Dark Angels: Ravenwing Bike Squad TO-DONE!!!

 

Hi folks,

Just before I got caught up in DreadTober shenanigans I managed to finally complete this Ravenwing squad. It had been sitting in sub-assemblies for about 7 years, waiting for some finishing touches on the bikes. Well, those "finishing" touches took about two weeks to complete. I had purchased some sculpted bases during the last lockdown for them, and they took almost as much time as the bikes themselves to paint!

The sergeant is equipped with a combi-melta to really double-down on the anti-armour capabilities of the squad. He used to have a thunderhammer, which is not an option in the new Codex, unfortunately. His head is a Native American sculpt from Puppetswar, which my mate Wade kindly 3D printed for me.

The special weapons are both meltaguns, which I have posed like the old school plasma gunner. The pose was really easy on the sub-assembly, but getting them to fit on the bike was a bit of a nightmare.

The biker with the raven was one of the first models I actually completed. The raven is actually a Dark Eldar Razorwing sculpt. I managed to purchase a few more in resin before they disappeared from my FLGS, so expect to see a few more birdy friends on my Ravenwing figures.

With this project finished I am focusing almost completely on Dreadtober for the next couple of weeks, with the exception of tinkering with some Tyranid schemes for the next round of the 2nd Edition Army Challenge. More about that later... until then, it's double big stamp time!!

See you across the table,

Marc

Jormungandr vs Primaris: Thoughts on 8th Ed.

Spot the croc...

Hi folks,

It has taken me a while to get play a game with the new Tyranid Codex, but I finally managed it. Having played 40K for 7 editions, I have collections that are aging in one way or another, particularly when it comes to competing in the current meta. My Dark Angels army, for example, is very much a 3rd Edition gun line, which has trouble competing with modern collections. The answer to this is to either throw money at the problem and/or get creative. I had a good idea that my Tyranids would be in a similar position, having collected the bulk of my army for competitive play around 4th and 5th Edition, just before flyers were released. The best way to find out is to play games, so I took on Sgt Waz's Primaris with a Jormungandr list pieced together with the stuff that I have. Instead of writing a turn-by-turn battle report, I have put a few thoughts together based on the game and implications for my hobby plans this year.

During the course of the game, there were several points where The Trooper and I just looked at each other in despair. Sgt Waz did a great job of showcasing the interplay between new units, fire power and stratagems, giving us a lot to think about. His list was infantry based; the closest he got to a vehicle was two Thunderfire cannons. He left Guilliman at home in favour of Marneus Calgar and a suite of HQ characters; a Primaris Lieutenant, Librarian, Ancient and Apothecary, a marine Captain and two honour Guard for Marneus. The list included several combat squads of Intercessors, 5 Hellblasters, 6 Aggressors and a Devastator squad armed with Grav Cannons. Two scouts squads were included to teach me a lesson about area denial. Compared to the current meta, the list was not exactly what you would call optimized, but it had synergy, buckets of wounds and fire power. A dedicated gun line facing a tunneling close combat force; I smelled trouble already.

My list included the Swarmlord with three Tyrant Guard, a Neurothrope, 3 Zoanthropes, three Hive Guard, three Tyranid warriors with devourers and Boneswords, a Broodlord and 8 Genestealers, 20 Termagants with devourers, a Trygon Prime, Mawloc and Scythed Heirodule.

Lesson 1: Just putting together the list, I was wishing that I had more Zoanthropes for the buff to Mortal Wounds, more Hive Guard to give them some extra resilience and more Genestealers, again for the buffs. I have 40 old school genestealers in a box somewhere...

Deployment

Sgt Waz set up his army in a blob of precisely spaced out ranks to the right side of his deployment zone, with the Thunderfire cannons right at the back, Marneus and the Ancient in the middle and the rest of the HQ units on the flank. The scouts were deployed 9" the front and left of the blob, to push any deep striking units out 9" beyond that.

Lesson 2: here was my first lesson in area denial. A Jormungandr list is mostly about tunneling units into the teeth of the enemy, but this deployment would make that suicide. I could absolutely wreck the scout squads, but that would still put me too far away from the blob to make an impact before the serious shooting starts. In hindsight, I need small throw-away units or some backfield shooters to eliminate the area denial units, before I start tunneling the good units in. The only unit capable of doing this in my army for this game was the Hive Guard; Sgt Waz knew that too.

