Disciples of Caliban Librarian

This model is a great example of re purposing a model. For a while, I had the mangled remains of a Deathwatch Librarian sitting on my painting desk. A drought of models while I am on vacation left me scraping the bottom for projects. So I dusted the model off, literally, and then added a backpack and bolt pistol arm with a plain shoulder pad.



Then I gave the model a coat of Chaos Black to prime it and retouch a lot of the chipped areas. Next, I painted the blue areas with Regal Blue, Ultramarines Blue, a 50:50 mix of Ultramarines Blue and Ice Blue and an extreme highlight of Ice Blue. A wash of Devlan Mud was applied to the silver and bone areas, and then I painted a coat of Chainmail on the silver, and a coat of P3 Menoth Base on the bone areas. The loin cloth got coats of P3 Sulfuric Yellow, Golden Yellow and Sunburst yellow. Finally the shoulder pads got a coat of Gnarloc Green and then Dark Angels Green.



I shaved the green flock turf off of the base, and then add ballast. I coated the base in Chaos Black, then layers of Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather. Finally, I used a Micron pen to free hand the Disciples of Caliban symbol. Then used P3 Morrow White to paint the symbol. I cleaned it up with Dark Angels Green and finished up the model.

Finished Javelin Jetbike

Keeping to the Pre-Heresy theme for this jet bike, I ended up using the chest plate and helmet from the Death Company boxed set. I also used the reinforced shoulder pad from the tactical squad boxed set. Then I filed down the rims on the Ultramarine shoulder pad to complete the build.



This model painted up pretty easily. I gave it base coats of Regal Blue, P3 Hammerfeld Khaki and GW Boltgun. Then I washed the metallic and khaki in Devlan Mud. Next I applied Chainmail and P3 Menoth Base to the model. Then I painted the blue with Ultramarine Blue. Then I added a layer of 50:50 Ultramarines Blue and Ice Blue. Finally I gave the model a highlight of Ice Blue.



Ultimately, I liked this model, and will probably add another two and the attack bike version when it is released. My only concern would be for those trying to make the scout bike variant. For one thing, which variant is which isn't really labeled. For another, you would have to spend another $15 or so dollars just to have a rider. Unless you were lucky enough to find someone who had a rider for trade or sale.

Blood Raven's Tactical Squad

The latest unit for my Blood Ravens force is a tactical squad. This unit pretty much fills up the mandatory slots for the army, and leaves me with a lot of choices for the future. While, I kind of want to build a force similar to that featured in Dawn of War II, I'm also interested in building something that typifies the army. That's why I built two librarians.



I did a pretty straight forward build for the tactical squad. I made sure every model had grenades and those with bolters had ammo pouches. The sergeant has a bolt pistol and close combat weapon, with an empty pistol holster. The flamer and missile launcher marines just have the small belt pouches.



I painted the tactical squad in the same way as I have the other Blood Raven units. They are primed red with Duplicolor primer, and then get coats of P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight, Khador Base and Khador Highlight. The black is GW Chaos Black, with a highlight of P3 Coal Black. The bone is P3 Hammerfeld Khaki with a highlight of Menoth Base. I painted the eyes with layers of P3 Ordic Olive, Wurm Green and then a highlight of GW Scorpion Green.



I painted the Blood Ravens symbol and the tactical symbols free hand, using a micron pen to draw an outline. I then filled in the outline with the requisite colors. Next I cut in with P3 Menoth Base to clean up the symbols.

