Captain for the "Siah Marines"

Hey folks got another post.

Will all the attention I've been giving my Orks, my son lovingly reminded me I had promised to paint his Space Marine captain over a year ago and it's been sitting in his box with his other marines primed and based coated in Army Painter Green.

And of course when I say "lovingly" I mean...Well you know.

So I took a break and did a BTT (Beyond Table Top) paint up of the Captain of the 4th company of the Siah Marines (my son's name is Josiah - hence Siah Marines).

I give you Brother Captain Jack Russel (he loves Wishbone)

Paint job was kept simple enough that when he does his dry-brushing technique for the rest of the army it will match for the most part.  I decided not to highlight the black and just let it contrast the rest of the highlighted parts of the model.

-BJ

Project - Vanguard Champion

Thought I'd throw up a couple of shots of a Vanguard Champion I'm working on for my personal collection.

It's a slightly converted 2008 Games Day Captain mini I won as a prize for the Bartertown Sci-Fi painting competition.

Components:

1. 2008 GD mini
2. Dragonforge 40mm Hero base from the Lost Empires series.
3. Pre-Heresy Jump Pack from Chapterhouse Studios
4. Pre-Heresy Masked Helmet from Chapterhouse Studios

Painted up in my Flame Guardians color scheme.  Not 100% finished still have some minor details to work on:  Black needs highlighted, another Sunburst Yellow then Skull White layer on the Yellow particularly the Helmet and then the NMM (Non-Metallic Metal) on the shoulder pauldrons, then the wreath and jewel on the Right Leg needs finished.  I like Gold NMM I don't like Grey/Silver NMM much at all so I tend to combine the Gold NMM and Silver Metallics techniques because...I can.  ;-)

As always, thanks for looking.  Check back for the finished model in a couple of days.  I'll do a full write up on the coloring and the Yellow NMM though without pics on the next post.

-BJC

Project - Deathwatch Rhino

So in continuing my work on Bartertown Admin porkuslime's "Deathwatch" project, he requested me to paint up a squad of Sniper Scouts and a Rhino for one of his Sternguard squads.  Haven't finished the scouts yet but I've put most of the final touches on the Rhino and thought I'd show it off.

Jim (porkuslime) had some custom doors and front made for this guy.  "Pyriel-" from dakka did them up for him and he did a fantastic job.  May have to order a few myself in the future.  Fun to paint, simple yet elegant.  In the original models I painted for him, he requested no mud/grime or wear and tear, or battle damage so I took that queue and did the same thing for the rhino.  Very simple paint job, with minimal colors.  Jim's an OSU fan so the color scheme (I hope) meets his desired affect.  To quote:

"wow.. and drool.. " - Jim (porkuslime)

Let me know what you all think!

-BJC

Review - ULTRAMARINES Movie - Trailer1

As most have seen, the trailer for the Ultramarines Movie is out floating around the net.  As with most who've reviewed the trailer I too have mixed emotions about it.

First - WHY OH FREAKIN WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THIS WITH THE ULTRASMURFS?????

Okay I understand they are a first founding chapter, I understand Codex Space Marines is based off of their Primarch's teachings.  But...But...C'mon!  The smurfs?  Really.  The Smurfs?

Rant about the chosen chapter done.  So onto the actual review.  So you get a minute and thirty-seven second clip of the movie for the trailer, it's dark, it's dreary, it's gothic...it's 52 seconds of smoke and shadows before you get a cut shot of a battlebarge.  Now a very cool looking battlebarge, and slick shot of a thunderhawk.

They what, a 10,000 year old veteran?  "It isn't combat I resent brother, it's the thirst for glory that gets men cut to ribbons."  Okay I do like the quote, and as a combat veteran myself, I respect the quote.  But - C'mon this guy may be genetically engineered but could he really go into battle?  Is there an auto-lift chair to help him up in his armor?  Still cgi looks good, then the hot lead starts to fly, yeah now we're talking...