I deployed my Swarmlord, Tyrant Guard, Hive Guard and Tyranid Warriors in cover. The Neurothrope, Zoanthropes and Devourers would be tunneling in with the Mawloc, whilst the Broodlord and Genestealers would be tunneling in with the Trygon Prime.


Lesson 2: this would cost me 4 CP at the outset, leaving me with 3. This is a good investment as long as it pays dividends! Ideally, I need to see if I can increase my starting number of CP. That will mean some Ripper bases, I think. In contrast, Waz started with 9 CP and the ability to regenerate spent points. Which he did. Consistently. 

We played a Retrieval Mission using the Dawn of War deployment. We set up four objective markers, two on each side of the board. Players in control of an objective marker at the end of the game would earn 3 victory points. Victory points would also be earned for Slaying the Warlord, Line Breaker and First Blood.

Lesson 3: Play the mission. If I had played to the mission more actively during the game I could have offset some of my lists weaknesses by drawing the Primaris marines out and capturing objectives with powerful units at the end of the game. The main reason I didn't do this is because of the two Thunderfire cannons.



Turn 1

Sgt Waz didn't move all that much during the first turn, only advancing his right flank (Captain, Primaris Librarian and Apothecary, Devastator Squad) to move onto an objective and open up a firing lane for his grav cannons. The Thunderfire cannons destroyed my Hive Guard unit; there goes first blood.

Lesson 4: The Hive Guard were targeted because they threatened his scouts, which were providing area denial.


I ran the Heirodule up the middle of the board as a distraction and advanced the Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard, so that he could spur on the Heirodule next turn. The Trygon (left flank) and Mawloc appeared (right flank), bringing their squads with them. It was about now that I realised that I should have removed the scouts first. Sgt Waz used a strategem (Auspex I think), to fire his Grav Cannons at the Mawloc, which took me by surprise and caused a lot of wounds. During the psychic phase I used the Neurothrope and Zoanthropes to kill the Devastators, but as they were within range of the Ancient and his standard, the majority of them got a second round of shooting before being removed from the board. So I was getting shot in my own movement phase AND my own psychic phase. During the shooting phase I killed the first squad with my scout squad and then used Single Minded Annihilation to put 4 wounds on the Captain (one short of killing him outright.... grrrr).


Lesson 5: it is not good enough to know a unit's capabilities anymore, you also need to know how they interact with strategems and buffs.



Turn 2

Sgt Waz advanced the first two ranks of his blob (Intercessors and Aggressors) to attack the Termagants, killing most of them. The Captain and Librarian advanced on his right flank to charge the Zoanthropes with the support of the Apothecary. The rest of the army fired on the Heirodule, causing a couple of wounds, and the Genestealers, killing 5. The Mawloc also died during the shooting phase, having provided the distraction I wanted. The Captain failed his charge and would have to weather another round of Smite, but gained some wounds with the help of the Apothecary.

I unleashed psychic hell on the Captain and... removed a wound. I then charged him, as it was going to happen anyway and I would rather hit first. The Heirodule advanced and, after failing to buff it with onslaught, fired an acid attack at the Intercessors, killing two. Again, they took a final shot at the Termagants, wiping them out. Infuriated, the Heirodule charged them and the Aggressors, and started wrecking face, but for every model taken down I was taking powerfist hits thanks to the Ancient. Sgt Waz was getting those rolls when he needed them. My Zoanthropes didn't make any in-roads against the Captain, but they didn't die either.

Turn 3

The Ultramarines withdrew from combat with the Heirodule and shot it, taking it down to three wounds. On his right flank, Sgt Waz maneuvered his HQ units to support the Captain, whilst the right flank prepared for the arrival of the Swarmlord, Trygon Prime and Broodlord, shooting down the rest of the Genestealers and taking the Broodlord down a couple of wounds.

I moved the Heirodule so that it could charge the remaining Intercessors and Aggressors comfortable, I also advanced the Swarmlord into position to move the Trygon twice and buff it with Onslaught. The Broodlord also bolted forwards as far as it could in preparation for charging. During the shooting phase I shot the Aggressors with the Heirodule's acid attack, using my final CP to re-roll one of my snake eyes. Again, any marines I killed turned fired off some shots before they fell, putting wounds on the Nids preparing to charge. The Nids all made their charge but the Broodlord and last Tyrant Guard died to overwatch fire. The Swarmlord and Trygon cut a bloody swathe through the first three ranks, whilst the Heirodule had taken too many wounds by this stage to be truly effective. Now only a lone Zoanthrope was alive on the right flank, but he was still holding it up!

