Another Assault Squad

I've been finding bits of time here and there at night after farm stuff is done to paint more Raven Guard. I, like many others, have gotten a bit of a motivational jolt after seeing how 8th Edition will work.
The squad is just five Marines for now, sergeant with a power sword and two Marines with flamers.

I'd decided on the weaponry before 8th was announced, and thankfully it's still a respectable setup in the new edition.

I had a couple issues with the Raven Guard chapter decals, as I always seem to. On this batch, some of the edges near the ravens' heads flaked off and they were sealed before I noticed it. Oops.

I used the new ASM torsos for all of the models, and the legs for three of them. I really like the legs for the new kit, as they have a nice variety of poses (the old one had two, if I remember right) and the feet have a larger surface area for gluing to bases. The old ones were like trying to glue two pin heads together.

I have the flamer Marines old style standing legs and metal jump packs. The combination allowed me to use up some old bits and keep the models stable while doing so. When I'd used metal jump packs on my Ultramarines on top of running legs, they were prone to breaking and tipping.

The squad will get another five models in the future, one of which will have an eviscerator. 8th makes almost every weapon option worth taking now in one situation or another! ASM as a whole still look like fun in the new edition, which makes me happy. The only thing I'm not happy about is the cost of all the new books I'll need to run all my models (core, Imperium 1, and FW Index Imperium). I had pegged that cash for a Stormraven or some Stormtalons, but now it goes to books. That just means I'll be going back into the hoard to paint models I already have unbuilt and unpainted. 

Here's a little phone picture peek at what's next on the table:

Yeah. three more Landspeeders. Unfortunately, they're the old version with the single piece top. Total pain to assemble, but I figured out some tips (beyond "clamp heavily") that might help anyone who's still sitting on some of these. I'll share those when I've properly documented the processes. I've also got to find a trio of Typhoon Launchers, assault cannons, and heavy flamers at some point, as these old kits didn't have those options.

Raven Guard Chaplain

Well, it certainly has been a while since I've updated the blog. Since my last post, I've completed my Rhino (nothing fancy, just a plain old Rhino), four more pistol/chainsword Assault Marines to round out a squad of ten, attended an invitational 40K friendly tourney, and painted a Chaplain to lead my Bladewing Assault Brotherhood. Oh, and GW also dropped the bomb of 8th Edition on us.

I had intended to put my thoughts on the edition change down in words, but I think this image sums up my experience thus far quite well:


Put your hands in the air!

 Yup, complete roller coaster ride. When the news was first released, I was very up and down on the idea. First mad, then excited, back to mad, then apathetic, up, down, round and round. I've settled on optimistic and enthusiastic after GW started their slow release of actual info on the Warhammer Community page. The news that while my codexes and supplements are recycling bin fodder, my army itself is not was very welcome to me. The fourteen FOC layouts sound promising, as do all of the other rules. I think I'll be able to play my Bladewing Assault Brotherhood without requiring formations, which is awesome!

To that end, I put some energy into painting a Chaplain for my Raven Guard:

Just the basic monopose model from the Reclusiam Command Squad kit. No real reason to try to reinvent the wheel on this one. Well, except for this:

Yes, Thor, I magnetized his backpack! While I don't plan to field him with his standard power pack very often, there was no reason not to make them interchangeable. Just a magnet sunk where the nub on his back was, and a couple in the holes of the packs. I did have to tilt the magnet in the jump pack ever so slightly forward to get it to sit behind the rim on his right shoulder pad.

I'm excited to field this guy this weekend at what may be the last tourney I play in 7th Edition. I've got another five-man Assault Squad with a pair of flamers and a power sword on the painting rig right now. I need to order some more Assault Marine torsos and legs to bump the squad to ten eventually.
The news that pistols will have extra utility in close combat in Eighth was welcome to me, as I've had the parts for a five man Vanguard Squad with a bunch of plasma pistols and power weapons lined up for ages now.

Raven Guard Rhino, Progress Report Two

Solid progress on my Raven Guard Rhino. I've got the gunner, hatches, ad doors mostly done, the dozer half done, ad a base coat on the main chassis.

