Nevermore

"In the darkness all men are equal, save those who embrace it."

So here we finally have the Ravenguard I've been promising. I themed the army around the 5th company (black) as I think the red or green rims stand out a bit much against the black armor. Plus with Captain Shrike being 3rd company, I wanted something a bit different.

Over the years I have found no matter how much work and effort I put into black, it all looks the same at 4' away. I can drybrush and wash it, or blend highlights till my nose bleeds.. And all the work is lost.

So with that being said, I went for a fast "table top" standard on these fellas. Drybrushing and some neat detailing was the order of the day. Since GW doesn't make a Ravenguard transfer, I had to hand paint the chapter badge. While not 100% exact, I feel its close enough to not be mistaken for who they are. I may do a tutorial if there is some demand.

Anyways, enough prattle. Onto the pictures:

First up is a simple black reach captain. I use him as a "counts as" Cato Sicarius. All I did was remove the bolter and some chest detail and add the plasma pistol. Backpack is from the pastic captain boxed set.





Next up is the Librarian Decimus. Yeah, I know.. Lousy joke.
Terminator armor/storm shield is a obvious choice. I will likely use use him with gate/vortex. Possibly subbing in vortex for null zone. Stock model with minor shield conversion work to make it fit.





Pair o' dreads. I did these fellas because 99% of the time when I use marines, I think Dreadnoughts tend to be a waste of points and effort. Which is a damn shame considering they are some of my favorite models ever. I always enjoy painting a couple and adding them to any marine army I'm working on. HOWEVER, since drop-pods beat so much ass, these fellas have found a home in my list. The multi-meltas and low points cost make for some handy turn 1 anti-tank. And usually tends to make people press their "oh shit" button.





Some wip scouts. I originally intended to use these with Captain Shrike to make for a nice 1-2 punch. Only conversion is the Sergeant, I added a power weapon for a simple weapon swap.







The assault marines were the first unit I painted for this army. I had the intention of infiltrating them with Shrike, but have moved onto Sicarius instead. They are a pretty cheap squad however, and may find their way into my lists at lower point games. White arms and helmets usually designates Captain, but I thought it looked really cool, so wanted more than 1 mini in my army with it. So the odd Vet Sgt. here and there will have it.





The mk6 corvus or "beakie" squad. In the old Ravenguard fluff, they supposedly have a boat load of mk6 armor available to them. To be honest, I really hate the helmet. I honestly avoid it whenever possible. But I felt it wasn't right to do the Ravens and not have at least a few guys with it.. So in my army this is the tactical squad I dont put in a pod. They baby sit my deployment zone and camp objectives. When Sicarius is in command, the squad has a lascannon, plasma gun and combi-plasma. The idea being if I need to give a squad tank-hunter.. Its going to be these lazy gits. The plasma cannon has since joined my Rhino Squad (not finished yet).





3 Tactical squads compliment the dread's for some hot drop pod action. Pretty basic, 2 with power weapons and one with a power fist. Drop, shoot bitches, dont die too fast is the usual objective. one is a standard tactical box, the other 2 squads come from the black reach set. Black reach sgt's have been converted to have power weapons













Sgt.Telion and his sniper's. I've had mixed sucess with this unit. Telion is godly, the snipers are meh. I went with brown camo-capes to somewhat match the desert basing. Telion's cape isn't finished yet. They dont often appear in my final list, but usually pop up in smaller point games where busting a cap in someone's sgt is oh-so-dick.





Pair o' Multi-meltas. These are usually swapped out for drop-pod tactical's missle launchers. I still need to paint one more. The melta gun and lascannon are also for swapping out in the above tacticals.





The handy dandy rhino. This is for the sicarius list.. My 5th tactical squad rides in it. It it armed with fist, flamer and plasma cannon. Ideal on the plasma cannnon being that its only 5 points. If I fire it, great. If not, the pos only cost me 5 points. This squad will typically recieve the Scout rule from sicarius if a turn 1 charge is possible or needed and I dont need tank hunter.




THINGS STILL TO DO:
x5 Vanguard veterans (almost done)
x10 more tactical marines (not built)
x2 Iron-clads (built but not painted)
x4 more drop pods (built and primed, one finished)
Finish shrike

Hope you all enjoyed. Sorry for the horrible pics, black is a moderate whore to photograph when you dont know wtf you are doing.

Recipes:
Black primer
paint black
heavy drybrush with 50/50 black and codex grey
light drybrush with codex grey

paint all metal bits chainmail.
Then wash all metal and black all at once with badab black
add details and voila, instant ghetto ravenguard

Add squad numbers

Empire Patrol

Did the 500 point patrol tournament and Empire games this weekend.

I ended up taking:

x10 tactical marines w/ flamer, missile launcher and a power weapon
x10 tactical marines w/ flamer, missile launcher and a power weapon
x5 assault marines w/ power fist

Its been a while since I've played games this small. The scenarios were just randomly generated out of the rule book every round. I had a lot of fun, the games went quickly and all my opponents were cool folks.

