The Mobilization Continues - Sons of Horus Seeker Squad

Seeker Squad for the XVI Legion

The XVI Legion continues its ominous troop build-up, with a new, 10-man "Seeker Squad" joining the ranks of Hope and Change. These models are plastic figures from a "Betrayal at Calth" box set, bodged with bolters scavenged from Space Marine "Sternguard" troops and shoulder pauldrons from Forge World.

Sergeant on the right, with a handy power fist to follow up in the event any more, direct, "hope" needs to be adminstered...

The so-called "Seeker Squads" are supposedly sent to the battlefield by Legion commanders to take out specified enemy personalities or units. Thematically, it is strange to have a large group of heavily armoured genetically modified fellows in rather visible battle armour tasked with something like an assassination, but in a strange way it seems to suit the character of the 30k "period". There is a single personality out there that irritates a Legion commander? Well, send ten sharp-shooting guys to finish them/it off.  No need to sneak around...we're coming for you...

I love these Sternguard bolters

Seems to fit well with the character of the Sons of Horus (and the Alpha Legion too). To accomplish their more specified tasks the Seeker Squads receive some special issue ammunition to assist with their mission.  The ammo offers bonuses depending on what shells are used, and the controlling player will have a small menu of different bolter shells to choose from. The Sons of Horus and Alpha Legion can also make use of "Banestrike" ammunition, specifically designed to take out other Astrates.

So fancy ammo means fancy bolters for these fellows.

View showing the back packs, vents etc.

That is where the bolters from the Sterngaurd figures seemed to me to fit very well with these figures. I've seem a number of other folks use these plastic weapons in different 30k circumstances, and it is a good idea I have copied shamelessly.  The bolter with the drum-shaped magazine is a particular favourite so I went with that for the nine regular troops. Overall I like the effect of the large magazines, the optics and large straps. They look arrogant, elite and well-equipped.  In other words, it's "Horus for Hope" brand-compliant.

Smaller Eye of Horus on one pauldron...

And a larger, embossed one on the other...the Sergeant feels like the boss is always watching, no doubt...

The sergeant's bolter has the more regular-sized box magazine, but I also gave him a power fist in the event the target of the Seeker Squad in a given mission needs a good punch in the face on top of whatever else has been dished out.

Seeking hope and change...loyalist fools beware!

This posting will bring a brief respite to the parade of reinforcements for the Sons of Horus for now.  I'm hoping, however, to head back to the lake later this week, and I hope the painting gods will support another run of painting, drinking and sunset-enjoying. There is, after all, always something new to add, or some unit to "round out", for a 30k nut like me...

Even More Reinforcements - Sons of Horus Support Squad

We are here to support hope - will support hope too? Tactical support marines for the XVI Legion...

When it comes to 30k Legion Marines, ten is better than five, right? Well, the parade of reinforcements for the XVI Legion continues with five tactical support marines armed with plasma guns.  These will join an earlier batch of five models to make a 10-man squad. Ten plasma guns? Sounds like 30k fun! Even with the absurd "gets hot" rules...

As with the other recent posts of reinforcements, these were painted during my recent vacation. The painting was quick and easy, following this handy tutorial from GW. The relatively simple paint scheme and the lovely weather at the lake came together nicely, and while the breachers were a slog under the paint brush, these fellows were a real breeze and seemed to finish in no time at all. The paint jobs are not an exact match for the first group, but it is close enough - and at the end of the day they are green, with spooky eyes of Horus on their pauldrons.  All together for "hope" now...

I love the combs on the officers - this was a spare bit from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set

The models are all from Forge World, although the Sergeant's head is a handy spare from the "Betrayal At Calth" plastic set. There are also decals from the newer Sons of Horus sheet that GW has issued, decals which, thankfully, have far fewer issues of silvering than the first sheet they released.

All together now!

Ten is better than five...

These tactical support squads are great fun on the table top, laying waste to large segments of loyalist fools every turn they open fire.  And of course with plasma guns, a number of them will go down as casualties too...the plasma gun lacks the arcane look and feel of the volkite weapons, but you can't argue with the results, and is a very classic 40k weapon itself.

The complete squad, mixing the new and older paint jobs...not a perfect match, but ready for action on the table

The reinforcements will continue, as the XVI Legion prepares to make a big push for hope and change on the gaming tables this fall.  Stay tuned for more...

Sons of Horus Reinforcements - Tactical Marines

Reinforcements for the cause of hope and change - Horus for hope!

After a long run of Epic 30k painting I felt it was time to switch back over to the "regular" 28mm size figures.  I have a large pending pile of assorted reinforcements I had been meaning to paint back in the winter for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  Like always, I was diverted...but might as well get to this in the summer, right?

