Inquisitorial Warband WIP

My gaming buddy Jeff is building up a Grey Knight army. Actually, he bought a small Daemonhunter warband, and it turned into a Grey Knight army when the new codex came out. To save him some time, and also to give myself a chance for some wacky conversions, I offered to spruce up his Inquisitor and retinue. Here are my WIP's so far. Lighting is a bit off - I'm still figuring some things out with my new hobby setup.

Front and back of Lord Inquisitor Nelson Princeps - force sword taken from the Grey Knight Terminator box.

Front and back of two kitbashed Arco-Flagellants - Catachan legs and bodies, Space Marine arms, Flagellant heads and flails, Grey Knight Interceptor backpacks and steel wire.

Two Mystics - the one on the left is the vox-man torso from the Forge World Renegade Upgrade with a Cadian laspistol and legs. The one on the right is a converted Techpriest Enginseer.

Front and back of three heavily converted Daemonhosts (the one on the right isn't finished yet). A vague amalgam of Chaos Posessed, Flagellants, Empire Free Company, and other assorted bitz.

A bit on the tamer side - four Warrior Acolytes, of the Guardsman variety. From left to right: Kasrkin with repurposed Space Marine backpack and Grey Knight head; Catachan legs, Cadian arms and torso, Free Company head; Catachan legs, Cadian torso and meltagun, Free Company head; Cadian legs, torso, and vox-head, Space Marine arms and bolter.

I still have to kitbash two Death Cult Assassins and two Crusaders to round out the retinue, as well as building a Rhino for them to ride in. Then all that's left to do before I give them back to Jeff is paint them!

Weekend Workbench - 29 April

Inspired by Ron over at From The Warp, and to help myself keep up a good flow of content on my own blog, I've decided to do a snapshot of my workbench area every weekend - leaving enough flexibility to work around my schedule. Here's the first one:

Nothing much going on yet, as I've just got back from school. I spent the weekend unboxing my Space Marines and laying out all my tools and brushes again. First on the chopping block are a couple of miscellaneous Marines in mkVI armour - one will be equipped with a missile launcher and I'm not sure what I'm doing with the second.

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.

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.

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.

The Founding Is Nigh

Heed the founding of the 157th (yes, they're the 157th now) Aeshaettar Light Infantry! Work is finally getting started on these guys... owing to the fact that I just picked up about 20 Mordians, 50 metal Cadians and 50 Catachans relatively cheap. The Bitkingdom order has been delayed a wee bit, but should still be going through. I also plan to hit up The WarStore for some Wood Elf bitz with which to make Aeshaettari Guardsladies.

Over the next little while I will be paintstripping, hacking up, headswapping, and repainting all the "mongrel guardsmen" that have joined up; and kitbashing together the first 30 or so truly unique Doom Guard.

Reminds me, I'm gonna have to pick up more Green Stuff to sculpt all those kamas on!

Happy Accidents & Sternguard Veterans

Picked up a box of the new Sternguard Vets yesterday to add to my Space Marine Army. However, I got a little surprise when I opened up the box...

As you can see in the pic, the guy in the centre is most definitely not a Sternguard Veteran. Through some odd packaging error, I ended up with 4 Sternguard and 1 Vanguard Veteran.

No matter, though, as I happened to have enough bitz lying around to convert a bolter for him, complete with scope and box mag so he'll match up with his buddies.

Below is a shot of the bitz I used: a bolter and scope off the SM Tactical sprue, a pistol hand, and a box mag from one of the Assault On Black Reach Terminators.



Below is a shot of the finished bolter. Now all I have to do is get it pinned to the Vet's wrist, and prime and paint all five of them (and my Drop Pod) for the Winter WAAAGH! next Sunday. Cheers!