Loved all the Heavy Bolter goodness, but to be honest here's where the cgi started to waver.  I've seen better cgi with Dawn of War or the World of Warcraft cut scenes.  Even then, what's with the one-shot-one-kill scenes?  Isn't ceremite armor supposed to be like oh I don't know...strong!  Who was shooting?  Who were the enemies taking out some of the Emperor's finest with a single shot?

Biggest problem I had - 52 seconds of smoke and mirrors, 26 seconds of actual action, 19 seconds of wasted text.  Seriously, what a rip-off trailer.

Still I'm excited about the movie, just wish the production company would have put a little more effort into giving the fans a decent trailer.  C'mon bump that trailer time up and give us something quality to salivate over.

Okay ranting done...

-BJC

Review - Killzone - HECK YEAH!!!

KILLZONE IS READY!!!

This is all the buzz right now on many of the 40K blog sites so I thought I'd throw in my $0.02 of 40k bloggy goodness.  Similar to what Fritz40k is striving for with his 750 point list challenge, Big Jim over at Galaxy in Flames and the guys who worked with him to develop "Special Operations: Killzone" are striving to bring the skirmish back into 40K and ignite what I think will be a new level of interest in the small point games.

So lets see/hear those Killzone lists!

I haven't had a chance to get in a Killzone game yet, hoping to get something in later this week or weekend, but reading through the rules it's pretty straight forward.  You will need your specific army codex, and a copy of the 5th Edition 40k rules as well.

One of the things I found most interesting are the Special Wargear upgrade options for units.  Things like Refractor Fields (give your Team Leader one of these bad boys for a5+ invulnerable save), Suspensors (Heavy Weapon bonus - Relentless but half the range if they move), and the Targeter (team member adds +1 to all shooting hit roles if he doesn't move) are my personal favs.

Basic principle is that you can play the scenarios as individual skirmishes or run though the campaign creating a "Tall" tale story-line.  I like the concept, and it just screams FanFiction write up.

So here's the Flame Guardian's Killzone list, I will more than likely work with existing models from my Show Project for this list for the time being, but

Team Alpha - 248 Points

• Sternguard SGT - Storm Bolter, CCW, Frag & Krak Grenades, Reactor Field
• Sternguard Vet - Combi-Plasma, BP, Frag & Krak Grenades
• Tactical SGT - Power Fist, BP, Frag & Krak Grenades
• Tactical Squad - Bolter x 5, Heavy Bolter x 2

Team Beta - 248 Points

• Sternguard SGT - Bolt Pistol, Dual PW (counts as dual LC), Frag & Krak Grenades, Reactor Field
• Assault SGT - PW, BP, Frag & Krak Grenades, Melta Bombs
• Assault Marine - Flamer
• Tactical Squad - Bolter x 4, Flamer x 2

So come on folks,  lets see those lists!

-BJC

Review - Horus Heresy Era Bits

There's something about making that perfect unit for your army that leads us all to go out and try to come up with something unique and interesting to model and convert.  That ignition in our souls so to speak that sparks the flame of creativity to so something different, something no one has seen before (or at least no one in our immediate gaming community).

So where does that creatively driven gamer go to quench that need?  Well if your Google-Fu is strong enough, there's quite a few places really.  So I had that bug hit me, and of course I'm first a modeler/painter so obviously if I'm building something unique for myself I'm going all out!  My Flame Guardians project is somewhat built around those type of unique units.  Probably the key unit in that army (you'd think it would be the Kantor HQ right...) is my Uber-Vanguard unit.  The fully decked out PW, PF, and TH heavy Fast Attack unit needed something more than the metal GW models, or a bunch of plastic Assault Marines all armed with power weapon goodness.  I wanted these guys to stand out, yes that usually means that the pretty unit will be the first unit that my opponent will focus on, but that can be a good thing.

***insert hypnotic voice here*** Focus on the pretty, pretty, shiny NMM goodness and conversions while my two units of Sternguard Vets and Kantor take and hold your objectives and destroy your tanks... ***end hypnotic voice***

What to do, what to do....

Heresy Era Bits Conversions!!!  YESSSSSSS!!!!!