Sarah Cawkwell's The Gildar Rift

The Gildar Rift, by Sarah Cawkwell is the latest installment of the Battles of the Space Marines series. This novel features the Silver Skulls Space Marine Chapter in battle against Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs. The battle is set in the Gildar Rift system, one of the protectorates of the Silver Skulls, and a system littered with debris and asteroid belts. The world of Gildar Secondus was primarily a promethium producing world, and thus vital to the Imperium. We also learn that the Silver Skulls are a chapter on the decline, and are seeking an advantage through the Resurgent Project. What follows is a well written novel, replete with action and, well developed plot and great characters. Cawkwell has built on the work of the Badab War Forge World books, and even gives a few nods toward Dembski-Bowden's Blood Reaver. However, her biggest departure is her depiction of Huron Blackheart. He is shown as insane, powerful, cunning and at times childlike in his desires. While I feel some might disagree with this, I think the complexity of his character becomes far more interesting than staid portrayals of archetypal villains that we have seen in the past with Abaddon or even Huron himself. Further, Huron is shown to be much more of the skilled tactician and less the buffoon that Dembski-Bowden shows him to be. Overall, this is a great novel and well worth the read.

Chapterhouse Minatures Javelin Imperial Jetbike

I decided to order the Javelin from Chapterhouse on the chance that the model was good enough that i could add a jetbike squad to my preheresy Ultramarines army. I wasn't really sure about the quality of it, the size or the look, but I figured the price was worth the chance. My first Impressions of the Javelin Imperial Jetbike were pretty good. It is an intricately detailed model, on par with something Forge World could put out. It has two sprues and the main body, which look to assemble pretty easily. The clear flying stand that comes with it looks like it will require modification to fit on the model though. In the end, it looks like I will be adding at least two more, and probably picking up a Pilum when it is released as well.

Blood Ravens Assault Squad

My next Blood Ravens project was an assault squad. I wanted to use a pair of bitz from the Death Company boxed set for another project, so I used that as the base for this squad. For the most part I did some filing and xacto excising in order to remove overly blatant Blood Angels symbology. For items that were pretty innocuous but looked cool, I just kept them.



I kept the add on bitz to a minimum, using the odd purity seal to hide blank spots where necessary. I also used one of the chest plates with the skull from the Tactical boxed set for one model, removing the skull for a nice, flat surface. I used my normal mixed coarseness ballast for basing.



The painting was done with the same colors as the scouts. I feel like I made a good bit of progress on the Blood Ravens symbols, and there are one or two of the shoulder pads that I am actually pretty proud of. They are still decent table top quality.

Blood Ravens Scout Squad

This installment, I continue to get my feet wet with project Blood Ravens. I kind of wanted to follow the force structure of the Blood Ravens in Dawn of War 2, while using some unit choices that add more of a Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons feel (or maybe just emphasize the psyker nature of the chapter). Therefore, i chose to build a sniper scout squad next.



In game, I always liked the Cyrus the sniper build best, so I wanted to pick up that theme. This unit is meant to infiltrate and hold objectives while harrying enemy i infantry. There is a possibility I will eventually do a Cyrus conversion using Telion (and the Telion rules) but right now I don't feel up to the task.



Once again they are all primed red with Dupicolor primer. The red is painted using P3 colors, with layers of Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight and Khador Base. The black is GW Chaos Black with a P3 Coal black highlight. The bone is done with P3 Hammerfield Khaki, GW Devlan Mud and P3 Menoth Base.The scope was done with GW Shadow Grey and a highlight of GW Codex Grey.



I used a Micron pen for the eyes, as well as to free hand the Chapter symbol and squad number. I then used Chaos black to fill in the symbol.

I started out by priming the Achilles black. I then painted it with a base coat of Regal Blue. Following that up with a base coat of Boltgun Metal on the silver areas, Dwarven Bronze on the gold areas and then P3 Hammerfeld Khaki on the bone areas. These spots then got a wash of Devlan Mud.



After the wash had dried, I painted the silver areas with Chainmail. The bone areas got a coat of P3 Menoth Base coat. The gold areas got coats of Shining Gold and then Burnished Gold.



The yellow areas were given coats of P3 Rucksack Tan, GW Golden Yellow, and P3 Cygnus Yellow. The red areas were painted with P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight Khador Base and Khador Highlight. The white areas were all painted with multiple layers of P3 Morrow White.