 

Pretty boring stuff. It'll get some decals, maybe some freehand lettering, and I have to bust out the airbrush to paint a squad symbol on the top hatch. Nothing fancy, just a masked off section for a tactical arrow.

I'd pledged this thing for a motivational challenge in the Raven Guard subforum at the Bolter and Chainsword. It might help my crappy Tactical Squad on the table.

After this is done, I have to paint like mad to complete four Assault Marines before the 8th, when I'm attending an invitational event. I'm working down the long road of fielding a Bladewing Assault Brotherhood. It'll be 20 Assault Marines (I have six done), 5 Vanguard (completely different loadout to my current five), and a Chaplain.

Raven Guard Rhino, Progress Report One

The next model I'm adding to my Raven Guard army is a Rhino. I discovered that one of the massive weaknesses of my current list is protection and mobility for my Tactical Squad and/or Sternguard Squad. So, a Rhino was in order. It doesn't hurt that it was also a model I had in my piles of unbuilt stuff that I want to get painted this year.



I spent a good while carefully assembling the model, and then magnetizing the doors and dozer blade. The dozer is from an Astra Militarum tank, either a Chimera or a Russ if I remember right. I prefer these to the silly spike rams that come with Marine tanks. I sank three 1/8" magnets into the mounting bar and matched them with equally sized magnets sunk into the underside of the Rhino body. I used quarter inch magnets for the doors, which allows this model to be a Predator in the future by attaching magnets to the inside of the sponsons.

The gunner also got some extra attention. I used old, metal arms on him and attached hands from the current Devastator Squad. I'm trying to make the gunners/crew of my Raven Guard tanks look a little more interesting than just the two-hands-on-gun pose. Plus, I'm saving all those gun arms for my magnetized Landspeeder gunners.

 

It will be a little while before this sucker gets primed, as the current string of blizzards here are impeding my ability to prime models. It's just too cold in the garage for spraying, and I've fallen out of love with my old brush-on primer method.

 

Despite the fact that I haven't been painting much, I have been drafting up a bunch of Raven Guard army lists. I'm trying to find a list that is both effective and fun to play. To that end, I came up with the following 1750 list:

 

Bladewing Assault Brotherhood (gives some fun deployment and redeployment options)

• Chaplain with jump pack
• 10-man Assault Squad with jump packs, two flamers, and a lightning claw sergeant
• 10-man Assault Squad with jump packs, two flamers, and a lightning claw sergeant
• 5-man Vanguard Veteran Squad with jump packs and a mix of power weapons and shields

Speartip Strike (gives some interesting rules for "suppressing and harassing" enemy units, plus a ton of speeders)

• Three separate squadrons of two Landspeeders, each with a multimelta and Typhoon missiles
• Two separate squads of three naked Scout Bikes

Ravenhawk Assault Group (deepstriking Stormraven with some Sternguard and a Dreadnought, all of which reroll to wound against a selected enemy unit for the game)

• Stormraven with lascannon, multimelta, and a searchlight
• Dreadnought with a multimelta and powerfist
• 5-man Sternguard Squad with combiplasmas

Altogether, twenty-six jump infantry, six bikes, five infantry, a walker, a flyer, and six Landspeeders. Fast, flexible, and with lots of options. The only part I'm not really sold on is the Ravenhawk formation. It's intended to pick a hard unit or monster and nuke it on arrival. But I'm not really sure about keeping up to 461 points in mandatory reserves. I've had reserve rolls seriously hamper my armies of late. I'd love to finally field a Stormraven, but am not sure this is the right formation for me. I'm thinking maybe I'll switch to a Storm Wing (two Stormtalons and a Stormraven, all arrive with a single roll, Raven gets Strafing Run) or a Raptor Wing (two Stormtalons and a unit of Landspeeders, speeders spot enemy units for the flyers to get rerolls to wound or Armor Penetration, flyers automatically arrive Turn Two). The Storm Wing suffers the same heavy points investment in Reserve, but has some stronger shooting. I can't decide, but that's ok. I am going to start with the Brotherhood and work downwards.

