More Bikes

I just finished assembling this Apothecary on bike. Still have the remaining Command Squad models to mount on bikes, but this one went on without any issues. I repositioned the chainsword slightly so it would fit easier and also to look like he's about to lower it on some unfortunate bystanders on the next drive-by.

This should be a fun squad -- one of the hardest hitting that's available in the vanilla Space Marine codex. The points for a base Command squad with no upgrades seems worth it for the 'Feel no Pain' alone, but some like to load these guys up and make them a "deathstar" unit with Storm Shields and such. I'm leaning towards keeping them on the lower end of the points spectrum, but will probably have a couple plasma gunners since they'll benefit from FnP.

I haven't had as much time to paint lately but I've been touching up things here and there. Here's the Venerable dreadnought after applying the first layer of shining gold.

I'm still working on techniques for putting the finishing touches on some of my previous models. I know for some things I'm just going to have to go back after I've acquired those skills and am a bit more practiced with getting all the details. Slowly but surely.

NOVA Army List #1

From Army Lists

Here's list 1 of 3 that I've been playing around with. The theme of this list centers around what each of the HQs provide to the army; access to Dreadnoughts as heavy support and Bikes as troops. I had already converted the Master of the Forge onto a bike, so I was bound to try this list at some point. The HQ's each go with a bike squad for added punch and survivability. Depending on the opponent/mission, either the Ironclad Dreadnought or 10 man Assualt squad will drop in the most distracting space possible while trying to avoid the ordnance blasts from my Demolisher cannons. The goal is to disrupt the opponent's ability to deal with the number of dreads and vindicators closing on them, which collectively creates a high-stress, high-armour target saturation scenario. The close combat Scouts are in the LS Storm which will hang back in reserves and hopefully steal a late game objective.

This list certainly doesn't go without its fair share of challenges -- very low model count for this points level means I need to deploy smart and utilize cover saves to stay alive. Most importantly, I need to engage the enemy on my terms, namely after they've been softened up by some shooting and in a place where I can get the charge with a heavy hitting bike squad. I'll post my results & feedback when I can get some games in.

Shifting Gears

I've been doing a lot of list building and theory-hammering lately in an effort to narrow down what my "tournament" list will be. I can't wait to play test the latest one that's got me caught up on bikes (I'll get it typed up and posted this week). I'm working on converting a new HQ choice, a Raven Guard Captain on Bike which allows bike squads of 5 or more to be taken as Troops instead of Fast Attack slots. I love the idea of ultra mobile, objective capturing bikes, especially for Raven Guard. But I'm ashamed to say I've had this Ravenwing kit for over a year and hadn't assembled any of the models. The extra motivation that came with building lists which included a couple bike squads as troops gave me the push I was looking for to finally get this box together.

The Landspeeder is taking a little longer than the bikes because it refuses to go together without green stuffing the gaps. I guess I let this one sit too long, much like the dreaded Drop Pods which have a tendency to warp and not go together nicely. I'm going to outfit this speeder with a Typhoon missile launcher and heavy bolter. I've also got a Landspeeder Storm on the horizon, and really hoping that model goes together smoothly as it looks amazing. It will play a vital role in the list as a late game objective grabber. Might even try running two, we'll see.

I took a little break from painting to get some assembly finished and to get some more stuff primed. Will hopefully have some time this weekend to get back to painting the Venerable and Ironclad dreadnoughts.

WIP - Plasma Cannon Dreadnought

I've had this model for quite some time; one of my very first Space Marine models. This guy has seen several iterations over the years; I've even (unintentionally) bled to get this model to the state you see here today:

Back before I got a Dremel (which was an awesome xmas present!) all I had was a small pack of multi-purpose hand files of various shapes. It must have taken me a good 2-3 hours over a couple of sittings to hack the metal Assault Cannon off the arm it was originally molded to. After awhile, I had a pretty good groove going with the same sawing motion, so I thought I could take my attention off what I was doing just a little and onto the TV. That's when I accidentally drove one of the sharp pointed files into the palm of my hand!

