The 'big momma cannon'

I shit you not, that is the actual name for the item you see before you. The big momma cannon....

Anyhow, I received two of these today, alongside lots of other parts and bits, from Puppets War.

This is going to represent my pre-heresy demolisher. As you can see, it's utterly ridiculous proportions make it seem pretty antiquated versus the new more toned-down demolishers. All of which just make this model utterly awesome. I still have to put it together, but here's a picture from the awesome Goatboy at BOLS:

I will say though that the bulldozer blade does look a little 'burred', which make require a little sanding/scraping/washing, to make it smoother and hence, easier to paint. I'll let you know how I get on when I come to assemble and paint it.

I was considering purchasing a deimos rhino conversion kit from forge world, to accompany this model, but that plus the 15 euros for the cannon, put the price tag too high, sadly.

Lovely, lovely Storm Talon

I have a sneaky feeling that the Stormtalon is going to radically alter my White Scars planned army list. As will some of the new 40k rumours on flamers.

Firstly, regarding the stormtalon, I'm completely taken by the possibility of spamming them.

Upgraded for just 25 points with the sky skyhammer missile launcher, with its already formidable loadout of a twin-linked assault cannon, means that this beast will have four shots at strength six, and three shots at strength seven, per turn. Plus it can fire all weapons and still move at 12 inches per turn. And all that, for a grand total of 155 points.

To be honest, I'm utterly in love with the rules at least, and can think of a thousand ways that it would complement a bike army. I currently have three squadrons of two typhoon landspeeders taking up the three fast attack slots in the codex.

However, I'd definitely like at least two of these, which then raises the question of priorities. If I take two typhoons, I can put out four krak missiles a turn, plus six heavy bolter shots. However, that's for thirty points more (180pts).

Two stormtalons and three typhoons might make sense. Or else, I might use the tempests I am getting in the 'heavy support' section as well as one fast attack slot. That would mean I could take six tempests, two storm talons and two vindicators. That *might* provide me with enough mobile firepower! However, it would rely to a certain extent on the good graces of my opponent.

The only other concern I might have is that the stormtalon is not strictly pre-heresy. It looks considerably more modern than the rest of my army, and if I fielded it, I might need to 'bling' it up a bit in order to fit the theme. I'm hoping Chapter House Studios release a conversion kit for it similar to what they did for the Storm Raven.

The other point which I wanted to mention, is the rumours of purchased terrain, flamers and flammable terrain. Obviously, terrain for a biker army is extremely problematic. I cannot claim objectives on the high ground, and difficult terrain counts as dangerous. If terrain, and in particular bunkers and other siege terrain, becomes more common in 40k, this could cause a problem.

However, the possibility of using flamers to 'drive out' embedded troops into the open where they can be killed, now seems to be a very real one.  Therefore, I'm also considering purchasing a tactical combat squad, armed with flamers, in a razorback with a TL heavy flamer, for specifically this role. They could also be useful later on for capturing objectives.

Anyhow, the 6th edition isn't going to be released until the end of June, so I still have over a month to paint up my core troops.






 

Magneto

Yesterday I received a set of magnetic flying stands from an ebay seller called lianne_c. They are utterly fantastic. I don't know whether it's just because I'm new to the concept of a magnetic flying stand, but these are just great.

I've seen some pretty complicated set ups for magnetic stands, particularly the type which allows you multiple poses. The problem seems to stem from the fact that they're all based on transparent acrylic stalks.

This one is extremely simple, and allows you a variety of dynamic poses.

The only trouble is that the magnet is fairly large, and I'm not sure whether it's possible to drill a hole deep enough to sink it in. So instead, it rests on the outside of the model.




Now this isn't a problem so much with a large model like the land speeder, as you can't see the underside of the model anyhow. However, with my jet bikes, it may yet cause a bit of grief, as it's patently obvious from the side of the model. I've yet to stick one onto my trial model, but I'll keep you, my non-existent readers, updated about how it goes. 

The end of another painting week

This is the unit I've been working on most of the week, just an hour or so every morning. I reckon they took me together about eight or nine hours in total, so just over an hour per miniature.

