Grey Slayers are up for sale

[sturguard]

Who are the folks staffing the FW FB page, look at this reponse- OH MY GAWD. This is just incredible! And all done in the space of a few days?! You absolute legend.

 

Sorry, I realize I am an old timer, but this just screams teenager. I have to admit, I have long been a supporter of FW and GW customer service, but things seem to be sliding downhill.

 

I contacted FW about purchasing an Age of Darkness rulebook and asked if they had any reference sheets left. Two weeks, no response. So I email them again. And again. I finally just gave up without an answer. My thought is they have no idea if they have any left, so just ignored the email.

 

Now the fact that they are justifying the SW bolters as that's how they wanted to make them? Come on, do I really have "idiot" stamped on my fore head. I mean we can try to justify the reasons behind the poor SW release because as SW players we all want nice shiny toys too right, but this is ridiculous. Fact is fact, they have shown through this release that they really didn't care about the models. They are counting on us all purchasing the models because, you know, this is a FW model, it has to be good. I do have to admit, I couldnt be happier, I have roughly 20 painted SW terminators and if the 30k variants were good, I would have bought more. Now I have zero interest in those purchases. And as another poster referenced, the Puppet Wars and Shapeways releases are just as nice as the FW ones. Would it be nice to have "official" FW bits on my models, sure, but ultimately the fact that FW has shown zero dedication to this project makes it easy for me to just not spend my money. Personally, I hope most of the community follows and shows FW that they have an obligation to create and sculpt good models or their customers won't buy them. Clearly they are way more interested in Necromunda currently. I hold out hope that maybe in a few years they will revisit the SW and correct their mistakes.

[Dantay VI]

https://vlkafenrykablog.wordpress.com/

 

Take a sneaky peek at Pete Whitlams blog as he has done a pretty decent round up of the varagyr kit if it helps.

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

the torsos are workable, but I dislike the heads being attached.

 

the best part about this release is that the axes are separate...I may order one or two of them.

 

 

the rest of the kit is rubbish.

[sbarnby71]

Dropped FW an email yesterday, asking if they could tell me about the upside down bolter forward sight...

 

This was the response:

 

"Thank you for your email.  This is an intentional design decision and not a sculpting mistake; the bolters are supposed to look like that."

 

I then asked "could you clarify what the part is representing?"

 

They responded:

 

"Our design team stated it was an under slung laser dot sight"

 

So there you have it, how stupid we all are thinking they messed up, shame on us.

 

Maybe I should ask them about the bananas/sausages they have sculpted on the Varagyr?

[Dantay VI]

This was the answer I got

 

I am afraid we have yet to have official word on why the designers chose this option aside from that we have been informed it was a design choice and is not a flaw.

I am confident you will understand why but we do not ask our designers for reasons why they design models the way they do or ask them to justify their designs in any way.

 

We do not consider the bolters to be "upside down" as this would suggest the kit to be faulty or miss sculpted of which they are not.

 

Meh I'll just use regular bolt pistols... The laser dots will be good for dealing with 1st legion heretics... watch those little lons chase the dot :D

 

[sbarnby71]

Dumb question then, if the lower part is an under-slung laser dot, what is that bit on top?

 

I am being serious here, as for 29 years I have been painting that bit as thought it was a laser dot on my bolters.

 

[Dantay VI]

If ypu look at a standard bolt weapon, it should be the bit for a bayonet attachment I think

 

thumbnail (15) by Danny Taylor, on Flickr

Directly below the muzzle is te lug which on a SW weapon goes above the muzzle. The laser dot is up by the iron sight as you can see from the combi weapons.

thumbnail (7) by Danny Taylor, on Flickr

 

It is the same set up in the Tigrus pattern, I just do not have any phobos to hand, but it is a common design feature across the bolter weapon range

20170318_231247 by Danny Taylor, on Flickr

20170305_204413 by Danny Taylor, on Flickr

20170610_214138 by Danny Taylor, on Flickr

 

I actually assumed it was for the targeter wired to the helmets and the sights are for the helmetless/malfunctioning targetters..

 

It is a mistake but they are being stubborn about it and not backing down

 

Dorns boltgun is another example

 

FWPreview-Jan29-DornDetail3hwova by Danny Taylor, on Flickr

Edited February 13, 2018 by Dantay VI

[MeatGrinder]

The amount of salt over a minor detail like this laser sight is actually so disgusting to me. I actually cant stand the even go on the SW facebook group because there is a hugely vocal minority of people spitting bile at the mention of any of the FW releases.

 

https://vlkafenrykablog.wordpress.com/

 

Take a sneaky peek at Pete Whitlams blog as he has done a pretty decent round up of the varagyr kit if it helps.

 

This pretty much showed me the kit isnt half as bad as I thought. I'm still not going to buy it, because the plastic kit is just so nice anyway.

 

This was the answer I got

 

I am afraid we have yet to have official word on why the designers chose this option aside from that we have been informed it was a design choice and is not a flaw.

I am confident you will understand why but we do not ask our designers for reasons why they design models the way they do or ask them to justify their designs in any way.

 

We do not consider the bolters to be "upside down" as this would suggest the kit to be faulty or miss sculpted of which they are not.

