Four Days To Go - Painting Update

Four days until the Planetstrike throwdown! My paintbrushes have been working hard overtime (between hobby and school!) and progress is coming along nicely. Currently on the bench are four Space Hulk termies, which will join my 6 AoBR termies, and my Librarian converted from the AoBR Captain.

Attacker
Librarian - Primed
Venerable Dreadnought – Painted - Needs Detailing
Drop Pod – Painted
Terminator Squad – 6 Painted, 4 Unpainted
Tactical Squad – Painted - Needs Detailing
Tactical Squad – Painted - Needs Detailing

Defender
Librarian – Partially Painted
Sternguard Veteran Squad – 6 Painted, 1 Partially Painted, 3 Unpainted
Tactical Squad – Painted - Needs Detailing
Scout Squad – Painted
Devastator Squad (Missile Launchers)– Painted - Needs Detailing
Devastator Squad (Lascannons)– Painted - Needs Detailing

I'll post pics of my finished units/armies (!) when I find the time. Life is hectic and jam-packed with stuff to do at the moment.

Chief Librarian Lucius Orzora

I decided to take advantage of the bout of warm-ish weather Toronto is experiencing and get my Terminator Librarian assembled, based, and primed. He will be Lucius Orzora, Chief Librarian of the Revilers Chapter and leader of my 1250 point Planetstrike Attacker list for the tourney on the 29th.

I bulked up his base with some cork chunks; mainly to make him a bit more impressive than the Space Hulk librarian that he may have to share the board with sometime. He is supposed to be the Chief Librarian, after all - and it wouldn't do to have some Terminator-armoured Epistolary looking more impressive than him.

Here he is, primed grey and all ready for me to... start painting something else. I'll probably get around to starting on this guy (and finishing up my power-armoured Librarian) on the weekend.

Quick Painting Update

Got some good painting done today. Will post pictures tomorrow-ish, but for now, here's what the army painting progress looks like.

Attacker
Librarian - Unassembled, Unpainted
Venerable Dreadnought – Mostly Painted - Needs Detailing
Drop Pod – Fully Painted
Terminator Squad – 6 Fully Painted, 4 Unpainted
Tactical Squad – Mostly Painted - Needs Detailing
Tactical Squad – Mostly Painted - Needs Detailing

Defender
Librarian – Partially Painted
Sternguard Veteran Squad – 6 Fully Painted, 1 Partially Painted, 3 Unpainted
Tactical Squad – Partially Painted
Scout Squad – Painted - Need Magnets for Bases
Devastator Squad (Missile Launchers)– Mostly Painted - Needs Detailing
Devastator Squad (Lascannons)– Primed - Unpainted

I'm going to try and get my Termie Librarian primed tomorrow or the day after, while it's still nice out. Pics of the missile Devastators and the Drop Pod are forthcoming... along with whatever else I get done between now and then. Next in line is the Tactical Squad from the Defender list, a mongrel crew headed up by Sergeant Koros. After that, I'll revisit Valdis and Dymius' Tactical squads, and Ancient Gaheris.

Two Planetstrike Lists - And Painting Goals!

As I mentioned yesterday, my local(ish) GW is running a 1250 point Planetstrike tourney on the 29th of November. Up for grabs is a brand-spanking-new Fortress of Redemption. The lowdown? Two lists, attacker/defender, 1250 points, fully painted. Here's what I plan on taking:

Attacker

Librarian - 175
· Epistolary, Terminator Armour, Vortex of Doom, Might of Ancients
Venerable Dreadnought – 190
· Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour
Drop Pod – 35
Terminator Squad – 450
· 10 Terminators
· 3 Chainfists, Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer
Tactical Squad – 195
· 10 Space Marines
· Multimelta, Meltagun, Powersword, Meltabombs
Tactical Squad – 205
· 10 Space Marines
· Multimelta, Meltagun, Powerfist, Meltabombs
Total – 1250

The Terminators will be combat squadded, with the Librian joining up with one squad to lend his Vortex and the 2D6 penetration from Might of Ancients to their chainfisty-bastion-busting power. Everything deep strikes - the Dreadnought, via Drop Pod - and unleashes melty/chainfisty goodness on enemy bastions. A relatively straightforward strategy.

