Inferallti Hussars Transport and Heavy Flamer Squad

 A while back I started a new 30k Army based on the Imperial Militia and Cults army list for Horus Heresy based on the "Old Hundred" regiment known as the Inferallti Hussars. The army list allows for extensive customization in the form of Provenances of War that bestow special stats and bonuses usually in exchange for certain restrictions. On of the options is survivors of the dark age. For people unfamiliar with Warhammer 30k, it follows a period known as the Age of Strife which saw the technological achievements of the previous era largely lost. however, not all societies fell quite so hard and some remnants maintained more advanced technology from a bygone age. Rules wise this Provenance provides +1 to all units armour saves, representing more advanced armour. This rule also allows you to take rhino's and a Land Raider Proteus as a dedicated transport! Thematically, I wanted to add both to the army. I painted up a rhino a while ago, but kept putting off the Land Raider. Last week I finally managed to get to it.

I also painted up a heavy weapon squad. The army list allows you to field a base squad of 5 heavy weapons. The options include all the usual options for an Imperial Guard army with the addition of heavy flamers! With the survivors provenance, they get a 4+ save too. I used a 10 man squad of Forge World Solar Auxilia flamer section mounted 2 to a base.

I doubt this army would perform well against any of the Space Marine Legions, but that's fairly thematic. It sucked to be a normal dude fighting alongside superhumans.

Thanks for visiting

Getting Back to 30k

Land Raider, Armoured Proteus Variant, painted in the colours of the VI Legion Astartes - resin model from Forge World.

It had been a while since there has been 30k content moving across my painting desk, and as the dust settled on another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, the thought had been growing in my mind that it was about time to add to the painting side of my 30k pile. When Curt's annual Challenge wraps up, I always take a short breather, but I do sort of always need to be painting something, and usually only a few days go by before I am itching to get the brushes to work on something.

Always fun to check out the not-carbon-neutral propulsion systems on The Emperor's vehicles...

At around the same time the Challenge wrapped up, GW made the formal announcement of new plastic models coming for the Horus Heresy range...well, the jolt of marketing hype pushed my brushes into action. You can see the initial results here - an "Armour Proteus" Land Raider, painted in the colours of the VI Legion Astartes, the Vylka Fenryka. 

I should note, however, that this particular tank was more of a re-paint than a new assemble/paint job. I am doing a bit of consolidation on the loyalist side of my collection, and the vehicle models that had previously been part of my small Iron Hands force are being "re-assigned", as it were, to other loyalists. I'm sure Ferrus Manus would be furious, but...well, who cares, he was beheaded anyway.

Land Raiders are iconic pieces of 30k/40k kit, and I am particularly fond of this "Armoured Proteus" variant for the vehicle, with the twin heavy bolter mount on the front. These vehicles provide combat power and transport capability - and if you play using the fan-made 8th/9th edition of the rules, they are also close to indestructible on the table.

Twin lascannon batteries on the side sponsons, classic Land Raider armament, ready for action on the gaming table.

GW's marketing has launched the steady drip of preview photos and articles that will be released bit by bit in the run-up toward the release of what appears to be a new edition of the Horus Heresy rules. Wow! There will be lots to say and vent about that as time goes along, but for now, it is good to be painting some more stuff for my 30k collection - I hope to be sharing more with all of you as the spring goes along. That's all for now - thanks for ready, and happy painting and gaming!

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 12 Submissions

 I can apparently only give attention to one blog, so throughout the painting challenge I haven't posted here. Now that the challenge is over I decided to make a super post with all my submissions from the challenge. The main theme are World Eaters Space Marine Legion for Horus Heresy rounded out with a few other odds and ends. It was nice to get a bunch of stuff painted and I'm looking forward to it next winter.

World |Eaters Tactical Squad

W.E. Rampager Squad

Deredeo Dreadnought

Callidus Assassin

Culexus Assassin

Eversor Assassin

Vindicare Assassin

W.E. Terminators

W.E. Contemptor Dreadnought

Imperial Inquisitor

Ambull Alien

Wargames Exclusive Imperial Arsonist

Grey Knight Terminators (Original Metal)

W.E. Assault Squad

Thanks for visiting.

Painting Challenge Submission 7 - Sons of Horus Command Rhino, Praetor and Techmarine

Some new additions to my XVI Legion collection for Warhammer 30k.

The last few editions of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge have included some manner of map, to inspire participants to explore different painting themes, with the inducement of bonus points. See here for details. 