Legion vexillary - plastic figure from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set

I used a Sons of Horus transfer on the right shoulder pauldron

Every summer we take some time to relax at our cabin in the Sault Ste. Marie area and I took a bunch of these primed figures that I never got to back in the winter with me to paint.  Here is the first bunch - some plain-old vanilla tactical marines.

In 30k the Legion Marines can have very large, 20-man tactical squads.  These seem to do really well in the game, and they look cool, so I took 10 figures from a "Betrayal at Calth" box set, added some Sons of Horus bits, and designated them to join the forces of hope and change, to make a big 20-man tactical squad.

In the photos you will see there are only nine figures...I'm 100% sure I put together 10 of these models, but somehow...I lost one. So there are only nine of them...meaning I'm still one figure short of a 20-man tactical squad.  A 19-man squad will have to do for now.

Comparing greens...my old approach on the right - my new approach on the left.  I like how both look, but the approach on the left takes half the time, so it wins...

I have been painting these figures for a few years now, and my approach to the green armour has changed a bit over time.  I find it difficult sometimes to come back to painting a faction or collection after spending time on other periods/scales/factions, and I found it tricky to get the green to match.  I had been starting to use fancy techniques like glazing to try and fancy things up...but I also find glazing to be tedious, time consuming and difficult to replicate precisely over a number of figures.  And I don't think I'm very good at it...I would apply glazes, and it would look kind of cool, to be sure, but nothing like it should in the hands of someone with a real gift/talent for that approach.

Nine extra tactical marines...I need to find that missing model...

I came across this excellent video tutorial on the GW web site (one of a number of great video tutorials they have done).  It was a nice, simple approach to coming up with a good, clean look on the figure.  I was hooked! So I have switched to this approach - with one exception (you can likely pick him out in the photos), this bunch was painted using the approach from the GW tutorial.  No glazing. No airbrush. No zenithal anything.  Pretty basic, but it works for me!

Stay tuned for some more 30k reinforcements painted at the lake...

Contemptor Dreadnought for the Raven Guard

Reinforcements for XIX Legion

This is a Contemptor Dreadnought for the XIX Legion in GW's Horus Heresy/30k setting.  The model is the plastic dreadnought from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set, and he has a few decals and brass etch details added on from Forge World.

The "Betrayal at Calth" box set is a gold mine of Horus Heresy bits and figures.  I was glad to have access to a plastic Contemptor Dreadnought model, as I thought it would be much easier to assemble than the resin ones from Forge World.  In the end, it was a bit of a mixed bag - certainly a lot easier to assemble, but the arrangements of the parts is very disappointing, leaving very little option to customize and give the model much motion.  As such, he looks a bit wooden (and maybe that's OK - I mean, the "pilot" is nearly dead anyway, right)?

He just wants to shake hands...

For weapons I opted for the multi-melta, to give the Raven Guard a bit of heavy stopping power, and also because multi-melta.  The other option was the assault cannon, which I admit also looks cool, but I have something else in mind down the road to assist the Raven Guard with assault-cannon-related issues.  Besides - there are already other elements of the force to handle cannon-related files. The downside is that, because of the way the model is laid out on the frames, if you want to use another weapon (i.e. not the assault cannon or multi-melta), you have some heavy carving in front of you - not impossible, but just short-sighted by GW, in my view - why not make it fully compatible with the FW weapons?

But then, why am I surprised when GW does something in a short-sighted fashion?  Anyway, it is still a decent model, and you'll have fun assembling and painting yours no doubt!

Soo...what's on that name plate?  Ummm...well....

The one detail that I had the highest hopes for is also the one detail I completely buggered up.  Some background: I really like the brass etch accessories from Forge World.  They are perfect for a little bit of customization of models just like this, adding more character than a decal alone can, but stopping short of the all-out look of the specified customized dreadnought chassis available for the different Legions.

Multi-melta - for close inspection of enemy vehicles and facilities

So I thought to make this guy look a little extra cool, I would use some brass etch Raven Guard symbols (the shoulder and knee plates), but to really set him off, I figured "I'll give him a name plate!" After all, the cool painters give their dreadnoughts funky names.

Brass etch stuff DOES really help things pop - when you don't screw up the painting

So I stuck it right below the "helmet" of the dreadnought.  I told myself that I would paint it white, which would make it really jump out, look awesome etc...anyway, I totally, totally bungled the paint job on it - to the point I can't even make out what that name was supposed to be (something "Corax", maybe...?).  In fact, it looks all scratched out in a way that resembles the odd markings seen on the vehicles and machines who follow the Warmaster...maybe this model is trying to tell me something...

An unknown soldier, due to poor painting...but otherwise very scary

Anyway, behold "Name Undetermined" - valiant warrior of the Raven Guard. No doubt an Imperial Committee will be duly appointed to decipher his actual name...likely the markings were blurred by the insipid agents of the Warmaster...

