Pre-Heresy Sunday....

It's as hot as Calth outside, so I'm doing some Pre-Heresy Ultramarines today. These chaps join these other fellows: 

As well as these guys:

And these two chaps: 

And this thing:

And their Primarch, whom you may know:

On the battlefields of history. Combined with some Mechanicum and some other things, I might just have a decent Pre-Heresy army.

Year-end Tanks....

In the spirit of the season, I'd like to start off by saying thanks to all of you out there who have made this blog a part of your day, or week, or however often you come back. When starting off I'd thought I'd be just another voice in the wilderness, and the sense of community around the hobby blogs had just been astounding. I've learned a lot from reading and following your exploits in modelling and gaming, as I hope you have from mine, and I hope to continue to do so in the coming year. 

Anyhow, thanks to a little extra free time during the Christmas-New Year's week, I was able to get  a couple of projects out of the way, not the least of which were my first foray into the realm of pattern Rhino hulls for the Ultramarines. The project was initially spurred on by my purchase of a large bits lot that included some ancient metal Predator bits and an old Razorback turret (in addition to those old mk1 Landspeeders featured in an earlier post).  As with other pattern hulls, the resulting tanks always turn out a bit taller than the originals if only due to the expedient of having armor skirts instead of exposed wheels:

My one regret from the model was that I wasn't able to fabricate any satisfactory exhausts, and had to go with these boxy ones that look a bit like old-style Jeep snorkels. Maybe I'll come upon another bit for the next set of them but this'll have to do for now. The round detailing bits are from Greatcoat Infantry sprues, in case you were wondering. Used sprues will always be the scratchbuilder's friend. ;) 

They're a bit wider too, thanks in part to the width of the plastic i-beams I used for the track sections. The end result is a slightly larger, heavier-looking tank that looks more durable than Rhino actually is.   

I resisted the urge to saw off the barrel from Leman Russ autocannon bit, since I rather like using twin-linked Lascannons (thank you, Vendettas) to bore through the armor of those pesky Ork battlewagons. The metal turret bits (yes, I have another one) sat way too low, however; so low that I had to build up the hull under them to get the turret to traverse past the pintle-mounted storm bolter. Luckily I never throw anything out, and had some Chimera hull bits that filled the bill perfectly. A little plasticard and some riveting later, and I had a rather pleasing set-back Predator with an offset turret.

The sponson mounts were from the same bits purchase, and didn't come with mounting arms, so I made do with rare earth magnets. In retrospect, I probably should've added an HK missile box to the side of the turret, but there's always the next one. That metal front plate was from the same lot as well, and had a Blood Angels blood drop that was easily hidden with a spare Ultramarines symbol. I wish I had more stowage bits, having shot my wad, so to speak, with my IG tanks. Oh well. Being ship-based, I suppose Marines need to travel light anyway. 

Some newly-minted Devastators next to their new whip. Another benefit of the larger chassis is that it actually looks like it could accommodate half a dozen power armored Astartes. Ten... that's still pushing it. 

The old-style metal Razorback turret sits high enough that a hull mount like the Pred's wasn't necessary, which is good, because I wanted to be able to remove the turret and have it read as a plain old Rhino. The hinges on the side and rear doors were inspired by the amazing card work of Klaus Fischer, a modelling deity in my book who's right up there alongside Dave Taylor. If you haven't clicked around his site, go and do so. His vehicle builds are absolutely amazing, particularly his airborne tanks and their working retractable weapons. 

Weird to end with a plug, but I write these things off the cuff, so there you go. Thanks to everybody who made this such a great year, and for sticking with me. I wish you all the luck and success in the world, and better 2011.

Fast Attack! Part 2: Bikin' It!

Did I mention my Ultramarine army was taking shape in fits and starts? Really, that was more when I was flush with extra cash and little spare time. Now that the opposite is true, I can start polishing whole sections off in short order. As you can see, they're shaping up to be quite the opposite of my IG army with its static guns and huge, plodding war machines. Indeed, they're shaping up to be quite spry.  You all recognize the Master of the Forge with his bigass Warbike, right? Looks right at home next to his two-wheeled fellows. 

