My Phoenix' Sons, Stormtalon finished

Holy Cow...Mephison is Awesome.
Veeeeery nice sculpting there

here's two pics of the painted Mephiston. The colours are chosen to make him fit into my army, therefore, flames were needed somewhere and also some hawk turquoise as all of my librarians are fielding this colour. (And because i really fell in love with this colour on the very first time that i tried it out...)





Like i said before, the goatskulls don't look that bad after they received some paint. I attended a nice tournament (hey, i didn't make the last place this time, i've climbed up to #20 of 24... ) and got some questions about this model and most people thought i had used the normal model but converted it. Overall, i got very positive feedback on him. And he'll have a place in my next lists, too. He did an awesome job, killed a Leman Russ and a Hellhound in the first game, even though he only decided to stop by at turn 3. He killed two squads of imps and a chimera in the second game where he also drew a lot of fire onto himself without getting harmed (unlike most of my other guys.... uhhh, what a bad game). The third game was very funny, this time against Black Templars. I used him to have a potential threat close at the enemy and then strike at his dreadnought, killing it at ease, moving on to the immobilized LRC (which had shovels on it that didn't prevent it from rolling two 1sies when entering terrain...). This was the only game where he got a scratch - because he missed his psy-check at 2. Seems like Mephiston can be a real bad [I Swear Too Much]. I don't know what he's worth in a game against Eldar, Grey Knights or Tyranids, but otherwise... 'let them come!'




that was my 2000pts force. 2 5man squads in a Land Raider each, a large Death Company (again, it wasn't worth taking these guys...) with a priest riding a Redeemer, a 10man squad with jump packs and a Sanguinary Priest following them and finally, Mephiston. A better player than me would not have fared that bad like i did. I still have to learn a lot concerning playing this game. I'm building, converting & painting stuff, but only get to play a few games a year. But at least i'm always having fun.


The next tournament that i want to attend is about 1600pts, so i needed another force. Since my last 1500 layout had fared real real bad, i changed it completely. One new thing for me is a trike that would fit in that list real nicely. I don't own any trikes, but i'm the proud owner of a gazillion bitz...



The fluff is simple. No-one of my guys would ever take a ride on something like a bike when he could travel around flying with his jump pack. The only thing that comes close to that is going by a flying bike, or, simply put, a jetbike.

And it has nothing to do with the fact that amongst all of my bitz there only were one and a half tyres in all...





the base. More pics to come soon

here we go, the bike is done and painted, the rider is almost done, too.









these pics are showing the rider without his right arm. I've attached it after glueing the rider onto the bike. But no other photos yet, sorry.

Another thing i've put into this 1600pts lists is two of the 'imba'-version of the Razorback. Problem is, i didn't have the turrets to do so. Therefore, i've made two las/plas-turrets by myself. I used 2 plasma pistols and a lascannon from a Predator's side sponsons for each turret. The optics are from the Aegis defense line kit, the rest is made from plasticard.

Very nice conversion and very nice painting, thus a great combo.

Shouldn't there be some sort of intake on the jet bike? Other than that, love the model and might have to adopt them for my ravenwing. Well done and nice paint.

There seems to be ones underneath for the rear thrusters. Don't know if those bike wheels are even suppose to be thrusters, but rather anti-grav thingamajigs.

Only complaint I have is the IG hull heavy bolter on the right wing. The cloth/rubber cover sort of ruins it for me. Couldn't you have used a multi-melta or heavy flamer with similar mounting to the left wing gun?

But that's about all I have to say about that. Otherwise it's a nice bike.

here's what i've been working on the last few weeks:



now some pics of my finished 'trike'. Yep, there are jet intakes, right behind the feet of the rider. And hey, it's the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, where clothes are made of adamantium. So there won't be any danger of sucking the clothes into the intakes. (Just in case anyone starts to ask... ). Also, you'll notice that i've used that hull heavy bolter thing for an optics array. I simply was using what was at hands. I wanted to get rid of some bits, i didn't have a real plan how it should be looking in the end, but i'm pleased with the final outcome.










already shown in the first pic, here are the other troops i've finished these days:



two more jumptroopers painted. The one with the melta has been built especcially for this event. Until now, i was always using troopers with inferno pistols.




here are the 5 Deathcompany guys i'll use in that 1600pts force. Only one of them had been painted to this level, now all of them are done. Both troopers in the front are new at this club, the left one has been used in the last game, but was only halfway painted. The one with the hammer is completely new. Now there are only 3 guys left that'll need some paint, but since they're not included in this force, they'll have to wait some more.




7 snipers with cloaks. The five in the back are plastic ones, while the two in the front are metal ones. These two have been the very first miniatures to receive a decent paintjob. Throughout the years, some paint has been chipped off, so i decided to repair these while giving a nice paintjob to the others.

Now i'll have to wait for some better weather to give them all a sealing and i can move on to some normal troopers.