When I saw the details of the Challenge XII Quadrant Map, I knew I would have to give that overall aspect of the Challenge a pass. Very little of what I wish to paint/have lined up to paint would fit with with the worlds on the map, certainly not enough to get to the Quadrant Hub. But that doesn't rule out a stop here and there...and while most of my painting subjects fall outside planet themes, there was one planet that was right up my alley: Istvaan V. I did not have to reach far on my painting desk to find something to work for that theme.

Here we have a couple of Space Marines from GW's Horus Heresy setting ("30k"). Longer term participants of the AHPC will know I am a huge fan of the 30k setting, and probably will guess that I had stuff for Istvaan V within easy reach - and would have such items within easy reach on my painting table at any point of the year, Painting Challenge or no. Here we have a Praetor, a Techmarine and a Damocles-Pattern Command Rhino APC. All of these are from Forge World. All are painted in the colours of the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus - a Space Marine Legion that fought at Istvaan V!

Techmarine

"So you say you hear a rattle in the wheels?"

Even Space Marine stuff will break down eventually, and when it does, they have the "Techmarine" on hand to help out. For the rivet counters out there (like me), this particular Techmarine is wearing Mark IV powered armour plate - the tech version.

ONE of these cables will plug in, no doubt...

Fixing things in the grim and dark future seems to involve..well...breaking them more first? That is all I can surmise from the huge axe this guy carries. He also has so many cables connected to his power armour he seems a bit like some sort of Dr. Octopus cosplay loser...Techmarines are not my favourite figures. They are of limited use during games, and they look...well, they look kind of "off" - although when you read about how the tech-types hold and carry themselves in the 30k setting, "off" doesn't begin to cover it... 

My motivations to paint this guy up were mostly completionist - I have a pretty large collection of Sons of Horus Marines, including a wide assortment of vehicles. So it just seemed wrong not to have a Techmarine on the shelf to take care of these lovely machines in the collection. The Warmaster Himself seemed to demand it! Good to have this guy available to ensure the hallowed war engines of Horus Lupercal stay in top condition.

Preator

"Horus for hope!"

This figure is a bespoke command figure, released by Forge World last year (in the summer, I think). Over time, Forge World has released a number of such command figures for the different Legions in the setting. I'm such a huge geek for the setting that I just had to have this guy, even if I don't totally love how the Forge World studio conceives of the Sons of Horus. He is wearing heavily customized Mark IV power armour.

Who says you can't rock a sweet cape while wearing power armour?

This armour bears the markings and features consistent with the Sons of Horus in the 30k story - not just the big creepy "Eye of Horus", but also features tied to the "character" of the XVI Legion. In the 30k story, we are meant to understand that most members of the XVI Legion, before they were "recruited" into the Legion, were members of violent gangs on their homeworld of Cthonia - a world where the primary economic activity was organized homicide. Thus there are etchings in the armour (meant to be 'gang markings', but coming across to most as 'hey look, random scratches for no reason'). There is the bronzed skull bearing the "XVI" (again, this would be a gang decoration, presumable the skull of a slain enemy). There is the general aura of ominous threat. Who could have believe they would have turned into bad guys, right?

This handy volkite weapon will help solve problems!

Always nice to wear someone's bronzed skull on your belt. You know. Because reasons.

There is one other notable thing about this figure - at least, for obsessives like me - he is rather tall. A lot of us in the 30k community are expecting GW will re-size the Marine models to more closely match the size of the new "Primaris" marine models in 40k. We don't know for a fact this will happen...the twats at GW, as is their way, are utterly silent on this...but this figure, being a recent release, is notably taller than the previous Mark IV power armoured Marine models. The same thing has happened with other recent 30k releases from Forge World - all noticeable taller than the previous Marines. Is this an indicator of things to come? I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

Damocles Pattern Command Rhino

A nice ride for the command elements of the Warmaster's own legion!

The Rhino is the standard APC of the Space Marine Legions - this specific one, as you might guess from the little rotating dish on the top of the hull, is a command variant. Again, this is kind of a completionist thing to have for my collection - in an actual game, I probably would not select this vehicle for a basic force for a pick up game, but it will make for a nice piece to have in scenario-driven games, ambushes etc. And again, I'm sure it will sit nicely with all of the other XVI Legion vehicles on my shelf.

Gotta sport the XVI Legion brand, even on the rear hatch!

