Lookit all the shiney new Space Marines.

Yes it’s that wonderful time again; when GW pumps out more Space Marines. Yeah I know Grey Knights aren’t the “normal” Space Marines, but they’re still Space Marines in my mind.

Now normally I do these reviews by section of force organization, but Grey Knights have so many weird options and different ways to outfit the different troops that I’m just going to go in the order I feel works best for me. Now mind you, I’m not too thrilled about doing this because I really hate Space Marines, but I’m doing it out of some misguided professional obligation to you guys.

So first we’re going to look at the new Lord Draigo.

Not the worst model GW’s ever put out, but not the most inspired I’ve ever seen. All the detail is there, and it’s all very crisp and well done. But the pose is just so bland and uninspired, and I really expect more out of the top dog of the industry. Maybe it’s the design of the Space Marine armor that really limits the posing potential, but I still can’t get why this looks so generic. This guy is a big hero, a named character, the guy leading your army, the centerpiece of your force; should he not at the least look a little more dynamic and exciting? I’ve seen other games(*coughinfinitycough*) with grunt models in more exciting poses than this guy.

Now I want to be clear here: this isn’t me ragging on GW, this is something I expect from any major miniatures company these days. With the technology at our disposal for creating models there is no excuse in my mind for having uninspired looking models anymore. This isn’t the 1980’s, or the 90’s, or even the turn of the 21st century. This is two thousand and bloody eleven; and I know for a fact companies can do better than this.

Alright, moving on to the next thing; Grey Knights. These guys come in three flavors: regular, strike squad, and interceptors.



These guys are the pretty standard fare we expect from GW plastics these days; plenty of details, nicely made, and tons of options. And you know, I really don’t have much to say bad about these guys because they are where we expect them to be. The one bad thing I can say is those guns. The magazine sticking off the side just looks terrible. It just sticks out weird and makes the model look clunky and bad. Whoever thought that was a good idea was obviously not thinking straight. I mean; other than that absurd blemish these guys look fine to me. It’s just another one of those little things GW does(like wings on High Elf helmets in Fantasy) that irks the hell out of me.

Moving on we have the new plastic Terminator kit; coming in regular and paladin flavors.

This is another quality plastic kit from GW, but again there isn’t too much to say because it’s what we expect. I will say that the box magazine on their guns look tons better than the curved clip sticking out the side of the regular Grey Knights. Wish I could say, but there isn’t much to say. I could comment on the price($50 USD), but I’m sure you’re all tired of listening to me whine about GW prices for a while. I will say, though, that 153 pieces is rather impressive, but not worth $50 to me.

Next we get to the big guy everyone was waiting for; the Dreadknight.

Oh boy let’s get going on this one. I’ll start with some positives; plenty of parts, ball joints for some nice posing options, lots of detail for all the painting nuts out there, it’s nice and big, and that gattling gun looks pretty beast. Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way it’s time to rip this puppy a new one.

First off; why is the bloody pilot dangling off the front like a baby in one of those carriers people use when they’re too lazy to actually hold their own child? He’s completely exposed! Sweet lord, an Imperial Guard Sentinel has more protection of it’s pilot than this thing! A single lucky or stray shot will knock this thing out because the damn pilot is hanging around on the front of his giant death machine. I would think some armor and protection on your giant war robots would be desirable when fighting against inter-dimensional hell monsters who want nothing more than to murder you eight ways from Sunday. It looks like one of those mechs from the third Matrix movie that never happened(there is only one Matrix movie, got it?). No reasonable warmachine would have an exposed pilot like that.

Secondly; it doesn’t seem to fit. It doesn’t match not only Imperium tech, but even other Grey Knight tech. This is the Imperium of man; they’re backwards and technologically retarded and their main battle tanks are straight out of 1917, so why is this thing all smooth and sleek and looking like someone chopped off Optimus Prime’s head and repainted him silver? And the kicker is that Grey Knights themselves still use Rhinos, Land Raiders and the new Storm Raven! Why is this monster so sleek and slender when the rest of their vehicles are boxy and squared? It almost seems like whoever was designing this thing hadn’t ever looked at the other vehicles in the Grey Knight armory. The damn thing almost looks like it was designed for an entirely different game, or at the very least a non-Imperium army!

I know I said it’s big as a good thing, but I also feel like this thing might be too big. There’s a picture on GW’s site(which is giving me some trouble at this writing so I can’t go grab it) of this thing just towering over the new Deamon Prince kit, and Deamon Princes are supposed to be big hulking monsters. It just seems like the designers went “space marines should have the biggest and baddest model ever!” and then ran with it without thinking. I know Grey Knights are supposed to take on Deamons all the time, but this thing looks like it’s so huge that it could take on the entirety of the Warp all on its own.

Lastly I’m doing something I usually don’t; looking at the book cover. Why? Because this thing bugs the hell out of me.

This is some of the blandest art I’ve ever seen. It’s just so generic and bland and boring and uninspired feeling. It doesn’t even have your new big toy in the Dreadknight on it! I just want my book cover to be a little more exciting, a little more vibrant. Look at the army books from Privateer Press, and then back at this thing. GW’s cover art never really screams “energy” to me, but this is just bad. I’ve got a huge bone to pick with GW’s laziness with it’s art, but that might be a post for another day(if you guys are interested of course).

So those are the new Grey Knights; more Space Marine models while Necrons are left to rot. Sorry; I tried to be nice but man does this ever irk me with all the Marines around. I know Grey Knights needed an update as well, but couldn’t they have waited so jerks like me wouldn’t get up on our “GW only cares about Space Marines” soapboxes for at least a week?