Bomb Pod!

I've been taking my time painting now that the Standish  Standoff is over. I've not really been working on improving or anything, just slowly picking away at models for fun. Right now, I'm applying paint to a Forgeworld Deathstorm Drop Pod.

I originally bought this model for my Ultramarines, but never got around to painting it despite having magnetized and assembled it into subgroups. As of this morning, it looks like this:

It's a pretty simple model. You replace the complicated harnesses with the missiles racks, which is a HUGE chunk of solid resin once assembled. Unfortunately, shortly after snapping this pic, I snapped off one of the little power feed cables you can see down near the base of the doors. I've broken it twice before, once while removing the sprue gates and once while painting. I couldn't find the piece on the carpet, but I don't think anyone will ever notice. If I do stumble across it later, it should be easy enough to slot into place and glue.

The next steps are the hazard stripes on the doors, and then the main black color. I plan to have it done for the monthly tourney at the FLGS on Saturday. It'll be a 2000 point day, so I'm just running my Standoff list (1750), plus this thing and a few other models. In game terms, the pod is impressive. When it lands, it hits every unit within 12" with d3 Whirlwind shots, each. After that, it functions like a regular Whirlwind, one shot per turn. Slap this bugger down in the middle of a gunline and BOOM.

Last Saturday I managed to get in my first ever game of Blood Bowl. I played Orcs against Humans and had a lot of fun. I'm planning to get the Orc models cleaned of mold lines, assembled, based, and primed soon. Painting will wait until after Christmas, as my wife wanted some small things to get me as gifts, and the pink paints I needed were a perfect option. I've already got various greens for their skin, but have never owned pink paint.

The Blood Bowl Orcs shouldn't take too long to paint, and after they're done I have more Raven Guard or some Harlequins to paint. Not sure which I'll go for. I'm struggling with basing ideas for the Harlies, so I'll have to take some shots and see if you folks can help me decide.

First Ever Drop Pod

Finally! I've got my first ever drop pod painted and sealed. I tried to get good shots of this thing, but it's so large when opened up that it doesn't fit under my small lighting rig. I'm going to have to bash something larger together for vehicle shots in the future.

 

 

 

 

It's not spectacular, but it's not terrible either. It could probably have used a little more contrast between the blue and the small silver bits, like the little spots on the outside of the doors.

The missile launcher inside is magnetized, so I can swap in the storm bolter when needed. It's a little fiddly, and the storm bolter tends to snag on the magnet, making it a bitch to get out.

I'm also a masochistic bastard and I went ahead and painted hazard stripes using Ron's tutorial over at From the Warp to start. I didn't paint the whole section yellow, just the individual sections, and then I cut back in with black.

 

Since I only have one pod so far, this one will likely carry an assassin-style unit. Sternguard to take out an infantry unit or monster, an Ironclad to run roughshod down a flank, etc. With all the damned tau behind Aegis lines in my local area, a Dread with two heavy flamers (one twin linked, one on the end of a DCCW) might work nicely. Even a tooled up Command Squad might work.

 

My next vehicular project will be a Vindicator. I had traded for an old Forgeworld Vindicator kit quite some time ago. It's pretty much identical to the current GW kit, but doesn't have the side armor plating. I'm not sure if I should buy the side armor bitz online or not. They'll run me about $10 shipped, and I'm not sure they're crucial to the look of the tank. The calling card of the Vindicator is the siege shield, not the side armor.

I've not put a Vindicator on the table in a very long time. Maybe the dawn of 5th/end of 4th Edition? I had an old, secondhand metal Vindicator that I was fixing up. I stalled out on it when I switched to a bike-heavy force, and sold the parts. I remember really enjoying using the Vindicator, as it's the biggest, baddest weapon in the Marine arsenal. I have a glowing memory of exploding a Necron Monolith with my beat-to-hell Vindicator back when Monoliths were nigh unkillable.

 

I've also started putting paint on my Company Champion. Infantry feel like they'll fly by as compared to weeks-or-months-long vehicle projects.