No, that isn't a mirror image. I got these guys for a song, and rather than have both gunners blasting away with their bolt pistols, I had them synch-targeting their multi-meltas with those binocs of theirs. No sense in wasting perfectly good bodies with just attack bikes, now is there? Personally, I like the look of the old, retro bikes better than the new square ones. Of course, not long ago on another forum someone (rather wisely) pointed out that bikes, especially with sidecars, are terrible for broken terrain. 

Flying speeder bikes, on the other hand, are awesome for broken terrain. Some of them were assembled from separate bits auctions, and others were bought whole. Most were fitted with comparatively new plastic bikers, which required a bit of shaving to fit properly. Just who is that techmarine going to crown with that wrench, I wonder? Man at the speed those things fly, that's gonna hurt. There are two of them in that formation, along with a Medic brandishing his surgical tool and a Chaplain leading the way. 

This chaplain was the seed that started it all. I hated the design of the handlebar-less, prow-less Bullock model bike, and made the former from some bits and a cannon barrel, and the latter from a pair of pilgrim shields. That back banner is going to generate some tremendous drag when he's racing along, though, but honestly, he looks cool, so who cares. 

Of them all, this one required the most work. It came to me as the front section, with the handlebars and bolter sheared off. Cheap at the price, so I set to work rebuilding the front with green stuff and a little bolter bit left over from a plastic bike. Then it was on to the rear half, which was a labor of love:

Okay, so I had the undercarriage of a metal Eldar jetbike in my bits box (I'll post the mecha the rest of it went to on a more mecha-centric post). The thrusters are cannon muzzles from an old Battletech Annhilator. As with my other pre-Heresy relics, the metal bits are a nice archaic brass/copper scheme. Basing them's always fun:

The veteran of some ancient battle from days gone by, still brandishing his shield. Don't envy the view he has now:

That heavy-gauge paper clip holds the jetbike up nicely, and won't break like those squirrely plastic rods GW pushes do all the damn time. (I'm not bitter). Of course, some of the posts might be a little high to allow for cover, but I can always cut 'em back a bit. 


With two bike squadrons and four land speeders, do I even need assault marines? 


Hell yeah I do. Especially if I want to run a "Blue Angels" list with Storm Ravens...... 

Fast Attack! Part 1: Land's Speeding.

I'm building my Marine army in bits and pieces on the cheap, and that means hunting for deals and/or making gold out of other people's trash when I can. To that end, I only have one stock speeder, seen top right in this photo. The rest.... well, the rest are motley crew indeed. 

My first kit, as it were, is this thing, made possible by a friend of mine offering a bits box delve as payment for painting a regiment or two of his dwarves. You'll notice the hull isn't exactly STC-standard. It is, in fact, the product of a torn up speeder upper hull and a 1/35 scale jeep, which fit together almost as if they were made for each other. The rest of it made itself, from those wicked forward intakes to the missile pods from some forgotten aircraft kit he'd never assembled. "Go for it man, take your pick." Bryan had said. 

As you can see, it bulks bigger, rides lower, looks meaner. I always thought GW never knew what the hell it wanted out of the landspeeder design, and that it might even change with the advent of new codexes (arguably, it did, into the Storm Raven lol). Anyway, the Typhoon got the usual treatment of paint and script and made it into my air force, followed by the stock kit I got off eBay for  a song. 

I wonder how GW explains the thing touches down with that weird sensor mast thing on the bottom? Shouldn't it be up top for the same reason as the current-model Apache helo's? Oh well. It's fail and I almost sawed it off anyway. Still no visible landing gear on the thing. Maybe they'll fix that (among other things) for the Ultramarines movie. 