Finally, I filled in the blue areas with Ultramarine Blue, then a layer of 50:50 Ultramarine Blue and Ice Blue, and finally an extreme highlight of Ice Blue. My last act was to add some writing on the scrolls with a .005 Micron pen.

Last Two Librarians

For the last two Librarians, I had already decided one would be a Blood Raven. The second took me a while to settle on, but in the end I went with an Executioner. In the end, it was because I like the Executioners so much as an army that i made that choice.



I continued to stick with the codex color scheme for the last two Librarians, painting their armor predominantly blue using my Ultramarines color scheme. The Blood Raven already had the chapter insignia sculpted onto the pad, so I just had to free hand a blood drop on it to finish the insignia. For the Executioner, I outlined it with a Micron Pen, and then filled it in the P3 paints as I have been doing for red.



I've kept the paint schemes pretty much the way I have been doing things, but I have been using new brushes. AC Moore had some on clearance a couple weeks ago, and I was able to get a fine point brush and a flat brush that's in between a tank brush and a base coat brush, but has a nice flat edge to it. For $1 each they've worked out quite well so far.

James Swallow's Red and Black

Today, while painting I listened to James Swallow's Red & Black. This is an audio drama about a Sister of Battle, Celestian Miriya, who is charged with deciding whether a world recently emerged from a warp storm is worthy of rejoining the Imperium. But it isn't just a question of Chaos infestation, for the world has replicai on it, vat grown clones created with human DNA to be powerful warriors, or something else? I enjoyed the story, it has a lot of moral dilemma elements which 40k novels typically don't and underlines the harshness of the 40k universe as a whole. If you are looking for an entertaining listen, give this a try, whether it be for a long drive, work commute or painting music, it is a good audio book.

Blood Ravens Vindicator

My second attempt at a Blood Ravens model is a vindicator tank. One thing that makes it a bit difficult to paint, is the lack of the dozer blade. Why, well now everything is open to be seen, and for some reason, the turret for the demolisher cannon isn't sitting right, or at least not how I imagined it should from memory.



I mainly used P3 colors for this model, painting a layer of Sanguine Base, then two layers of Sanguine highlight, and a extreme highlight of Khador base. This gave the tank a nice dark red color that I wanted. For the silver, I did layers of GW Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail. For the bone, I did layers of P3 Hammerfell Khaki, GW Devlan Mud and P3 Menoth White Base.



Finally, I used a Micron Pen to draw the Blood Ravens insignia on the tank. While I usually do this to create a rough approximation on the model, I wasn't really happy with the initial efforts. I then used GW Chaos Black to paint the ravens, filling in any attempt at feathers as they looked to sloppy. I used the same red colors as above for the blood drop, bu the final main color was a coat of Khador Base, with a dot of Khador Highlight in the center. Overall, I'm happy with the model, though I am more seriously considering picking up the Blood Ravens transfers from Forge World. I'll have to wait and see, as I do have a tactical squad and a Scout Squad waiting to be built and painted.

Land Raider Achilles

I finally got my Land Raider Achilles in the mail the other day. All of the crazy hours I had to work during October paid off - literally - and allowed me to get the one model I've been jonesing for for over a year. There are only eight resin pieces for this model, and using them essentially seals the land raider so that any interior detail cannot be displayed. I'm still debating whether or not to bump some other models back in the queue so that I can build this and prime it. But I haven't made a firm decision yet. It looks like a great build, and I can't wait to get to it.

Blood Ravens Librarian

The first librarian I decided to work on was the Blood Raven Librarian with the storm shield. I wanted to see how the blood raven insignias that I sculpted came out. Plus I thought it fitting that the first Blood Raven I painted would be a librarian.



For the paint scheme, I stuck with Regal Blue, Ultramarine Blue, a 50:50 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Ice Blue, and then an extreme highlight of Ice Blue as the main colors. I also used this layering for the purity seal wax. For the red, I used P3 Sanguine Base, then Sanguine highlight, with an extreme highlight of Khador Base. I chose to make the eyes green, and used Snot Green, Goblin Green and a dot of Scorpion Green.