 

Well, I'm off to wire some junction boxes. Wish me luck and non-electrocution!

 

 

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.

Raven Guard, Tactical Squad Ouvai

After painting my ass off for a couple weeks straight, I have another squad and a drop pod completed. You all know what a standard drop pod looks like, so I'm not bothering to share that. Plus, I cut some corners to get it done in time for the Standoff, so it's not my favorite.

Anyhow, here is Tactical Squad Ouvai. They're led by Sergeant Yasson Ouvai (YAH-sohn Ooh-VUY). It's just a 5-man squad right now, armed with a combiplasma and a plasma cannon.

Here are the bolter Marines. Suitably boring, though I'm trying to break up the wall of black paint with things like pouches and grenades. I've finally gotten a brown leather recipe I like for pouches. It's a basecoat of Reaper Ruddy Leather, a wash of Devlan Mud/Agrax Earthshade, and then an edge highlight of Reaper Leather Brown. Simple and effective.

 

Then we have Sergeant Ouvai and the plasma cannoneer.

 

I really like the plasma cannoneer model for some reason. As I looked at him over and over waiting to be 100% done, I started to become very enamored with his posing and the line of his eyes/helmet toward the target. It's an old, metal cannon from ye olden dayes. Normally I hate the metal heavies, but this one seems to work.

 

Sergeant Ouvai isn't all that interesting, as all he's got is a combiplasma. No fancy wargear to paint or dynamic pose, but that's ok. the big thing I did with him is determine how I was going to mark him out as a sergeant. For my old Ultras, it was easy. Red helmet. But a red helmet on a Raven Guard model would look awful. I didn't want a white helmet, because I reserve white for veterans. I could say he's a Veteran Sergeant, but he's not. I racked my brain until I came up with this:

 







It's a red, horizontal Tactical arrow from the Dark Angels section of the standard Space Marine transfer sheet. Red for sergeant, and a squad number. I was originally going to trim one point off it and turn it vertically, but I really liked the result. The only thing I was hesitant about was that I kept seeing an Eye of Horus symbol when I looked very quickly at it. I got over it, and I think I'll be using red squad markings for all my Sergeants in the future.

I played this squad at the Standoff, and it did jack in all three games. The plasma cannon fired maybe three times total across all three games. My guess is that that was the result of not having a transport and my attempts to use them to sit on hidden objectives. It's tough to get a good line of fire for the cannon, and if you need to move to adjust, you can't fire it anyways.
These guys were supposed to be a foray into a trio of Tac squads so I could run either the Pinion Demi or Battle Demi formation, but I'm reconsidering. I either need to paint up some Rhinos or move on. Tac squads just bore me to death with their options and slowness.

Dreadtober Update #4: Work Complete!

This is my final Dreadtober update, because I successfully finished the model!

 

 

Firstly, I fixed the sepia tone of my images. I covered the table with white paper to prevent the brown color from reflecting up onto the model. I also discovered that the shrouds I put over my front lights actually had small burns on them from the lightbulb heat. I changed those and it may have helped. Of course, fixing the white balance in GIMP also helps.

 

I replaced the model's right shin plate with one from the Ravenwing upgrade sprue. Many thanks to Berman from A Painted Life for the new plate. I like the bit of asymmetry it creates against the left plate. I really like the brass ribbed pipes. They break up the silver nicely. I didn't go with colored cables like I did on my Leviathan, mostly because the one power cable I'd apply color to is hard to reach on the lascannon. It crosses over that brass cable awkwardly.

 

The decals on the sarcophagus came out nicely. The XIX numerals came from an IG vehicle sprue, while the icons came from the Forgeworld Raven Guard sheet. I went with a grey-white for this model, and did edge highlights in pure white. You can't really see it in the pictures, but you can in person. I like the effect a lot, and it should stand out even better on infantry models that have more edges.

 

I played three games with this model last weekend before he was 100% complete. He's pretty ineffective with this armament. He just doesn't have the rate of fire needed to be a true anti-tank threat. After the Standish Standoff, I'll probably give him a new set of arms. Maybe multimelta and Dreadnought close combat weapon.

