Ben's Blood Drinkers Space Marines - Rank and File Month 3

This month sees my Blood Drinkers 5th Company receive reinforcement from the 1st Company - so not so much rank and file as highly elite, given that 11 models cost a whopping 849 points!

Whole intact squads are somewhat expensive, so they are pieced and patched together from various damaged and incomplete lots, including the plastic Terminator Squad which I think came out with a second edition of Space Hulk - I'm not a massive fan of the whole models, but they provided some useful parts to combine to produce whole suits.

First, squad Galin, the second Terminator Squad of the 1st Company who are close-combat specialists.  The sergeant is based on a Deathwing Sergeant's body, with RT arms donated by my friend.  I bent the Storm Shield arm to cover his front, partly to pose it more naturally, but mainly to cover the detail that had been roughly hacked off the model in a former life.  Two of the Lightning Claws use the plastic Terminator bodies to allow for a little twisting at the waist.  One set of Lightning Claws was liberated of its shoulder pads in a former life, so I mounted them on plastic arms giving them a slightly different pose to the rest of the squad.  Whole metal banner poles seem to be particularly hard to come by so this plastic terminator one was mounted with greenstuff and topped off with a later component from my bits box - unfortunate, but I couldn't justify the expense of an era-appropriate icon.  And lastly, the Heavy Flamer model once was a Wolf Guard, but he seems to fit in OK.

I considered the classic hazard stripes for the power fists but in the end I  felt there was enough contrasting colour with the helmets and skulls all over the place.  (And also I chickened out when I was quite happy with the base colours I'd laid down and didn't want to paint over it with something that might come out worse...)

Second, Squad Calibur, the fifth Terminator Squad, laying down some heavy supporting fire before charging in to chop things up with their chainfists.  I seem to remember the Assault Cannon being the heavy weapon of choice in 2nd Ed, but the Emperor provided me with a Cyclone Launcher - who was I to argue, and the silhouette is pretty cool.  Plastic Terminators again came in handy to replace the Sergeant's missing Power Sword and banner pole (fortunately the banner itself hides the socket that I 'sculpted' from greenstuff).

They are led by Chaplain Grimaldox who is there to provide some spiritual reinforcement and keep these valued veterans firmly away from the path of the Black Rage.  He was a late addition to the force when I decided it needed a character in Terminator Armour to lead it; I didn't think he needed any converting so he is exactly as he was straight out of the paint stripper.  I've slightly modified the half-and-half colour scheme I've been using for my specialists to take into account that Terminators carry the chapter badge on their right shoulder pad, so I made his right half black (the specialist colour for Chaplains) apart from the red shoulder pad, and vice versa - I'm pleased with the effect:

All in all time-consuming to paint but an intimidating presence on the battlefield.  They also complete and surpass my first objective which was to put together a force roughly equivalent to that in the first ever 2nd Ed battle report (Tacticals, Devastators, Terminators, Rhino and Dreadnought).  Next month I plan to go back to the 5th Company (or maybe even draft in some reserves from the 8th Company) for some much-needed mobility and paint some Assault Marines!

Andrea's Space Elves - Month 2, Leader month: the Avatar(s) of Khaine

 Hi OWACERs,

here is my leader for the Leader month: the Avatar of Khaine!

It is the first time I paint this incarnation of the Avatar, having already painted the NewHammer one, and I never used in the battle. Honestly, I wasn't a fan of the model but after this month I can say it is really funny to paint. Unfortunately the model was a little ruined in some details, especially the gems, so it was not completely satisfactory but I liked the exercise of blending the colours to give the fiery aspect. Overall, I am happy with the result.

Well, short after finishing I though that this was the good moment to slap some paints on another model. If the 2nd edition Avatar looks badass, and the 9th edition one looks like the overgrown brother, there is another one that is so much badass-looking that he could sell chunks of badassery at the fish market: the Rogue Trader incarnation!

We say, in Italy, that in the little barrel there is the best wine. Well, I think this is exactly the case!

So, know I have (except for the side track of ForgeWorld ones) all official Avatars, that could help me start an old project: EvolHammer, or how miniature design changed over time (one day I will publish a blog on this). So, I can't keep myself and I have show you the series (Parental Advisory, heresy inside: NewHammer models will appear):

Someone says "scale creep"? The son, the father and the grandfather

And so, for the sake of army points painted, here we have:

The Avatar of Khaine (Leader)........... 300 pts

Well, thank you for looking and see you the next March!

ciao, Andrea 

Ben's Blood Drinkers Space Marines - OWAC IX - Rank and File Month 2

This month, I painted some Devastators, a Techmarine, and my favourite, a Furioso Dreadnought (weighing in at a mighty 290g - so heavy I had to pop this guy on the kitchen scales just to see).  Each have had to have some kind of repairs due to the battle scars they have picked up in their long campaigns, but there's something quite satisfying about restoring these guys to their rightful glory.

