40k Space Marine Eliminators

Space Marine Eliminators for the Raven Guard Chapter. Plastic figures from GW. 

Giant armoured space troopers with terrifying laser-sniper rifles? Sounds great! And GW's got you covered. The 40k painting parade from the summer at the cabin continues. This is a unit of Space Marine "Eliminators", and it looks like they are well-equipped to live up to their name.  

Taking a careful aim in the name of The Emperor...

The decal is glossy...these figures will get a spray of dullcote when the humidity moves on this fall. 

Of course, when you think of a "sniper", you think of concealment and stealth too, and these models try to invoke that with big cloaks and extra terrain pieces you can add to the bases. Personally, I think the idea that 8-foot-tall genetically-enhanced warriors wearing massive power armour "sneaking" around anywhere is kind of ludicrous, but I do like the idea of Space Marine "marksmen" with terrifying rifles. It's a cool sci-fi concept, these guys dealing well-aimed shots, sowing confusion, even damaging enemy vehicles, while the tactical squads move in to finish things off and wrap up The Emperor's business.   

I particularly love the rifles...the huge scopes, the power coils...all over-the-top, all entertaining.

I tried to throw a bit of a pseudo-camouflage pattern on the cape...but I wanted the cape to match the armour, not the actual terrain, as I don't consider huge power-armoured space marines really needing "camouflage"...by the time the Space Marines are involved, the time for "camouflage" is long past...

And these weapons are scary! These figures are carrying a "las-fusil", a rifle that will hit very, very hard and I like the bonkers, over-the-top look of these weapons.

Another whacky feature...the scope is wired directly to the eye-piece...again, bonkers and over the top - I like it!

Ready to take a shot...

These models are very nice to work with. Again, you have choices of different variants of rifles you can equip the figures with. My minor quibble would be the fact the shoulder plates are often concealed, so you cannot use the shoulder plates embossed with the chapter symbol, and to the extent they are visible, you need to use the decals. But these are minor quibbles...again, fun multi-part plastic figures.

Thanks for reading - stay safe everyone!   

40k Primaris Hellblasters for Raven Guard

Unleash...hell, I suppose? More recruits for the Raven Guard - "Hellblasters".

More recruits for my small force of Raven Guard Space Marines - these are Primaris "Hellblasters", multi-part plastic figures from Games Workshop. As with the other Raven Guard I have painted recently for 40k, they are embellished with parts and decals from the Raven Guard Primaris Upgrade set from GW. 

A little blurry in the photo...lighting at the cabin is not ideal for photos...

These Hellblasters provide specialized heavy fire support for the Space Marine infantry.  You can pick from three different types of plasma incinerators - one that allows for more mobile firepower, a "standard" variant, or a version that hits a little harder but slows the Marines down. Whichever you choose, I think these primarily would be useful against other very heavy infantry, as the guns themselves are of limited use against vehicles (in that classic GW paradox, they have a very high strength but cause very few "wounds" - have I mentioned how stupid it is that vehicles have "wounds" again? Grumble grumble whatever...). 

This one is a little less blurry...get a better impression of the scary "Plasma Incinerator". 

As with the Intercessors, these multi-part plastics from GW are top-shelf quality, with lots of bits that let you add some interesting variety to the poses while still keeping the same overall "we're here to blast you to pieces" look to the unit. If you like Space Marines, I think you will find something to enjoy with these kits. The whole "story" behind the Primaris Marines does absolutely nothing for me, but just in terms of being something different, well, these are fun. 

I used some spare 30k "destroyer" decals for the hip plates - I thought it matched up well with the scary weapons. 

Assorted pistol holsters, spare weapon components, and the fellow on the left is carrying a bone in a little icon box - because that is what you do when you are wearing power armour and a huge plasma gun. 

I do have one gripe about these specific figures...the "wide stance" of the models. Relentless scale creep is a piss-off, but it is also a fact of the hobby. With these Hellblasters you end up with several figures who can barely fit on the 32mm round bases. I HATE when toes go over the base! It was not that long ago that GW bumped up the size of the bases for the Marines in order to accommodate them...and already they are stepping off (look at the officer in this squad, for example)...irritating. 

But while that is annoying, also very small potatoes...overall these were fun to paint. I look forward to the day where they can take to the table and...immediately be shot to pieces, because that is what happens to newly painted figures! But once that is out of the way, I hope they will render the enemies of The Emperor down to flaming remnants of their component atoms...

