Relictors Space Marine 4th Company - Devastators Squad w/ Multi-Meltas

Hello All, thanks for dropping by in our humble corner of the blogosphere, I have recently finished another squad of 4th Company Devastators that have been cluttering up the painting desk for too long! The Lascannon Devastators were finished in September last year,  and from the same boxes the Grav Cannon Devastators from June 2016! (i said it was too long!) And I still have the Heavy Bolter Squad to do on the painting pile still!

I love the look of the Sergeant, the backpack Signum was actually from the Company Captains set in finecast, I think the actual Captain of the Relics which is cool as we are Relictors! And that particular Captain will be finding himself demoted as a Sergeant of the Heavy Bolter Squad soon.

I've used third party bionic legs for one of these troopers, the Multi-Meltas from several boxes of Devastators, and the shoulder Pauldron trim is marked out in the Company colours for 4th Co., green.

I've used the extra-stabilised Devastator legs throughout these squads, and I chose a MKIII Helmet for one of the troopers as I had it painted and laying about - it was originally for a Veteran before I remembered my Veterans have bone-coloured helmets, so this Devastator gained a relic piece of wargear.

The power cables were in green to match power cables across the entire army, and I marked out the three indicator LEDs on the rear of the powerpacks to signify the level of charge - some 3 green, others 1 green and 2 red. The design of these backpacks really reminds me of Ghostbusters for some reason!

The Sergeant also gained a Combi-Grav as he will find himself in harms way with the short range of the squads guns, and the inevitable 'command-hand' pointing at the next target, I slew the Signum targeters to align with where he is pointing too. His Pauldron displays a Marksmen award Bolt Shell.

The Sergeant's right Pauldron proudly displays his name and the squad's name "Vorf", a nod to part of my profession meaning 'vertical offshore reference frame' but makes a unique Sergeant's name, Squad Vorf reporting for duty!

Cheers for reading this far, thanks, Siph. (5pts)

Terrain and Scenery - Barricades complete!

Hello, One and All,

As you might know, I'm not a huge fan of terrain - unless it is as part of a base for a model etc. however I thought I'd get 2020 off with a bang with some completed terrain!

These are resin pieces that have been sat waiting to finish, they were based black, then given a heavy layer of grey. leaving the black in the recesses. The models then had a liberal coat of brown applied over the base and the lower portion of the model.

First points of the year LH. (5pts Terrain)

Battle Pict Captures - Relictors 4th Co. Vs Custodes / Inq / SoS

Lord Halfpenny and me had a battle at long last after a gap of several months. I chose my latest editions of Relictors 4th Company as a stand alone force, and Lord Halfpenny chose a soup mix of Custodes, Sisters of Silence and Inquisition and Assassins. An interesting variety of units neither of us were familiar with and a lot of them their first outing in 8th Edition.

This would see the Relictors striking to retrieve a Chaos Artifact beneath the Church, but the Inquisition got word of this and to prevent the strength of the Relictors falling out of favour from Rouboute in these times of great need, turned to the secretive Custodes and Assassins to ensure they stay on the right path. Over Trajorann's own body would the Relictors have this Daemon Weapon.

Lord Halfpenny's force centred around Trajorn, a Vexilla, Greyfax, 2x 5 Custodes, an Assassin Interdiction Force, some Acolytes and 2x Sisters of Silence Prosecutors.

My 4th Company centred around 3x Tactical Squads, a Ven Dread, a Contemptor, Dev Squad, Company Vets with SB/SS and Teeth of Terra Jump Captain, Lieutenant, Apothecary, Company Ancient and a Chaplain and an addition of a Vindicare Assassin as I knew Lord Halfpenny was bringing four operatives!

We deployed Cloak and Shadows, Frontline Assault, Relictors got first turn and Custodes failed to seize. 6 objectives and maelstrom of battle.

The long range firepower in the first turn was quite ineffective, the -1 to hit the large Custodes and Characters blob meant a few wounds but no casualties except the Contemptor Dreadnought mowing down the 6 Acolytes for First Strike, and even the Venerable Dread failed to get past the Invul save on the approaching Eversor Assassin with its Lascannons - "I mean, what harm could a horde killer do to a mighty Dreadnought?..." The noteable success of the Vindicare striking Trajann Valoris with Headshot taking 4 wounds was fun and made Lord Halfpenny a little more cautious.

