Most of it is Dark Eldar news with some other bits mixed in. Of special note, it seems that our dark eldar fliers are done. So check it out. It's in the second part.
As in all rumors, take them with a grain of salt. At least a small grain of salt on this one.
Part 1
I had a chance to have a chat with Jes Goodwin today and got some more info regarding DE release schedule.
He said that they will have 90% of the Dark Eldar models in the Codex released by June next year, so no more than 7 months.
Basically people have waited so long for this release and as it looks set to be so popular he wanted to get everything out quickly.
There are 4 new plastic kits coming next year, he wouldn't say exactly what they were but that the Venom is definitely coming soon and they have models for both flyers listed in the Dex on ready to go (but he wouldn't confirm if these were part of the 90%).
He said that the models which would take longer were the special characters, so these may form the missing 10% which means we have a lot of new models coming soon.
He is still working on a few bits, something he wants to do is have Haemonculi passengers/hangers on the Raider but isn't sure how best to do that.
The Wych passengers/hangers on for the Raider will be included in the plastic Venom kit, but there isn't another suitabe release to make up Haemonculi equivalents.
He also said that now that rapid prototyping and CAD technology has progressed the design team can use 2 ups instead of 3 ups which means that making larger apocolypse style kits (Stompa and Baneblade) in plastic is now more possible.
This means that they are currently working on one of these types of kits as the sales for the Stompa etc were very good, but wouldn't say whether they had decided on what this would be, although I got the impression he wanted it to be Eldar.
Talking of Eldar he said that producing the Dark Eldar had fired up his enthusiasm for a new Craftworld Eldar Codex and models, and he has lots of ideas for this. However this hasn't even started yet so a new Eldar Codex is a long way off.
He is still trying to work out how best to tackle plastic Sisters of Battle but they are still being problematic.
He also mentioned that he would love to produce an Ad Mech Codex but said it would be very unlikely for GW to produce it as there isn't room in the range for them at the moment. However he said it was possible that Forge World would do them at some point, and his take on the concept was "Vampire Counts in space". In other words Necromancers and zombies, which sounds cool.
Jes did indeed say that he is absolutely knackered after working on the Dark Eldar and is looking forward to a bit of a break but that there was still a fair bit to do on the Dark Eldar, but that 90% of the stuff in the Codex will definitely be out by June 2011.
In terms of Craftworld Eldar he said that the way he normally works is to alternate between Space Marines and something else, meaning that he would have worked on Marines next. However he doesn't plan to do any more Marine stuff for the foreseeable future as he feels he has passed them off to other designers and sculptors and so hopes to do something different.
One of the reasons that Dark Eldar have fired up his enthusiasm for Craftworld Eldar is simply that the design process and the technological advancements from the Dark Eldar work has meant that the design team now know how Eldar could be done better, using the lessons learnt from the last 5 years. He stated that he really would like to put this into practice but it all depends on what GW want him to do next. The impression I got was that Craftworld Eldar are still a long way off.
The biggest surprise to me was that he had to really persuade GW to let him do the Dark Eldar, as he wasn't allowed any input on the original range and they weren't convinced that a new launch would be that viable. However once he had persuaded them him and Phil Kelly were given a free reign to do pretty much what they wanted.
He said that he very much enjoyed putting some subtle Rogue Trader influences in (some of the beasts are original Rogue Trader ones) and this is something he would like to see more of in the future.
The problem with the plastic Sisters of Battle is indeed the cloth robes on the sleeves as has been stated before, but also the hair strangely enough. One of the particularly tricky aspects of the Dark Eldar ws getting the hair on the Wyches right, as if you have hair flowing in one direction it makes posing more difficult, as everything needs to flow the same way. This suggests that any new SOB figures we see will be much more dynamic. He also said that shoulder pads had been giving them grief, as they want flowing script on them and that is presenting problems too.
In terms of the 4 plastic kits the Venom is definite, as it will have the Wych passengers/hangers on and he wants these to be interchangeable with the Raider so that you can have Wych Raiders. For this reason I think the Venom will be soon as he is keen for people to be able to field Wych cult armies and be able to represent their Raiders appropriately.
He wouldn't say for definite what the other kits were but I do think at least one of them will be one of the flyers. He said the models are done and that the staff in the studio have been very excited about them and have even been running around the studio with them making aeroplane noises!!
He said that they don't look like the Forge World Dark Eldar flyers as they wanted to do something closer to the Craftworld Eldar aesthetic, and that they do look a lot like the Vampire and Phoenix variants, but with a more dark Eldar feel to them.
And the only other thing that I can remember is that he said it is unlikely he will be doing any more Warhammer Fantasy Battle stuff. He admitteded that it has been a long while since he did any in any case, but that he will be concentrating solely on 40K from now on, but that he will be taking a break for a while once the Dark Eldar are finished, so I presume from next June.
Thanks to StraightSilver who had the opportunity to be at the Warhammer World on the Dark Eldar release day.