Scout Snipers

I completed these snipers back in August in honour of their sterling work in my first 40k game at my local GW store, or rather, at the Warhammer store as it's now known, and their subsequent badassery in a number of other games I've played, serving to pick off special weapons from enemy infantry and taking a not inconsiderable number of wounds from enemy HQ units.

The pictures are neither great, nor particularly numerous, and I'll probably get round to taking more at some point for a future post. However, I'm conscious of the fact that I haven't posted in a while, so I figured it was best to just get them uploaded before I forget again.



I decided to replace some of the sniper heads with some Tempestus Scions helmets, as I'm not particularly keen on the vaguely constipated expression that scout models tend to wear. I'm quite happy with the way they turned out - the helms do look quite 'snipery' and don't look out of place on the scout models.

The scions were a boxed set I ended up buying with the money I mentioned in my previous post. I also opted for a box of the new Devastators, Sternguard veterans, a Deathwatch upgrade kit, Chaplain Cassius, Space Hulk (Those Blood Angels will make some mean nid-bashing Ultramarines), an Eversor assassin, some beautiful resin bases from Secret Weapon, and a number of other bits and bobs that I'll largely be using to put together a Deathwatch Kill-Team.

In addition, I purchased the Space Marine codex, given my recent forays into the gaming side of the hobby, which I'm greatly enjoying. Having become accustomed with some of the new rules, units and formations since the 4th edition (which I last played, with friends, on the living room floor of my parents' house - Those were the days!), I have a bit more idea about the direction I want to take my army. As a result, I'll be aiming to put together a Demi-Company over the coming months, since I already have two tactical squads, a dreadnought and a captain (Although I think Cassius will take up the DC HQ slot, leaving Invictus to fill out a command auxiliary slot, thus forming a Gladius Strike Force).

With that in mind, units like scouts will be put on the backburner and I'll focus on painting up my Assault Squad, followed by a third tactical squad, my new Devastators, and Chaplain Cassius. In addition, I'm fixing to start work on assembling the Deathwatch team, which I plan on using as a counts as Crimson Fists detachment made up of a Sternguard squad and Pedro Kantor, though the Demi-Company is my main project.

Courage and Honour!
Jon

Dreadnought Victory & First Battle

"The first landings by the company barely held their ground against he swarms of creatures which emerged from the shattered bunkers and tunnels to oppose them, only being driven back by the combined fire of Devastator squads and Thunderhawk gunships. Captain Fabian summoned three dreadnoughts; Severus's Ironclaw, Maximus's Victory and Diocletian's Agrippa to assist his troops in clearing the forbidding underground tunnels.

The twisting, intersecting passages were already subtly altered by the aliens' presence, dripping mucus and resounding with horrifying shrieks and screams. The dead lay everywhere, contorted and mangled by the violence of their passing. More than once, Tyranids hid among the dead before ripping into the advancing Ultramarines from ambush.

Casualties mounted and the Space Marines were forced to use flamers to burn their way forward. The Dreadnoughts were moved ever closer to the front of the advance as squads peeled off to guard intersections. Agrippa was leading when a flank attack broke across the company like a wave of razor-fanged destruction. In seconds, two squads were overrun and hacked down by a dozen Tyranids. Agrippa's assault cannon painted the walls with Tyranid ichor as they rushed forward, and Maximus was reduced to trampling them underfoot when his power fist was torn away.But the veteran Dreadnought still held the perimeter against the bio-engineered monstrosities until Severus arrived to crush the survivors."

    After finishing up the first of the Company's dreadnoughts, I figured I finally have enough to try them out in a battle so last week I went in to my local store and, armed with a rulebook and codex kindly loaned to me by the staff, fought against 600-ish points worth of Ork. Considering it was the first game I've played since I was a child, I think it went well. I chose to deploy second and positioned Squad Delta, Captain Invictus and Victory at the base of a tower near the corner of the board, supported by Epsilon in a wooded area to the left and my WIP snipers in the tower itself, then waited for the Greenskins to come to me.

    Within a few turns, my scouts had taken two out of three wounds off the enemy's warboss, thanks to a couple of sixes in the roll to hit, and the opportunity to select which model in a unit I wanted to target.

    Danger came in the form of two trukks full of infantry that came from both flanks, but disciplined bolter fire destroyed both, pinning one mob. Much to my opponent's dismay, his charge into the woods failed, and, rather than go toe to toe, I opted to keep Epsilon in their cover and mow the enemy down from a distance with rapid fire, taking out all but two of the oncoming unit and stopping them in their tracks. My first casualty came when I engaged the second and larger of the two parts of the enemy army in a daring charge by Dreadnought Victory with the aim of protecting Invictus and Delta from being overwhelmed in close combat. Unlucky rolls of the dice meant only a few Grots died in the initial attack and the dreadnought was subsequently destroyed by the warboss' power claw. The attack hadn't been in vain, though, as my dreadnought's explosive demise took a number of Greenskins with him.

    The battle was eventually decided in a duel between the Ork Warboss and Captain Invictus in the woods occupied by Squad Epsilon, who had finally taken a number of casualties. Invictus managed to take the Warboss' remaining wound, but was himself defeated in the process. However, with his leader gone and only one unit of boys remaining, locked in close combat with Squad Delta and the snipers, who had finally left the tower in the final turn, my opponent conceded defeat.

Victory to the Ultramarines!

Courage and Honour
- Jon

Decisions, decisions...

