Stormraven WIP

 Restoration Kitbash

Space Marines are known for their many Rites of War, although I think none of them involve flying ass first into combat while operating the controls with your chest and feet.

Since my 2nd edition army challenge didn't get done quite in time for this month's deadline, I though I would feature some of the modeling table distractions that threw off my progress this month.  Readers may remember that back in August I picked up an incredible deal on the secondary market to get some of the Indomitus goodies I wanted.  Included in the grab bag of other space marines that were thrown in with the things I wanted in the purchase was an "as is" Stormraven.  The model had a beautifully painted scenic base, but the model itself was only silver basecoated, and missing a VTOL thruster pair, turret guns, one of the pieces of interior detail, and a rear hatch door.  However the most egregious error was that the cockpit cover had been glued down with the pilot marine unpainted, missing arms, missing a head, and not attached to the pilot's chair so he just rattled around inside.  

To hopefully solve this dilemma I soaked the whole model in my preferred paint stripping solution and fortunately the original modeler had used super glue and not plastic cement.  After a few days soaking the cockpit cover and the cover for the turret gunner position both came off easily without damaging the model.  Now that I had access to the pilot I remedied his lack of head and arms with some bitz box dive kitbashing.  He got the head of a Ravenwing Black Knight, I love space marine helmets with a communications antenna, it sells the pilot role for me visually on Land speeder pilots, bikers, and anywhere else I think marines would need enhanced communication abilities.  He received and outstretched 2nd edition arm left arm with a hand swap to make it look like he was moving fingers over the controls.  A little cutting, green stuff, and repositioning took care of his right arm that at least in my imagination looks like it's wielding the control stick for the heavy flyer.

It took a little time but was very fun and surprisingly inspirational.  Getting the pilot right and knowing that I could paint the cockpit interior the way I wanted instead of just painting over the clear plastic made me excited enough to start digging into this project months ahead of schedule.  My Dark Angels have been defeated many times over the years by my most frequent opponent who alternately heads armies of Death Guard or Heretic Astartes, so I'm hoping this "flying Land Raider" can help break the deadlock and get the 1st Legion some wins.  Next up after painting the cockpit and pilot, is magnetizing some assault cannons for the turret gunner position.

Genestealer Attack!

Roots Of Madness

I spent so much time staring at this picture when I was twelve.  I had never seen such a detailed multi-level diorama that told a story with so much drama and action in stationary models.

To show how much my fascination with the lore of WH40K as illustrated in the many works of the GW studio and 'Eavy Metal permeated my mind almost constantly as a teen, I found this sketch the other day that I drew when I was 12.  This would have been around the winter spring of 91-92 as I was really immersing myself in any GW material I could get my hands on and definitely the result of hours spent staring at the above diorama which was featured on the back of a How To Paint Citadel Miniatures guide that sadly is no longer in my collection.   Is it the random luck of the dicing universe this sketch came back to the forefront of my attention in relative proximity to the time when I found a mediocre picture of that classic diorama on Facebook?  Like the Tootsie Roll pop, the world may never know...

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge WIP

 Squad Scalprum 

This squad did not get finished in time for this month's army challenge deadline but I thought I'd post a WIP shot of my progress so far.  The heavy bolter and missile launcher in this squad will help round out the "one of each kind" style that many Devastator squads in the pages of White Dwarf had in the early 90's.  The sergeant for this unit is also the only true 2nd edition pewter veteran sergeant model I have, bought long ago in the days when I was building my 3rd edition army.  A fatal combination of the the level of detail on the miniatures and some distracting side projects this month led me to not wrapping them up in time but hopefully I'll be posting finished pictures of them by the end of the month.

Capitol Imperialis!

 

#DadGoals Dawn Of War

 In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future...

My greatest nemesis... Unpainted terrain in the foreground of game photos.

As a measure of the long and winding road between reality and when I manage to complete a thought and post it, this latest #Dadgoals commemorates my 10 year old's first official game of WH40K that we played way back in late August.  We kept it very simple, just two troops units and an HQ on each side and we played the Patrol mission from the Dark Imperium box set with a slight alteration to the deployment since we only had three units per side.  Also in the interest of ease of first game play, we used the at this point well worn 8th edition rules.  I still need to learn 9th edition rules myself and it was nice to teach game rules that fit on one four fold card.  As usual with any of our match-ups my son won the game, but I may have mercifully forgotten to rapid fire a plasma gun a few turns in a row so as not to dishearten him by wiping out too many of his models in a turn.  He had a lot of fun and we will probably play some more games this winter after our current addiction to Blood Bowl wears off.  Follow along after the jump for some more pics of the action...

Warhound Titan!

 Insert Dog-related Pun Title Here...

Thursday Night Legion Lights

 Or Star Wars Under The Stars...

My gaming friend made his own Endor tree trunks with poster tubes, modeling clay, and a lot of brown paint.

The Stormtroopers advance slowly under the Endor trees, wary of being crushed by large rolling logs.

Thanks to mild fall weather here on the east coast of the US, I have been able to play some in person games outside on my neighbors back porch.  He only started painting miniatures a little over 18 months ago but he already has a massive Legion collection that is really nicely painted, especially for someone relatively new to the hobby.  He has his patio illuminated in a manner that makes these pictures look like they were taken during the day, even though it was actually 10pm.   Legion is so much fun to play, there is something magical about getting to play a game with a great looking army that would have blown your mind when playing with Star Wars action figures as a kid.  This situation is also ideal when you already have mounds of grey plastic for other gaming systems at home in need of paint.  My friend bought two armies and painted them all himself so I can just show up and enjoy an amazing looking game with out adding to the long list of things I need to paint.

More Space Ork Banners

 Notify The Commisar Immediately!

This weeks banner installment includes another suspicious proto-symbol under the guise of Space Ork Raider banners.  The "Victory Banner" on the far right looks very similar to one interpretation of the noble badge of the Tanith First and Only...

A Hundred Yards Over the Dreadtober

 Red Corsairs Helbrute Final Pictures 

Since the generous coordinator of Dreadtober has given us an extra week to add any finishing touches we need to round out our projects.  Even though I had this guy "battle-ready' last week, I felt like the model was a little flat overall.  I tried to counter that by painting all the trim Boltgun Metal which helped to make it a little more visually exciting, I think.  The white also had some highlights added, as well as details on the Dark Angels helmet on the base.  Painting that helmet in the colors of my chosen chapter seemed most appropriate since I'm sure this Helbrute will be most often used by my son in opposition to my 1st Legion forces.  Thanks to Marc at Old School Gaming who coordinated this years project and made a cool badge for everyone who participated.  Be sure to check out the final post on the Dreadtober site that will be coming sometime in the next few days, there were a lot of amazing entries this year.

I've been trying to do some photo alterations to make my pictures look more like the miniatures do in real life but obviously I'm not quite there yet ;-)