There are a few options out there, and I'm going to focus on two sites and their bits specifically.  For my Uber-Vanguard unit I decided I wanted to portray a unity that represented a very specialized group of Space Marine Heros.  Sure the 1st Company gets the Terminator Armor, but what about those who are considered the creme-de-la-creme of the Assault Marines...So were born the Flame Guardians Honored Ones!

I've always like Assault squads, and of course one can run Shrike and get some cool Infiltrate goodness with an assault unit.  Nothing like having Shrike and a 10-man assault squad just "pop" up behind enemy lines. Ahhh, Good Times!  But I digress.

So I wanted my Honored Ones to have a pre-Heresy or Heresy look and feel to their armor.  I didn't want to do a lot of sculpting (cause I suck at it) and I knew that there were some great conversion bits out there.  When you combine those with regular Assault Marines bits or BA Death Company Legs you can achieve some pretty slick looking Vanguard Vetrans.

The options I considered were from Chapterhouse Studios and MaxMini.  Both have their strong points, and weak points.  Personally I do wish I would have gone a bit of a different route than the one I did, and I may consider doing up a few additional models with a few different bits to add some additional options to the unit.

First up the bits options from MaxMini:

I love the look of the Heresy Era Turbine Jet packs.  They just plain look better than the GW plastic JP's and though the metal ones that come with the Vanguard Models or the Chappy look good with the chains and such, I just haven't liked the casts I've gotten in the past.  Now the ones from MaxMini are nice but there's just something about them that kept throwing me off.  Probably the flaps around the air input part of the turbine.  You be the judge...

The detail on the packs is great though, but like I said there's just something about the packs that kept trowing me off.  Cost wise they are pretty reasonable considering you'll be ordering them from the UK.  For 5 Jump Packs you'll be out 5.65 Euros or $7.25 plus shipping of 3.00 Euros or $3.85.  So $11.10 for 5 Heresy Era Jump Packs.  Actually not all that bad.  Of course I am running a squad of 10 Vanguard Vets, so I would have to tack on an additional $7.25 for the additional 5 packs.  So $18.35 for 10.  Again, not all that bad for what you get.  Now I did not order these.

I'm a big fan of the Black Templar MK2 Helmet, but again for my Honored Ones I wanted something unique and different for the look and feel of the unit.  MaxMini also offers what they call their Steam Knight heads.  These are simply AWESOME in their Heresy Ere goodness.  Dang shame I didn't go with these, and I truly wish I would have.  I love the detail in these helmets, and they are really perfect for the look/feel of the unit.  Again, I didn't go with these, and wish I would have. Cost for the Steam Knights is again the same as the Jump Packs.  Comes to $7.25 for the 5 heads.  My personal favs are 1 and 4.  Really don't like number 3 in the picture.

Now onto the ones I did go with.  Not that I regret what I went with, I just wish I'd have seen the Maxmini Steam Knights FIRST.  Then of course I would have had to pay shipping from two locations though.

Next up is Chapterhouse Studios' Horus Heresy Era bits.

I personally like the Turbine Jump Packs from Chapterhouse better than the MaxMini ones.  They just had the look I wanted and didn't have that silly flap on the input part of the turbine.  These do have the vent flap, but at a more logical location at the bottom of the turbine, though I did choose to leave these off of my final models.  I also prefer the fact that in comparison to the Maxmini JPs the turbines point inward and not out.  From the perspective of jet flight, the outward pointing turbines from Maxmini just don't look right.  Again, that's personal preference.

Now these bits ARE more expensive than the Maxmini Jump Packs.  At $10.00 for five and $5.00 for shipping they come out to costing a bit more ($25.00 for 10 with shipping) than the Maxmini Jump Packs.  Again, you get what you pay for and I'm MORE than satisfied with the Chapterhouse Studios' bits.

So what about Heresy Era heads you say?  Well Chapterhouse has two options for the heads, and to be honest, while I like them, I still wish I'd have gone with the Maxmini Steam Knights.  The options are Spikey or Masked.  Both are very detailed, but only come in a set of 4 vs. the 5 Steam Knights from Maxmini.  Again, not a big deal, though at the same time kind of falls into the "doesn't make sense" due to the fact that at the very minimum one needs 5 heads to make a Combat Squad and I needed 10 heads to make my Vanguard.  Not a huge issue since I used a Sergeant Chronus head for my Champion meaning I only needed 9, so a quick conversion to a Beaky Head got me to my 8.