The Custodes all moved forward, to close with the enemy, protected by their superior armour and shields, the Assassins struck out of the shadows - we realised we played their deployment wrong - not infiltrate 9in away but should have been concealed within their own deployment zone or deep strike turn two - however, as much as they will hurt, we had fun and continued... the Eversor landed a lucky Melta Bomb on the Venerable scoring six wounds! Then got into combat with the mighty Ancient and cleaved him into two... ouch. The Callidus struck out at the opposite end of the battle at a Tactical Squad dragging down 5 marines and taking a few wounds in return. The Culexus appeared in the centre and targeted the Jump Captain but failed to harm him, meanwhile the Vindicare wounded the Lieutenant twice. Two Storm Shield Veterans also fell to a few small arms fire.

At the start of turn two it was fairly even with a few objectives held and both getting First Strike.

In Turn two the Relictors Devastators struck at the central Custodes Squad with Characters dragging down three Custodes with heavy grav and missile fire, shaking the wounded Valoris who then sought cover of the church ruins.

The approaching Eversor was shot by the Company Veterans but survived and then charged them to only take out two in combat, the invulnerable Storm Shields holding him at bay. The exposed Culexus and Callidus both fell, Culexus to massed fire and the Callidus to an intervention of the Teeth of Terra Captain.

After his stim-fuelled killing of the venerable, the Eversor failed to capitalise and only struck down two veterans, the hero Veteran Sergeant survived going toe-to-toe with a madman and promptly ended the operatives life with a well aimed Storm Shield thrust and a Combat Blade jab - fortunately his over stimmed chemical concoction didn't explode!

Elsewhere the Sisters moved up into the ruins opposite the Devastators and the Custodes second squad on the flank moved up to the bastion.

The Custodes and Inquisitor in the centre hid in the ruins of the church, a little more wary of the Relictors gunline now... the exposed Sisters over by the Devastators faired a lot worse and were pulversied by Grav and Frag Missiles.

The hero Veteran Sergeant fought bravely, resisting the might of five Custodes, eventually being dragged down and given the Emperor's judgement with a well aimed Misericordia Blade. Luring out the Custodes into the crosshairs of the Devastators - he died a hero of the Chapter! Over the other side of the battle, the Vindicare spotted the Jump Captain and wounded him 3 times.

At the start of Turn 3 it was still fairly equal on points, I think 5 all.

In Turn 3, the Devastators and nearby Tactical Squad shot at the Custodes advancing towards them, cutting down two of the warriors. They stayed in the line of fire to claim the objective.

Over the other side of the battlefield, the Jump Captain launched himself towards the Sisters of Silence holding Objective 4, cutting them all down and claimed the objective for the Relictors.

The Tactical Squad and Contemptor shot at the ruins, taking another Custodes down and killing Inquisitor Greyfax. The majority of the Custodes in the centre hid in the ruins. (like the cowards we know they are... Siph)

At the beginning of Turn 4 it was still equal however a set of impossible cards for the Relictors and some fancy killing by the Custodes would change that.

The Devastators shot at the pesky Vindicare Assassin and failed to root him out of his cover, plus more shots at the Custodes in front of them but the Storm Shield saved all of the hits.

In the Custodes turn, the Jump Captain was busily claiming Linebreaker and working towards the Objective where the Vindicare was, however the Vindicare moved and then shot the Captain right between the eyes giving Slay the Warlord and Kingslayer for 4VPS.

The Custodes charged the Devastators and the Characters in the ruins, cutting down the Sergeant and a Missile Launcher, but the Lieutenant and Chaplain fought back taking down a Custodian.

At the start of the 5th Turn, the card gods had deserted the Relictors and even though they had the numbers on the battlefield, the Objectives remained out of their reach.

Being from Ultramarine geneseed, the Relictors withdrew from Combat and fired into the remaining Custodians leaving just one Custodian amongst them.

The Contemptor raced to the centre to harass the lurking Custode Warlord and claim the Objective outside the church.

The Custodes struck back, charging again and felling the Company Ancient. Elsewhere, Trajorann charged the Contemptor and cut him down with ease!

No in the open and the battle rolling into a Turn six, Trajorann was scythed down with the combined firepower of 2.5 Tactical Squads in revenge for the loss of their own Captain. The final Custodian by the Devastators was suitably crushed with Grav Weaponry.

The battle came to an end with only two Custodes models left, the Assassin and the Vexilla.

The Relictors were still in strength, but with the loss of the Captain, Ancient and Dreadnoughts, the Chaplain led them from the field to re-group and reconsider their actions.

