Horus Heresy Ultramarines

Here is the unit of tactical marines I painted for Cody's Horus Heresy Ultramarine force. More examples of other gamers Horus Heresy units will be shown on Pete Dunn's blog Fields of Blood also some really good work by John Murrie on his Word Bearers on Stumpy Heaven.

Have yet to put transfers on all the marines but they are based and most weathering is complete. Have a little tidying up to do on some bits which of course upon review the camera shows. They are intended to be survivors of the catastrophe on Calth, defending the remains of the world against Word Bearer, World Eater and Cultist forces.

The bases are Secret Weapon Miniatures Urban rubble bases. As previously stated they are not in the darker blue Ultramarine armour would be, but this is the shade the owner liked and chose.

Now to finish my Raven Guard promptly.

Painting - Horus Heresy WIP & Dark Angel Terminator

So I'm working on not one Horus Heresy force for Tale of X Gamers but two!

With my own Mark IV Raven Guard in the works I also have Cody's Mark III Ultramarines on the painting tray.

First off my Raven Guard have had a base of Adeptus battlegrey with 3 washes of Nuln Oil to create a dull matt black finish. Highlighting, battle damage and some weathering have followed with a freehand Legion symbol to finish the painting off. The Raven Guard will all be based on the Secret Weapon line of blasted wetlands bases, suits the image in my head of the Raven Guard on the run from the Traitor Legions.

Cody saw a marine I painted in the new Thunderhawk blue and liked that it was a little different from the standard look of the Ultramarines. I have yet to add Legion symbols and unit markings but this is a good example of what the initial unit should look like, not all will have the gold face plated though. The gold is from a balthasar gold base, layered with auric gold then washes and highlighting to final effect. Cody has some Urban ruin bases coming so his forces will be scouring the ruins of Calth and other Ultramar worlds fighting Word Bearers and World Eater forces.

Finally I have finished a Terminator from Dark Vengeance, I really like these models and the new Dark Angel codex so once the Horus Heresy units are complete I'll do some more work on them. Not being a fan of the traditional dark green or bone white I took inspiration from the cover of the HH book Fallen Angels. The battered metal look with worn gold trim and personal script will be the look for this force. Also a neutral enough scheme if I want to mix and match with the Blood Angel codex giving me options for the Angelic marine army. This Terminator is on a Secret Weapon ruined temple base.

I'll post more pictures once the units are complete

Coming Of the Black Knights?

With the release of the dark angels and with wryth taking them as his own me and my Grey Knights decided to go on the defense of incoming plasma spam.. maybe? Mostly from the Ravenwing Black Knights. With Twin linked guns on every bike my terminators were just abit concerned Iv yet to fight them yet but theres no harm in planing right?

My normal lists normally auto include Terminators and Dreadknights and lately Necron Allies for the up coming over the top tournament. So this List for me is very different might have to have a jam with it just for shits and giggles and see if it falls apart .

Grey Knight Inquisitor with needle pistol, power sword, plasma syphon, power armor, lvl1 psyker with divination to get prescience X2
Grey Knight Inquisitor with needle pistol, power sword, plasma syphon, power armor, lvl1 psyker
3 acolytes with plasma guns, 8 crusaders with power axes in a Chimera
3 acolytes with plasma guns, 8 crusaders with power axes in a Chimera
10 GKSS psybolts, 2 psycannons, rhino
10 GKSS psybolts, 2 psycannons, rhino
Dreadnought, psybolt, TL autocannom and TL lascannon
Dreadnought, psybolt, TL autocannom and TL lascannon

While trying to deal with the bikes the plain Jane GK strike squads also deal with deathwing terminator's quite well been able to cast warp quake to bugger up there DS if they want to get close or scatter in. So one Inquisitor in each Chimera the plasma syphon gives off a 12 inch bubble from the hull making all plasma guns BS1 while not a large bubble two helps :D also even tho the bikes are twin linked needing 6s and then re rolling 6s I think is still pretty good. While on my end if they do want to take the risk of double tapping within 12 inch's I can shot back and with prescience. The last thing ill say are the Dreadnoughts with lascannons With ap2 adding  +1 to the damage chart and av13 necrons and vindicator making a come back str 9 always helps.

 But at the end of the day this is me just buggering around ha but hey at least I'm posting something right??

Homecon III

This weekend I'm off to Wellington to take part in Homecon III, thank you very much for the invite Pete.

I will be using a list I have become very comfortable with over the last few months. Every event I have played at with the Vampire Counts has improved my playstyle with the list. Sometimes this has been advice from another player or seeing an opponent use a tactic or move on my army that I can simulate.

It will be lead by the Ghoul King as usual, really should name him as I have used the SGK with little variation since I first got this version of the book. I really like the defence that the Nightshroud Wight King brings as well. Cut the ghoul block down a little to get another 5 wolves. The baby Necro with Ruby Ring and Scroll has performed well since I began using him at last years events, I'll thank Joel for that useful little build. I see Ryan is using the same one too. Can't turn my back on Death magic from the level 4 Necro either as it gives me some ranged threat and the always welcome Doom and Darkness make those Terrorgheist scream all that much better.

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Beguile, Ogre Blade, Other Trickster's Shard, Dragonbane Gem
Master Necro, Level 4, Death magic

Necromancer, Level 1, Vampires, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring
Wight King, Heavy Armour, Shield, Nightshroud, Luckstone
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith
cairn Wraith

5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
31 Ghouls inc Ghast
20 Zombies, Standard, musician
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard

8 Crypt Horrors
2 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist
Terrorgheist

Looking forward to 5 good tough games and looking at the first round draw here I get to tussle with the goblin hordes first off tomorrow!

Black Marines and Dark Marines?

With a busy Christmas over workwise and my wife having taken over use of the xbox and the new games 'we' got, its time to get focused back on some hobby projects.

I received my little box o goodness from Forge World today containing the 10 sets of mark IV armour and a pack of Umbra pattern bolters. Now these are of course for the Horus Heresy project and should be destined to be Raven Guard in the process of having the crap kicked out of them by Traitor forces, who I might add seem all the rage with other participants of the project... poor outnumbered loyalists...

Well in addition to this we have the new Dark Angel codex being released in less than a fortnight and fingers crossed, it has some competitive punch from Mr Skaven/Ogre Kingdom Vetock. Now I know some other vocal NZ gamers do not like the new DA range but I frakkin love it. The look is similar to what I was working towards with Cody's Grey Knights with personal heraldry and extra details on the armour. The new DA kits can take this to another level of gothic 'space knight' imagery.

I have the very nice DA models from Dark Vengeance and have used them in the narrative campaign but now I have some little choices to make. I would have prefered to paint the Dark Angels in a preheresy colour scheme as I dont like the traditional dark green at all. However as I was going to play Raven Guard for 30k I dont want to be working on 2 black marine armies. Looking at successor chapters I like the Guardians of the Convenant the most, however I will darken the metal armour considerably similar the Grey Knights I have already worked on.

So do I paint my DA as Guardians of the Convenant and stay with ninja Raven Guard for Horus Heresy or roll it all into one and have a combined pre heresy Dark Angel force good for both systems? I do think they can both function fine as seperate armies and the Raven Guard can always be a vanilla marine army for 40k.