Forge World sells (or at least, used to sell) Legion-specific doors for the Rhino kits, and this model is sporting some bespoke doors for the XVI Legion. The "Eye of Horus" sure looks spooky! Very nice! Not something I would want on the "regular" APCs, but I'm pleased with the effect for the command vehicle. Looking at that Preator figure, he would probably want some kind of OTT ride for the battlefield, and this will do the trick.

Communications array providing a solid, high-bandwidth 5G connection to nice folks aboard the Vengeful Spirit.

That was all for this submission - a nice little side-trip into 30k, and I always do have 30k stuff sitting and waiting for a bit of paint. Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy the painting output of the Conscripts during the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

Rogal Dorn

My Imperial Fists have been my main effort since I started with 30k. I think I have over 5000 points worth of stuff which is more way more than can be reasonably gamed with. Just putting it all on the table might take half an hour! It's been a rewarding army to paint, but there comes a point where it's just silly to add more. There are other ptojects and other legions to paint! The only models left are the ones I've been dreading a bit. This is due either to their size or percieved complexity. I've finally decided to suck it up and just get them done. The first up is Primarch Rogal Dorn designed by Forgeworld. Anyone familiar with the model will notice it's missing something. Dorn's supposed to be wearing a cape. Forgeworld loves their capes on guys in power armour! I challenge anyone to tie a large piece of cloth to a backhoe and see how long it manages to stay on. I'm pretty sure the second Dorn sits down and shifts his weight, he's tearing that thing off. Despite this I did try to use it, but I just couldn't get the damn thing to fit under Dron's backpack. It just wasn't going to happen and I have to thank my daughter for halping me make up my mind to just leave it off. She felt that it was a bit silly to wear both a cape and a backpack at the same time. She also felt it looked a bit too "busy." Good enough for me. I also didn't go nuts with the face. Faces aren't my strong suit and I didn't see Dorn chaning that fact, so I just slapped a few flesh tones on him, added a wash and left it at that. I didn't even consider doing the eyes or his teeth. I'm happy this model is dinally done and I think it really adds to the collection. These Primarch models are a bit silly, so I don't see myself getting another, but I think the Fists deserved their Primarch on the display shelf. Last up with be the Fellblade. The yellow is going to take a while so I doubt I'll get it done before the painting challenge starts, but I'll be happy to at least make some progress on it. Thanks for visiting.

Another Squad of Silver Stars

A squad of Silver Star Marines, wearing Mark III power armour.

As winter arrives, I have been working on a new project - The War of The False Primarch. This project, like all of the others, starts small in my mind - "hey, I'll just paint a Kill Team" - and then from there, just a little bit larger - "hey, a second squad would be fun". Here in this post are photos of this second step - a 10-man squad of Silver Star Space Marines wearing Mark III power armour, mysterious followers of the mysterious returned true Son of the Emperor. These figures combine legs and torsos from Tortuga Gamestable with components and bits from GW Mark III kits, as well as a few Forge World accessories. There are also a number of decals, courtesy of a great community member who printed them up and shipped them to me!

Sergeant with plasma pistol, and thunder hammer - to really give it to someone...

Selection of marines...love that classic "Shark Fin" style missile launcher from Forge World - still makes me think of the old RTB 01 kits.

I love painting Space Marines, and particularly enjoy painting Horus-Heresy-era armour kits - with the Mark III probably being my absolute favourite - and so far, the pictures of Silver Star Marines I had seen online had been wearing Mark II armour, so it was fun to work these fellows up. I love the colour scheme of these Marines - devised by the incredible Rubricist - and I think it looks even sharper on the Mark III armour :-)

Some more of the Marines - I love the torso/leg poses from Tortuga Gamestable.

The Tortuga Gamestable core kits are just excellent - I really love the poses, a lot, and I thought setting of The War of The False Primarch would be an ideal setting to paint up these kits - a small force that will be fun to work up, and hopefully use in a game at some point, but also be fun to share online and have in the collection. 

Another assortment of squad members - and I am so thankful for the decals!

I designed this group to be a basic, classic 10-man tactical squad. The officer has a special weapon and a close combat weapon. There is support - one marine sporting a missile launcher (in this case, a Forge World "shark fin" launcher), another marine with a plasma gun - and a marine with a communication set up on his power pack.

Ready to deploy for the Partisan cause!

With this squad, we move up from a Kill Team toward the beginning of a small force (something like 25 PL) to play a "combat patrol" in 40k. You know, still a "small force", but just a "few more elements" LOL. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

Alpha Legion Finished!