The Devastators, from the 5th Company 10th Squad, are armed with tank-busting lascannons and missile launchers.  They have standard Codex markings, using shoulder pad symbols to show they are a devastator squad rather than helmet colour like the Blood Angels, their parent Chapter.  I'm painting my sergeants with blue helmets because red would not stand out.  The sergeant had lost his head so I had to add a new one culled from Warriors of The Imperium plastic set.  I've also snuck in another converted Long Fang for variety, clipping off some of the Space Wolf icons and covering them over with green stuff purity seals.

Unfortunately I've not been able to give banners to the veterans leading the second combat squads, as they did in 2nd Ed, because the backpacks with banner poles are so hard to come by.  However, I've tried to follow the RT/early 2nd edition paint jobs where the heavy weapons are brightly coloured and decorated with flames and checks.

The Dreadnought had lost his banner pole, so I had to replace that with some brass rod and the top from a Dark Angels banner - I carefully scraped away the sword the angel was holding and suggested a grail with some greenstuff.

Finally, I had to include a Techmarine because he is mandatory for the force to include any vehicles.  He had lost his handheld thingummy, so I replaced that with Mephiston's pistol from my bits box - it will be a Master Crafted Plasma Pistol that can fire every turn.  I've continued with the half-and-half colour scheme I intend to use for my characters, half the brownish orange red of the Chapter, half a contrasting more pinkish red of the mechanicum.

Altogether, this came to 751 points:

Ben's Blood Drinkers Space Marines - OWAC IX - Rank and File Month 1

Time flies eh?  I started this year's challenge, painting the Blood Drinkers 5th Company, appropriately with the 1st Tactical Squad and their attendant Rhino, managed to squeeze in a couple of pieces of terrain(a 3D-print designed by Doctor Spork, not scratch built I'm afraid), and all of a sudden it's the end of the month.

My aim was to combine some of the brightness of 2nd edition Space Marines with some Rogue Trader inspired features and some of the markings from John Blanch art.  I used a few new techniques to help things along.  After priming with dark red all over and bright red from above, I used a wash of contrast paint mixed with medium and brown wash to establish the brownish red scheme.  I used a makeup sponge to quickly apply the mid tone and first highlight, and contrast paint to start off the yellow markings, which made the aquilas much easier to paint than I remember.  After finishing the main colours I used a coarser sponge to apply chipping damage.  

I spent a bit of time cutting and repositioning arms to get a variety of poses.  The marine armed with heavy bolter is a Long Fang with some of the Space Wolves detail clipped off, he has a really nice advancing pose I think goes well with a Tactical Squad.

The Rhino started off in an extremely battered state.  I used aluminium tubing to repair the exhaust pipes, WWII tank stowage to replace the missing storage box and cover over badly battered areas of hull, restored the boltguns with those from a bike, and used my son's 3d-printer to replace the roof hatch and dozer blade.  The smoke launchers I unfortunately had to replace with later edition spares.  The paint scheme is mostly 2nd Edition, but with placement of markings somewhat inspired by rogue trader Rhinos.  I may come back to it and apply some more rust and weathering but for now I'm happy enough.

For a bit of variety I painted a Medic in a half and half scheme; I plan to paint all the character models this way.

This came to a total of 431 points:

Lastly, here is my offering, a Kev Adams night Goblin:

Ben's Blood Drinkers Space Marines - OWAC IX - Intro post

For my fourth run at the OWAC I've finally built up enough impetus to attempt a long-held ambition - completing a Space Marine army for 2nd Edition 40K.  I've had a few goes at a Space Marine army in the past, but never finished off an army I was satisfied with.  I took quite a while deciding what chapter to paint as I wanted it to meet quite a few criteria.  It would need to:

• Tie in to some inspiring oldhammer art - probably Space Marines covered in checks and flames by John Blanche
• Contrast with my blue and yellow Alaitoc Eldar from OWAC VII - so not Ultramarines (blue) or Blood Angels (yellow helmets on assault marines)
• Be a bit brighter than the Relictors (dark grey) and Dark Angels (dark green) I've painted before
• Have chapter symbols I could use transfers for - I've never been satisfied with my attempts at hand painting
• Ideally, be a bit different to other armies I've seen before

I therefore decided to paint Blood Drinkers, taking inspiration from the 40K 2nd Edition box art.  Blood Drinkers are described in the Angels of Death Codex as having markings similar to Ultramarines, meaning the 5th company with its black shoulder pad trims would resemble the space marines in the art, and red/black will be bright and contrast nicely with blue/yellow.  I managed to buy some black goblet transfers for the chapter badge online, and could use my stash of generic space marine transfers for the rest of the heraldry.  

I test painted a couple of models to try to decide whether to paint them bright red in the style of the 2nd edition codex, or darker in the style of the original Rogue Trader illustration of Space Marine chapters, and to try out the Rogue Trader yellow stripe on the helmets. I'm still trying to decide!

 

Test painted models

Should I go for brighter red...

Or browner red?  What about the yellow helmet stripe?

Whichever I choose, there will be flames!

Blood Drinkers have been described as having achieved a measure of control over the black rage that affects the Blood Angels and their other successor chapters.  I thought the army would therefore need plenty of Apothecaries and Chaplains to inspire and monitor their brethren.  I decided to collect a diverse, mobile force with plenty of bikes and vehicles rather than an all-out assault army, to give me a variety of units to paint.  

