28mm Sci-Fi Penal Legion

One of my longer-running ongoing projects is a 40K Guard army that has been in the queue since (apparently) 2009... ack. So far I've gotten one squad of Renegades and two Leman Russ tanks painted, and some Death Riders assembled, but that's about it.

However, a post on TMP or some such ignited the fires of creativity (acquisition) anew when I spotted the very nice Victoria Lamb conversion kits for GW's Imperial Guard. Aha! Penal Legion troopers to go with the Renegade Guardsmen!

The conversion parts you get in the Penal Guard Squad kit are lovely - torsos, heads and weapons with attached arms. The last is particularly applauded by me, as one of my pet peeves is figures with separate hands and weapons... no matter how carefully you place the weapons in the hands it always looks awkward, like the model has wooden prosthetic hands that can't quite grasp the weapon.

Kit quality was great with nary a bend in the white metal parts. Fitment was also rather good for the most part, with joins disguised with GW's new Liquid Green Stuff.

You might notice that some of the heads are different - not willing to leave well enough alone, I mixed in a few of Maxmini's Tox Guardsman heads I picked up at Salute.
 

While expensive, the Maxmini heads are amazing little resin sculpts that reflect the hapless character I love in Imperial Guardsmen - especially Renegades and especially especially Penal Legionnaires. How much more hapless can you get than that??

The only GW part left on the models is the legs - I used plastic Catachan legs and I think they work perfectly. Oh, those and a sprinkling of IG equipment on the belts - a few canteens, ammo pouches, combat knives etc. Penal Legionnaires are not very high up on the Guard logistics chain ;-)

The completed squad of 10. For colour scheme I am thinking hi-viz prison orange... the torsos have these cool "number patches" across the front and back... I have some fond memories of these guys from childhood comic book reading...

;-)

"You Lookin' at Me??"

A few days ago I posted about the Nurgle Daemon Prince I had converted using parts from Troll-Forged Miniatures. Since that post, I re-did the model's right arm as I wasn't so happy with it. Now I think it's a bit better balanced in terms of posing, since I used an Inquisitor Space Marine right arm to match the left. 

I painted him in my standard Nurgle colour scheme of Graveyard Earth, Rotting Flesh and Camo Green.  I used weathering powder on the sword and am pretty happy with how that turned out.  I diluted the powder with Tamiya acrylic thinner and just dabbed it on, works a treat and makes a nice texture. 

From what I've read a winged Daemon Prince is a must in a CSM army so I'm looking forward to trying him out!

Da Red Barun

Here's the completed GeeBee racer Ork Fighta conversion in all its gun-toting glory ;-)

This photo was taken of the first iteration of the tactical markings on the fuselage.  The markings are actually lightly etched into the plastic so you don't have a lot of choice about incorporating them somehow.  The kit provided a decal in red but I tried painting the markings in white... I didn't like that much so I used the kit decals and just lined the numerals.  Better.

"Da Red Barun" sighting in those big gunz... looking forward to taking on some Guard or Space Marines...

Astronomi-con Winnipeg 2010 - Army Showcase

Here are some of the armies at Astronomi-con Winnipeg 2010. Unfortunately, it was a busy weekend and I apologize for only taking photos of maybe half the participants' armies.

MarioR's excellently modeled and painted Ultramarines (he deservedly won Best Appearance):


Another angle:


Mario's dreadnought:


ChrisB's Tyranids (note that the big spore/drop pod thingy was made from a dog's chew toy):


DaveS' Nurgle Chaos Marines (his Blight Drone won him Best Single Figure):


GraemeB's Witch Hunters (he won Best Army):


Graeme's very detailed Sisters of Battle armoured personnel carrier:


ThurstonH's Saim Hann Eldar:


AlexB's Orks (the balloons are his Trukks):


Closeup of Alex's Bomma, heavily converted from jet to propellor power:


DaveB's Orks (the extra stuff is really funny):


DustinS' "Tonka Toy" Imperial Guard (yes, the vehicle crews have orange jumpsuits):


MikeM's Space Marines army, used by KeithG as the tournament "ringer" army in the case of an odd number of entrants:


BenI's Chaos Daemons:


BrockJ's Imperial Guard (he won Best Overall):


DaveG's Witch Hunters (he won Best Sportsman):


FabioF's "Death from Above" Blood Angels:


KevinN's "Tiger Marines" (using Codex: Space Wolves):


SteveB's Imperial Guard (note the Forge World model tanks):


My Eldar Swordwind (even shootier than earlier incarnations):


Here's a PDF of my army list (I gave a coil-bound hardcopy to each of my opponents):
http://www.deviantart.com/download/173050437/Asurmen__s_Academy_by_DaveV.pdf

Lots of great armies, playing cool scenarios on tables with varied terrain. "Hobby" style 40K doesn't get any better.

Next up, some pre-tournament thoughts.

Cheers,

DaveV

Review: Chapterhouse Xeno heads

As I alluded in a recent post, I've started another insane project (tm), this time a Tyranid army for Warhammer 40K. As with many of my projects, it consisted of narrowly missing a Great Deal on eBay, Bartertown, or TMP, and then being so excited about the new project that I frantically search out somewhat less-great deals and do the project anyway.

Nowadays I justify new armies by saying "these will paint up so fast" by using some simple trick or other. In this case it was to model the army after the "Alien" movie, and paint in basically monochrome with washes and gloss varnish to punch it up. Originally I was going to model the Alien heads with greenstuff, but then I came across Chapterhouse Studios' "Xeno heads" and the project just became waaay easier...