Lesson 6: I had to give myself a few options when I charged, announcing that I was attempting to charge multiple units on the chance that one would get wiped out by the Swarmlord before the Trygon got a chance to attack. By announcing charges against multiple units I drew extra overwatch fire, but was able to pile in after one squad completely collapsed early under the blades of the Swarmlord. 



Turn 4 

Sgt Waz didn't have much moving to do at this stage, simply positioning Marneus to charge the Swarmlord and his guard to charge the Trygon. I weathered a blistering turn of fire, passing a whole bunch of invulnerable saves. The Captain finally killed the last Zoanthrope in close combat. Marneus, however, didn't do so great. His honour guard marines were close enough to absorb most of the wounds, but they both died miserably. Marneus also took some wounds. The Heirodule also fell to some lucky Bolt rifle stock hits.

My turn consisted of the Psychic and assault phases, which ended with the death of Marneus and every other unit in contact with my Swarmlord and Trygon

MVP

 

Turn 5


Sgt Waz's final two ranks consisted of Hellblasters and two Thunderfire cannons. They remained stationary and shot both the Swarmlord and the Trygon to pieces. It was a complete wipe!


Final lessons: With some careful list choices, and a bit more strategic thought, I can see how my list would be fun to play. The buff to armour save from being Jormungandr did make an impact, but I can maximise it by having some backfield units protected by a Malanthrope. A Tyrannofex and an Exocrine, instead of the Scythed Heirodule, would have caused Sgt Waz a whole world of trouble. You can't just sit back and do nothing when they are pounding you. Also, if I am going to come in from reserve with a bunch of costly units, I really do need to dictate where they arrive better. Some cheap units of Ravenors will be a welcome addition. To tap into area denial myself, a few cheap units of spore mines will work wonders. Additionally, a Unit of Biovores will help with those annoying characters in the middle of the blob, such as the Ancient (allowing dead things to shoot me!) and the Lieutenant (who did nothing but allow other models re-roll failed to-wound rolls all game). I already have plans to add some Space Marine Lieutenants to my Dark Angels list. With a jump pack, one should even be able to keep up with my faster units for a while.


That's a wrap! The game left me with lots of things to think about and I have already started working on improving the list. Let's see how I go next time :-)

See you across the table,

Marc

Dark Angels Nephilim Jetfighter: TO-DONE!

Hi folks,

There is something a bit... Batman... about the Nephilim. When I decided to repaint this one I wanted to make it a lot darker than what I was used to seeing, which meant changing the wing colour scheme and the missiles so that it all blends in a bit more with the black fuselage. I think what I have produced is decidedly more grim/dark, but I will let you be the ultimate judge of that.

I have never been a huge fan of flyers in the 40K game. When they were introduced it felt a lot like a game of scissors-paper-rock had turned into scissors-paper-rock-lizard-Spock (and my army had no lizards, or Spocks). I still feel that they are a little misplaced on a 40K gaming table, particularly when other gaming systems have some pretty neat rules for flying units that make more sense (looking at you Battletech: Alpha Strike). To give me the push that I needed, my mates gave me this Nephilim and a Storm Eagle transport, which I split between my Dark Angels and Iron Snakes.

I really enjoyed painting the metallics on those wings, I was really rough with it which felt liberating after all of the detail work on the lenses. One of the last jobs I had to do was the black highlights, which I kept pretty sharp.

I played around with the colours on the engines a little bit, painting some of the internal parts gold with a green wash just for kicks. I like the way that the colours match the base, creating a kind of visual link between the two; I'm weird that way.

I also added a bit of a blue/purple glow to the end of the engine, just to add a bit of light coloured detail to the rear view. Again, the colour ties in nicely with the river on the base, which is a technique I like to use.

As I mentioned last post, my mates added some Epic scale Space Marine figures to the base to establish a bit of forced perspective, to make the flyer look like it was flying higher above the battlefield. I loved the concept to bits, so I added to it a fraction with the addition of a river and some trees, which match my gaming board appearance pretty closely. The effect is great for a display piece, which this model will be for most of the time. Of course when it is next to other models the suspension of belief is a lot harder to maintain. That doesn't bother me too much, flyers shouldn't be pulling such tight maneuvers 20 m off the ground anyway!