Team photo of the XIX Legion forces so far...

So after starting with a few test models last fall, my XIX Legion detachment has grown to 46 or so infantry and one dreadnought.  A decent size for an infantry force - just need to add some vehicles for these fellows now...

Final Painting Challenge Entry - 30k Raven Guard Command Figures

Hi folks - here is my final submission for the Sixth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - a command group of Raven Guard, loyalist Space Marines from the XIXth Legion in GW's 30k Horus Heresy setting.  I apologize for all the blather in this post, but if you have visited before, you already know I'm just like that.  So here we go.

The figures are a mix of kits and accessories from GW and Forge World, including some spare plastic bits from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set, some Mark III armoured Space Marines from Forge World, and GW's basic plastic Space Marine Command set from the current 40k figure line.

Up first is a "Praetor", a senior command figure for the Space Marine Legion.  He is wearing the bulky Mark III armour (my favourite variant), embossed with extra fancy features owing to his status within the Legion. This is a figure from Forge World.  I should comment on his wee pistol - this is an "archeotech pistol", a nice little bit of fluff buried in the Forge World 30k rules supplements.  I do enjoy how the pistol appears to be so small and out of step with the rest of the Commander's ominous armoured bulk, and when you know the background on these "archeotech" pistols, it really fits.

So what's with this pistol? The standard (if you can call it that) in the 30k/40k setting is generally that "older is better", and that even though the technology within their reach is far ahead compared to our contemporary world, to them it is a time of slow and gradual decline.  In the perspective of the 30k/40k human denizens, very old armaments, bits of tech etc. are from a prior age of unimaginable technological ascendancy - even to them, never mind us - and lost to subsequent dark times.  This little pistol is from those older times, so even though it looks small, it can probably blow away a tank.

And of course rather than seek to innovate or explore how to replicate such a device, the Space Marines and the Imperium they serve treat it instead as a dark and dangerous relic, to be trusted only to a senior officer until it breaks down or is lost. Anything else would be superstitious silliness. I love it! To me, the Praetor is standing there with his bonkers pistol drawn, staring down some implacable rebel Marine or alien abomination, saying "Quoth the Raven, motherf***er..."

Then we have a standard bearer from the XIX Legion.  This sort of anachronistic silliness (a standard on a dark future battlefield) is absurd, and I just love it.  I've done one for each of the Legions I have started to collect so far, and I generally love having them on the table.  Given the involvement of the Raven Guard in the "dropsite massacre" I particularly wanted to have one for them to gather around and mount a final defence...

There is a small group of bodyguard marines to go with the standard.  These fellows are wearing the bulky, ominous and heavily segmented and riveted Mark III power armour.  It looks spooky and medieval, and I just love it.  Two of these chaps are carrying plastic "combi-bolters", spares from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set.

Up next is a "Legion Champion" - really just another fellow in fancy armour, a noted and highly skilled combatant ready to bash some heads at the side of the Preator.  He is a blend of plastic 40k bits and 30k Mark III armour bits.

Neither last nor least is the "Apothecary" - the medic.  I love having these models for my Space Marine forces as they underscore the dystopian nature of the times portrayed.  A medic as we might imagine them, even a combat medic, is there to provide care, to save and preserve lives (at least those of his or her comrades).  The Space Marine "medic" is there to extract genetic bits from fallen Marines in order to make future ones - and any Marine so judged ready for this "treatment" who might still be alive receives a bolt straight to the brain first.  All of the odd ball kit on this figure is there with this goal in mind - extraction of genetics, not preservation of comrades.  But of course, the Marines don't care, as they are all out to die for the Emperor regardless...ah, I love the 30k/40k setting... 

I thought I would do a little group shot of the Raven Guard painted so far in the Challenge.

There are a total of six figures for this submission (there is a seventh model there, but he was painted back in November of last year as a test model to work out the colour scheme, so he doesn't count).  This gave me 30 points for my total, and a final total of 1,241 points.  So I exceede my goal of 1,000 points, which was nice.  Even better, this rounds out the very basic core elements for a force of Raven Guard troops for the gaming table - two troop units and some HQ guys, the bog-standard 30k/40k of many years (or at least it used to be).  While there is of course much more to be added, I'm hoping the lads will be up for a scenario where these figures make some manner of pointless and bloody last stand during the Istvaan drop operation. I can imagine that Praetor blowing the bad guys away with his whacky little pistol to the bitter end...

While exceeding my goal was great, I lost all of my side duels.  Oh well. For my defeat, I will be painting a figure for Byron, for Jamie M and for David B.  Jamie has already sent his request (stay tuned for that!).  Byron and David, you guys are next...