Defender

Librarian – 150
· Epistolary, Gate of Infinity, The Avenger
Sternguard Veteran Squad – 290
· 10 Sternguard Veterans
· Powerfist, Combi-melta, Meltagun, Flamer
Tactical Squad – 190
· 10 Space Marines
· Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Power Weapon, Meltabombs
Scout Squad – 80
· 5 Scouts
· Combat Blades, Meltabombs
Devastator Squad – 230
· 10 Space Marines
· 4 Missile Launchers
Devastator Squad – 310
· 10 Space Marines
· 4 Lascannons
Total - 1250

My plan as the defender is to castle down 3 bastions with my Devastators and the Tactical squad, keeping everything else in reserve. The Scouts are a distraction - hopefully they earn their 80 points back. The real kicker is the Sternguard - I plan to hold them in reserve, with the Librarian, and then Gate them around the board shooting things up in a torrent of Hellfire/Melta/Flame/Avenger.

On the painting front, this is how my armies look:

Attacker

Librarian - Unassembled, Unpainted
Venerable Dreadnought – Mostly Painted - Needs Detailing
Drop Pod – Partially Painted
Terminator Squad – 6 Fully Painted, 4 Unpainted
Tactical Squad – Mostly Painted - Needs Detailing
Tactical Squad – Mostly Painted - Needs Detailing

Defender

Librarian – Partially Painted
Sternguard Veteran Squad – 6 Fully Painted, 1 Partially Painted, 3 Unpainted
Tactical Squad – Partially Painted
Scout Squad – Painted - Need Magnets for Bases
Devastator Squad – Partially Painted
Devastator Squad – Primed - Unpainted

Well, I had so much fun with the coloured text there... I think I'll keep this "diagram" updated, as a motivational tool, between now and the 29th. Hopefully, the red bits will disappear quick-like. Currently, I'm working on the Terminators and the Tactical squad for the Defender force.

Magnetizing Space Hulk Termies - and some changes...

Howdy, folks, I'm back... in the midst of a busy grade 12 year, I've once again found time to devote to my beloved hobby. First off - a few changes 'round the blog. Having noticed that my hobby adventures have a tendency to turn magnetic, I've renamed the blog Magnet Addict - because I do love me some magnets. Preferably the rare-earth kind. I've also gotten bored of the rather plain "The Workbench". The blog can now be reached at http://magnetaddict.blogspot.com. And now, to the post! More fun with magnets - and Space Hulk Terminators!

So, a friend of mine and I split the Space Hulk box back in September when it was released - I got the Termies, and am currently holding on to the floor tiles and counters, he got the Genestealers. Now, I was just as excited at the prospect of including these beautiful Terminators in my Revilers army - so I promptly filed off all the obvious Blood Angels insignia. This, however, left me with the problem of basing. Simply gluing them to 40mm bases wouldn't do, because then they wouldn't fit next to each other on the Space Hulk board. My solution was to take two small rare earth magnets and put one in the terminator, and one in a blank 40mm base - like so.



This allows me to have them legally based for 40k, as well as maintaining the ease of movement for Space Hulk. The magnets fit flush to each other, and hold on well enough to stand up to the rigours of tabletop play.



That's one down - now I have the other eleven to base, and paint. They'll join the rest of my Revilers on the painting table. I hope to get most (if not all!) of them finished for the 28-29 of November, when my local(ish) GW is running a 500+ point escalation tournament, and a 1250 pt Planetstrike tourney - with a Fortress of Redemption up for grabs! So, back to painting - Tactical marines, Devastators, and a Termie Librarian... or two...

Until next time.

A Very Convenient Box

Went paintballing with some friends today. Needless to say, it was great. And guess what? The bags of paintballs come in these great cardboard boxes.

At first I was just going to hang on to a couple because a) they're cool, b) I like boxes, and c) I need a couple of boxes to store some stuff anyway. But one I got home, it hit me. The boxes are the perfect size for holding...

...drop pods. Yes, drop pods. So when I am finally able to field an entirely drop pod-mounted Space Marine army, I will have space to safely and (relatively) easily transport twelve whole drop pods!

Now, all I have to do is acquire eleven more drop pods!