Wow, that's a cool jetbike. I like what you did with the wheels on the bottom. Very smart.

the jetbike rocks! nice paintjob on the other minis too.

Awesome goodies all around mate. Great speeder, and I love the look on your Death Company.

I've been able to play a few games today, one with my latest 1500pts setup and two skirmish style 200pts games. Well, i didn't build new models for it, but used my Sternguard veterans that were already built plus two guys from my Deathwatch Killteam...



As you can see, my Sternguard has only some basic layers slapped on at the moment, the paintjob on them has to wait yet.

I have to admit that i really liked what the Sternguards were able to do. But first, i should tell a thing about the setup:
Sergeant with Combi-Melta and single lightning claw, +1 LD (for beeing the taskforce leader), + Furious Charge (as beeing elected one of 3 veterans)
Trooper with heavy flamer + Feel No Pain (veteran #2)
Trooper with Combi-Melta, +1 BS (veteran #3)
3x Trooper with Combi-Melta
makes 200 pts. in all

shooting at 30 inches with a bolter is really nice. But the shot of the day was done by the imperial fist's Deathwatch Member. He killed a chaos terminator at 24 inches with a venemous bolter round. Hitting at 2+ and wounding at 2+ is simply excellent. And if your opponent's luck is out, he'll roll the 1. Yep, he did. Another trooper killed another termi with a melta shot, but that's nothing compared to the venemous shot

In two games, the flamer guy tried to shoot one time. And was about half an inch out of range. But i think it's still a nice choice. And 'feel no pain' has saved his [I Swear Too Much], too. The other guys were nice, but didn't do that very much harm. The sergeant killed a termi in close combat, but only with the help of a truckload of luck as the advancing chaos termi (equipped with lightning claws and +1 Attack (veteran) ) didn't hit with any of his 5 attacks in the first round of combat, where my sergeant also didn't hit anything. Next turn, both guys killed their opponent.

After all, these were some nice and easy games on a sunny day. What's better than that?

Well, now i can tell you what's definetely NOT better than that. Having trouble with your landlord...

So, while beeing busy with real life trouble, i didn't get to do much on my plastic men. Also, i won't attend the tournament that i was building my 1500pts list for. dang it. A few weeks ago i finally did something good to an old Apothecari Space Marine that i got for cheap and had it stripped of its former 3 layers of paint. Last weekend, i was able to get rid of some toxic stuff and therefore decided to have another mini stripped before i would give the containers with thinner in it away.

This is one of the very first minis that i bought at feebay, already had some layers of paint on it, received some more from myself. Of course with the good old enamel paints that i was using back then...
It's a techmarine. The best thing about it was the backpack that i was building for that buddy. Although you couldn't make use of a flying techmarine back in the 3rd edition, it was possible to equip the guy that way. Techmarines were part of the command squad back then and the only way for this squad to make use of its jumppacks would have been when 1 or 2 (don't remember how many models could receive additional wargear) guys (the ones without jumppacks) got killed...
Anyways, i wanted some jumpjets and still keep the servoarm:



i used the wings from an 1:72 Apache helicopter and two resistors for the thrusters. The original backpack got hacked and sawed a bit and finally all things were fitting together with the servoarm on top of the construction.

After the first basic layers of paint, it was looking this way:



next to the techmarine, there's a tech-adept that i've painted a short while ago. It's not fully done, but will receive the last steps together with the techmarine.

Current status is as follows:



i guess, apart from Apocalypse games, this guy will never see any battlefield. And, i still don't know how to use him actually. Since rulewise a jump pack now replaces the servoarm, this model is not legit. But it'll completely follow the 'rule of cool' once it's fully painted

The best way to cure yourself from feeling ill?
- Some plastic surgery

That sergeant from the 200pts game came to my mind when i was going through my bitz boxes. I found a single terminator lightning claw and three crux terminatus shoulder pads. Quite a nice start for some new veterans. At first i was thinking about doing some legs with green stuff, but then couldn't motivate myself to do so. Well, i still have enough normal feet, so i gave it a try to re-position one pair a bit.
For a start, the right leg was cut apart at several joints:



glueing them together again:



a plastic sprue provided some 'terrain' to stand the right foot upon:

w i p legs

then, adding a skull to each leg right underneath the knee. The skulls were taken from backpacks. The backpacks' top grills can be used for some heavy flamer muzzles later on...



so much for the legs. Now it was time to work on the combi-melta. I used a standard bolter and a Blood Angel's bolt pistol (with arm holding it), a space marine scope and an ammo clip, cut from a stormbolter, plus a few pieces of plastic, taken from a sprue.

cut marks (crappy pic)

the finished result looked like this:



and a pic from the front:



i used a lot of bitz on this one to give it some coolness. Well, they are still Blood Angels, so you can expect veterans to wear their noses very high...

Now i need to find some more crux terminatus shoulder pads and some more sergeant's banners (i had to cut the one he's wearing from another wip sergeant...) so i can finish my current projects.

