My deathwing army in pictures!

Hey everyone,

So I've been bouncing around a lot recently between countries and then from place to place since being back in England with family and friends. Still, I managed to spend a couple of hours over a few days getting in some geek time and assembling my new Deathwing army (the Death-Grey-Space-Knight-Wolf-Wing). Once I figured out how everything was going to go together, it was a lot of fun to do and there were only a few niggling challenges.

I built this army from the following components:
- 1 Grey Knight Terminators boxed set
- 1 Space Wolf Terminators boxed set
- 2 Space Marine Terminators boxed sets
- 6 AOBR terminators
- Bits from the Dark Angel veteran and Ravenwing sprues
- Additional CC weapons (Thunder hammers and storm shields mostly)

There weren't any major issues in terms of scale except that I noticed the shoulder pads were slightly different sizes. As I recall it, the Grey Knight pads were a little bigger, which was fine on other arms, but using a space wolf or regular pad over a Grey Knight arm could sometimes be a tight fit. I persevered though and once the glue had set, everything looks like it fits just fine.

From the components above I created 2 shooty squads (Assault cannon and storm bolters), 2 assault squads (TH/SS, Sergeant with LC, CML), one command squad (TH/SS, Apothecary, Banner), a Librarian and Belial, Master of the Deathwing.

Here they are



So now, onto the individual squads and pics. I had to carefully figure out the allocation of weapons and arms because of the mismatch of kits that I was using. I made a big chart with each model listed then added columns for legs, torso, head, L weapon, R weapon, L shoulder, R shoulder, Head. I didn't want anybody to stand out too much as completely Grey Knight, wolf or terminator so I tried to give everyone at least one piece of each kit style. I think it worked out fairly well.


Belial and Librarian



I decided to tweak the army so that I could include a Librarian in terminator armour rather than a small tactical squad. Partly it's for the psychic defence but also it just seems more fitting to have everyone in Deathwing armour. By adding the librarian the points go up to 1535 so if I need to cut back, I will drop the banner from the command squad and the two chainfists in the shooty squads.

Belial is armed with the standard storm bolter and sword of secrets rather than LCs because I liked the modelling opportunities of using a Grey Knight sword and storm bolter. He is made from: Deathwing legs, Terminator torso, Grey Knight left and right arms, GK sword and storm bolter (the latter decorated with Dark Angel bits from the upgrade sprue), hooded DA head, terminator right shoulderpad, deathwing left shoulder pad, wolf guard cloak decorated with dark angel icons and pieces.


The Librarian is less diverse: Wolf legs, GK torso, GK right and left arms, GK storm bolter, GK falchion, GK staff, terminator shoulder pads, DA bits hanging off rear belt area


Command Squad



I know there are only four members here. The sergeant will be represented by a Captain Lysander model I was given. I haven't got any superglue or expoxy yet so he won't be assembled just yet. I can't decide whether or not to try to use some greenstuff to adjust the imagery on him or just say to hell with it and paint him up in Deathwing colours. With the amount of other styles in here, what's one Imperial fist going to matter? ;-)

The apothecary and banner bearer gave the extra challenge of needing to have TH/SSs while only having a single hand free. I managed to cut and bodge it so that they have the hammer and shield in the same hands and I think it came out pretty well.


Assault Squad 1


I really like how dynamic a lot of the poses are on these models and it was a lot of fun to make some really badass looking terminators. I've never played with the assault kind before and I'm looking forward to beating some face when I get time to actually play them


Assault Squad 2


I love the pose of the sergeant in this one and just wish the focus had been more even. I'll have to play with more photography later. The squad's CML is made from a chopped down Ravenwing Typhoon missile launcher. It fits quite nicely though there was a big hole in the side where I'd cut off the part that fits into the landspeeder. Luckily one of the flowing scroll pieces from the Ravenwing set covers that gap nicely.


Shooty Squad 1


I decided that the shooty sergeants with power weapons would get to wield the two-handed grey knight halberd and I think they came out looking tasty. These were the most troublesome modelling bits though as the GK torsos seem to be very slightly wider than regular torso pieces. Since each arm had to be angled the right way to match up with the other arm's hand placement it meant a complex series of multiple spidery-finger-holding-glue steps were needed. They came out nicely in the end though. I love the belt-fed Wolf Guard assault cannon. You can really tell the step up in quality and complexity when comparing these kits that were designed years apart.


Shooty Squad 2


The final squad. This one seemed a little bit static in poses with the pieces I had left so I did my best to make my chainfist wielder look very dynamic and threatening. I think it worked out. Still, it would have been nice to have some more cool pieces left to work with but hey, you work with what you have.


Next steps?

So the next part is clearly to base and paint these guys. I'm going to use the army painter bone spray to get the basecoat done, then wash with a sepia tone before I start bringing up the armour tones. Those who read the original Deathwing story printed way back in the day when you could still field Genestealer patriarch's will hopefully like my painting plan. In the story, the Dark Angel terminators wore black armour then, when they marched on a city full of Genestealers and didn't expect to live, they painted their armour bone white, in the tribal tradition know as Deathwing. When the rest of the chapter came looking, the surviving terminators asked that the armour was kept that colour to honour the fallen brothers. This gave rise to the Deathwing armour colour of the current edition with one exception. In the story, the left shoulder pad, with the crux terminatus was kept black to honour the Emperor. I'll be doing this with my models and it gives me a good way to mark out the librarian (blue shoulder) and apothecary (white shoulder).


