Tau, Orks and some warriors from Lustria

Warhammer World is always host to a wealth of hobby goodness, and today is no exception. Currently there are six display cabinets in the gaming hall featuring some of the Best Painted Armies from the Throne of Skulls events that are held here every few months. One man who clearly attends a lot of gaming weekends is Eddie Eccles, one of the Black Library team. In fact, Eddie's painted so many armies for these events and been nominated for the Best Painted Army award so many times that he's actually been honoured with his own cabinet to display his models. Today I snapped a few pictures of them.

Eddies' Tau army is based around the Farsight Enclave, which means no Kroot, Vespid or anything non-Tau. Commander Farsight is very much a purist when it comes to massing the troops. Every single miniature in the army is converted in some way, ranging from weapon swaps and different heads to several completely insane kit-bashed creations. Eddie has also gone for a very striking colour scheme on his army, which certainly stands out on the battlefield. Overall his army did pretty well in the tournament. A combination of "overwhelming firepower and running away" were his chosen tactics.

"After reading the novel A Thousand Sons, I couldn't help but paint an army inspired by the book," says Eddie. This army, designated Task Force Osiris, represents some of the units mentioned in that book, including Space Marines from the Thousand Sons Legion and the Custodian Guard. If you look really closely you can see a huge number of different components on Eddie's models, ranging from Blood Angels, High Elves, Eldar and Warriors of Chaos.

"The members of the Black Tomah-Ork Tribe believe the old ways are the best. None of this new-fangled mechanised transportation for them. They ride to battle on their trusty warpigs and Squigasaurs, as nature intended," commented Eddie about his rather unusual Ork force. Many of the models feature parts from Warhammer Orcs and Ogres, and the two huge creatures (which we can only assume count as Battlewagons) are made from the Stonehorn kit, though one of them does have the face of a Squig. Creepy, very creepy.

And to round off Eddie's crazy collection of miniatures, he's even built an Amazon army based on the warrior tribes of Lustria. In games they use the rules for Lizardmen, but you'd be hard-pressed to find many lizard-like creatures in the force. The majority of the models are converted from Daemonettes, the Amazon Blood Bowl team and the Amazon Mordheim warband.

And in other news:

We've got a little more information about the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day, which takes place at Warhammer World on the 14th July.

We mentioned last week that the Hobby Team would be there on the day, but we've now found out that they will also be bringing along their latest battlefield creation - part of an Imperial Fortress known as Eagle Gate. Apparently it's over five feet tall. They will also be running demonstrations based on the painting guides in the How to Paint Citadel Miniatures book that you can join in with. The 'Eavy Metal team will also be on hand, making this a great opportunity to ask them about painting techniques.

Many of the miniature designers will also be there, showing you their latest pieces and chatting about how their ideas became reality.

There will also be 60 new armies on display throughout the event. Each member of the Studio was given three months to paint a full Battleforce from start to finish. Many of these fledgling collections will be there on the day, as will their owners, so if you want to chat about painting and modelling new armies, then this is the day to do it.

We've also found out that the Black Library crew will be attending, and they'll be bringing several new books with them that will all be available to buy before their official release date. All of the book covers can be seen in the pictures above and more information can be found out about them on the Black Library site.