The 12th painting Challenge approaches and I've been preparing various projects to work on over the winter. I've also been trying to clean out the last pieces of some old projects that have been lingering for a while. One of these projects is my 30k Alpha Legion. I've finally managed to complete the last unit I intend to build for them them. This is a unit of Lernaean Terminators from Forgeworld. They come equipped with power axes and volkite charges. They also come equipped with a conversion beamer which is a bit silly such a close combat oriented unit. As such I converted the beamer to look a little vague so it could reasonably represent several of the available weapon options.

I had originally earmarked some other models for this army, but I received some unexpected reinforcements from GregB when he moved. About half the infantry and a few of the vehicles are Greg's Alpha Legion. Our painting style are a bit different, but I used the same colour scheme and the two groups blend together fairly well I think. This isn't it for 30k however. As I mentioned above, I had other models earmarked for the Alpha Legion and those are being diverted to a new legion project that I hope to start some time next year.

Thanks for visiting

Some "True Scale" 30k Marines

"For the Warmaster! Horus for hope!"

As the Christmas season approaches once more here in Canada, I find that my painting table has once more filled with assorted GW and GW-related projects - some are new projects, but others much more familiar. In this post I share a few photos of a project that is very much in the latter category - here is yet another unit of 30k Marines. These fellows are wearing Mark IV plate, sporting the green, black and gold of the XVI Legion, the Sons of Horus. More Sons of Horus, well...why not? I can always use another squad of veterans - and I do love painting these guys...but there is one difference with these models...

These specific Marines are a hybrid of components - the heads, power backs, shoulder plates, arms, and weapons will be familiar to anyone who has worked with GW's excellent plastic Mark IV Space Marine kits. The torsos and legs, however, are one-piece resin accessories and they are sourced from Tortuga Gamestable. Why use an alternate source? Well, the poses are very sharp, but these torsos and legs have one other feature that makes them unique: they are bigger, and as such, more "true scale". The net result of the combined components is a unit of 30k Space Marines figures that are larger - some photos in this post will give a rough idea of the size. Yessir, what we have here is a squad of "true scale" Space Marines for 30k.

"Truescale" Marines and 30k - Pointless...And Yet...

Bolt pistols and combat blades galore for these veteran chaps.

I last opined on this topic in the summer when I painted up "Maloghurst The Twisted". Suffice to say that a combination of factors over the past spring/summer - leaked photos of a rumoured new 30k box set, the apparent large size of some recent 30k character figures from Forge World, and the general fevers of online communities - have really got all of us fans of 30k wondering and worrying about a possible Primaris-style re-size/re-scale coming to the GW/Forge World 30k figure range. 

Veteran Sergeant sporting power fist and plasma pistol.

Hobbyists will all have different perspectives on these speculations and on whether a re-size is a good thing - if it even happens (remember it's still rumours and interpretations, after all - as of this day, we don't have any confirmed information). I don't mean to opine over that matter much in this post, other than to note it would be nice if GW would communicate more constructively with the community on this sort of issue. 

Many players will see any re-sizing as a pointless complication, and avoid the whole thing as much as possible. This is a perspective that I am highly sympathetic to - after all, inter-range "scale creep" is a curse in the hobby generally, and it is even worse when in happens intra-range, creating a nightmare scenario of mis-matched scales within a single collection. For those of us with hobby-related OCD tuned to a certain frequency, that is a nightmare.

Boltguns at the ready...

Lots of room to affix the "combat blade" and holstered bolt pistols.

But I will say I have been surprised to note the strong feelings among many hobbyists in favour of a re-size. I am struck by the extent to which a wish for "true scale" marines out there. There are many, many gamers looking for this. They are irritated at the gap between the Space Marines as described in the Black Library novels and the Space Marines they see on the gaming table. In the novels, the Marines tower over the "regular" humans. On the table, they are barely larger than that average Cadian trooper. For my part, I have always been annoyed at how the Cadian sculpts are too large...but that is a digression for another day. There is a large community of 30k players who wish for their Marines to loom on the table as they do in the novels. They are looking for options to make this happen - and they are finding ways to do it!

This brings me to another thing I must admit, I saw some folks with "true scale" 30k marines...and they looked...AWESOME. This is how I came to learn of Tortuga Gamestable.

The Conversion Monster Drowns Off Tortuga

For me, the main obstruction to creating a "true scale" 30k Marine from a base-line figure out of the current range is the amount of conversion involved - both the level of skill needed, and just the raw amount of overall work. Even if you manage it for one or two figures, can you manage it for the 10, 20 or 40 figures you would want for your 30k force? Would the results be consistent? Goodness knows they would not be for me. There are incredibly talented hobbyist out there who can manage this sort of this, but for me, it is just not worth any attempt. I like to think I am not alone in that view... 

