Painting Challeng Submission 10 - 40k Raven Guard Contraption

Invictor War Suit for my Raven Guard Space Marines. Plastic model from GW.

Have I been asleep at the blogging switch? Well, yes, yes I have...work has been busy, eating into spare time (which is OK - it pays for miniatures!) but the remaining spare time has been ruthlessly focused on painting, and on meeting my commitments as a "Minion" for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. So I have been posting stuff there, and neglecting here...enough of that! Time to catch up a bit.

Before I do, just have to acknowledge the work the Conscripts have been doing for this edition of the Painting Challenge. Frederick in particular is CRUSHING it, racking up huge points totals and keeping the honour of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts up near the top of the league tables. Well done! Be sure to check out their work - as well as that of Dave (OGRE!), Mike F (More 30k! More!) and Byron (10mm Fantasy!) on the Painting Challenge Blog - and I hope they might also find the time to post here about it as well. And I know Dallas will be along soon to share some "Churchillian" efforts of his own...you guy have been doing great, and as the Challenge comes down to the wire, I'm sure you'll have more stuff to bring across the painting finish line!

OK - back to catching up on my own Painting Challenge stuff. Up first, another item for my 40k Raven Guard project. This is some sort of bonkers contraption known as an "Invictor War Suit". This is a multi-part plastic kit from GW, one of the newer releases for the newer Primaris Space Marine range of figures for their Warhammer 40,000 setting. It's a big walking thing with guns. 

Guns solve problems, right?

Followers of this blog will already be aware of how the grim darkness of the far future is in fact overrun with big walking things with guns. Some are big. Many are bigger. Some are quite huge. But they walk, and they have guns, and thus this "newer" design takes its place in an august lineup of universe-wrecking-walking-things-with guns. But it is also a little different, at least for Space Marines...

A view of the carbon-neutral power system...

That is because the pilot of the machine is, well, a Space Marine. Makes sense. But this is still different. You see, usually, Space Marine machines of this sort, called "Dreadnoughts", are 'crewed' by a near-dead Marine, who is essentially entombed in the machine, allowing them to fight for the Emperor for, like, nearly eternity. Lucky them. You don't see the 'pilot', because his remaining bits are plugged into arcane machinery, hidden under slabs of armour. 

So. Many. Guns.

But this thing...well, it just has a roll-cage, and the pilot can hop in and hop back out. Like a kind of regular machine. I mean, still a whacky, far-future, gun-festooned machine...but a pilot that can hop out, check things over, compare notes with fellow pilots...that seems borderline heretical! This design brings to mind the sort of "war-jack" type walker units seen in other sci-fi settings, such as the "APU Defense Sentinels" from the otherwise un-watchable "Matrix: Revolutions" film.

This kit was certainly a challenge to put together...GW made some heroic assumptions about what bits you might glue, and others you might not, and how the whole thing would work. I had major issues sorting out the cockpit, and a lot of trouble with the legs. Enough trouble that I am confident this will be the only such machine that will be joining my 40k Raven Guard forces...give me a normal dreadnought over this thing any day...

Some unsolicited feedback for the design of this model...

But for all the issues, more guns is more guns, and when you are defending The Emperor, it seems you can never have quite enough guns. This thing delivers - and for added fun, it can punch recalcitrant unbelievers into dust for sport. 

The cage doesn't exactly close, like it says it will in the instructions...but close enough. All aboard for fun!

I hope to bring this monster into action this weekend. That will be its first game. What could go wrong? We all know how newly-painted figures dominate the tabletop, right? 

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more shortly!