"Sure, I have this giant plasma weapon...but I shall blast you with this trusty pistol instead..."

I like the little options in these kits...here we see a bionic arm, little Raven Guard-themed charms hanging from the shoulder pauldron, and of course a little scroll certifying his loyalty to The Emperor.  

There are 10 of these in a box, so I still have five more of these models to paint - another unit. I may give them the heavier version of the plasma incinerator when I get around to building and painting them. But these five fellows are enough to join in a firefight for now. 

Thanks for reading - hope you are safe and well wherever you are!

More 40k Primaris Marines for the Raven Guard

Another group of Intercessors for the Raven Guard.

Here is another small, five-model squad of Raven Guard Space Marines for GW's Warhammer 40k setting. As with the batch in the previous post, they Primaris "Intercessors", but they carry a different variant of the bolt rifle - these Marines are carrying the "auto bolt rifle", a slightly-higher-rate-of-fire assault variant of the weapon.

Officer pointing at something to be...appreciated? No...probably something to be shot - in the name of The Emperor, of course. 

Marine with an auto-bolt-rifle, upgraded with an attached grenade launcher...the only "heavy weapon", it seems, that you can add to these squads (at least for now). 

As with the previous squad, the Sergeant is wearing a "beakie" style helmet, and all of the Marines are sporting embossed shoulder plates featuring the Raven Guard symbol. These shoulder plates came from Chapter-specific upgrade kits.

The plastic Primaris Intercessor marine kits lend themselves to these kinds of ominous and forward-moving poses. 

Trusty bolt pistol on the hip, and classic-style "tactical" marker on the shoulder plate.

The bolt rifle looks great, and this version of it, with the large, drum-type magazine, is probably my favourite version of these newer weapons. These plastic multi-part kits are very well done - GW at its best.

I really like how this pose came out...looks ready to lay down some heavy covering fire.

View of the rear, showing the assorted pouches you can add to the Marines. 

As with the previous bunch, these fellows are looking a little glossy thanks to the varnish undercoat I apply underneath any decals in order to prevent silvering effects. The gloss will disappear after a spray of Testors Dullcote, but that won't happen until it's safe to do so once the humidity recedes.  Given that we are at the end of August in Canada, that shouldn't be long now!

Thanks for reading, and stay safe!

40k Raven Guard - Primaris Marines

Primaris Marines from the Raven Guard Chapter for GW's Warhammer 40k setting. 

Well, my blogging pace has dropped to pretty much nothing during the summer...sorry about that...there has been no shortage of activity, just not as much painting. I've been spending time at my cabin on Lake Superior near Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, and the assorted outdoor activities tend to reduce my painting production - and dramatically reduce the amount of time for posting on the blog...

Primaris Seargeant, checking his email while holding a bolt pistol (as one does). 

Marine sporting a bolt rifle (and an ominous countenance).

Marine prepping to chuck a grenade...

But my brushes have not been idle - I have been messing around with more of the new (or, at least, new to me) "Primaris" Space Marines for GW's Warhammer 40k setting. I have finished a number of the figures, and managed a few photos to share. Up first is a 5-man squad of Primaris Intercessors, armed with bolt rifles. These are multi-part plastic kits, enhanced with some Raven Guard-specific shoulder plates and decals.

Swapping in a new clip...I quite like this pose. 

Grenade launcher (a little blurry - he's moving fast!).

You can still see there is a glossy finish beneath the decals - the humidity out here is much too high these days to try spraying with Testors Dullcote or any similar product, so that final step will have to wait for a few more weeks.

View of the back side, showing the power packs, the pouches, pistol holsters and other accessories.

These plastic Intercessors are very nice kits, and I tried to make use of some of the varied poses available...the officer is checking a comms read out/data slate built into his wrist. One of the marines is slamming a fresh magazine into his bolt rifle. Another has an auxiliary grenade launcher mounted underneath his bolt rifle.

A lot of gloss coat under the decal locations...these fellows will get a dullcote spray once the humidity dies down in a few weeks.

The plastic upgrade frames are great - for the Raven Guard, you get some "beakie" style helmets, which I still love, and you get embossed shoulder plates with the Raven Guard logo on them. I love the embossed chapter symbols - they are so much nicer than decals, and I wish GW would make a little more of a coordinated effort to make them consistently available.