For anyone who wants to make this army or one much like it, I definitely suggest giving it a try. It's a blast to fit all the different terminator parts together. If I was doing it again I would probably use:
- 2 space wolf boxes (for the CC weapons and assault cannons)
- 1 assault terminator box
- 1 grey knight box
- 1 terminator box
- 1 ravenwing sprue (for typhoon => cyclone missile launcher conversions)
- 1 dark angel sprue

Thoughts and comments are welcomed

Pete

In focus pictures of my sculpts (yes plural)!

Hi folks,

Just a quick update since I found a good spot to get in-focus pictures of my models. The new apartment doesn't have the best lighting but with a combination of the wall lights and a lamp, these pictures came out in good focus.

In the meantime, I also sculpted a corpse marker. This was brought up on the Lead Adventure forums as an idea for Ramshackle Games to start making. Since Curtis is busy sculpting many other things, I thought I'd give him a hand and try my skills at making a good corpse.


Here are the two models in all their glory.



Another view



The corpse has a few empty bullet cases on the right of the base, though they aren't so easy to see at this angle.




Here is a better view of the Harbinger of Menoth Base I sculpted and painted. There is a little bit of red bleed from one of the symbols that I need to deal with but otherwise i'm happy.




And here is the base along with the Harbinger herself. I've stopped after the first layers of paint because my white and bleached bone are getting old and gunky. I just bought some P3 paints to replace them so we'll see how they shape up. If nothing else, they are a bit cheaper than GW paints (18ml vs 12ml) and have the nice old flip-top lids that you used to get on Citadel paints.

Damn, can't I stop buying models.

Hey all,

Just a brief update on my latest arrivals from the wonderful Ramshackle Games. I made a big order this time of:
- Nuclear Renaissance 2 (4 vehicles, 14 characters)
- Nuclear Renaissance 1 set (2 vehicles, 1 terrain, 12 figures)
- Larken, Chicken, Stanton and armoured dungers (5).
- Two bikers (Dag and Spiker).
- Vehicle upgrade set
- Big batch of miscast pieces

Now there has been ridiculously heavy snow over here around DC so I've only got one of the two packages from Curtis (bikers, vehicles from NR1, upgrades and miscasts). Still it gives me a little bit of time to get the assembly started before I'm overwhelmed by the incoming resin.

Here you can see my two half-utes in position to let the epoxy glue dry along with the bikers and three miscast dungers (very very small air bubble errors). I've added the rhino and marine for a sense of scale.

Here we see that marine Dreadnoughts are really not as big as you might think.

Last of all we have my vehicle upgrade kit (outside the box) and the batch of miscasts that Curtis added to this order for a minor sum. I think we can safely agree that this is a complete buttload of resin that will make for awesome conversions, terrain or even a kit bashed new vehicle.

So that's about all from me right now. I've finally got hold of some Krylon spray primer so I've got my next batch of miniatures to paint soon enough. The honour guard are next in line after the current ramshackle vehicles and hopefully working on them will be enough to get me stoked up for finishing the land raider so they can have an armoured bunker to charge out of.

Two 'free' models plus latest painting updates.

Hey folks,

Hopefully people enjoyed reading my adeptus mechanicus fiction. I've got another story that I may post up if people want to read it. It's called Face Off and features orks and tyranids fighting over a planet while the Imperials desperately try to evacuate the population.

So, as per the title, two free models...what's the deal?

Well I was going through my bits box recently to tidy it up (I find it nice and calming) and a lightbulb moment occured. All Tau devilfish hull vehicles (Devilfish, Hammerhead and Skyray) come with a tank commander on the sprue. It's a tau figure standing upright who is meant to go in the cupola and has a special binocular arm set to go with them.


Picture taken from www.bitsandkits.co.uk

I used one of mine as a test model for my paint scheme and the other one sat in the bits box. Reading Sholto's blog (http://incunabulum.co.uk/blog/) gave me the inspiration for some less combat oriented models that would work for a more RPG setting. To that end I gave both tank commanders a pulse carbine (plenty of those spare) and now they look like capable sentries for a Tau base somewhere.



The picture shows my Giggles Clan models from www.ramshacklegames.co.uk. I'll be using these with some custom rules in 40k games but they will also go really well with the Throne Agent/RPG setting that Sholto has played in. Fun models also and enjoyable to paint. I was talking with Old Shatter Hands recently and it seems like we're at the two ends of the spectrum at the moment. He's played a lot of games recently and really worked on tactics whereas I've hardly played and have been just painting and modeling. What a great hobby that you have so many facets to enjoy depending on your time and motivation.

Also I'm pretty much finished with my Boneyard truck (also from Ramshackle games). I modded this one up to have a set of hurricane bolters on the side and I think it's come out pretty well. The palette is a little too brown right now so I'll be adding some other colours to brighten it up (or maybe some graffiti). Still, this gives an idea of what it will be like. I need to spend a bit more time on my photography setup with lighting etc. I'll probably have a big photo day and then post it all up.

Small tip for clearing needle glue bottle applicators.

Okay, so something useful but small I came up with last night. I have the polystyrene cement that comes with a thin needle thing to apply the glue. I love it as far as use goes because it's so easy to get the needle right where you need it for gluing and it puts out a thin layer of glue.

The problem that I came up with last night while gluing a Land raider, Dreadnought and Land speeder I was given (thankyou Old Shatter Hands, you rock), was that my needle has got glue dried somewhere inside it. Now this is an issue because very few things are thin enough to poke through 2 inches of very fine metal tube.

However, I was fortunate enough to look over at my guitar and a lightbulb moment occur. I pulled out my spare strings...lo and behold, the upper E string (the thin one) fits perfectly. Two seconds later and my glue needle was clear and ready for use.

For reference, the string was a 0.11 gauge (I use heavy strings) so on normal electric guitar sets (0.09-.048) you should be fine with the E or B strings (the two thinnest ones).

Batrep coming soon, I promise :-)