The speed has increased from the last squad of eight that I did a few weeks back, but I still hope to improve further in order that I finish the army by June 16.

I was particularly impressed by the new GW flesh tones. Here I used ratskin flesh, followed by the flesh wash, and then bestigor and ungor flesh layers.

This is the rhino I painted last weekend. As you can see, I've made extensive use of the Forge World decals. You probably can't see it here, but on the left facing there's a particularly nice scroll work, which I was particularly impressed with.

Test model

I wasn't going to do anything on my White Scars until I'd finished my Black Templars, but I got over-excited by the recent orders and decided to put one together. After a bit of hacking and cutting, what you see above is the result.

I had to hack off the jaw of the skeleton horse, and laid out the rest of the spine (including the tail) across the back of the bike. It's a bit gappy in places, so I still need a bit of green stuff, particularly where the head joins the neck.

Overall though, I'm fairly happy with the finished product.

I'm still a little unsure of how to paint white. I have ordered the 'Let's Paint: White Scars' dvd from AG Productions, so hopefully it will give me some pointers. I'm a bit reluctant to use my jetbike marines as test models, so I picked up a box of three tactical marines for that purpose. I'll start work on them soon.

I'm unsure whether the jetbike should get a black basecoat, as it would certainly help with the shading around the skeleton and in the air fins. Suggestions on a postcard.

I still have about seven Black Templars tactical marines to finish this week. This weekend, I have to paint a razorback, landspeeder and at least half of my terminator squad. Wish me luck!

Jetbikes!

I'm not normally excited by the prospect of work, but today I skipped happily into the office after collecting three packages from  the reception area.

The largest, pictured above, contains 16 javelin jetbikes from Chapter House Studios. Here's what they look like, outside of the box.

In addition, I also received a box of plastic tomb kings horses, and about 30 ork heads. No, I'm not in the process of converting undead ork cavalry, I'll be adding these bits to spruce up the jetbike. I'm going to attempt to place the horse skull in between the bolters, and spread out the spinal column across the bike. 

Then, I plan to hack off the topknots of the ork boyz heads and stick them either by the exhaust of the bike, or on top of the space marine backpack. 

This morning, I also purchased 15 marines in 'crusade armour' from Forge World, and two resin landspeeder Tempests. I know that pre-heresy landspeeders are supposed to be more sparse than modern landspeeders, but I couldn't resist the design, which is totally awesome. 

Yesterday I created a painting schedule for my Templars. I have a week off at the beginning of June, so I'm planning on spending about six hours a day painting. I reckon I should be finished on June 16, all going well. Now I just need to figure out how to photograph my minis!

A Born Again Space Marine

This blog is to document the collection, modelling and painting stages of my new White Scars pre-heresy jetbike army.

I'm also in the process of finishing painting a Black Templars army, and I'll be adding stuff to the blog on what I've painting, in between stuff about White Scars.

The BT are my first army after returning to Games Workshop for the first time since the second edition 40K. I've still got a few old rhinos and metal space marines from the very first Rogue Trader boxed sets. I thought initially that these would form the bulk of the army, but they have largely taken a backseat in preference to the new kits GW have released.

Overall, I'm massively impressed with how 'conversion friendly' the new plastic marines are. No longer do I need to take my junior hacksaw to repose some clunky lead models, or spend about 30 minutes in one position trying to superglue plastic to metal (only to find my hands are glued to the model).

The Black Templar kits, particularly the cool 'knight' heads and surcoat, are absolutely fantastic. I ordered enough to convert about 30-40 marines in Black Templar gear, easily more than enough for my 2,000 point army I'm putting together.

The Forge World BT transfer sheet is utterly amazing. I had some great fun applying some ornate scrollwork to a rhino I just painted yesterday.

So far I've painted about 20 marines and touched up six metal scouts I picked up second hand when I last 'dabbled' in the hobby about 10 years ago. I still have about half the army left to paint.

My White Scars stuff has been shipped, and hopefully I should have it in the next few weeks. By that time, I reckon I'm going to be finished with the BT entirely and ready to start a new project. I'll go over some of my White Scar purchases in the next few days.