Reaver Titan

I picked up the Reaver titan way back when it was first released. I prepaid for it at Gamesday Baltimore. I know, I know, I'm a sucker, as the dollars to pounds ratio dropped drastically for a time shortly after. Well, my need for instant gratification paid off, as I got the model in early September as opposed to late December when Forgeworld was promising.



As an Ultramarine player, I wanted the Reaver to be part of Legio Praetor, the titan legion that aided the Ultramarines during the Battle of Macragge. Unfortunately, there isn't any illustrations or references to their color scheme. So I chose to use a white and gold color scheme.



Each piece was soaked in warm soapy water, and then the flash was trimmed off with an Xacto knife. I then primed them and assembled them in sections, allowing for easier handling while I painted the model.



I primed used both black and white primer for the model. White for the armor plates that would be primarily white, and black for the parts that would be metallic. On the white primed parts, I used an airbrush to get a smoother white coat, and then used painters tape to mark off the edging. The edges were then painted with layers of Dwarven Brass, Devlan Mud, Shining Gold and Bright Gold.



The non-armor parts of the exterior which were primed black were given layers of Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail.



The interior was painted with bestial brown, snakeskin leather and vomit brown.



The red lights were painted with P3 Sanguine Base, Sanguine Highlight, Blood Red and Blazing Orange.



The greens were painted with Dark Angels Green, Snot Green, Goblin Green and Scorpion Green.

Black Consuls

My Black Consuls force has started to grow to a decent size, and while it is not my ultima favorite army, I do like the look and results I've gotten so far. There are three scout squads, a librarian and Telos so far.



The models are primed black, and then the armor gets black, P3 Coal Black and then an extreme highlight of Codex Grey. The cloth is Shadow Grey, and the metallics are done with a Boltgun Metal base coat, wash of Devlan Mud and a final coat of Chainmail.



The numerals and chapter symbols are sketched in with a .005 micron pen, and then given a base coat of Astronomicon Grey, followed by a coat of Skull White. Then they are touched up with more Chaos Black.



Two of the scout squads are built from the Land Speeder Storm kit, and have strategically placed bits to make the poses look more naturally. The reloading bolter scouts are sitting on ammo crates, and one of the scouts has his foot on a resin chaos marine head.

Horrors!

I picked up the new horrors boxed set on Saturday, and above is the efforts of my building the models. For the price, this is a good unit with versatile use in regards to multiple armies across different systems. As a model building experience this was fairly easy. There are ten bodies, with pretty dynamic poses, either running or leaping. There is enough arms to give each model between two and four arms, and one can either add the musician and standard (which work in 40k and fantasy daemon armies) or go with the no musician or standard bearer and have just enough arms. There is also only one extra head, so if you aren't a fan of the birdie heads, you are stuck with at least two. I'm not a fan, but I chose to use three, with one horror being overly feathery. On the whole this is a good kit, especially for the price. I still like the prior incarnation more, with the horrors coming out of other horrors and such, it just had a more visceral feel to it; but these models are good and affordable.



Above are the painted horrors, which I used layers of P3 Beaten Purple, Murderous Magenta, a 50:50 mix of Murderous Magenta and GW Skull White and then P3 Carnal Pink as a dry brush highlight. The flames, feathers and gems are layers of Storm Blue, Enchanted Blue and Ice Blue. I did this as a sort of homage to the abandoned blue horrors which now only exist as a special character in the Daemon Codex and Army book.

New Plastic Daemon Prince

For once White Dwarf lacked a complete break down of either of the new plastic kits released in the Daemon second wave. I'm sure part of that is the complete lack of customization on the part of the Horror's model kit. But the Daemon Prince does offer quite a few options. It can have three different heads, three different back options (wings, trophy racks or some kind of back pack arms), three different weapon arms for the left side, and two bare handed options. Then there are the optional two loin cloth pieces, shoulder pads for a chaos marine daemon prince, and some additional armor bitz which could go on legs, groin or arms.



I chose to model my daemon prince with wings, and gave him a mostly chaos marine look (I don't really play fantasy, so I'm not to worried about crossover armies). The model's principal parts fit quite snugly, with tabs or joins that work well to strength the joins that are glued. The shoulder pads were the only pieces that don't fit naturally to the model, instead requiring eyeball placement and adjustment, with a good amount of pressure to hold them in place until the glue starts to set.



To begin painting, I started with black primer. The model then received a base coat of Fenris Grey. I then painted all of the skin tones with layers of Shadow Grey, 50:50 Shadow Grey and Vallejo Cold Grey, and then an extreme highlight of of Cold Grey.



The armor areas and the webbing of the wings were painted with a layer of Regal Blue, then a 50:50 mix of Regal Blue and Ultramarines Blue, followed by an extreme highlight of Ultramarines Blue. I wanted to create a feeling of warp energy pouring out of the model, so all of the cracks in the armor, as well as the detail on the sword got layers of green from Orchide Shade, Snot Green, Thraka Green, Goblin Green and Scorpion Green.



The metallic sections were painted with Boltgun Metal, Asurmen Blue and Chainmail. The bone areas were painted with P3 Jack Bone, Baal Red and Bleached Bone. The eye on the sword is two layers of P3 Ember Orange. Lastly the base was painted with Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather.