I've tried to keep it all second edition, with a couple of notable exceptions.  As with my Eldar I've used larger bases than the originals - I think they look better and with modern base sizes I can more easily use them in games across editions.  One or two bits and pieces, as few as I could manage, are from later editions - either where I had the parts missing from purchases in my bits box, or where later awesome models were sculpted in the style of the art in a way that no conversion I could do would match (notably the Blood Angels captain).  

I spent ages drilling all the barrels and trying to get the arms, weapons and shoulder-pads all fitting and coherently posed.  I now think the reason I could never get this to work properly as a thirteen-year-old is that they don't actually fit well at all, and need a fair bit of reposing and filling with greenstuff to work.  I did some minor sculpting and conversion to fix broken or chapter-specific parts.  I had my son 3D-print me a few vehicle parts, and I plan to try to press-mould a couple more missing bits.  The result of all this is I've assembled far too many models - around 5,000 points, with a few more characters, scouts and marines to call up once I can find the time, and all the required arms...

To tackle this I therefore decided I had to split it into manageable separate forces.  The first would be a flexible core based on the opening 2nd edition battle report in WD166.  This comes to 1500 points (once I swap the HQ Captain for a cheaper Medic), more or less covers the minimum requirements for an OWAC season if I don't manage to get any further, and, if it was good enough for Andy Chambers it's good enough for me.  I'm now thoroughly looking forward to putting primer to metal!

Space Elves! Intro post - Andrea

 Hi OWACers,

I am Andrea and I going to [continue] painting the Eldar!

This is what, among all things I hoarded in the last years, will be my new challenge:

The family picture of my OWAC9 challenge

But let me introduce myself: I am a happy 50yo guy from Italy, introduced to the Warhammer world in the middle 90s. Started with Warhammer Fantasy 4th ed, later I included also the WH40K 2nd edition; ooooh, great days where those days!

This is not my first OWAC, as I successfully concluded my challenges in OWAC1, 2, and 3... well, then I started the OWAC5 but fell in the field of bone (I dared to paint the Space Wolves: I love and hate them)

My past [successful] OWACs!

So, this year is WH40K again but, this time, with my old good space pointy ears! The list, following the 2nd edition codex:

                                            Unit                                       points

                                            Avatar of Khaine                    300

                                            Farseer                            170

                                            Exarch Howling Banshee      62

                                            Guardian Squad (x6)              66

                                            Guardian Squad (x6)              66

                                            Howling Banshee (x4)           108

                                            Wraithguards (x5)            175

                                            Dreadnought War Demon    160

                                            Wave Serpent                         150

                                            Scatter Laser platform             59                                            

                                            D-cannon platform              55

                                            Total                                     1349

The idea is to give justice to most of my remaining Eldar miniature and to give rise to a small force to properly play Rogue Trader. As you can see there are still many units from 2nd edition: let's say they are useful to get the proper amount of pieces for the challenge, and they will be a due addition to my 2nd edition Eldar army. 

Oh, artwork! As an aspirant Rogue Trader player, I just took one of the wonderful illustrations of that time, which was one of the pictures that hits my imagination the first time I come into contact to sci-fi Warhammer:

For some reason (who knows what I was thinking about in that moment), bases decoration pattern of previously painted RT and 2nd edition Eldar does not match, so it is likely that bases will be a bit different.

OK, let's have a closer look to units which will be (more or less) organized in:

Two leader/monster months 

Two rank&file months (1: two guardian squads; 2: Wraithguards and Banshees)

One Veichle month

(do I said I am loving 3d printing?)

Extra stuff month

That's all, I think, for the moment. Of course, there is more to paint than I presented here but anything more will be surprise ;-)

Good luck to all challenger, may we all finish our goals!

ciao, Andrea

Pokrzyw's Sisters of Battle - Month 6 - Leader Month [475pts]

 "A single man with faith can triumph over a legion of the faithless. Untold billions of the faithful can never be opposed."

Plans for June.

After Mulligan month in May my plans were around finishing inquisitors with retinue. Entry level for June is visible on picture below.

 

Finishing additional sisters shall be bonus. Sisters from Month 3 were chosen.

                                        

Finally lack of canoness makes me sad, so i take small kitbash - seraphim leader with huge mechanical wings acts as a general for whole army (on the right).

Realization

As usual - entering month with procastrination level master, but last two weeks was busy..

Gallery

Points:

• Canoness (jump pack, power sword, plasma pistol) 101
• Redemptor Kyrinov, Arch-Confessor - 121
• Missionary (shotgun) - 25
• Battle Sisters Squad (veteran sister superior, 4 sisters, specialist flamer, specialist hflamer) 228
• Wild card.. 10 models (2 inquisitors, 8+ henchmens)  ?
  
  TOTAL: 475

Whats' next?

I have still about fifteen ladies to paint. Maybe it would be a part of the wrap-up month. I plan also prepare some better photo session, maybe in the heat of battle.