I really didn't like the Spikey headed bits.  They would make a great Chaos conversion, especially for those building an army that had just fallen to chaos, or was perhaps in the process of falling and you had those marines who were beginning to adorn their armor with additional "trinkets" but for the look of my Honored ones they didn't do it for me.  I did think of getting them though and just filing off the spikes because I like the overall look/feel of the bits.

I chose to use their Masked heads.  I like the look/feel of them and I think they work great as Assault Marine heads as the rebreathers just look darn cool.  Again, the problem being was that they only come 4 in a set instead of 5.  I contacted Nick on this logic, and was told that at the time the sculptor did only a set of 4 instead of 5.  Per Nick: "Mainly because at that time the sculptor decided to do a set of 4,  pretty much I have set that number to 5 now :)".  This is the set I chose to go with and I'm for the most part happy with that decision.

Cost for the  heads is $3.75 for a set of 4 heads.  Shipping is still $5.00 so with 2 sets (what I ordered) that came to $12.50 for 8 heads.  Comparatively speaking this is cheaper than going with the Maxmini heads as even if one was to order 3 sets, the shipping would still be only $5.00 (still high for padded envelops) leaving the total for 12 heads at $16.25 vs. $18.35 for 10 heads from Maxmini.

I don't have one of the Vanguard finished that has the Heresy Head, but here is the Uber-Vanguard Champion (SGT) done up in all his nicey, niceness.  As i said before I decided not to use the vent flaps on the jump packs. Not that they necessarily looked bad, I just didn't like them. They come as a metal add-on and work great as mixing bits in your paint pots though.  ;-)

There are other sites out there for these type of bits.  Lots of business are getting into the resin conversion bits business and as I said, if your Google-Fu is strong enough you're sure to find what you're looking for.  I do recommend Chapterhouse Studios and Maxmini though.  Awesome products and again, yes you're going to pay for them, you're going to pay more than if you just go with what GW has, but you get what you pay for and if you want character, uniqueness, and something different then you've got to go out there and do it.

So have some fun with your army.  It's not always about building that perfect list, that unbeatable army.  It's about having FUN, it's about flexing the proverbial brush muscles and building/converting/painting the army that you're going to enjoy.

Let me know what you've done to make your army unique to your taste!

-BJC

Battle Report - 750 Point Challenge

In continuing with the 750 point challenge from Fritz40k I got in a couple of games this weekend with my Flame Guardians 750 point list.  Now I had a few recommendations against the Rifleman Dread configuration, but wanted to give it a go.  Luckily I had a ML arm and a CCW arm on stand by as I knew that I was going to get in at 2-3 games at this point level in the time I had allotted on Saturday at the LGS and then again with my son Monday afternoon after getting back from the doctor's office.

So to recap - here is the Flame Guardians list I "planned" on running:

750 Point Flame Guardians (Space Marines)

• HQ - SM Captain - Power Weapon, Storm Bolter - 118 Points
• Troops - Scout Squad x 2 - 5-Man, Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks - 180 Points
• Elites - Sternguard - 10-Man, PW, MM, Mg, SB, Bolter x 7, Drop Pod - 315 Points
• Elites - Dreadnought - Dual Twin-Linked Autocannon - 125 Points
• Total - 22 Models - 738 Points

Now this list allotted me the options of adjusting the Dread to either the TL Autocannon w/ML for an additional 10 points or swapping around the for the CCW for a 10 point subtraction at which point I'd have 22 points to spare from my 750...Can you say add an additional scout sniper with camo cloak boys and girls?  I know you can...

At any rate I planned on running my first game with the Rifleman Dread and see what happens.

Unfortunately I have absolutely NO pics for this battle report due to leaving my camera at home, and the ones from my phone were too fuzzy due to no macro setting.  That's what I get for trying to take pics to update the painting website for BJCMiniStudio and forgetting to pack it back in my bag.

BATTLE!!!

