New From Forge World

As I'm on an extra I don't have background data on my phone so don't get emails, so I only catch stuff when it crops up on Facebook, like this. These are new from Forge World for Mechanicus and in the Facebook post hint loudly that Mechanicus will get fleshed out at some point. Quoting from memory here as I rolled a 1 on my Technomancy, " These are only for a secutur Mechanicus army although in the future there might be a way to make them more flexible".
The way I read that Mechanicus is getting a Horus Heresy army, maybe even Martian Civil War will be covered in a volume of the Heresy.

By the way these are Tech-Thralls with Las-Locks.

Chosen Formation And Bikes.

Day off yesterday and I attended to some of my Marines, notably the Chosen, I spent a while dry brushing the robes on all 10, after I'd gone over the 2 sephia painted ones with ushabtii bone and given them a nuln oil wash. I like dry brushing, it requires little effort but yeilds great results. I plan to go over the 2nd squad as well to lighten them up on Friday. Onto the bikes, well sprayed the 2 attack bikes and one bike shiny black, these I'll be going over with gw black on Friday morning or my next chance. The riderless bike I'm planning on making into a Chaplin. As you can see all bikes of both Y Unhallowed and The Lion's Blades have been touched up to more closely match the other so they don't look out of place when I try running a Ravenwing Army.

Trawling Through The Forge World Site

I happened to be looking through the Forge World site today, drooling over all the shiny things and dreaming of a 69p an hour pay rise rumored to be coming our way (can we say bride to vote Tory?) and was reading the headline for the Contemptor Dreadnought Talon;

Regarded by many as the most powerful Dreadnought in the arsenal of the Great Crusade, the Contemptor is a relatively recent design. It incorporates arcane systems drawn from the ancient and guarded lore of the Legio Cybernetica as well as traditional Dreadnought technologies, principally an antomantic arc-reactor which grants it greater speed and strength and a defensive energy field. These advantages over the Lucifer and Castraferrum patterns mean that the Contemptor is constantly in high demand.

As some will know I have a thing for Dreadnoughts. It has been suggested I have a problem... But reading that give me hope of 2 other designs, Lucifer, will this be based on the Cataphractii Terminator armour and the Deamon Engine released last year? And the Castraferrum who knows what this could look like. I'm hoping something is heard about these at some point

Old Minis and Current Project

So joined another group on Facebook last night and got a couple of photos to show off my old gear, the Deathwing Knights made from the Chucks along side the Rouge Trader Techmarine with the modern Servo Harness and the orginal Venerable Dreadnought. Next up is the next Chosen Sqaud, I was digging in my Knights of Blood box and found 2 robed guys that I've added to the squad to make a second full 10 Marine Chosen Squad. I need to repaint those 2 to match the rest of the squad, also taking the bikes out the back and get those sprayed black today.

Rumor Control

Right a lot of panic is going around, a lot of stupid too. GW 'merica is to gorram big to be run from Nottingham, plus the import and export duties, it does not make economic sense to have GW America run from Nottingham. GW might be able to run Europe from Nottingham but I doubt that as well. This sounds like a Canary Trap, news to 'good' to be kept quiet, each suspect given a different version of the story, France/Germany/Spain closing, so they can find the leak.

Next Squad

So finished the first squad of the narsty narsty Chaosy Khorne Berzerkers and made them into nice Dark Angel Successor Chaptor Assault Marines. The Veteran Sgt is one of my first conversions, he started out as the Captain in the Blackreach box set, I changed the chest piece and head and have added the axe, with all the broken bits from the 'zerkers I'm sure I'll find a right hand for him somewhere. Above is the second squad that I'm going to start later. And in the last photo we have the bikes that I picked up from the post office this morning taking my 2nd Company to 2 full squads, I'm thinking of repainting the 3 Lions Blades bikes so they match the Y Unhallowed bikes a bit more, and say that the red is a veteran status mark. The blue and silver bikes look okay, the silver and red attack bike is loaded with paint so I'm going to have to tidy that one up before I get round to painting it.

Little Steps

First chance to do something since sunday. Really all I got done yesterday and today is in the photo; the Assault Squad has had arms taced on and belts and chains painted, also added the Vet Sgt to the unit. Above them are the robed vets that are going to become a Chaos Chosen Squad. With not much time today so only got the scarlet belts and bits as well as the helmet stripe.

WIP Week begining 13/1/14

Got 9 of the nasty, nasty Khorne Berzerkers (nasty as in Chaos following, not a statement about the state of the models when then arrived) out of their little box over the weekend and gave them a coat of black, I also got the robed veterans out of the case and started taking arms off them so I can fit them to the Berzerkers and make them into my Assault Squads. This unit looks good so far, just need to add some detailing to the black armour, like colouring on the belts, chains and bolt shells and to try them with Jump Packs for size, and of course some normal power packs. The robed vets are being made into Sgts for the The Lions Blades and also for the The Unhallowed, if I have enough of course as I intend to make 10 of them into a Chosen Bodyguard for Cypher in The Unhallowed. The Dev Squads in The Lions Blades didn't get any robed as I feel that the Veteran upgrade, with it's +1 attack and +1 leadership, isn't really worth it when the unit is designed to sit in a hard point and shoot sh...tuff. The 2 Chaos Marine Squads and the 2 Havoc Squads in Y(pronounced "the", see you're even learning Welsh here!) Unhallowed will get their Champions replaced, the current Chosen Squad won't as they were made from Khorne Berzerkers as well and look good as they are. Just now need to decide if I want to to change the Lord to a robe or not as I think that if I do do that I'll have 3 Veterans spare with The Chosen bodyguard for Cypher.