Quick Update - Brother Behemiel PIP

The annual Artificer Cup painting comp at the Toronto Bunker is tomorrow, and I'm currently tidying up my entries. First up is Brother Behemiel, my all-plastic Chaplain with jump pack... he's pretty much done, I just have to highlight the pack and do a few more highlights on his ribbons & purity seals. Pics aren't great... I'll take some better ones (as well as some pics of the Deffkopta I'm entering) tomorrow after the competition.

Plastic Reinforcements

In preparation for the (hopefully) imminent arrival of my many, many Imperial Guard bitz, I dug through the current pile of Space Marine sprues occupying my workspace to see what could be done with them. After a solid three days of clipping, gluing, and converting, I've managed to bolster the ranks of the Revilers 3rd Company with the following:


First up, three sergeants... the guy on the left (who's yet to be named) will lead Squad IX, a rocket-launcher armed Devastator squad. The one in the middle, Segomaros, is the leader of Squad II, a flamer/heavy bolter armed Tactical squad. The third sergeant is Osmium, recently retasked as leader of an auxiliary contingent of 9th Company Devastators armed with plasma cannons.


Some extra weapons for various squads in the army. From right to left, the flamer marine from the AoBR box, with some arm repositioning; the heavy bolter for Squad II, the multimelta for squad III, the multimelta for squad I, and a spare heavy bolter for when I face armies like Orks.

These two chaps will fill out my Sternguard Veteran squad, making it an even ten. The guy on the left has pulled out a silenced bolt pistol while he reloads his bolter (I trimmed the clip off), and the guy on the right has some extra shiny bits on his shoulderpad, made from a High Elf shield icon. He's headless because I am waiting for some of the Mk3-esque Crusader heads from the Black Templar Sprue to come in the mail.



Front and back of the first combat squad of Squad IV, a tactical squad armed with a meltagun and multimelta. The Sergeant is armed with a power weapon and meltabombs. He also uses a filed-down Chaos Space Marine helmet, for a bit of variety. Also of note is the marine in Mk6 armour next to him, blasting away with two bolt pistols.


The second half of Squad IV, all armed with bolters, and some awaiting heads.

Squad V, unofficially designated "Death Squad" for the moment; a 5-man combat squad led by a Sergeant with powerfist and storm bolter.

And, last but certainly not least...

Front, back, and side of Brother-Reclusiarch Gavin Behemiel, the Chaplain for my army. Kitbashed entirely from plastic, making use of Tactical legs and torso, a Chaos Space Marine head that looks suitably skull-like, Assault Marine pistol and power axe arms (the axe was converted into a crozius with a bit off of some scenery and an old Chaos Warrior skull), a cloth with some bones stuck in it from the Kroot Carnivore sprue, and various purity seals and bling. Once finished and painted, he'll get a jump pack.

A close-up of the crozius.

Well, that's all for now... as of this writing, I've got all the aforementioned models primed, and now get to sit down for some quality time with my brushes! My hope is to get all my Revilers fully or at least mostly painted before I start serious assembly and conversion work on my Imperial Guard.

Landspeeder Magnetized & Assembled

Finally got my Landspeeder all magnetized and put together... most often, I plan to field it as a Typhoon, but for flexibility (and because I love magnets) I decided to magnetize the Typhoon launchers and the Tornado-mount assault cannon.





In these two pics you can see the magnets in the access-flappies (for the Typhoon launchers) and a smaller magnet in the front "compartment" for the Tornado mount. The third picture shows the metal pins I put into the Typhoon launchers to make them stick to the magnets behind the access hatches. Also note the purple stripes on the crew's helmets; different than the red stripes normally sported by my Marines, because these chaps are Tactical Reserves from the 7th Company, who normally take to the field in Landspeeders to provide light vehicle support for the Chapter's Battle Companies.



The fully assembled speeder with all its options laid out in front of it. I decided not to magnetize the heavy bolter as my army has pretty adequate anti-tank provided by other units; so I felt the multimelta wasn't necessary.



Here it is as a Tornado with underslung assault cannon.



Here, as a Typhoon with the eponymous missile launchers.



To prove that it's the same model, all the options stuck on at once.
That's all for now, upcoming are pics of my all-plastic scratchbuilt Chaplain, as well as my second painted tactical squad and my scouts with fedoras.

Yes, I said fedoras.