So my son and I get to the LGS to see what we could drum up in this point level and found a hand full of young-uns doing some 40k but none interested in playing at the smaller point level.  Not all that surprising as it seems the trend with armies is "A hula una" (spelling) or in English "Wider is better" or More Armor means I beat everything.  Now I'll try and not get on my soap box about Mechanized Armies, so I'll stop there.  However, as it turned out the LGSs owner's wife was in the store that day and she said she was interested in getting in on the action at that point level.  She's an SoB player, and as she's not an avid player only plays lists at 1000 points or less so Viola!  The game is on.

Her list:

750 Point "The Sisters of the Blessed Rose" (Sisters of Battle)

• HQ - Cannonness - PW, Inferno Pistol
• Troops - SoB x 10 - PW, Bolter x 8, melta x 1, Flamer x 1
• Troops - SoB x 10 - PW, Bolter x 8, melta x 1, Flamer x 1
• Troops - Karskin x 10 - PW, hellpistol, hellgun x 9
• Fast Atatck - Seraphim x 5 - PW/BP, Dual BP x 4
• Total - 36 Models - 731 Points

So right from the start she's got 14 models on me with 3 x 10 man troop choices.  If we draw an objective game I'm pretty much screwed.  No transports though, and she's not using the SoB Faith Points as she's still pretty new to the game.  Not feeling arrogant on my chances because she could easily outflank me with 3 troop choices, but then again my list is set up for a different type of encounter.  Wound allocation should be interesting...

We roll for an annihilation scenario, 5 rounds.  She deploys first (okay the dice are being very nice to me so far)...I start the round first - SCORE!

She deploys everything, not sure why, and her husband isn't helping her (used the store was busy a few times - get the feeling he's tried teaching her tactics before but gave up).  She set up her Seraphim in cover behind a hill along with her Cannoness and one of the SoB squads.  The other SoB squad and the Karsking got deployed along the other side of her deployment zone.  Not quite out in the open, but depending on what I did I could either get them in one turn or...Infiltrate in an area where I could get them.

Okay so now for my deployment.  Of course she was somewhat nervous when the only model I first put on the table was my dread.  He's positioned that as soon as the Seraphim come out form around behind the hill I can start pounding on them.  Being a Rifleman Dred and where I've got him positioned I can technically hit any unit she's got on the table as soon as I've got LoS.  Now where to "Infiltrate" the scouts.  All I really need is LoS on any of her units and my 36" Heavy 1 AP 6 Sniper Rifles can start playing.  With 2 units of 5, that's 6 shots for each team.  I've got the Captain and the Stern in the dp sitting in reserve.  :-)

Scout team 1 deploys in cover of a building but in LoS of  the Karskins but not the other SoB,  Scout team 2 deploys with LoS of the Cannoness and the SoB squad she attached to.

Round 1 -

Me (Don't have all the details as I just made quick notes for the BR)

Dread - does nothing but sit and wait
Scout Team 1 opens fire on the Karskins - lost 2 models
Scout Team 2 opens fire on the Cannonness' SoB - lost 3 models
DP does not land

Her
Cannonness and remaining 7 SoB move to outside of table behind the hill.
Seraphim move out of cover towards scout team 2
Karskin move towards scout team 1
Untouched SoB try to head up the middle not in cover any longer
Everything's still out of range for her

Round 2 -

Me - the dice were not nice for most of my marines
Scout Team 1 - opens up on karskins again - bad dice, bad dice! Nothing
Scout Team 2 - Opens up on Cannonness's SoB - bad dice!!!!!! Only 1 model
Dred opens up on Seraphim - 2 models lost
Drop Pod lands - 8" from the untouched SoB squad - Captain and Stern deploy and open up all heck on that unit - The dice were nice - 6 models lost and she failed leadership and fell back and additional 6"

Her
Cannonness and 6 SoB squad backtrack around cover to try and link up with the other SoB squad
Seraphim are out in the open and cut across the table to try and outflank Scout Team 2
Karskins move to within shooting range of Scout Team 1 (who's still in the building ruins)
SoB squad moves towards Cannonness and the other SoB squad