Holy Pluck there's some really nice simple conversions that really make models pop, that bike is simply wicked. I hope model developers check this page out, ideas for years to come between all the talent that seems to meet here!

Well done, i just want to see what those little turrets are going to end up on (razorback I think u said?)

Cheers,

MUd

Great job on the pose. Well done!

@Mud: yep, they're for Razorbacks.

Although i have to say that i'm really glad that the 6th edition puts an end to that Razorback spam. You can either get out of a vehicle or assault, but not both. But troops with jump packs can assault, and even get a nice bonus when doing so. Seems my jump pack troopers will see a heavy return. And, finally, the Death Company is back. Instead of making idiotic hunts like in the 5th edition, they are real heavy close combat specialists now. Getting +2 attacks for attacking someone... yay!

Speaking of Blood Angels: My wife was looking for some recipes and came across the following webpage:



('lecker' means, in this case, 'tasty') Now we all know what Blood Angels are doing if they're not slaughtering Orks or hanging around with their Necron buddies: they're cooking! I'm really wondering if there's a hot spicy sauce called "Dante's Inferno"...

"... and time... goes by-y-y-y, so sloooowly..."

WHAT?

Not here. Time is going by so quickly here, dang it! Don't find much time for that hobby these days, a new earthling is taking up some time just like other (though not that important) real life stuff. Right now, it'll be hard for me to actualy build anything, but that doesn't mean that i couldn't paint the gazillion things that are already assembled.

When the kit was released, i had to get one of the Stormtalons. Built it real quickly and gave it a paintjob which could be called 'quick' as well. Just a black undercoat, all metal parts done with boltgun metal and badab black and the cockpit received a single green layer. Yeah, i hate the clear plastic canopies. My Valk has one and that was enough. Also, when you paint the canopy, you can leave out all the bitz that make up the inside usually. I have a real nice collection of bitz now...
I also did a Stormraven the same way, so i could use both in this years version of the 'Kettenfest' (which was rather disappointing)




left side vs. my side (also known as the right side)
there was more to come from the left than can be seen here, including a nice armada of Tyranids...
still, no other imperial players to get the tables really full

some pics of the building process:




The Stormraven received fully new turrets. Flat & shiny... also, the intake on top of the roof is way flatter than in the original version. Both wings are detachable, which is nice for transporting. No magnets required since the wings are held in place with the air intake housing. Someone at GW really used his brains here. gratz! (and i really mean that!)




the new turrets. I only made a lascannon and an assault cannon turret. No plasma option. Not worth the points imho. It's made of a plasticard base with carvings made with a knive, the original weapons with housings (got a second pair of housings from bitz sale) and in the back, parts from the Stormtalon's heavy bolters.




speaking of which, here's a closer look at the 'Talon. A flat roof made of two plasticard pieces. And the pin on top. The engine gondalas aren't glued to the body, but are sticking real nicely to it. Fine with me, so it's easier to transport.




in other news, i finally finished the mini-tank by using parts from the Stormtalon. Sadly, this one didn't get to shoot for a single time throughout the whole game since 36' aren't very long (using the 4th edition minelayer rules from the whirlwind) and i always aimed a little too far (5th edition, no pre-measuring).

as you can see, i made both fliers flatter than they are thought to be. I didn't like the all too clumsy look of them, so i used some plasticard to change this. Came out quite nicely, i think. At this point, we were still in the 5th edition, so, legally, i wasn't able to use that Stormtalon with my Bloodies unless i was playing an Apocalypse game. I didn't know how to handle this situation back then and so made it look like it was part of my Bloddies' force. Therefore, the 'sacred Blood' pin on top of the vehicle. I think that's a real cool looking piece.

*time warp*

6th edition has hit us. And, it brought the ally ruling towards us. Yay! So, finally a Stormtalon! My plan is to have a Captain on bike with a 'Ehrenklinge' (in german, the 2-handed power weapon which hits at Str 6 ), accompanied by 5 bikers, which are a troops choice then, and the Stormtalon. Thx to the Dark Vengeance box, i'll have 3 of these bikers soon, just need 3 more, but they are cheap as hell, thankfully.
The hardest choice was the colouring. I wanted to go for a 'known' chapter, but not Dark Angels. I hate those green buggers. (Chaos scum they are, we all know that the last loyal Dark Angels are still wearing black armor and are called 'Fallen Angels' by their corrupted brethren...). At some point i tended towards white Scars, but in the end, i decided to go for the pixel brothers, also known as Blood Ravens.
That would fit nicely with the 'Sacred Blood' pin and would make a nice tag-team partner for Blood Angels.
So, here we go.

I'm not that good at painting, so i simply aimed for a good tabletop standard. And i'm really not into this war-torn-style some people paint their stuff. So, basic painting, some subtle highlighting and a few corrosion marks. (pic quality is very meh, still not used to that camera, sorry)