Vox operator and special weapon, seen from the rear.

The fellow with the flamer is ready for a BBQ....

Enter Tortuga Gamestable. They cut this Gordian Knot by offering bodies and torsos that are "true scale" for 30k Marines, yet still work OK with the established and existing range of components such that players can work with the bits and kits they already know well. The assembled end result is a "true scale" 30k marine without a tortured amount of conversion work, and consistent results across your whole units. As a 30k obsessive, I decided to test this out - and in the process create another Veteran Tactical Squad for my Sons of Horus collection.

"Shark fin" style missile launcher - still a classic!

Things did not go well with the decal on this shoulder...ugh. Oh well.

These resin sculpts are hobby-friendly and easy to work with, requiring some minimal preparation. And I really, really love the final look of the assembled figures. The taller Marines have, IMO, a superior look in terms of their proportions - their hips, and shoulders, just make more sense. The larger torso offers more opportunity for accessories too - as you look at some of the figures, you can see I used some of the pouches, for example, that come with the Mark IV plastic kits. These are very hard to fit on the regular plastic Mark IV marines, but they fit easily on these larger torsos, because there is just more room for that kind of stuff without interfering with the arms holding the bolt gun. 

Another benefit - the larger plates on the knees and legs offer that little extra bit of room you always wished you had to make full use of some of the decal options that are out there. For example, the "XVI" numeral decal on the knee plates was an easy fit (they still fogged up, because they are expired, poor-quality decals from Forge World, but that is a rant for another time). 

These "true scale" 30k marines look sharp and offer more scope for accessories, painting and decals. There is a lot to like in that...

So, How Big Are They Anyway?

From left to right: Tortuga Gamestable in Mark IV armour, GW Plastic Marine in Mark IV armour, and original Forge World Marine in Mark IV armour.

At the end of the day, these Marines are definitely larger than the current size standard, but still not-quite-so-large as Primaris Marines. Note: the comparison is a little rough when you consider that many Primaris sculpts are hunched over in a "combat stance". But I have a few comparison photos here that give a rough idea.

Tortuga Gamestable on the left, Primaris Intercessor on the right...the size is close overall, but the Primaris fellow is still  larger and heavier - note how the Primaris Marine is hunched in a menacing ready-stance, while Mark IV Marine is upright.

Even if they are not fully Primaris-sized, these true-scaled Marines are notably larger than the current standard range.Could they mix well with existing 30k Marine models? Look, they are definitely different - but everyone has their own sort of preference. IMO, I think they work OK to mix in the same collection, but definitely not the same unit. But we all have our own little hobby quirks and preferences - you might hate the difference, and I would respect that.

I just love how this squad looks - regardless of the relative size - the Tortuga Bay poses are just awesome. I enjoyed painting these fellow for sure, too. As I said, very forgiving and hobby friendly.

Are there downsides? Of course - there is no free lunch, especially when it comes to 30k! To make use of these Tortuga Bay sculpts, you still require a source of arms, guns, backpacks etc. The likeliest source would be a squad box from GW. So this approach is more expensive - for something that is already kinda pricey. 

There is also the fact that these components are not official GW kit, and thus would likely be barred from any official GW sort of gaming event. Not something I really care about, but some others might, so just something to keep in mind.

Ready to deploy!

The final downside is that, well, it takes a long, long, long time for your order - and I don't blame the folks at Tortuga Gamestable. I think the demand for their product is strong - I see more and more units of their marines appearing in pictures online. So it can take a while for your stuff to get cast. Then factor in the complete clown show that is shipping in today's environment - expect to wait. Again, not their fault...just something to keep in mind. I ordered these in the early summer, and they arrived in July...and that was back when shipping was still working sort-of-OK. Needless to say, my second order has yet to show up...pile on the Christmas-shipping pressure to an already caved-in global logistics system, and you will be waiting a long while.

So, what next? Will I now suddenly paint up a whole new segment of my 30k collection using these Marines? Well, stranger things have happened, and I am a 30k obsessive, yes - I love painting 30k Marines!. But I did not order enough sets of Tortuga Gamestable kits to attempt anything like for now. Instead, I plan to sprinkle these around a bit on a couple different projects. Watch for more of them to appear here soon.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!