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.