I chose to stick with a muddy basing scheme, using Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather as the colors. This is painted over a mixture of varius coarseness of ballast.

The New Necron Codex

I've had the new Necron Codex since it was released last week. I was highly disappointed that the October was just a sneak peak and not the actual release, so I spent the next week just wondering if I should by the thing. After all, I still don;t own the Dark Eldar Codex. In the end I picked it up, the fluff changes that were teased on the web were enough for me to buy it. I was never a big adherent to the original fluff, and I feel like this new retcon/fluff advancement is a much better fit for the army. It fleshes out the changes that Fall of Damnos showed us, and makes the Necrons both a more powerful, but more flawed race as well. What I liked about the codex was the more egyptian theme coupled with the idea of levels of intellect throughout the Necron hierarchy. I also like the downgrading of the C'tan from all powerful beings, to fragmented beings who have unique perspectives, making themselves the only limits they have - well that and the fact that most of the shards are imprisoned by the Necrons. I also liked the addition of yet another flyer to the army, though I'm sure I will have to wait for the second wave to see a model. What i didn't like about the book's fluff is the unending parade of Necron victories, even the Space Marines dex has them losing in some of their battles - Damnos and the World Engine for one. Overall, it is a good codex - in terms of fluff - and worth picking up. I'm sure the army is good too, but having hardly ever played in the last year, I'll leave that for others to talk about.

Nick Khyme's Nocturne

Nick Khyme's Nocturne is the conclusion of the Fireborn trilogy. In this novel, the final fate of Da'kir and the Salamanders is decided in their showdown with Nihilin. Overall, this is a good end to the trilogy, though the ending is - not so much surprising - as different from what I expected. Salamander's fans will get another dose of Salamander fluff and fury to digest, and Space Marine fans will also get a healthy dose of power armoured mayhem. Overall, a good effort.

The Outcast Dead

It feels good to have Halloween behind me once again. I picked up The Outcast Dead by Graham McNiell, on Saturday and was able to finish it early on Sunday morning. Thank you Daylight Savings Time. There isn't much new in terms of plot movement in this novel. But it is an interesting look at astropaths during the Great Crusade and beyond. It has some interesting background about the Wars for Unification, and a little bit more about the Adeptus Custodes as well. In terms of plot, there is a broken astropath who survived the destruction of the Argo, and blames himself. During the course of his rehabilitation he learns a dire truth, and the novel is about the pursuit of that truth, both by the Imperium and Horus' proponents. Overall, it was a good addition to the series, though in the same category as Nemesis in my mind for relevance.

On the Painting Table

For my anniversary, my wife gave me a gift card to Games Workshop, so after a long drought of buying any GW product, I was able to do some hobby restocking. The local manager was pretty surprised to see me, and I think a bit glad I was there to spend, even if it was with a gift card. With that in mind, I decided to build something I had been thinking about ever since the Grey Knights came out - space marine librarians.



I used the legs, back torso, and nemesis swords and warding staves - both from the kit and from my left over bitz -as well as the back packs, non storm bolter weapon arms, and one or two of the bare heads from the Grey Knight troop sprues. Then I used some Space Marine heads, some pistol arms and one combat shield arm to build five librarians.



With the models built, I used the grey two part epoxy that I use for sculpting to give the four without loin cloths, loin cloths. Then, choosing to make two of the Librarians Blood Ravens, I add sculpted ravens to the right shoulder pad of both models, and a raven to the combat shield. I figure I can free hand the blood drop. I also added brass etched Ultramarines symbols to one of the librarians. For the final two I am uncertain as to their chapter, though i am leaning toward one Sons of Guilliman, and the other could either be a Disciple of Caliban or a Flesh Tearer. But then again, I'm not sold on either.