Overall, I am very happy with how this project turned out. I think I have made it look a little more sinister, whilst still maintaining the features that my mates worked so hard on. Drum-roll: big orange stamp!

See you across the table,

Marc

Forced Perspective Bases

Hi folks,

The last step of my Nephilim Jetfighter project is to finish off the base. As I mentioned last post, when my mates gave me the model they had based it with some Epic-scale figures, to introduce some forced perspective.

"Forced perspective is a technique which employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation between them and the vantage point of the spectator or camera."

In this case, the figures on the base are supposed to make it look like the Jetfighter is doing a higher altitude pass over the battlefield. When I saw what they had done I loved it, I don't think I had ever seen anything like it before. As part of the re-painting process, I decided I would add some extra details to the base but retain and enhance the forced perspective. To kick things off, I scraped off some of the old basing material and marked out where I wanted the river to be with a white base coat.

Next I painted the river using Caledor Sky for the deeper water, blending from Teclis Blue to Lothern Blue on the shore.

   


I was planning to add some sandy shores to the river, to match the river on my gaming board. The material I used on my board was shell grit, which has some fairly large shell pieces in it. To enhance the forced perspective I used a mortar and pestle to crush some of the grit into much finer grains. I cleaned the mortar and pestle with vinegar when I was finished (it dissolves the calcium carbonate of any left over shell).

  
To apply the grit I used PVA glue, which I painted on with a brush on the banks of the river. 

So that was the neat, tidy... rational, painless part. After that I sprinkled the crushed grit on the base and let it dry for an hour or so. Stupidly, I used my breath to blow the excess off the base and got a fair whack of it in my eyes. Thankfully (?) I have had some experience with this kind of accident, so managed to keep my eyes jammed open until I could get under the shower and flush them thoroughly. Ten minutes later the excitement was over and my eyes were 0% gritty. Next time, I'm just going to give it a blast with my airbrush, or wear some damn safety glasses (I have enough pairs of them).

 To cover the bulk of the base I used the summer/spring flock mix that I always use. I mixed a big batch of this stuff when I first did my gaming boards, the day it runs out I swear the sky will fall.

I added the two remaining Epic-scale marines to the base, which had fallen off during the removal of the original basing material. I also chopped up a Citadel jungle tree and used the smallest fronds to represent some larger trees around the base.

To finish it off I applied a 1 mm layer of water effects to the river. The surface tension of the water effects is very strong (the intermolecular forces are strong in this one...) so there were no troubles with it flowing over the shoreline or the edge of the base. 

...and that's how I left it for the night. It usually takes over 12 hours for the water effects I use to set, so I didn't touch the base again until the next day. Then I whipped some black around the base edge and called it done! Tomorrow I'll post the final pictures of the whole project.

See you across the table,

Marc

 

Dark Angels Nephilim Jetfighter Progress

Hi folks,

I few years ago two of my mates put this Nephilim Jetfighter together for me and gave it a lick of paint. Sgt Waz tinted the canopy with Tamiya Clear Red and worked on it for as long as time permitted to get it as close to finished as possible. Of course, for both of us, the term "finished" has taken on a whole new meaning since then! Over the past couple of days I have cleaned it up quite a bit and changed the scheme significantly, starting with the wing symbol on the... wings.

I started by re-spraying the wings black, then adding a layer of Warplock Bronze. Gold was stippled up one end to add some depth, with black stippled on the other end. I finished them off with gold highlights on the upper edges and Leadbelchers at the base. You can also just see the blue/purple glow I have added to the engine. With a large flat brush I added a black layer to the fuselage to cover up some very thick grey highlights, restoring some darkness to the scheme. I also added some white running lights on the wingtips.

I hadn't realised quite how much junk these models have up front! Next up I painted lenses all over the place. Let's just say I had a lot of practice doing jeweling effects that night. I also changed the colour of the missiles to green, as the yellow was not quite distracting and too close to the gold I had just added.

To finish the job I need to do a whole heap of edge highlighting and fix up the base. The guys decided to try some false perspective, using an Epic scale Landraider and some marines, which they even painted in a Dark Angels scheme. I love the effort they put in to do this and it really makes me giggle on the inside. I think, however, that I can still jazz up the other features of the base and perhaps add some water effects, to match my gaming table. The frustrated gardener in me can't wait :-)

See you across the table,

Marc

Ravenwing: Veteran Sergeant TO-DONE!

