Relictors Space Marine Scout Bike Squad Finished

Here is my latest offering at long last, they have taken longer than expected, but the sheer amount of little details on these guys slowed me down, I know, even slower than normal! I'm not the fastest painter in the world by far.

These are a great kit, plenty of additional details, that said, I've only used a few on each, these are my light reconnaissance squad, the other squad will be made of the old metal scout miniatures and some 'normal' SM bikes loaded up with plenty of saddlebags, fuel cans etc etc. They are WYSIWYG so I had to add Shotgun Holters to all the bikes - but the rules are 2 shot Assault, the TL Bolters are Rapid Fire and bikes are relentless? So, why bother with Shotguns?

The Shotgun wielding scout above has an empty bike holster, because he's holding his shotgun! The bikes have plenty of screens, buttons, weapon options (TL Bolters or Astartes Grenade Launchers), bandoliers of Grenades, ropes, Shotgun shells, roll mats (I've painted to match the Camo Cloaks on my previous Scout Squads seen here).

The Biker Helmets are from Pig Iron, and are their Heavy Infantry Heads.  These two bikers show the Astartes Grenade Launchers - who is not to like Rapid Fire Frag and Krak out to 12/24in?

Finally, the Sergeant, he wears a Respirator head from the Scout Biker kits, echoing the other Scout Squads on foot, they have SM Respirator Heads. He also has a grenade and rope at his waist and a FW combi-flamer for a nice template weapon before the charge...

Thanks for reading, I hope you like...

Iron Warriors - Chaos Lord

Hi all – today I am showing off my newly finished Chaos Lord for my Iron Warriors.

It is another model from Hi-Tech Miniatures and is obviously a Perturabo counts-as (the model is actually called Proturbo...) and I will be using him as my primary Lord until Forgeworld get around to making a Perturabo model for the Heresy series. He would also probably be suitable as a counts-as Abaddon if I were ever to play in a tournament that required special characters.... ;)

The model is a bit of a beast – he is a good size larger than a Terminator, but given his Primarch/Lordly status, still fits nicely in the army.

The model isn’t packed with as many details as the Obliterator counts-as models from Hi-Tech, but is still a nice sculpt. I guess my only criticism is that the cape is very static and lifeless on the reverse.

To help it fit in to the utilitarian theme of the army, I tried to keep the painting toned down (I would have liked to go a little crazy on my primary HQ model – but it wouldn’t fit in with the rest of the army) and just focused on the features around the models head as a central focus.

The model comes with a scenic base – which is nice, but stands him an inch even higher...seeing as I am going to be using him in games and would like a cover save every now and then, I magnetised the scenic base and also knocked together a simple GW base for him to swap out to.

I feel like the army is really coming together now and the 1850pts list I have had in my head since last year is now only missing two models to be complete (hint – they both fly and are the bane of most MEQ players lives).

Iron Warriors - pre-Heresy Terminator squad

Hi everyone. Todays’ offering is my Iron Warriors Terminator squad. These guys have been on my mind for a while – I knew I wanted some Termis, but the CSM ones just didn’t fit with the image of my army in my head (they are too spiky/skull-y...). Really, there was only one option – go pre-Heresy!!! Not only do they fit into my army aesthetically, but also fit the fluff in my head that the best-of-the-best of the army are veterans from the Heresy era (like my Havocs).

After hunting through Forgeworld's Terminator offerings, I decided on the Cataphractii Termis, as their armour has no Imperial sigils that would need to be removed and they compliment nicely with my MkIII armoured marines. Obviously they also needed the Cataphractii Power Fist set and I picked up the Cataphractii Special Weapons set for the twin-Autocannon (Reaper), modular combi-bolters (why aren’t they all like this???) and the few other bits that I will no doubt be able to use elsewhere. Trust me – these Termis were not cheap, so I am expecting a significant payoff from my investment...lol.

I did experiment with press-moulding the IW symbol from the IW shoulder-pads onto the Cataphractii shoulder pads, but their staggered build meant there wasn’t enough room.