13th Painting Challenge Entry - Another 30k Raven Guard Squad

Raven Guard tactical squad for GW's 30k setting

The end of this edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is now in sight.  I've been diverted a lot lately by my dive into "Team Yankee", but my actual goal back in early December had been to use this Challenge to make progress on my 30k collection. You know what they say about plans...I don't even know why I bother...

From left - comms trooper, sergeant and vexillary

The detail on these models is really top shelf - I love painting them

There are still a few days left in the Painting Challenge, and I'm going to try to hit it hard - and try and get back to my original "plan".  Here are another ten troops from the XIXth Legion, the "Raven Guard".  These are loyalist troops in GW's 30k Horus Heresy setting.  The models are from the GW "Betrayal at Calth" boxed game, enhanced with embossed shoulder plates and comms conversion pack from Forge World.

It's an expensive taste, but I absolute love the embossed shoulder plates with the Legion logos..

These multi-part plastic models from GW are top-shelf.  GW itself may be run by a pack of incompetent asshats who are determined to obliterate their own hobby, but every so often they malfunction and accidentally release good stuff.  These "Betrayal at Calth" boxes fall into that category, and I have quite a pile of them in various states of assembly. 

Some decals on the shoulders - those are from Forge World as well

This gives me a grand total of 20 Raven Guard now.  Not very many (well, they would do for a Rogue Trader game, but otherwise pretty limited) but I have many more on the pending pile and I hope to add a few more to my total before the final horn sounds in the Painting Challenge.  Stay tuned...

Eighth Painting Challenge Entry - The Raven Guard Arrive!

Raven Guard tactical squad for 30k

My eighth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge entry is a squad of "good guys" for 30k Horus Heresy - a squad of ten Space Marines from the XIX Legion, known as the "Raven Guard".  The models are 28mm, new multi-part plastics from GW's "Betrayal at Calth" box set, but the embossed logo shoulder pads are from Forge World. The Marines are wearing Mark IV power armour.

To date I have been painting the followers of Horus in 28mm - believers in "Horus for Hope" :) These are the first "good guys" I have painted for this setting and this scale.  Dallas has been carrying the Loyalist side in our gaming group, with a beautiful collection of Marines from the Blood Angels.  And, of course, the setting is very malleable, so you can even have the Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Death Guard and others fighting among themselves, representing the early stages of the fighting as Horus and his followers removed the loyalists from their own ranks on the world of Istvaan III.

Trooper and comms trooper

Another view - I like the comms unit a lot - nice accessory

I'm a certified 30k nut, and I thought it would be fun to do some Loyalist troops as well. I just wasn't sure which legion to try.  The Salamanders? I'm already painting enough green guys. The Iron Hands? Too weird.  The Blood Angels? Cool, but Dallas already has them covered.  The Imperial Fists? Very, very cool, but man...yellow is hard to paint in 28mm...(more on that later).  The Ultramarines? Blue is a cool colour, but they are so lame...they kinda had what happened at Calth coming to them.  The White Scars? I'm already painting enough fellows in white armour.  The Dark Angels? Meh.  And the Space Wolves? LOL.

(Note - smug Legion opinions are entirely subjective, with no real logic behind them - YMMV.  Surely someone out there is doing an awesome job painting up super cool Ultramarines...)

So how about the Raven Guard? Well, neat Legion. Nice back story without excessive emo drama or imaginary self-pity. Cool logo. Funky special troops. The roman numeral - XIX - has a nice look. The name "Raven Guard" opens the possibility of Edgar Allan Poe references. We might be on to something here...

But the Raven Guard get kind of a raw deal in the story - their Legion (along with the Salamanders and the Iron Hands) get caught in a battle known as the "drop site massacre", slaughtered in a trap set by Horus and his followers on the world of Istvaan V. 

Vexillary

Legion Sergeant - I love the comb on these figures...kinda whacky...

This kind of deterred me.  After all, "Who wants to play drop site massacre? That should be fun!"  But as I read into their background, the story grew on me. While the Legion took huge losses in the drop site incident, several thousand troops survived. I can imagine they would be pretty pissed about what happened, and keen to keep on fighting, making for some good potential scenarios!

Ready for deployment to Istvaan...what could go wrong?

While most references have the Raven Guard in black armour, I thought I would do them in a very dark grey instead, with a black shoulder plate and a stark, white Legion symbol.  I got this idea from the Forge World guys - they painted up one of the Raven Guard dreadnoughts on their web site in this way. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I like it a whole lot more than trying to paint so much black!

The plastics from the Betrayal at Calth box set are very well done, providing the basis for a solid starting force of these fellows.  I hope to add quite a few more before this Painting Challenge is concluded.  Ten 28mm troops will get me 50 points for my sci-fi and Horus Heresy side duels...not enough, but starting to catch up!