Since the June heatwave came and went, I've been adding the finishing touches to Dreadnought Victory, such that he's now essentially complete. All that remains is to finish off the base, which requires finishing off the dead 'nid - the red skin is basically done (It probably needs a final highlight) but I'm unsure how to go about painting the carapace. Different images I've seen of different Hive Fleet Behemoth colour schemes use blue on the carapace to differing extents, but I think I want to make mine mine look as much like the artwork below as possible. That way the dark red skin and blue-black carapace contrasts nicely with the bright blue and red armour of my Ultramarines, emphasising their opposition whilst still tying everything in with an overall colour palate and not drawing too much attention towards the base and away from the mini itself.

On another note, GW's new paint system seems overly confusing. I had to talk with a guy in the shop for a good five minutes to decide which white paint I needed for my purposes (which is essentially freehanding UM symbols and what-not, and painting snow). I have to say, I'm very impressed with White Scar for painting the symbols, but it doesn't drybrush very well, which I suppose is to be expected for a thin layer paint; It's still frustrating though as I really don't want to have to buy Ceramite White as well.

Finally, I recently graduated from university and now have some money that was given to me as a gift with the express request that I buy something I really want for myself. I haven't had the spare dosh to buy any Warhammer minis for years, so I feel like a kid in a sweet shop. With the amount I've been given, I'm torn between blowing it all on a Warhound Titan from Forge World, or spreading it out more by buying some combination of Space Marine stuff (Probably including Chaplain Cassius and the new Devastators), Imperial Guard stuff (to turn into Ultramar Auxilia), a Deathwatch Kill-Team (I've wanted to make one of those for ages) and an Imperial Knight. Decisions, decisions! The hobby has certainly gotten considerably more expensive in the years I was out of it, so cash doesn't quite go as far as it used to. Looking at the sorry excuses for Battleforces that are available now really drives the point home - a captain, a tactical squad and a dreadnought does not a 'battleforce' make.

Once I've decided how I'm painting the 'nid carapace, I'll sort that out and get the completed pictures of Victory uploaded.

Courage and Honour!
Jon

A few WIP shots

The dreadnought's coming along nicely, but my pot of Skull White has turned rock hard in the year since I finished Squad Delta, so progress is stalled until I can get some more white paint. In the meantime, I started work on a squad of Scout Snipers, but soon realised that they too would have to be put on hold, as I plan on painting the fatigues and cloaks with a snow/arctic camouflage, and that requires white as well.

Instead, I've started filing some mold lines off of a squad of assault marines that I've had assembled and crappily basecoated for fucking ages - they may even have been the first squad I started to paint, before getting distracted by some other shiny things. The white trims are because I started painting them before the introduction of Citadel's foundation paint range, and red is a pain in the arse to paint directly over black. Since then, I added Mechrite Red to my collection of retro paints, so I use that instead now. Irritatingly, my glue has gone hard as well, and there have been a few accidental amputations during the clean-up process, so I think a trip to the shop for some hobby supplies might be in order soon (If I can resist the temptation to buy anything 'unnecessary').

Courage and Honour!
-Jon

Tactical Squad Delta

   My second tactical squad, ready to kick ass and take names. I finished painting these guys some time last year but have only just got round to getting them uploaded. I'm definitely pleased with them, and tried to incorporate a bit more dynamism and action into their poses than I did with Epsilon.

I've also accidentally uploaded them publicly to imgur rather than just to my profile to be linked to, so there should be some interesting comments coming my way!

Currently on my table is the first of the 3rd company's three dreadnoughts, who played a crucial role in the fluff for the company's victory at the Northern Polar Fortress during the Battle for Macragge. The blue, red and gold are all done and it's just the more fiddly, and more time consuming, details to be done. Hopefully I should have it finished and uploaded within the next month.

Courage and honour!
- Jon.

Tactical Squad Epsilon

   After a five year hiatus arising from new hobbies and a more active social life, I've decided to get back to work on Warhammer 40k, in part due to being a poor uni student and not having enough money to do much else for now, and in part due to the pang of nostalgia I felt when I walked into a Games Workshop this Summer for the first time since I was 16. I guess I'm no longer going through the stage of life where I'm more worried about what people think of my hobbies than doing what I want.

   Hopefully this time, I'll be able to keep it up. So far, so good, though, as I've spent the last week or two working on the Tactical Squad that have been gathering dust for so long.

   So, here is the first squad I've ever completed: Squad Epsilon of the Ultramarines 3rd Company, armed with flamer and heavy bolter.


   The keen-eyed among you might notice that there are only nine marines in the squad as opposed to the usual ten. There is a tenth marine, but he's a shoddily painted dude I've inherited from someone else who I happen to think will look good in this squad when painted up properly, and he'll be instated as a full Epsilon member when I start stripping the paint off him and other models I've inherited that I want to add to my army.

   And I'm not finished there! In the past few weeks, I've painted more than at any other point in my life! Tactical Squad Delta are primed, basecoated and I'm now working on the highlighting. Here's a WIP photo of my progress:


Courage and Honour!
- Jon.

Captain Invictus

Thankfully, after practically pulling an all-nighter on Friday night filled with much swearing and cursing, I finished him in time!.

I give you the late First Captain Heracles Maximus Saul Invictus, Regent of Ultramar and Hero of the Battle of Macragge.







Sadly, he didn't even place but hey, it was worth a shot, and I'm happy with him regardless.