I went with pretty straightforward Termi loadouts – I think I will be deepstriking them a lot in my current army, so there is a Reaper Autocannon, combi-Plasma and combi-Melta in there for shooting punishment on the turn they arrive. The Champion has a Lightning Claw for challenges and not having to swing last (I am hoping it will be enough to kill some Space Marines and force failed saves on Termis) and the rest have Power Fists and Chain Fists for heavy lifting.

The models were painted up the same way as the rest of the army and I went for red tassely bits to match the red robes/capes that are on a few of my other models. They don't look particularly Iron Warrior-y on their own, but when mixed in with the rest of the army they fit in nicely.

I love these models (although they aren’t the easiest to build – for some reason they just didn’t want to stick together with my normal superglue, so ended up being entirely pinned) and didn’t want to do much conversion to them; in the end the only thing I did was swap out one of the Termi heads for one of my 3^rd party ones with a metal-skull face plate, which helps Chaos-y them up a little.

Iron Warriors – Aegis Defence Line

Here is a mini-project I have been working on for my Iron Warriors (I say mini-project, although its actually a key component of my current army build) – an Aegis Defence Line.

The conversion from Imperial to Chaos was pretty easy to do – using a rectangular scalpel blade, with the edge on the end, I was able to chisel/scrape off the Imperial Aquila's and then stippled on some liquid GS to add some texture back to the surface of the walls.

I then just used bits from the Chaos Vehicle Sprue (that I didn’t use on my latest Rhino), made some sandbags (rolls of GS that are then pressed slightly flat with a tea towel to add texture and cut to the right size) and some barbed wire (from Army Painter I believe), to make them more Chaos-y.

Whilst I am not using the typical Chaos spikes/skulls on my Iron Warriors – I think they fit perfectly on the Aegis.

Relictors Scout Bikers WIP No.2

Because I am as slow as a slow thing at painting, I thought I would at least post some progress shots of my 5 Scout Bikes, the bikes are now completed. These shots show the details nicely, they are fabulous models often overlooked by the majority of gamers for the next new UBER unit, however, they are a treat, a hidden gem. Just look at all the nice additions, a plethora of extra kit to add as little or as much as you like.

Don't worry about the seat mold lines - they'll be covered by rider.

I've gone for fairly lightly loaded bikes as I have 5 normal SM bikes for a squad of long-range Scouts (old metal riders on normal SM bikes with lots of fuel cans/ravenwing saddlepacks etc.) I've included the holstered Shotguns as they come as standard (why? 12" S4 Assault 2, but Bolters are TL Rapid Fire S4 24"(12") and bikes are Relentless - I guess it's to give options for the Astartes Grenade Launcher armed bikes? 24"(12") Rapid Fire Frag or Krak - nice.) and the kit comes with a Chainsword arm but no codex entry for one, but plenty of Shotgun shells, roll mats, grenade packs, ropes etc. I've also gone for muted decoration with Boltgun Metal Skulls rather than normal Gold, and weapon casings will be black to hint toward the Scout rule - how do you infiltrate a huge motorcycle? ;)

Lastly, to give my superhuman riders some chance of breathing in the dust kicked up by the other squad members, I've used some third party sci-fi helmeted heads (Pig Iron Heavy Infantry) that look great as motorcycle crash helmets! The Sergeant will have a respirator head similar to all my other Scout Sergeant heads and included on the biker sprues.

Iron Warriors – Close Combat CSMs

Another update on the Iron Warriors – this is my second squad, a dedicated assault which are armed with Close Combat Weapons and Bolt Pistols.

In the Iron Warrior novellas, there is quite a bit about the relationship between an Iron Warrior and his entrenching tool, so I decided that where possible, my IWs would be armed with them as the generic CCW.

  

The entrenching tools were made from spare hand weapon parts from Chaos Marauders and Warriors sets after I converted all their weapons to be Great Weapons. 

 

The squad has been converted in a similar way to the first squad – so lots of IW bits, bionics and repositioning.

The Heavy is armed with a Legion Autocannon (the same ones I used on my Havocs) and I think looks loads better than the standard Chaos Autocannons.

The Champion is just a basic cobble together that will ultimately be swapped out for a Champion in MKIII armour with a nice combi-weapon.