Hi folks,

One down, four to go! This guy took a little longer than I was expecting due to the conversion work on the thunder hammer and combi-weapon, as well as the added detail on the robes and face. As usual, I made the job even longer by adding a little novelty objective marker, because who doesn't want to play polo with a Black Legion helmet and a thunder hammer.

The thunder hammer was converted from a veteran Dark Angels power maul, with a simple head swap. Some poor terminator is going to have to do without. I thought about painting a glow effect on the thunder hammer but went with the simple option.

As with the other bikes, the feathers on the back are a blend from Caliban Green to Blood Red (Evil Sunz Scarlet for the young folk). I have refrained from putting any of the feathery bling on the front of my Ravenwing bikes so far, as I am saving that to make the Black Knights look even more unique.

Like the other bikers, the sergeant's bike has a couple of low calibre bullet holes in it... nothing that would worry a Space Marine, I'm sure ;-)

After converting the thunder hammer I couldn't stop thinking about how much it looked like a polo mallet (or whatever they call it). To give the sergeant something to hit I pilfered a Chaos Marine helmet from the Dark Vengeance kit. The base is an old one from Scibor miniatures with a nice textured ruins finish. I like the way the design in the ruins channeled towards the lower part of the base, so I ran some Tamiya Clear Red down: the only good Black Legionnaire is a dead Legionnaire.

The next step with this squad will be to batch paint the four remaining bikes, as the marines themselves are already finished. Two of them will be equipped with old school grav guns, which I am excruciating over at the moment. I have a colour in mind for every kind of weapon glow except grav weapons! Maybe it's time to give purple a try...

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Ravenwing Sergeant Progress

Hi folks,

The past couple of nights I have been working on my Ravenwing Sergeant. The model has a lot more detail and conversion work compared to the remaining four bikers, so he is taking a bit longer than I thought he would. So far I have painted the metallics, headlight, robes and feathers, though I think perhaps that the feathers need one more highlight.

I have only added carbon scoring to one side of the exhaust so far, as each glaze was taking a while to dry. I am very happy with the brown robes, having experimented on the Van Diemen's World Commissar I finished not long ago. This colour scheme is the reverse of my other Dark Angels Sergeants, which I think ties the two elements of the army together in a neat way.

I painted the OSL from the headlight to match the other bikes, though I still have to touch up the red light on the metallic parts; the reflection size there does not match what is on the black armour yet.

Next up I'll finish off the exhaust, tighten up the OSL and add some highlights to the black armour. That will be followed by the arms, which will include a thunder hammer, a base and a novelty objective marker; Chaos space marine helmet polo anyone?

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Ravenwing: Ravenmaster Complete

Hi folks,

Last night I put the finishing touches on my first Ravenwing bike, a model that I have affectionately named the Ravenmaster. The ravens don't have any effect on the game, but they reflect some of the artwork in the Dark Angels codex which shows flocks of them sweeping into battle with the Ravenwing Attack Squadrons, particularly this one:

My Ravenwing marines all have beaky helmets (Mk6), because, well... ravens be all beaky. In the old days these helmets were hard to come by and I had to cast a wide net over my gaming friends to catch a squads-worth. These days they are everywhere!

The OSL on the lamp has been through a few different iterations. Originally there was too much bouncing off the boltguns and covering most of the front armour of the bike, which I wasn't a big fan of; this effect is more muted. Again, I was trying to capture the style of the artwork, with its baleful orange glow.

Taking photos of this guy is hard because he is always casting a big shadow over himself with the raven! Ah well. I didn't want to do white feathers at the back, in fact, I'm pretty sure I was the only person who was annoyed with these models when GW released them (4th Ed.?). I have painted them in a blend from Caliban Green to Mephiston Red with lighter highlights, which is consistent with the other feathers that I have painted in the force. this makes them look a little more "Bravest of the Plains People" and less angelic.

I contemplated painting a grid on the bike's auspex, but decided I didn't want to spend that much time on it; I have too many bikes to do. I have, however, added a tiny amount of weathering, carbon scoring on the exhaust, just a hint of mud on the tires and two bullet holes (give me a shout if you find both of them).

Here is a picture taken with the Attack Bike I finished earlier, so that you can see te flocking effect of the ravens. Now that I have added weathering and battle damage to the scheme I will have to work on it a bit more to bring it up to scratch. There's me creating a rod for my own back again :-)

I have one more figure, the Veteran Sergeant, to paint before I start batch painting in earnest. I should have him converted by my next post.

See you across the table,

M4cr0