's post is the second of three linked short stories. It follows on directly from the end of part one, The Battle of Hasmides , this time from the perspective of an Inquisition soldier. It's one of those times when the Inquisition has a chance to capture an extremely valuable enemy, so long as they move quickly and take horrifying risks. This week's story assumes familiarity with the 40K mythos, but it's not essential to have read the first story. Enjoy!

Inquisitor Greyfax is one of those miniatures designed to convey the technological contradictions and iconic weirdness of the 40K setting. Unfortunately for my tastes, it actually goes too far. A crossbow attached to an assault rifle has a comedy charm, I grant you, but a candle on one's hat is asking for trouble, particularly when the hat is taller than the candle. If the hat doesn't catch fire first, there'll be wax running off the brim and giving poor Greyfax the look of a rock that's had seabirds nesting on it for a while. Perhaps it's a known trend in Imperial fashion: guano streak. And finally, we come to my favourite bit... the stiletto heels. Supporting the weight of power armour. This should probably make everything except concrete qualify as dangerous terrain. Suffice to say, I have once again returned to my classic hobby haunt: turning Games Workshop's output down to maximum volume. Behold the fruits of my partially successful labours: Skulls, a corse...

Today I have the unenviable task of writing the first post after Mark's posthumous blog , so I'll open by saying the response to it from the community, both on social media and in our own comments section, has been overwhelming. It was linked to by all sorts of people, including  Aaron Dembski-Bowden and, in a touching move that resulted in one of the Beard Bunker crew quietly sobbing on a bus, the post was featured as one of the Elite Choices in Episode 196 of the Independent Characters podcast . As a long time listener to the ICs, hearing the guys talk about what Mark had to say was a trip, and an affirming one at that. Between that lovely tribute and the many other comments we got, there are two possibilities: one, that it was a funny, informative and moving collection of thoughts, or two, that people love a joke at Coldplay's expense. Either way, it's given us some comfort. Thanks once again to everyone who dropped by. We got to thinking about what on Earth o...

Everyone has those elements of the hobby that are a refreshing favourite. Some bits - no matter how much you want to do them - feel like a chore. Others are just a delight. For me, small warband type things where I can really focus on every individual model as an individual and still play a game at the end. So when I need a bit of a hobby-refresh I tend to reach for this end of the hobby. Inq28 is just perfect for this so despite the fact that I already have an Inq28 warband I just had to plan another. This time it is the warband of one Edythe Hinzer, Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and a bit of a renegade. ...yup, that's more aliens than an Inquisitor should be friends with... I'm going to build the warband up gradually and share them as I finish them each time I need a little pallete cleanser. For each of these I'll talk a little bit about the painting and then introduce the characters as Edythe, her backstory will build up and fill in over these posts. So lets meet these fi...