One of the big trends out there right now is pre-Heresy builds, and personally I've always liked the older open-cockpit design of the mk. 1 models (not to mention the nice heft of a brick of metal). I got these two as a combination of three or four bits lots, one after the other, over months. The mk. 1 Landspeeder was another one of those models I'd always wanted from the old late '80's but never bought, so now was my chance. 

Yes, those are Sentinel pilots, converted to Marines by virtue of green stuff and extra shoulder pads. Of course, I kept the steering controls and leather helmets, because I thought they looked all old-school and arcane compared to the new Marine stuff. I rebuilt the engine sections from metal and plastic bits, sealing them to the chairs and center section with green stuff and CYA glue. I decided pre-Heresy elements in my force would have a coppery-with-brassy-fittings look to show they were from an earlier time. 

The Mechanicus have upgraded this speeder with a current-model multi-melta. Those chairs and pilots are from the old mk 2. model with the dorky-looking sloping front on it, a design I absolutely hated. The sloping front looked half-assed, and the stubby wings didn't do anything for me, so I skipped the other bits the seller was offering and just got the pilots and their seats. 

So, you tell me, two squadrons of two enough? I see list builds spamming speeder squadrons, but I always thought you needed some bikes in there, too, somehow. 

Heroes of the Imperium Part II: The Venerable Captain....

Following up on the Space Hulk squads of ..... well, weeks ago, I though I'd do a retrospective of models based on the old Terminator Captain, one of my faves from years gone by. 

First up, my first marine ever. This captain model has been stripped, re-posed, and repainted. I formed a couple of metal sprues into relief panels for his armor, but otherwise left the model untouched. I miss the old rules for captains having grenade launchers on their power gloves. Nowadays, they can't even have terminator-armored command squads.

The new terminator captain, while pleasantly metal, is almost too well-sculpted to convert. While a nice hero model, I somehow still prefer the grim, determined look of the older model. I had really intended this posting to be a showcase of conversions of the older model, so he's stuck in here for contrast. The rest of the models you'll see are all conversions of that first captain model. Two of them (that first model and the next one) came with the original sets I bought waaaay back in 1989, and the rest from eBay.

A Black Templars captain, dressed up with cape, banner, and a massive claymore in his power glove. That chainmail banner sat in my bits box for a long time before I found a use for it. The big sword is from a Grenadier ogre-sized orc.

Another view, so you can see truly how big the damn sword is. You can chop into a tank with that thing, jeezus. 

I went a little further with this Chapter Master. The head is from a SM tank crewman, and the bits are from a few ranges, not the least of which the WHF plastic Flagellants and the Dark Angels/Black Templar expansions. His right shoulder guard is a plain old lead termie arm, covered with green stuff and imprinted with an Ultramarines symbol from the drop pod sprue. The combi-plasma is an Obliterator bit on an old-school storm bolter. That bigass spear is a composite:

The blade, the hilt and the eagle are from three separate kits, all held together by pins, prayers and good intentions. I've never used this model in combat, but as I own more than fifty terminators, many of them won't. Maybe when I finally play a game of Apocalypse, some time in the unknown future.  

Belial, the master of the Deathwing. His armor color is reversed from the standard Deathwing white, but his tabard more than makes up for it and the dark treatment adds makes the model that much more moody. I thought about giving him the sword instead of the Templar captain, but I though the glaive looked better, and it allowed me to give him a plasma pistol mount on the blade, Grey Knight style.

That right shoulder pad is made of a storm shield, of all things, and the bit fits perfectly into the shoulder socket. I like the look of it, and might use it on future terminator models. That right arm is plastic as well, with a hole cut into the fist for the glaive, which is a pretty solid bit. The shield I made him is actually two WHF tower shields, held together by green stuff and that Dark Angel icon. Underneath all those bits, this is an old-school model, just like the first one you saw. 

Heroes of the Imperium Part I: SPACE HULK!