But I really wanted a Plasma Cannon equipped dreadnought and this was before they came out with a plastic version... so it was worth it ;-)

I'm also making a little progress on this Techmarine on Bike. This is another metal model I had to saw in half, in the same manner as the dreadnought, just to fit the top torso to compatible biker legs.

Chaplain on Bike

I'm just about finished re-painting this Chaplain on Bike. It was originally painted by a friend to go with his Dark Angels army back in the day, so there weren't too many steps involved to make this into a Raven Guard HQ option.

You can view more pics of this one here. I don't plan on running this guy until I get the rest of my bike squads assembled and painted, but I was in the mood to do this one after I updated the Librarian. Might as well do all the HQ's, Elites, and work my way down from there.

While I was waiting for paint to dry on the Chaplain, I was able to start on the next dreadnought, this one equipped with Plasma Cannon and Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon w/ storm bolter.

I love this model; it's one of the old metal dreadnoughts and sure has been through a lot in the last 10+ years I've had it in my army. I positioned the legs and torso in a way to make it look as though the mechanized walker was taking a step or in motion. I converted the plasma cannon arm from a devastator blister pack -- back then the dreadnought box set only came with an assault cannon, so there was some metal hacking to be done. I'll have more on this model soon.

NOVA Open

Today, I registered for my first Grand Tournament, the NOVA Open. My wife will be joining me and I've promised her an Otakon 2.0 experience minus the fire drill, or at least I hope. It should be a good time. The tournament takes place at the end of August, so I should have plenty of time to finish painting the rest of my primary Raven Guard army. I'd really like to have my Dark Eldar force well on its way to being fully painted by that time too, but there's still a lot of work to be done between now and then. I'm definitely looking forward to playing some more games. I just hope having the whole army painted gives me some better dice rolls!

Raven Guard Dreadnought

I finally finished this shooty Raven Guard Dreadnought, equipped with twin-linked lascannon & missile launcher. This one took a little longer, admittedly, because I broke my own rule of not sticking to one unit at a time. I was distracted by some upcoming projects while I was deciding how to do the dreadnought base.

I started prepping the next 3 dreadnoughts and tried to master the art of dotting eyes on the models with exposed faces/skin. I have a couple more techniques to try out but I hope to yield better results in the near future with a little more practice. One of these "flesh" models is an old Space Marine Chaplain on Bike (far left) that I've started to repaint to match the Raven Guard color scheme. I should have some more on this guy posted soon.

Back to the dreadnought, I knew I wanted to incorporate some stones, ruble, maybe a missile or loose ammo casings, etc. on the base to give a more dynamic feel to the model -- this dreadnought was built from the body of the one included in the Assault on Black Reach (AoBR) 40k box set with the lascannon arm coming from a Venerable dreadnought sprue, and the missile launcher arm which was scratch built from spare Land Speeder Typhoon and hunter-killer missile bits.

I wanted to outfit at least one of my dreadnoughts for long-range armour busting & fire support since the other 5 dreadnoughts in my army are equipped for other tactical and strategic scenarios.

 
Since this dude will probably be hugging cover on the board to avoid being blown up on turn 1, I wanted to highlight the potential nearby foliage / terrain with some green grass on the dread's base. I picked up a canister of Citadel's Scorched Grass at the same time I bought the Dead Grass for the bases with the intent of putting this on my Scouts, snipers, and other models that are more likely to be in cover during the game. This also introduces some more color into the palette and adds variety to bases of the models in the army.

I used some resin material and bits from a basing kit with dead grass on the front portion of the base and green / scorched grass on the back half.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this one turned out. Looking forward to having the rest of the dreadnoughts painted up and on the tabletop soon. You can view more of the most recent dreadnought shots here, and all of the shots taken earlier during the painting process here.

Cheers!