 

Next up is my 5-man Tactical squad packing plasma weaponry. I've already base coated the black and am at the edge highlight stage.

Dreadtober Progress Reports #2 and 3: Basic Colors and The Base

This week I have two Dreadtober updates to share in one post. I was out of town last week, so I missed the update on blocking in colors on the model.

Here's the current painting progress on the Raven Guard Venerable Dreadnought:

He's nearly done. You can see that I left his shins off for painting. You can also spot a small dot of silver on his left thigh area that needs cleaned up. I used Runelord Brass on small details like bolt heads and ribbed cables, washed it with Devlan Mud, and then touched it again with Ironbreaker because it looked too flat. It breaks up the monotony of silver nicely.

I'm supposed to use this model in a is weekend, so I'll probably concentrate on decals and final details like lenses and targeters next week.

In order to get him table-ready, I also started work on his base. I use a flagstone style base scheme for my Raven Guard, and I covered the process I used to make the first bases HERE.

The first step for the Dreadnought base was to slather the whole thing in plastic glue and start slapping down carved squares and scraps.



The scraps are left over from building my original 32mm bases and the base for my Leviathan Siege Dreadnought. All the overhangs are very intentional in order to get a more random placement of the center flagstone on the base. The overhangs go away when I turn the base over a couple days later and use an Xacto knife to trace around the top edge. This scores the plastic and allows me to snap the overhanging parts off. Those scraps go in a bag for later use. The result is here:

 

After snapping the overhangs off, you angle your knife and carve the flagstone texture into the edges. You can see some of the little curls of plastic produced by this process in the picture above.

 

The final step is to add bits, rocks, and sand. I have a bin full of random offcuts from which I pulled that skull-arch thing (I believe it came from a 40K scenery scrap), and obscured by the glare in the upper left are two resin skulls from Secret Weapon's "Sack 'O Skulls". Those are top-notch quality, and I highly recommend them.

 

The bits get stuck on with superglue, and then I use PVA glue top make little puddles where I want rocks and sand. I randomly drop small rocks into the puddles, and then cover the remainder in sand. Both materials came from the springtime washdown at the end of my driveway. That's the little piles of sand and dirt left in the drive by the melting snow.

 

I try to focus on wonky areas of the base for rocks and sand, like the corners of the center flagstone. I got lazy and didn't carve it up enough, and so it looked too sharp and geometric. The rubble obscures that and solves the problem.

 

The base is now sitting in my garage, waiting for the primer to dry. I'll paint it tonight during the Bruins game.



Raven Guard Assault Squad Cyrax, Complete

Assault Squad Cyrax is now complete. Let's jump right into photos and I'll ramble afterward.

Hopefully, I've gotten rid of the sepia tones that plagued my previous photos. I did some reading and it was suggested that to take good images of black objects, you point the camera at a neutral gray item, open the shutter (half-press the button on a digital camera), shift to the black item, and then take the shot. I used the bottom of a bottle of gray paint (you can just see the cap on the far left of the first few images). That seems to have helped.

I actually ran these guys in the FLGS's monthly tournament last weekend. They hopped around, trying to stay out of LOS until it was time to kill things or expose themselves to grab an objective. In my first game of the day they only fired once, but accounted for over twenty Guardsmen in a single shooting phase. Double flamers, frag grenade, and bolt pistol shots on grouped Guard was cruel.

I discovered that Raven Guard play MSU very well with jump troops who can stay out of line of sight until the last moment. Provide very few targets and focus heavily on grabbing objectives and maneuvering for others. I don't have any major shooting or death stars in my army other than my Leviathan (who I shoved into a drop pod to great effect), so staying disengaged as long as possible was a key factor to my tied-for-third place finish.

Now that the squad is done, I've been building a small tactical squad with plasma cannon and combi-plasma while waiting for Dreadtober to begin. I'll have my pledge post up soon. I'm going to be painting a Venerable Dreadnought.