For her shooting phase her Karskin opened up on the building with the Scout Team 1, not sure why, but she did to no effect.
The 4-woman SoB squad that bit a retreat is still within bolter range and she's got 4 shots - only 1 wound which I conveniently assign to the captain. Nothing else is within firing range for her at this time.  No assualts

Round 3 -

Me - it gets messy here
My Dred is still within range of everything on the table and nothing is in cover except for the Cannonness and the 6-woman SoB.
Captain and Stern move to within 6" of the 4-woman SoB squad so will assault and ultimately wipe them out loosing 1 model on my side so still technically a 10-man squad.
Scout Team 1 continues to pound on the Karskin - taking another (down to 7 including SGT)
Scout Team 2 turns attention to Seraphim - bad dice!!!
Dred continues to fire on Seraphim - 1 down (2 left - Leadership passed)

Her
Seraphim move to within assault range of Scout Team 2 - Assault leaves 2 scouts dead
Karskin move to within assault range of Scout Team 1 - Assault leaves 1 scout dead and 2 Karskin dead (so 5 left including SGT)
Cannonness and SoB move into shooting range (rapid fire) of Captain and Stern (so 15 dice) - I loose my MM and SB and Captain takes an additional Wound (Down to 8 in the Captain's squad)

Round 4 -

Me
Captain and Stern move to within 6" of Cannonness and Sob - Rapid Fire baby - (28 dice) - Cannonness takes 2 wounds, squad looses 4 so 2 remain (3 total)
Dred finished off the Seraphim.
The assault phase saw the end of the Cannonness and her squad and the loss of 2 more scouts though they did not fail the Leadership.

Her
Well all she's got left at this point is 5 Karskin which she proceeded to have them run around the board trying to avoid me.

Round 5 -

Like I said the round was spent chasing her around as she frantically panicked and yelled for her husband to give her advice to which he said "LEARN SOME TACTICS WOMAN"

Funny

Wish I had some good shots but most of her stuff wasn't painted anyway.  Though whomever did her Cannonness did an awesome job.

Didn't do a BR for the game with my son, spent too much time with him on Tactics.  :-)

-BJC

Army Lists - 750 Point Challenge

So while bouncing around the various 40k blog sites I came across something on Fritz40k concerning building out 750 point Army Lists.  I found it not only intreguing, but also a nice change of pace and something I thought I'd continue on .

Now normally when I sit down with Excel and my Codecies I'm mostly focused on the 1750 and 1850 size armies.  Even when piecing my kids armies out for them I focus on this size as when we do hit the LGS that's the only size we seem to be able to get in game wise.  Of course our home games between the three of us vary in size and seldom do we actually play a "list" so to speak.  This got me thinking of how little I'm teaching them about the mechanics of the game if we're just throwing a bunch of models on the dining room table and start rolling dice.

So in keeping with Fritz's theme of designing up good playable lists around the 750 point level I thought I'd go through and design some based off the five different armies we have between the three of us. It should yield some interesting force lists and will open up some new avenues for family gaming night.  Come to think of it, we might actually be able to get more than one game in...better yet actually finish a game.  ;-)

So the armies I'll be focusing on this time around are my Flame Guardians Space Marines. This is actually the Show Army Project I'm working on under my Special Projects.  I've played varying forms of this army over the last couple of months and have yet to field the whole thing anyway.  The other armies I'll post up 750 point lists for will be for a SoB heavy Witchunters force and two additional DIY Space Marine chapters along with an Ork force.

For the most part when I build a list, at least for myself, I build what I want to field.  What I think I'm going to have fun with, have fun modeling, and painting.  I'm not much for building WINNING lists, though I have won games with most of my lists.  When I build lists for my kids, I build what I think they CAN play with, and WILL have fun with.  Again, not necessarily what they can WIN with.