New Flamers for the Vigilanti

So I was recently reviewing the ranks of the 219th Vigilanti Honour Guard (the fully painted mongrel Imperial Guard army I picked up secondhand from a family friend) and organizing them into a codex-legal army in their own right. End result, I need to build 4 sergeants for the infantry squads, a full command squad to lead the 2nd platoon, and a standard bearer and medic for Capt. Tellap's company command squad.

I also noticed the classic flamers that two of the special weapon troopers in the infantry squads were armed with. While I do bear a hefty amount of respect for classic models (especially the metal Cadians), I'm not a fan of the old-style flamers and they had to go. Don't worry though, I kept one un-converted for archival purposes.



This shot shows the archival trooper on the left, and on the right, the flame-trooper prepped for conversion; I've trimmed and filed away the conical flamer nozzle, and cut the nozzle and pipes off of a plasic Catachan flamer.



As this pic shows, it's pretty much a perfect fit!



All that was left to do was drill holes in the larger pipe and the main bit of the flamer, and pin them together. The pic above is the finished flame-trooper. Job's a good'un! I have one more of these guys to do, and many Revilers still to paint, so pics of those are upcoming. In other news, I'm still waiting on a bitz shipment from Nebraska, so work on the supplementary Vigilanti and the entirety of the 524th Aeshaettar is on hold until then.

Heavy Weapon Team Bases - Step by Step

With the advent of the new Imperial Guard codex, Heavy Weapon teams are now a single two-wound model mounted on a 60mm round base. Since the standard giant tripod-mounted heavy weapons don't really fit in with the "light infantry" theme of my 157th Aeshaettar, I plan to convert man-portable versions from Space Marine Devastator heavy weapons. This means that my gunners and loaders can both be mounted on 25mm bases for ease of storage and transport. But how, then, would I mount them on a 60mm base to make them codex-legal?
Using this:




It's an Infantry movement tray for War of the Ring... with conveniently shaped depressions for infantry based on 25mm bases. Since I only need 2 models to fit on each base, I cut the movement tray into conveniently sized sections. Like so:






I then trimmed it to fit within the perimeter of a 60mm round base, and cut a corresponding hole in the base.






The section of movement tray was then glued into the middle. I'll fill any unsightly gaps with greenstuff later.



A view from the side... it's perfectly flat, so my support troopers will stand at the same height as my other Guardsmen.



And finally, for illustrative purposes, two of my Revilers pretending to be a Heavy Weapons team. This shows how the models fit into the tray, allowing me to remove them for transport or remove the loader to track wounds.



Now I just have to make 14 more.

A General Update

Well, the painting-tactical-marines over March Break didn't work out, and neither will the tournament on the 11th; I've got a driving lesson that morning. :P

But, in other news:

• I've got almost one and a half tactical squads painted up - will post pics soon!
• My metric assload of Imperial Guard bitz is on the way from Bitkingdom.
• My regiment has been renumbered... again... they are now the 524th Aeshaettar Light Infantry (this may help them fit in chronologically with the "famed 501st") - I think 524 is more visually pleasing than 154, and translates better, IMO, to Roman numerals (DXXIV)
• The Short Talons are officially bringing a table to Games Day Toronto 2009! What this means for me is I won't have to spring for a ticket, and get to pick up some of the shiny new IG Command Squad boxes at a 30% discount!

That's all for now. Pictures of my Space Marines are imminent.

Oooh, A Deadline!

Well... here I am, setting myself a goal.

There is a HoH 40k tournament at the local Bunker on April 11th... that's 47 days from now. I would like to bring my Revilers 3rd Co. to the tourney; this means I have lots of painting to do! Proposed army list looks like this:

• Librarian: Gate of Infinity and some other power
• Tactical Squad 1 (10 Marines): plasma gun, missile launcher, power weapon, meltabombs
• Tactical Squad 2 (10 Marines): flamer, missile launcher, powerfist
• Scout Squad (5 Scouts): heavy bolter, power weapon
• Sternguard Veterans (5 Veterans): powerfist
• Devastator Squad (6 Marines): 2 lascannons, 2 plasma cannons

At the moment I have about 90% of my first tac squad painted, and my Librarian is partly painted. The Sternguard are done, however. So I've got to finish the partially painted models, and paint my Scouts, second tac squad, and Devastators. 47 days... I'll post regularlish updates.