 

Its really stupid to send FW emails asking stuff like this. You dont ask an artist why they did a specific thing, the did it because they wanted to. FW's response is exactly the response I'd give if someone asked me the same question. Its basically telling you to stop asking dumb questions.

Edited February 13, 2018 by MeatGrinder

[Triszin]

The heads are going on me. I love the shields and heads. Might just put the axes as a utility combat knife

[Leif Bearclaw]

The amount of salt over a minor detail like this laser sight is actually so disgusting to me. I actually cant stand the even go on the SW facebook group because there is a hugely vocal minority of people spitting bile at the mention of any of the FW releases.

 

It's not a 'laser sight' though, that's PR apologetics, it's clearly an upside down muzzle. For better or worse, that's just what it is.

 

I entirely understand all the bile FW have been getting over this release. It's been shocking, with extremely poor quality sculpts, like the infamous banana fur, and trying to fob us off with objectively poor/lazy design, like both the Varangyr and Praetor not having proper weapon grips.

 

The bolt pistol thing is just, weird. It's blatantly upside down (it's the bayonet lug/under tube, that's now on top that really kills it for me), so even if it's intentional, it looks like a mistake, especially combined with the weird scaling of he weapons (they're advertised as pistols, but they look to be the size of full boltguns). It just feels shoddy and badly thought out. However, if that was the total of FW's sins, I don't think we'd be seeing this level of bile and negativity. But's it's another blow, to a fanbase that's seen the worst FW release I can recall. It just leaves people, who've waited for so long, and having seen the quality work that's gone into other releases, especially the Sons and Talons, feeling sidelined, ignored and/or deliberately snubbed by the drop below expected FW quality we've seen with the SW release.

[Jarl Caldersson]

Okay let's believe for a moment it is a laser sight. Why must it look so much like the iron sights on a bolter? Why couldn't they design a custom laser sight? Make it a square box, or a cylinder shape, heck make it a triangle with a straight edge. It is exactly the same as the iron sight in size and shape, the only thing missing is location. So this was a lazy design laser sight, or a mistake they flipped the gun upside down.

 

So why are people so bitter? Well it's been a delayed release with various reasons why. When you have a delayed release it usually means that something is terribly wrong with production or they are making sure it is a great product up to standards. So we get the praetor which had issues, and they even had to pull it back and fix it. Then we got the Varagyr images and people pointed out issues. Finally we get the Grey Slayer pack and at this point every little detail is being picked at. Finally we asked questions and FW is sticking to their guns it is the correct way, despite people knowing it isn't. So delayed release+first impression+continued mistakes+refusal to acknowledge mistakes are the reason for so much bitterness, which is actually decent reasons.

 

Why are people scrutinizing the models so hard? When I do inspections on other military units I go in thinking everything is perfect as I put faith they did everything perfect, just as we do with FW. If everything looks good on the "outside" I delve a little into common mistakes and missing items. If all looks good I move on. If there is mistakes, I beging to delve deeper and deeper, as they couldn't even keep the basics right. Right now FW is the latter for people. They have made mistakes and now everything is being picked at.

[Wispy]

i don't by the laser dot argument either. 

 

so my theory is, it isn't supposed to be a bolt pistol but a slimmed down bolter to be used for Space Wolves "true grit." otherwise they'd probably just have re-used some existing bolt pistol weapon CADs instead of making this new one. they're advertised as "pistols" on the site because the web content team is different and just advertised it as what they thought it was (like how the frost sword in the SW ugrade spue is advertised as a chainsword).

 

they designer probably started modifying an existing bolter in whatever CAD program they used, and after a flip or mirror, probably accidentally modeled it upside down. lots of people didn't notice until it was too late, because on first glance it looks "right." such mistakes are common in 3D modeling, unfortunately, and if no one notices they can make it really far into production.

Edited February 13, 2018 by Wispy

[DanPesci]

The 'honest guv they were purposefully upside down boltgun sized bolt pistols' is frankly a hilariously bad cover up. 

The way they are painted on the site clearly show the fact they arent meant to be 'laser sights'

 

What next...chainswords with teeth only on the inside :D

 

 

 

they designer probably started modifying an existing bolter in whatever CAD program they used, and after a flip or mirror, probably accidentally modeled it upside down. lots of people didn't notice until it was too late, because on first glance it looks "right." such mistakes are common in 3D modeling, unfortunately, and if no one notices they can make it really far into production.

 

Agreed..I think some of the hatred at the sculptor ive seen is a bit uncalled for...people have first days..people make mistakes.

Saying that, a premium company like FW should have better quality control in place for things like this (and at least have the guts to admit when theyve made a mistake).

 

 

boltpistol issues aside, it's a very underwhelming kit for me.

 

The shoulder pads are nice, but the heads dont interest me (personal taste, i like my guys with helms..each to their own).

I wouldn't mind 1 of the axe or the shield, but having 5 exactly the same is a big turnoff....especially as im still not really sold on the axe design (having a skull which would actually impede an axe blow cutting into something seems silly to me).

 

So yeah...hopefully we just see those shoulder pads released seperately.