I ended up winning all 3 games and took over-all. Thanks to Empire for hosting the tournament and everyone who showed up and participated. I look forward to the next 40k event held there..

Plus it was the first time my Ravenguard have been fielded at all.

Wolf Time

I lied about Ravenguard being my next post as I just stumbled across these pics. Decent consolation prize I hope?

Ok, So I found ancient pictures of a Space Wolf army I did many, many moons ago. I think the year was 2002. I sold the army off after about a year of playing it, and it was one of the few I've ever sold that I truly regretted.

So here we go. This was my wolf-lord based on Logan Grimnar. Sadly, he never saw any action on the table-top.




Here are the two wolf-guard battle leaders that I used most of the time. One with frost blade, one with a power fist. Banners were the first time I ever attempted making a banner out of greenstuff, and my sculpt-jitsu was weak.






I went with a nod to Rogue trader era power fist painting. The hazard stripes were an idea of a friend which I promptly ripped off.



The army I commonly used featured a solid core of grey-hunters. Blood claws were all the rage at the time, so I wanted to shy away from them to avoid cries of cheese.





One squad had all their faces painted black wether or not they wore a helmet to act as a "squad marking" and would help myself and opponents identify members of different squads.







Another item of note was all the wolf pelts I painstakingly collected. This was before I could sculpt, or knew anything about casting. Before you could simply just order the bits. I haggled, bought, traded, stole, begged and borrowed for every wolf pelt over a period of about 2 years. Every model in the army wore one with the exception of my scouts and blood claws.







My favorite squad was probably the wolf scouts. They were nothing remarkable or special to look at.. But this squad kicked ten shades of shit out of most of the people I played against. Their rules were one of the reasons I began using this army in 3rd ed. I felt they were so brutal, I had to "dumb down" other aspects of my army just so I didnt piss off the people I played against.



A rune priest I dont think I ever got to use. Converted from Njall storm caller.



I usually used this guy as either a third wolf guard battle leader, a wolf guard leader, or a fella with mark of the wolfen.



The long fangs. I've always been a bit of a missile launcher whore with my devastator units. I ran out of wolf pelts on these guys and wanted to get them done for a tournament.



The predator every marine player either does or should own. The jury is out with it being good in 5th ed though.



The land raider. For when you just have to plonk something big and expensive on the table that says "HEY SHOOT ME ASSHOLE, I'M A BIG EFFIN MODEL THATS GENERALLY IMPOSING BUT TENDS TO NOT DO A WHOLE LOT. RAWR!!!!11"



Detail shot, and example of highlights.



And lastly, the poor unsung work-horse of any marine army I have ever owned or played.. The rhino(s).








The army was inspired by Bryan Shaw's. He did a shitload of free hand markings and unique insignia on his own wolves (which he also sold). That is also the friend I mentioned ripping off the hazard stripes from.

Next update: Ravenguard for real. Swear!

Ok, So truth be told.. I am a royally lazy bastard with updating blogs and/or taking pictures. A new camera popped up in the house recently, so updates shouldnt be so few and far between.

My apologies for the crappy quality pics. Its 5am and I really dont care to play around with the camera too much. Just felt like seeing how it might work out. So, here goes nothing. I forgot how unforgiving a camera can be on a up-close mini.

So, here are some random minis I've worked on or had laying around for a while. The majority of these were painted with speed and "table top" quality in mind.


First up is a Deathwing terminator I did for a multi-wing army. It is a lot of fun to play, but a pain in the balls to paint. I do each terminator one at a time, have one totally finished and a couple more about half-done.



Next is a Blood Angel Sgt I did some time ago. I was playing around with nmm, and I completely hate painting red. So this was more of a personal challenge and just messing around than anything else.





I had a semi-large raptors army a while back. I played the hell out of that army in local tournaments, the emperors champion and numerous pick-up games. I sold the army about 2 years back and have no pictures of it. But somehow this guy survived the sale. I think I intended to fold him into a smaller squad.



Another blood angel. I got excited at the prospect of doing an "air force" with troops being assault marines. They were always one of my favorite units to field with any marine army I've ever had. Unfortunately, my dislike of painting red meant I never got past this fella.



I enjoy painting Ultramarines quite a bit. I feel they lend themselves quite well to being highlighted. What I don't like about them is it seems every other swinging dick on the planet with a marine army does the Ultra's. I paint a few here, a few there. Maybe someday it'll be a complete army.. But I guess I feel no matter how nice I attempt to make them, they'll be "just another smurf army".



















On my quest for something unique but known by other players, I got it in my head Blood Ravens would be cool thanks mostly to Dawn of War. The addition of foundation paints made it so painting red was much more tolerable, I just didnt feel very passionate about them. About a dozen models in, I lost interest.









A note on bases and chapter badges (or lack of). I tend to do all of these at the same time once all the painting on a army is complete. On the upside, it makes all the bases and badges consistant. On the downside, my stuff alway looks half assed and unfinished untill then.

I'm debating if I want to keep this stuff, sell all my old "project" off, or just strip them and fold them into a new project.

Next update: My nearly finished(!) Ravenguard army.