I always regretted missing the chance to buy a copy of the original, with its magazine supplements, crappy terminator models, and really solid rules set. Nevertheless, GW decided to re-release it late last year, and I preordered a copy without delay (which is a good thing, because it sold out in about a day). When the great big box appeared on my doorstep, I was in heaven. $100 for so many plastic minis is a steal no matter how you slice it. The ones they cranked out for this box had flaws from the robosculpting, but... that'll be covered another time. It took me two weeks to get everything from the box painted up. Here are the Terminators:

These sculpts are in many way the pinnacle of quality for GW's work, and at the same time you can tell they were rushed through. There are details that are fine from the front, but they were only lasered away from that angle too. When you turn them to the side, the cut continues straight back. This required a lot of sneaky painting involving darkening certain parts to make them "recess" into the shadows of the model. The Genestealers were especially heinous in that regard, despite also being incredibly great models, but we'll cover them in a future post. An unexpected bonus was this fellow:

Probably one of the coolest objective markers, ever. I painted him in darker colors than the standard Blood Angels to denote the extreme age of him armor. He was obviously a hero before he died on the space toilet, so his armor would've been old and scored when he was alive.  Since Space Hulk is a Blood Angels story, that's how I painted them. Besides, it would have taken forever to file off all that imagery and replace it with something else. Also,  I already have more than enough Ultramarines. 

There they are, the first Citadel minis I ever bought so many years ago. I still love the old Terminator model. I think it's one of the nicest designs in their inventory, and that's saying a lot. These were painted badly long ago, and more recently stripped, re-posed, re-based, and re-painted. They've never seen the inside of a Space Hulk either; only ever a 40k battlefield. Of course, being Ultramarines, there are ton of them in my collection. Group photo, lads!

Go ahead and click on it for the large version and count, if you want. There are 35 of them in there. I prefer to field my Terminators in squads of 10. I'd combat squad them out, but until they become 2-wound models with 6 toughness to reflect the fluff text, well, I'll stick with the larger squads. To date, the only plastics in my collection, besides the Blood Angels, are 5 plastic Thunderhammer models. I wanted to finish out the squad, and an excuse to try the new multi-part ones.  You'll note in the photo are other models that didn't get photo-write-ups (such as the Chapter Master with his massive spear) but rest assured you'll see them featured later, in detail. 

I liked the 1st box of metals so much I went and got another one, but many of those models made their way to other chapters, mysteriously. Shown here are what remains, joined by a pair of Deathwing-specific tactical models. This was the result of more of the same restoration process detailed above, with the addition of a bunch of Dark Angels parts and gear from an eBay bits buy. The massive halberd Belial is carrying is actually a weapon from a Grenadier ogre, embellished with a plasma pistol. If the right arm shield looks odd, it's because it's a Dark Angels-specific storm shield. I wanted to save detail pics of him for the next post in the series.... so I will. Sorry. Likewise the Librarian, who looks a lot better than the more spartan version he came as, thanks to bits from the Flagellant sprues, which continue to be the gift that keeps on giving. Seriously, if you have any Imperial armies, get one of those sets. You will not be disappointed. 

The Black Templars Captain is another classic conversion with an oversized Grenadier Ogre weapon in his fist, this one a massive claymore. Seriously, the ogres had weapons in their hands and came with metal bits in their blister, including more ogre-sized weapons. Actually, now that I recall the line is called "Mercenary Orcs" (and is still in production) but I'll call them ogres because A) they're ogre-sized and B) make up my Ogre Kingdoms army. This squad is also unique because it features a Chaplain. The BT's apparently don't do Librarians, and more's the pity. I decided to dress him up a bit with bits and gave him a cowl, as well. Cutting through that metal torso to re-pose him was incredibly time-consuming, and not something I'd willingly repeat on another model. Besides, the Terminator loses about 3mm in height, and he's already that much shorter than the plastic model.  