750 Point Flame Guardians (Space Marines)

• HQ - SM Captain - Power Weapon, Storm Bolter - 118 Points
• Troops - Scout Squad x 2 - 5-Man, Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks - 180 Points
• Elites - Sternguard - 10-Man, PW, MM, Mg, SB, Bolter x 7, Drop Pod - 315 Points
• Elites - Dreadnought - Dual Twin-Linked Autocannon - 125 Points
• Total - 22 Models - 738 Points

The principle behind the Flame Guardians is the Heavy use of Sternguard and Vanguard Elites with Troops choices being Sniper Scouts who infiltrate and then start rending and pinning down the enemy with Heavy 1 AP 6 fire.  The above force is meant to deploy Dread as a rear fire support unit, Infiltrate with the scouts, then drop the Stern and the Captain in from the Drop Pod.  This list does work deploying first or second so long as your opponent DOESN'T have units that can Infiltrate as well.  I have used this list a couple of times.  Battle Report coming soon!


Looking forward to seeing what you all think and recommend.

Special Projects - Armor on the CHEAP!!!

Okay so this series on Special Projects is for all you cheap...I mean frugal gamers out  there.  You know who you are!

Seriously, I'm one of them.  Family, mortgage, etc... Lets face it, the hobby we have chosen to become well "invested" in isn't cheap.  Even those of us who seed the best deals on eBay or Bartertown understand that there comes a point when you are going to need a serious upgrade to your army and with 5th Edition, it seems to be all about the Armor!

I'm all about the Foot Slogger Army.  For me, for my time, for the space I have to store armies and models I've always refrained from having much if any mobile armor in my armies.  I simply don't like painting tanks.  Too many flat surfaces, blah, blah, blah.  However, with 5th Edition rules favoring armor and or Mechanized armies, its become absolutely necessary that I add some armor elements to my army and ASAP.

So what's a modeler/painter supposed to do?  Well it's been common practice to use proxy models in pickup games for what since inception of miniature wargaming?  And, though they may or may not be allowed in most tournemants, scratchbuilt models have become a sign that sets the true modeler/converted aside from the average joe gamer.  Soooooooooooo, here we go.  The decision is made, scratchbuilt it is.

Now I know what you're thinking, what/where/how?  Well for the time being I'm going to delve into the world of paper-scratchbuilt armor, then replace them with some more GW approved models later.  Say it isn't so!  You're going to proxy scratchbuilt PAPER models????? No not exactly.  C'mon, give me a break!  Would I do that?  HECK YEAH I WOULD!  ;-)

In all, there are some stunning templates out there at the bwc-archive yahoo group. Of course I have no intention of building them solely out of Card Stock either.  A little balsa wood, some plastic tubing, card stock, and GW bits should yield what I'm looking for.

So for my Flame Guardians I'm in need of some Drop Pods (2) and a Razorback.  Now unfortunately I can't find a good template for the full Razorback, but they've got some great Rhino templates and a few different Drop Pod variants that I'm going to play with (still waiting on approval to post the templates in the blog).

I'm planning on building a couple of different variants of these vehicles.  The first variant will be the straight up Card Stock/Balsa Wood variant.  No GW bits, no plasti-card.  Just build straight from the template.  I'll use some colored Card Stock (Red/Yellow) so I can see how they'll turn out with no painting.  Second variant will use the templates in combination with more advanced materials.  Still using the Card Stock/Balsa Wood, but also adding in plasti-card, plastic or brass tubing, and various GW and FW bits to make the models more tournament legal (or as best I can).

Thoughts?

Show Army Project - Vanguard Veteran Completed

Well the Flame Guardians project is moving pretty slowly.  Seems that every time I sit down to work on my own stuff something comes up.  Interesting how these things never come up when I an working on a client project...

Well I finished up the Champion (Sgt) for the Vanguard "Honored Ones".  Wish the pic came out better, I'll have to see about shooting some better pics and change the angle of my camera maybe.

 

 

Over all I'm enjoying the color scheme and the time per mini isn't too awful (averages about 5 hours over 2.5 days worth of painting per mini) though Kantor did take about 12 hours.  I love the Pre-Heresy Jump Packs I picked up from Chapterhouse Studios.  I used a Sgt Chronus head and BT EC arm for the rest of the "conversion" if you can call it that.  Bit of broken guitar string rounded out the conversion.  The base is one of the Ruins 25mm resin bases from Micro Art Studios (all the bases will be from this range).

More on this as I finish them out.

-BJC