Even after me stamping my foot and sulking and refusing to buy into new AT/AI due to some of the awful decisions from GW and some bad apples in the community, I bit the bullet and grabbed a box of the dakka jets.
They are fantastic. The detail on the kits is insane for the scale, some real nice deep panel lines but they don't feel overly cluttered. Not much room for full blown free hand, but that is beyond my capabilities anyway so no loss to me.
6 models for €32.50, even at full price that is only like a fiver per jet & a couple of quid for the decals. Decal sheet is only small, but jammed packed and everything is epic scale ( I use a lot off the 40k Ork sheet but some of them are huge and no good for Epic)
The bases are pretty good as well, very sturdy and surprising they are not charging a lot more as they are included. Probably not much use to me, doubt I will play AI. I might look to trade them as I've heard they won't be selling them separately. I'll give it to the first xpac in case I change my mind, the next set (if there is one) might be enough to get me to try the game, I just wasn't impressed with this starter set. The paper map looked pants and the need to buy the campaign book to get the full rules stunk of typical GW rules piecemealing. I only had five sets of the clear rods and not six- I'm not sure if there is meant to be six sets or not. This means 5 will be at the same height and one will be different (as you get two rods per set) so I'm not going to bother complaining and asking for another- mostly as I'll probably brass rod these bad boys and save the complaint for replacing something in the future (As I'm always bound to get another broken kit in the post!)
You get plenty of dakka in the set, something like 48 missiles over the two sprues, I've only glanced at the kit quickly but I assume that you only use 2-4 per jet. So plenty of spares to sprinkle across some new vanguard kits I have waiting to attack soon.
My small criticisms over the whole kit is the two sprues are identical, which means only three nose variations. Only a minor point, nothing that a bit of plasticard can't fix. It probably helped keep the cost low, so I'm fine with that. I had hoped that the cockpits had been separate pieces, but I understand why they wouldn't do this (No official ork models to use with them and they probably don't want people using other models). I had wanted to add some pilots/gunners, but again nothing a bit of love with a dremel couldn't fix. No grot gunners like on the full scale one either, but I'm sure I can dream something up in my mek workshop.
They are huge compared to my old epic ones. But they feel like the size that they should be now. My old ones will be turned into grot bombers. I expect new grot bombers will be forge world kits and not plastic, so I doubt I will be getting any as forgeworld is going to be too pricey.
Another point in GW favour is the box art. I notice that the specialist games have returned to having art on the box, and its only the bigger games that have the same shitty stock photos of models that we are bombarded with day in, day out. This is a minor but nice change. The AI boxes are models but they have been made to look flight scenes, much like the sort of ww2 art of the battle of Britain. I'm not 100% but I think the models on the box are actually the full size 40k kit and not the AI kit. The nose cone isn't in the set and there is a sight on the cockpit which isn't there either (and it looks like they have blurred out the pilot). The sight is on the large kit. Still I like the style of the box, is reminds me of the old 3rd ed Epic sets, with art or battle scenes. They also have a retro airfix feel to the box art. This probably managed to hit some sort of nostalgia switch inside my head, which is why I ended up walking out the shop with a set when I've spent so much time refusing to buy any of them (I don't count the AT stuff I have, as the misses brought that for me, knowing I really wanted some sets but was refusing to buy them!
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I agree with Blip. We will see another 'starter' set very soon. I think it will be Eldar Vs Necrons. I think they will save chaos for the final/later run. I don't see them doing two ork starters, simply as they will want to recoup the money by selling full price ork sets. I suspect we will see a battlepack at christmas which contains a full force for around €100, much like the AT ones. I prey to the gork (or mork) that we see some forgeworld scenery for the game. Whilst I'm too stingy to buy things like grot bombers from them, I would buy an ork runway/hanger piece as a treat. I love the AT boards but at the cost/storage and being stuck with the same layout I couldn't bring myself to buy any of them. But I'd a single nice bit of terrain to go with all my bottle caps and rubbish terrain lol
My hope is that if we see chaos ships, they go large and don't just do a run of helltalons and hellblades (as nice as those would be) I'd love to see things like daemon engines like the Heldrake but I'd go mental for some decent silver tower kits. I suspect we will only see black legion type kits supported but I do hope they do a mix of chaos flavours.
Also hoping on a thunderhawk gunship. I missing one for my space wolves and as much as I like alternative models, the Thawk is one official model that I've wanted to add.
Nids would be amazing, but I think they are the one race we won't see, ever. A bunch of bio ships would be so cool and they could do some new original designs that they could bring to 40k as well if they really wanted.
I doubt Dark eldar either, but some eldar ships + plasticard spikes + glowing green paint job should give us some really nice Epic DE ships.
I start back at college next week, so chances are I won't get them painted anytime before 2021 and even if I do I'll probably forget to add photos! But you never know with me, I might have a rare spurt of progress any day soon! Here's hoping!
If not we still have Vanguard's Wyvern for that ...