Speak Of The Devil

It seems like just yesterday I was taking about waiting and seeing what other Terminators Forge World would bring out that I could proxie for Lightning Claws Assault Squad that Tiberus The Red Wake grants your Charcadon army as a troop choice and today Forge World gives us The Red Butchers. While a little over decorated for Charcadons with a little filing and filling I'm sure I can make them into the unit I want. I was of course planning on actually waiting for the rumored Saturina Pattern Terminator Armour for this unit but these look brutal and intimidating, just what you'd expect from The Charcadons/Knights Of Blood.

Yesterdays WIP, Doesn't Look Like Much I Know

Right so had a day off yesterday and got working on those Khorne Berzerkers. I know it looks like I haven't done a lot, but trust me a lot got done. I took some arms and all back packs off, as well as those stoopid bunny ears. While taking all the bits off I found some of the large back pack that I like and one of them was put to one side. I broke some arms and a couple of packs came off in bits but thats fine as I intend to take the arms off the vet and swop them over and give them jump packs more often than not. The pack I had put to 1 side was painted black, I added the feathers from my counts as Gabriel Seth and waited for the paint and glue to dry, I did this so the power pack matches the prototype Terminator armour I have made up for my counts as Tiberus The Red Wake, my plan for the Knights Of Blood is to run them as Counts As Flesh Tearers, if they get a supplement (unless The Knight of Blood get a supplement as well) and also as a Counts As Charcadons. I'll wait and see what other varient Terminator Armour Forge World bring out for the Horus Heresy to use as the Troop choice of Lightning Claws Terminators that Tiberus grants you. Oh yes I forgot,I've also added a photo of the new Dr. Who in costume

The Lion's Blades 2nd Company

So over Christmas my 2nd Company got reinforced with the addition of the Land Speeder Vengence and after I finished painting it up in The Lion's Blades colours I thought I would dig out the rest of The Lion's Blades 2nd Company and and get some photos of them. I didn't realise how many I had gathered...

My Land Speeder Vengence, after getting some other minis out of the carry case I noticed that I had done the pladrons the wrong way round, so not finished just yet. I've also added a red veterans stripe to helmets of the crew as that seemed like a good idea.

11 Bikes? I had no idea I had that many... 3 are Space Marine bikers and the rest are Chaos Marine Bikers,I need to repaint these 2 so I can field them in both armies as currently Y Geiriadur have 2 4 Marine bike squads. Will have to add a bit more screaming beige skull and scarlet to the 2 bikes, pick up another lone bike and add 2 attack bikes to them to make 2 full Ravenwing Squads. I really did not know I was that close to 2 full squads.

My Ravenwing Command Squad, massively converted, mounted on Fantasy Empire Demigryphs. I do intend to add some more to this unit, just not yet, and my Librarian on a bike. This is the 2nd ed Chaos bike and a knocked up conversion with an Elf sword as a Force Weapon.

The 3 Land Speeders I have, 2 Tornados that can be assigned to the 2 squads and a a Typhoon, now I know I can file magnets down and not loose anything look for the weapon pods to look better soon.

The Nephilim Jet Fighter, I fully expect this machine to distract the enemy shooting for turn 1 and get blown out of the sky. If I add in some of my Terminators, scout a bike squad forward, and deep strike a termi squad in in my movement phase, and I have first turn, it might get into the 2nd turn. Going back over this I still intend to add a counts as Sammael, I'm just not sure if I'm going to buy an old metal jet bike off ebay, wait to see what other jet bikes Forge World bring out, or go ahead and buy the Scimitar pattern and some energy blasts to look like exhaust blasts. I do intend to buy the Javelin class Land Speeder for a counts as Ravenclaw

And these guys came threw the post this morning, 18 khorne Berzerkers that I intend to hack up, file down and repaint into the 2 assault squads for the Lion's Blades 3rd Company. The robed veterans I get spare out of this are staying spare for now, apart from the ones I need to give the Tactical Squads and Assault Squads a ribed vet as a Sgt.

Land Speeder Vengence WIP

So part of the plan already finished, painted up the Vengence in the colours of the XIX Orders 2nd Company. I decided to add a red stripe to the helmets to denote veteran status of the 3 Marine crew. I've also taken the plasma cannons off, one came off nice and easy, t'other one broke the stud off so I've had to magnetise it. I filed out a recess in the turret and cannon for the magnet and then had to file the magnet down as it wasn't square. It still isn't but at an angle you don't see it. Next step will be to get the pieces together to mock up  something that can pass off for a Dark Shroud.

Getting Cracking On The Plan Already

Got home from an extra shift today, got to love people that phone in sick, to find a nice big brown parcel, and a big box (well I'd actually picked the box up before going into work but that makes a better story)  and I'd just won a lot on ebay of 18 Khorne Berzerkers as well, that I intend to paint up and replace my robed veteran minis with. The vets will be used to replace the Sgts of the 3 tactical squads, the assault squads and dev squads, not sure what I'll do with the left overs for this swop.
Escalation was in the brown paper parcle, so The Poxy Proxy Banesword now has the offical data sheet and might be getting more conversion done it as it's allowed 2 pairs of sponsons. It already has twin linked heavy bolters and las cannons, so I'm thinking of adding the heavy flamers and las cannons to the front corners possibly using the flamers I've magnetised for the Land Speeders, I just need to find 2 las cannons to magnetise as well.
I now have a Vengence Land Speeder, that one came out of the big box, still don't know if there's a skimmer base in the box as it's securely packaged. I'm thinking of adding the vault bits from the Dark Talon and some other DA bits I have knocking around to see if I can get a passable Dark Shroud knocked up. Of course all these projects will get coverage on tbe blog.