For the Emperor!

These are the first of a very small force of Raven Guard who will, at some point, participate in some 40k gaming (who knows when - I won't need to hurry). I'll have some more progress on this progect to share in other posts as August concludes and we head into September.

Sunset over Goulais Bay, on the eastern shores of Lake Superior.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe.

Emperors Champion

 GregB was kind enough to gift me this Black Templar Emperors Champion model a few months ago. I think this was one of the earlier representations of the model and I prefer this pose to the later ones. He looks like he’s ready to duel as opposed to the newer one which poses like he’s already won the fight. His armour fits in well with 30k so I painted him up as a first company Imperial Fist (they’re basically Black Templar’s anyway). He’s a bit shorter than the rest of the Mark iii armour marines, but his “huge” sword surely compensates for what he lacks in stature!

Imperial Fist Rhinos and Stormeagle

After a slow spring, I’ve managed to increase the painting production here and finished a batch of vehicles. I've had 3 rhinos sitting in the pending bin for months now and it was time to get them done. They took so long because 2 of them were a real pain to assemble and included a model with a hull that was almost completely flattened. I won’t complain because they were found in a chest of buried treasure on some island off Tortuga. The easy one to assemble was from Forgeworld and I still have the white box to prove it!

I was worried that the fist logo on the top hatch wouldn’t work, but copious amounts of micro sol did the trick and I’m quite happy with the result. I continued with the reverse black/yellow color scheme and appropriate weathering to represent a stressed and over stretched legion in the Horus Heresy.

My Imperial Fists collection is quite large at this point and I still have a few units left to paint including Rogal Dorn himself! I wasn't too concerned with this as Greg's Sons of Horus suffer form the same Arms Race mentality. With Greg's traitor forces whisked off to Ontario, I'll have to switch my focus to some traitor legions in the near future.

The 4th vehicle I completed is a Storm Eagle...well it’s a storm eagle conversion actually. The original model was the space marine Storm Raven. The now out of business, Chapterhouse Studios made a conversion kit for the raven that allowed you to elongate the model to make it look like it could actually transport stuff. The top missile launcher is from Puppets War and was also designed with GW models in mind. This model has been sitting for a few years now and it was thanks to Greg and Dallas and their completed Storm Eagles that gave me the motivation to finish it. It’s not quite the same size as a Storm Eagle, but a good enough approximation when compared with spending $200+ on a proper and non-flattened model from Forgeworld.

Team Yankee Soviet Motor Rifle Weapons Teams

Not too much painting going on nowadays at Conscript Towers but I had time to crank out some Soviets for Team Yankee - a set of their Motor Rifle Weapons Teams. The set is cast in Battlefront plastic/resin - a much superior material to the dreadful Warlord "restic" in my opinion. The Battlefront stuff holds fine detail well and requires little to no cleanup. Good stuff.  

Anyway, the blister pack contains three large team bases and figures to make three heavy weapons teams: two AT-4 "Spigot" ATGW teams and one AGS-17 "Plamya" automatic grenade launcher team. There's also two cards with stats for use with the Team Yankee game.

Above is the AGS-17 team. Three grenade launchers and operators, and three riflemen. The AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher went into service in 1971. It fires 30mm high-explosive grenades from a belt, at a cyclic rate of 350-400 rounds per minute. Enough to bring some hurt. Apparently the Soviets intended the AGS-17 to address the expected "human wave attacks" of the Chinese in a future Sino-Soviet conflict (!)

 

The blister also includes two AT-4 anti-tank guided missile teams. Fortunately NATO adopted the designation "Spigot" rather than the Russian designation "Fagot" (bassoon). The AT-4 is wire-guided; the launcher tracks the position of the missile from an incandescent infrared bulb on the rear of the missile and transmits guidance via the wire. This is SACLOS - semi-automatic command to line of sight. The operator keeps his pip on the target and the launcher guides the missile to that point.

Anyway, there you have it - three new weapons teams for the Motor Rifle Battalion. Price tag on the blister was a nickel short of ten bucks which I reckon is good value. Fun and easy to paint and most importantly, represents movement of figures from the lead pile to the painted army drawer.

Hope you're all keeping safe.