The Grey Knights are just so damn cool it makes you sweat. Their detail is as baroque as it gets, their weapons are extra-cool gun/melee hybrids (at least, they were) and they're all psykers with super-swoopy powers. If a squad of them entered a Space Hulk given the psyker abilities in that ruleset... well, it just wouldn't be fair to the monsters. That said, 5 of the 11 models shown here didn't start life as Grey Knights at all. Captain Lysander you recognize, but the other 4 are Terminators that have been rescued from the bits box and given weapons, armor, and bits. One of them even has a titan purity seal on his halberd, and another a "storm bolter gauntlet" made from an old Rogue Trader Dreadnought hand. Don't ask me how that ended up in my bits box. It will make you cry. Just leave it be. 

An Adeptus Mechanicus Archmagos in Terminator armor. The Deathwing are, to date, the only chapter with Terminator models outside the standard (that being a medic; in the previous codex they also got a techmarine), so this fellow is a bit of an oddity. He started life as Obliterator, and rapidly hoovered up good bits and green stuff until he became the monstrosity you see here. He and the army that I field with him owe their existence to a write-up of an AdMech army created by the fantastically talented Dave Taylor. While mine have taken rather a different path than his, I still give him full credit for inspiring them. 

Part II of this series will feature character models, many of them Astartes, not all in Terminator armor. As for what's coming next, I think we'll segue into Warhammer Fantasy for a little while. 

Seats 12 Comfortably...

One of my (many) complaints about Games Workshop has been the scale of their models, and how something like a Land Raider couldn't possibly accommodate 10 little Marines, much less 5-8 Terminators, plus all the guts you'd expect a tank like that to have. That coupled with the price caused me to resist buying their overpriced model and thus from fielding a Land raider in any of my armies. Then I happened into my local hobby store and found a fantastic WWI mk I Male kit from Emhar:

Here's what he looks like on the box. When I got my first White Dwarf (issue 115! woo!), this was what Land Raiders looked like: big angry monsters with wraparound treads. That prow even look like it could open up. It doesn't, of course, and converting it to do so would've compromised the structural integrity of this kit, which, in my opinion, is far from being the greatest in the world. However, it's big enough and angry enough to make a fantastic Land Raider:

I bought a set of LR sponsons and hatches dirt cheap from a retailer on eBay, and off we went converting. The side sponsons took a bit of cutting mount the LR lascannons, but the sizes were dead on from the get-go, which made this thing go together in an afternoon. I didn't even lose any articulation on the sponsons. After that, it was just a matter of glueing hatches and radar/missile launcher bits on to taste. The thing looks like a little rolling battleship.

There's my old metal Terminator Captain, having just jumped out the front hatch. I had a bunch of scrolls and eagles left over from my old Leman Russ cloning project (to be seen here later), which went a long way towards Imperial-izing the tank. In hindsight, I wish I'd added a periscope or something for the driver to peer through, but the thing seems to have enough little red-eye sensors on it that I don't mind. One of my biggest gripes about the kit are the rubber treads, which, while wide and tread-y looking enough, were the devil to glue together and secure to the tank. I was doing this on the cheap and didn't want to go looking for 40k treads when a pair came with the kit, but man, if I had to do it again, I would. 

I bought a set of Flagellents on eBay as infantry for my Adeptus Mechanicus army, and it turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving. Those little scrolls, bells, and things are fantastic for detailing, and really dress up practically everything in the GW range. I suppose at some point it's a little too much, but, as with everything, the key is to use juuuuust enough. If that weren't enough, I went back and added some scripting next to the hatches and things, as you do with military vehicles. For some reason, I love the engine section with the slim twin-exhausts:

I suppose if I were going for a truly mk.1 Land Raider look, I would've put the Lascannons in an over-under configuration, but the side-by-side guns just looked cooler.If Forge World were honest, they would've made a true "pre-Heresy" Raider with wraparound treads  and different detailing, rather than just a stock new LR with over-under sponsons. the thing just looks half-assed and a little sad. C'mon FW, you put so much effort into your super-heavies! Speaking of which, next to the (undersized) Rhino, this thing approaches SH size:

Although it's not that much taller. Oh well. I like the Redeemer and Crusader designs enough to want to build another one, but for now I have other things I want to work on...