Ultramarine Land Raiders

Ever since the current Land Raider kit was released, I've been a big fan. While the first wasn't as successful as I would have liked, I would like to believe I've gotten a lot better as modeler since then. So far I have fourteen, and since I've been basing my Ultramarines chapter on the 3rd ed Space Marine codex listing at the back of the book, I've got about 6 to go. Included in the fourteen are a Land Raider Helios, Land Raider Redeemer, Land Raider Prometheus, 2 Land Raider Crusaders and a MKII Land Raider. I also converted a Techmarine Land Raider using spare bitz from my Warhound titan, some modeling chain, a sentinel leg and multilaser power pack, and a leg set from a Necron Tomb Spyder. Finally, the all black Land Raider was built by my friend HuronBH at Blood and Blades. He built it using a bunch of bitz from the city fight kit, and I painted it.




Unfortunately, in my neck of the 100 Acre Woods it has been raining a ridiculous amount. This made it pretty impossible to prime during a long stretch of time. Couple that with a small bit of "spoiled baby" since I haven't been able to get a Land Raider Achilles yet, and there you go. But the Horrors are almost done, so I'll have something new next time.

Ultramarines 1st Company

I think I've delayed the longest in showing off my First Company because of the changes I would like to make to it. Mainly the two vanguard squads without jump packs - I would like to add jump packs to them. Anyways, some of the non Ultramarines special characters ended up here, my version of Kantor can act as a non-Calgar chapter master, or as a power armour company captain. I also chose to use Lysander as the veteran sergeant in charge of the command squad of terminators. There is a terminator squad with two of each type of terminator heavy weapon, and then one terminator assault squad of all lightning claws and one of all Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield. The command squad is made up of Assault on Black Reach terminators. There are two Sternguard squads, one made up of Tyranid Hunter models, with some minimal conversions to add a flamer, heavy bolter and a power sword to the sergeant. The second squad is made up of two Sternguard boxed sets. There are three vanguard squads, two made from the pewter veteran boxed sets (with a Games Day power fist marine added in to one). The last squad is made up of one Vanguard boxed set and one of the Red Scorpions Vanguard kits from Forge World.



Next time, I'll be showing off all of my Ultramarine Land Raiders.

Ulatramarines Damocles Rhino

One of my first Forge World models was the Damocles rhino back in 2002 or 2003 maybe? Honestly, Its been so long I can't remember. I love this model, though I regret that it was sealed with the GW Purity Seal and not Testors Dullcote. I'll have to try spraying it and see if the gloss goes away.



I used a Tamiya tank accessory kit in order to add the baggage and tools to the rhino chassis. I was inspired by a Land Raider someone in Australia had entered into Golden Daemon that year, with a weathered look and a lot of baggage on the exterior.



I used fine sand paper and grey chalk as a home made weathering powder to add some wear to the tank. Unfortunately, the gloss seal washed out a lot of the weathering, perhaps in the future I'll touch that up and add in my current style of highlights.



I really love the interior detail of this kit, it really makes the rhino into a command and control node. The detail alone makes it worthwhile, with the two techmarines seated at the console, and the console itself. It could also be used to make for a really cool detailed interior for a land raider, though I'm not sure if I would waste the money on a second kit.



The paint scheme for this model is an earlier iteration of my current scheme. It lacks the layering, and is pretty much Ultramarine Blue on black primer. The other colors are all similarly done.



My only regret with this model, is that Apocalypse kind of took away the effectiveness of this tank in terms of being able to use IN aircraft, and only giving the owning player an orbital barrage.

Inspiration

I'll be honest, lately my post count has fallen off for a number of reasons. For one thing, I've been lucky enough to spend more time with my family. But more than that, I haven't had too many projects that inspire me to paint and model. The Forge World models I've gotten have been great, however the regular 40k line and the paltry re-releases from Games Workshop have left me unmotivated to finish any of the small 1000 point army projects I need to finish to start something new. So those are the reasons I haven't been as productive of late.

What does motivate me, art like the picture above for one thing. I love the Ultramarines (could you tell?) and art that involves them, or Black Library fiction about them helps to feed the fires. Sadly, I'm so far along with the Ultramarines, that I have only vehicles left to build, and even then not many. Definitely the Black Library books, video games and White Dwarf help to inspire me, as do the various blogs that I visit. Having just bought Space Marine, the video game, I'm hoping it will reinvigorate my desire to do some modeling.

Space Marine Review

I bought the new THQ game, Space Marine today after work, and brought it home and started playing as soon as possible. First impressions, the opening cinematics are great - along the line of Dawn of War. The main character, Captain Titus, drops through the upper atmosphere by jump pack, dodging through falling ship wreckage to land on an ork kruzer. The game mechanics themselves are easy to pick up, however having played Call of Duty games previously, I found myself wanting to use the melee attack button from that in the beginning. However, after the twentieth ork killed in melee, it becomes pretty easy to melee kill without getting the wrong buttons pushed. I have yet to try the online play, due to some Internet issues and the fact that it takes forever to update the PS3 every time I buy a new game. However, I do think this is a fun game, good for blowing off steam and enjoying the Warhammer 40,000 universe.