On the whole, I enjoyed building and painting this kit. If I could ask for anything more, it would be more variety in the hands and torso department. Other than that, kudos to the sculptor.

Hawk Lords Captain

I chose to do somewhat of a cop out for my Hawk Lords captain, opting for just using the Shrike model. I feel like the conceptual aspects of the army I am planning aren't really designed around Shrike's advantages as a Captain - especially his exchange of Fleet for Chapter Tactics. However, the two squads of tactical marines previously built can benefit from it, and if I choose to, a squad of vanguard marines can act as a bodyguard for him.



I toyed with the idea of picking up the Forgeworld Raven Guard captain for this army, but the thunder hammer he is equipped with doesn't scream Raven Guard to me, and seems like a disconnect.



I followed the same color layers as I did with the tactical marines. The only difference is I opted for a layer of Hormogaunt Purple as a base coat, with a coat of Devlan Mud over everything.



The rusty oxidized base is also present, just like the rest of my crusade forces (though some need to be updated to the painted version, as I just didn't like the look of the unpainted red ballast. Kind of makes buying it - in retrospect - a waste, but oh well.

Ultramarine Thunderhawks!?!

Above are my three Thunderhawks, two are the standard Thunderhawk, the third is a Thunderhawk Transporter. I've done some converting on each one, though it is somewhat subtle, and all of them use the same paint scheme I have employed on the rest of my army, though the first Thunderhawk lacks the current layers of highlight, and instead just has a single extreme highlight of white.



My first Thunderhawk was given to me as a Christmas present back in the earl 2000's. It took aabout a month to build and only has one "conversion" really, that is the battlecannon has been magnetized so that it can be removed and the turbo lascannon can replace it. As yet, I haven't magnetized the turbo lascannon (or painted it) but eventually I'll get around to it.



My second Thunderhawk was the Thunderhawk Transporter, again a present, though this time for my birthday. This model also took about a month of work, though I spent it drilling out the grappler arms so that they are actually jointed. The magnetic clamps are actually magnetized and the fourth and fifth rhinos from my Fourth Company are equally magnetized for transport.



My third Thunderhawk was bought off a friend at a bargain price. Here I've converted the flight crew, so that one is moving along the flight deck while one is piloting. I swapped out the hellstrike missiles for bombs, and I built an assault squad of five marines that is preparing to jump out the rear hatch.

James Swallow's Nemesis

I just finished Reading James Swallow's Nemesis. This is the latest novel in the Horus Heresy series from the Black Library. Swallow gives us a peak at the early existence of the primary six assassin temples in this novel. Fans of the 40k fluff will be especially interested to meet or gain a bit more depth on both the Vanus and Venenum temples. The plot of Nemesis is pretty straight forward, the Master of Assassins has dispatched a team of assassins, one from every temple, to kill Horus. After all somebody has to. Previously, no single assassin has been successful, so a team of the best (living) are sent to do the job. Meanwhile, someone is killing people ritualistically on an Imperial world. These two plots are woven well, and when they finally come together it is quite interesting. I enjoyed the novel, especially the insight into the assassin temples. In some ways I thought the assassins seemed under powered, but then again, that is a bit refreshing considering how over the top they are in game, as well as in some other fiction.

Disciples of Caliban Terminators

Knocking off another item from my painting bench, I have finished my Disciples of Caliban terminator squad. I'm not super proud of their chapter symbols, but I think the level of difficulty and lack of practice are what keep them from progressing. The sergeant is made from the Dark Angels sprue legs, sword and storm bolter arms, and the other four terminators are Assault on Black Reach - in fact three are sergeants; though the odd purity seal was used to add some variation. The assault cannon terminator has the Dark Angels assault cannon as well.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden's "Throne of Lies"

The beginning of a new month means new releases from the Black Library. First off is the audio book "Throne of Lies" by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Sadly, Shelfari didn't actually have a picture for this title on their page, so the above is taken from the Black library site. This is a nice progression in the audio dramas the Black Library has put out in that it utilizes two vocal talents, John Banks and Beth Chalmers. "Throne of Lies" takes place after Soul Hunter and is an attempt by the Night Lords to reclaim the recording M'Shen made of her execution of Konrad Kurze. It's an enjoyable story, with good effects and equally good vocal talents. The most refreshing aspect was not having every character defined by nuances of graveliness in their voices. Fans of Soul Hunter will definitely enjoy this one, as will general 40k fans. Up next for review will be Nemesis, hopefully sometime by the weekend, for now enjoy.

Aurora Marines Captain Part 2

The painted Aurora marines Captain on a bike didn't take me too much time. He is pretty straight forward too, I opted to do a pure black cloak with the inner cloak being the same as the outer.




I did two things differently for this model, the first was to use a coat of P3 Iosan Green as a layer above snot green. The second was to try a technique I heard about on the Gamers Lounge by host Jay, wherein you do about two layers of dry brushing, emphasizing the areas where light would strike the model most.




Between those layers, you do an ink wash to blend the colors together. The first layer is a 60:40 mix of Vallejo game color Sick Green and Goblin Green. I the did a wash of Thraka green, follow by a layer the above mix with some Vallejo Scorpy Green mixed in (GW's Snot Green, Goblin green and Scorpion Green).



I like using Vallejo paints for mixing as the bottle design eliminates the need for eye droppers or brushes to put pain on your pallet for mixing.