Flesh Tearers part 3

I finally finished my Flesh Tearers 1k points for the Pathfinder painting contest last Monday. The judging was today,and sadly, I came in 2nd place out of a whole 2 people. The other army was pretty well built, converted and painted, so I have nothing to complain about.



The second assault squad is kit bashed from the death company and assault squad boxed sets. The other half of the death company squad is built from the death company boxed set.



Finally, I built a Baal Predator out of the same kit. It has the hellstorm cannon and heavy bolter load out.



The only additions I added were two sculpted Flesh Tearers symbols as well as some purity seals and banner scrolls.



That's all for the Flesh Tearers for now, probably I will revisit them when the Stormraven gets a model, but until then, on to new projects.

A little late for this month, but here we have my Ultramarines 5th Company. This is my oldest company of Ultramarines, and has already gone through some updating to my current painting style. However, there is still work to be done. For one thing, the older figs need the red updated to black on their bolters. Also the purity seals lack writing and the 2nd rhino needs an actual top hatch instead of the razorback/predator turret top. Originally the company was built as an under strength force based on the back of the 3rd edition Space Marines codex. The 4th, 5th and 6th tactical squads, as well as the 2nd and 3rd attack bikes were added later. One departure this company has is a command rhino for the Captain and his command squad.

Imperial Armour 8: Raid on Kastorel-Novem

I was quite excited to find that my recent Forgeworld order had arrived on Friday, and amongst the items that will be seen over the coming weeks was Imperial Armor 8: Raid on Kastorel-Novem. I have mixed feelings about this IA book. It is definitely a purchase for the Ork lovers out there. It has great info on the Raven Guard and Elysians. But it also continues the Forgeworld trend of championing the non-Imperium races. One of the main reasons why I collect these books are for the campaign stories, and this one is interesting because it comes from the main 40k rulebook, specifically the section on how an ork Waaaaagh! starts. The premise of the campaign is that the Raven Guard have identified a vital element to the Ork Waaagh! and are attempting to destroy it; this being one Big Mek Buzzgob and his planet turned ork Factory. The book has loads of ork vehicle rules, two ork apocalypse formations and the typically nice forgeworld photos and color pics. There are rules for two lists, and ork Dread Mob and the updated Elysians list including the Sky Talon and both Tauros variants. The Raven Guard gets rules for Shadow Captain Korvydae and expanded fluff which amounts to an IA article. All in all a good purchase for 40k fans. Closer to a must have for Ork players.

Graham McNeill's Chapters Due

I just finished reading Graham McNiell's Chapters Due, and all I can say is it is an Ultramarine players wet dream. It's taken six novels, but we finally get to see a conflict that pits the bulk of the Ultramarine's chapter against a ravening chaos horde intent on destroying Ultramar and everything great in the Imperium (yup, I am an ultramarine fanboy). For haters of Uriel Ventris, go back and reread the novels and look at them from a different perspective. Uriel is an atypical Ultramarine so that McNiell can actually show you what it means to be an Ultramarine by having the reader struggle with Uriel as he strives to figure it out. It's only in Courage and Honour that Uriel finally shows he gets it.

At first, I thought this novel was a little too ambitious, it depicts an sub sector wide conflict in smaller vignettes rather than in one big hole. The reader only sees snapshots. But by the end of the novel it comes together quite nicely, and might even have some foreshadowing for one of McNiell's Horus Heresy novels. Oh, and Honsou is in it too, his part takes up after the short story the "Skull Harvest" which is definitely worth reading if you haven't before you read this novel. All around, one of the best reads I've had since 1000 Sons.

Rob Sanders' Redemption Corps

Redemption Corps is the story of Zane Mortensen, a Major in command of the storm trooper company, named the "Redemption Corps". It is the first novel by Rob Sanders and is a pretty decent offering. The novel is uniquely told from two perspectives, or two different time lines. In one Zane is a prisoner, in the other, Mortensen is fighting a campaign against insurgent forces, and rather than being the typical guard foot/armor slog, his forces are only used for high risk priority missions.It's almost as if you get the best of both a guard and a space marine novel. Redemption Corps has some interesting twists and turns, and all in all, is an entertaining read.

Flesh Tearers part 2

Meeting the deadlines I've set for myself for the Pathfinder challenge has been a little bit difficult, however I'm on the right track. The first half of my 1k is now done, and looks pretty good so far. First off is the big daddy, Chapter Master Seth.



I decided not to do any mods on Seth, and stuck to the basic basing that I had used with the Sanguinary Guard. The main difference here is that i took my time, and made sure to paint to a higher standard rather than just doing an over brush that is somewhat sloppy but maintains most of the shading.



Another difference that can be noted, is that his cloak is painted using a two brush technique and his skin tones were done with Dark Flesh, Tallarn Flesh, Dwarf Flesh, Devlan Mud and then a second coat of Dwarf Flesh.



This round I primed all of the models with red Dupli-color Sandable primer. I realized after the fact that the death company should have been primed black, but I think they came out well despite the red base coat.



The Sanguinary Priest is a kit bash with the legs from the commander sprue, a death company jump pack, the apothecary chest plate and narthecium arm, and a sanguinary guard head and power fist.



The Assault squad and Death Company are built from a combination of combat squad and death company boxed sets. I also used the Flesh Tearer's shoulder pads throughout the army.



Finally, I used a micron pen to outline all of the iconography and then hand painted it. I chose fourth company for my assault squads.



Up next are the last assault squad, final 5 death company and a Baal Predator.

Henry Zhou's Flesh and Iron

I just finished reading Henry Zhou's Flesh and Iron. While this book has been out for a bit, for some reason it kept sliding to the back burner. The novel has a Vietnam feel to it, being set in river deltas and jungle, and is a conflict between Imperial guard and insurgents. The plot is pretty simple, the insurgents have a super earthshaker weapon and are using it to destroy any Imperial advance onto the mainland. How to stop it? Why, send in a battalion of Imperial guard who specialize in swamp, jungle and river based fighting - the Riverine 31st. I didn't really like the first half of this book, it felt plodding and poorly paced. It also read like one of the early Gaunt's Ghost's novels, like First and Only or Ghostmaker. But, if you can make it past a lot of the predictable battle scenes the last chapter makes up for it, kind of. If you read Emperor's Mercy give this one a read, it'll be worth it by the last page. If you haven't read Emperor's Mercy, save this for the point when you get desperate and have a choice between something CS Goto and Flesh and Iron. Definitely choose Flesh and Iron. I might be overly harsh hear, but there was something about this one that was just hard to read, and it could be me. I know I usually feel entertained by 99% of the BL books, I just didn't this time.