Chapterhouse Studios (http://chapterhousestudios.com/webshop/) sells a variety of different resin bits to suit 40K enthusiasts - mainly Eldar and Space Marine stuff, but there is some love for Tyranid players too, with resin boneswords and lashwhips, and most importantly XENO HEADS!

So I immediately fired up an order for 60 heads, figuring that would be enough to outfit the smaller models in my army. One of the difficulties of ordering, though, was the fact that nowhere on the website are there any pictures of how the heads fit on actual Tyranid models, to judge their scale. I imagine this may be because of intellectual property issues but it made me a bit anxious as to how they would look, since there are no pics around on the 'net either. Until now anyway ;-)

Turns out I needn't have worried. The heads arrived, after a fashion, and I eagerly tore into the package. The heads come on sprues of 6, with 3 examples of each variant per sprue. The cost is roundabout $1 per head. Well worth it in my opinion; the heads are wonderfully sculpted and the casting are crisp and remarkably free of flash. One of the variants has a subtle socket in the bottom that is sometimes helpful in fitting, but the resin is easily trimmed as needed.

The heads really suit the larger Tyranid models (Raveners and Warriors) but I think they look OK with Genestealers, Hormagaunts and Termagants also. Check out the photos and you'll see what I mean.

Verdict: highly recommended. Just the thing to set your Tyranid army apart from the next nerd's, and most importantly, sets you up for a paint scheme that is quick and easy to execute. The next you see of these models they'll be ready for the table and getting slaughtered by Dave's Eldar ;-)

Another(!) Eldar unit for the Tempest of Blades

A couple of weeks ago I played a game of 40K with Duncan (batrep to follow shortly). We played the Astro scenario "Crash Site Recovery." I was running my Dire Avengers lean, without an Exarch.

That's right, Dallas, no more "Blade-storm."

The proof of concept seemed to work out OK. So, I'm looking at a fairly radical change to my 1500-point Swordwind list . Some of the following is based on stuff I read on Warseer and on YTTH (in particular, the second small Dragon squad and the Vyper squadron):

Farseer - Doom (re-roll "To Wound" rolls); Guide (re-roll shooting "To Hit" rolls); Eldar Jetbike; Runes of Warding; Singing Spear

Autarch - Eldar Jetbike; Banshee Mask; Laser Lance; Fusion Gun

8 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons; Shuriken Cannon

8 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Bright Lances

5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons

5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons

3 x Vyper jetbikes - each w/ 2 x Shuriken Cannons

5 x Warp Spiders - including Exarch with dual Death Spinner

Fire Prism grav tank

Total = 41 models, at exactly 1500 points

***

A fair amount of medium strength firepower (a possible 42 S6 shots in a turn of shooting), plus 11 melta guns, a TL Bright Lance, a Prism Cannon, and lots of Shuriken Catapults. The two Fire Dragon units deal with tank spam and hunt down things like squads of Tyranid Warriors (hooray for Instant Death). The two Dire Avenger squads back up everyone else and try to seize objectives. The Farseer buffs her side's shooting, or helps them wound their enemies. The Autarch allows for putting everything into reserve, and allows heroic "Horatius Cocles at the bridge" type rearguard actions. Very little close combat ability, except for the sacrificial Autarch.

I've been working on the new Vyper squadron. I never liked the idea of a 2-man Eldar bike, with the gunner basically having his ass hanging out in the wind. So, I threw away the turrets and made all the bikes single-seaters:

(Note: click on the photo for a larger image)

The leftmost model shows the basic single-seat bike configuration, using castoff bits, putty and wire. It will eventually have an enclosed canopy. It is somewhat based on the work of a couple of modelers I saw on Warseer.

The centre model shows the pewter Shuriken Cannon upgrade used for all three bikes, replacing the bikes' original TL Shuriken Catapults.

The centre and right-hand bikes were cut down even further, to become unmanned drones. I threw their canopies into the bits box and used Eldar "command tank" bits to represent their drone status. In the army fluff, the drones are slaved to each other and to the manned bike. This represents, in model form, the vehicle squadron rules in 40k 5th. edition (i.e. ignore "Stunned" results, but "Immobilized" counts as "Destroyed") .

So, there it is. The army is still very fast, now with more firepower at the expense of reduced close combat ability.

I would greatly appreciate any constructive comments or concerns.

Edited to add: The Vyper squadron was finished and is illustrated here.

Pimp my Hetzer

Well, it seemed like I started this project a few weeks ago, but actually, it was in April. So my painting momentum has certainly slowed through the spring - I'll have to work on that. Nevertheless, GünSchwarm has some fresh AT firepower to deal with those pesky FuturKommies in the form of a Space Hetzer.



The WW2 Hetzer was a compact vehicle, not too fun to crew, with a low profile and cramped fighting compartment. It mounted an effective AT gun though. Overall, a very efficient design. But GünSchwarm doesn't roll that way. The problem was solved by using a 1/35 scale Hetzer for the model, and providing the obligatory massive gun, along with a few other bits, crew hatch etc. The net effect seems to be some kind of "Jag-Hetzer".....



The long-barreled, extra-high velocity variant of the 120mm GünSchwarm AT Cannon/Community Improvement Tool would probably tip the vehicle over as soon as it tried to drive anywhere. So let's say for the sake of argument that the Gün engineers figured out some sort of advanced suspension that is powered by 100% recycled FuturKom POWs...



We all know the fate of newly painted models - still, I look forward to rolling this vehicle out when we resume our New New Future War....