And the final tally was a unassailable lead by the Custodes forces, 15VPs to 9VPs. A victory to the Custodes / Assassins / SoS and Inquisition... and for mankind itself, the Relictors would remain in the fight against Chaos on the side of Roboute, unbeknownst to him that the Relictors were still putting their quest for Daemon Artifacts above the interests of humanity.

That was a fun game, many different units and a few mistakes were made, the biggest one allowing three Assassins to tear into the Relictor lines in Turn 1, but a fun learning game all the same. Lord Halfpenny needed a lesson in 8th, and I think he got it - play the mission, forget casualties and he prevailed with only two models left. I learnt that the card gods can be cruel... 

Thanks for dropping by, hopefully you enjoyed my tale and the pictures. Cheers, Siph.

2019 A Review - Lord Halfpenny

Wow, what a year. There were plenty of new additions to my growing forces. A highlight of the year was the addition of the Warlord 'Hell's Daughter' to my titan legion. What made it even better was that I set myself a very tight timescale, ready in time for the Titan Owners Club walk in the summer. I managed to get the Warlord done within 3 months. I had also completed a Warbringer in a similar time scale. Both I feel look great, and am really happy with the results.

Siph's and my Maniples - Crucius and Astorum

On a 40k front I made some progress with minimising the 'to-do-pile' however this seems to have grown again.. must work harder! I've added sisters of silence and some deathwatch to the Imperial forces I own.

For 2020 -

I am aiming to make a proper dent in the pile of plastic, there will be more Deathwatch stuff, and Adeptus Custodes. I am also looking to finally complete and finish all my Imperial Knights with transfers and banners to do. I am looking at the option for another Titan this year, with this potentially being a Reaver. we will see.

One of the year's highlights, the Titan Owners Club Walk UK

I also want to have more battles - this work thing gets in the way. There is a Titan Owners Club UK Walk planned again this year, and with a smaller demonstration in February.

Loads on - here's to a great 2020! Cheers, LH

Army Spotlight - Chaos Daemons - Jan 2020

Hello All, thanks for dropping by for a look-see. I hope you all had a good Christmas/Holidays period. Happy New Year too. So, I can't remember if I ever posted an Army Photo of my Chaos Daemons to date, certainly not in my labels for [Army Photo] so had to fix that and took the opportunity to dust the cabinet at the same time. What's not pictured is my latest additions seen after Christmas last year, Poxbringer, Flamers and Chaos Spawn.

The nice thing about Chaos Daemons are that the army is a wild wacky mix of colours and it's not Power Armour - it's organic, it's whatever colour you want really - I have green [Pink] Horrors because you know, Tzeentch likes it like that!

The army is headed up by a ForgeWorld Greater Daemon of Nurgle, a Great Unclean One, or when I get around to painting my two plastic GUO, this one will represent Scabieathrax the Bloated named Daemon.

For normal games of 40K, the Daemon Prince with Wings will probably be my Warlord. He is a fallen Ultramarine because Lord Halfpenny has a fallen Relictor Daemon Prince!

I also have the old sculpt of Fateweaver, I think for Fatey I prefer the smaller sculpt, the Greater Daemon Lord of Change can be the new larger plastic sculpt when I get around to getting one. This was painted by my good blogger buddy Nick at The Burning Eye

First of my troops choices, 10 Bloodletters, yes I need more but as a starter I have 10 of each of the boxed troops. I painted these.

Daemonettes painted by another blogger buddy, Dr Rob Hill at 30k Plus 40K, another great talented painter but I think Doctoring has taken him away from his blog for a while now - come back Rob!

'Cute' Nurglings painted by me again. A side project distraction whilst the hobby butterfly flutters about...

Pink [green] Horrors by Dr Rob Hill

Plaguebearers by Nick T

Plaguebearers by me again.

Bloodcrushers by Nick T, the great thing about Daemons is even though they are painted by several people and I return every now and then, the non-cohesive nature of the army doesn't affect the overall look of the army in the slightest.

Fiend of Slannesh by Nick T

Plague Toads by me again.

Screamers of Tzeentch by Nick T

Seekers of Slannesh by Nick T

Chaos Spawn, repainted by me.

Flamers of Tz, repainted by me.

Poxbringer of Nurgle, eBay find, part painted by me.

So, there you have it. A lot of room to expand and add units and a wealth of Special Characters. I think I will experiment using some Contrast Paints on some of these, more troops and next in the painting queue will be a Great Unclean One and a Rotigus GUO plus some Plague Drones - I quite like Nurgle... 

Cheers, Siph.