Ballista Pack

When I was a lad, and you could buy a penny farthing for three shillings, eight tuppences, two rods and an egg (and still have change to go to the talkies), miniatures were very much a pocket money thing. You bought individual blister packs and slowly assembled squads, until you had the 25 lead models needed for an eight-hour game of 40k. At least, that's how I remember it. These days you've either got to buy 10 models or a character for £15. Terrible.

I was at the local games shop to get some paint, and for the first time in ages I saw blister packs for £5. They were from a company called Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures, which seems to be Wizkids making models for Dungeons and Dragons. I bought a pack containing two bolt-throwers.

They came pre-undercoated (I'm always vaguely suspicious of models like that) and painted up pretty well. The plastic is more solid than that of Reaper Bones models and holds detail better. There was less warping, too, although I had to clamp the legs to the bases to stick them down. They're hardly the greatest miniatures in history, but far from the worst.

Overall, not bad at all, especially for £2.50 each. They will be added to the slowly-growing legions of Centurion Flavius Flava and his undead Roman horde. As a kid, I always thought that the rows of firing war machines in White Dwarf were incredibly cool. At last, I can contribute to the genre.

I also did some more work for my team of vaguely-cyberpunk eldar mercenaries, made from converted Privateer Press models. I thought they could do with some heavy firepower, so I added an old metal wraithlord model. It's unconverted, although I made a new base from plasticard, to look futuristic and a bit grimy, in keeping with his friends.

I originally painted his head a grey colour and felt that it looked a bit flat. So I painted on what might be the eldar equivalent of a smiley face. It looks like a creepy mask drawn on a blackboard with a bit of chalk. I'm not sure if that means that I got it wrong or right.