Relictors Landspeeder Storm WIP - Getting more for your money

Hello Readers, thanks for dropping by. Keeping to my aim of this year to make a dent into the to-do pile and get some of those units on the table, one of my long purchased loafing boxes was a Landspeeder Storm. Well looking at the kit it doesn't make sense to me to build the kit with all the occupants in it, I prefer the idea of the Pilot and Gunner and an empty crew compartment I can place passenger models in if necessary.

Even a Space Marine would have difficulty staring into the on rushing wind, smoke and haze of the 41st Millennium battlefield, so following my Scout Bikers, these crewmen will have Pig Iron helmets which look great on Scouts I reckon.

That leaves four crewmen that come with the kit who are spare. The first crewman hangs out of the right-hand side of the Landspeeder, with one foot up on a step poses a problem for a base, so I added a rock and voila, one Scout in the field. I've swapped his hand from holding the rappelling lines to a CCW, not shown, off for ease of painting.

The second crewman is sitting on the left-hand side of the Landspeeder, his pose is sitting back but with some wedges (not stilettos honest!) which will be covered by the basing material, his pose becomes a bit more upright, and being the only left handed Bolter wielding Scout, I was keen to use him! He now looks like he is stalking forward.

The third crewman is the Sergeant, he stands looking out of the top of the open topped Landspeeder, but with the addition of a Bolt Pistol instead of a steadying hand, he is now ideally engaged in close-combat with the enemies of the God-Emperor!

The final member of the Landspeeder is sitting back reloading a Bolter but his legs were too prone, one tucked in and one pointing straight along the seat, so I cut his waist and plonked the torso on a spare pair of Scout legs, so now I have a walking Scout re-loading in the midst of battle (shows his lack of experience - fancy a SM running out of ammo mid battle!).

So, four Scouts with different poses, they will look great interspersed into other based Scouts in the field, adding some personality and character to the rank and file. And more importantly, 4 (ok 3.5) more models for minimal cost!

Cheers, Siph.

Squaduary - RTB01 Tactical Squad Completed

Hi Readers, thanks for dropping by and having a look-see. Here is my completed pledge for Squaduary for the month of February.  I had these RTB01 marines sitting about for an age, and another squad since 1989...

For those who might be wondering what Squaduary was, its all about building and painting a squad in February and was a hobby related event being run by Stepping Between Games. A great way to get motivated to paint some of those miniatures lurking in the cupboard of doom To-Do pile. I'm sure it will be a regular feature for upcoming years!

These were painted my usual scheme for the Relictors Chapter. Using Codex Grey/Dawnstone or Army Painter Uniform Grey spray, washed with Nuln Oil, highlighted Administratum Grey.

The Banner stripe denotes a Tactical Squad, and the green colour denote the 4th Company, I already have 6 Tactical Squads for the 5th Company, and one for the 4th Company... quite a few Marines now!

I had to re-arm the Sergeant with a FW Bolt Pistol and the Specialist with a Spellcrow Gravity Gun as a counts-as Grav Gun. The original weapons were damaged.

The Missile Launcher is the original, FW do an updated version if you like this style, I also painted the Missiles yellow to match the rest of the force, and the Sergeant has a few spare reloads.

The second half of the squad have the Bolters, on the left the empty hand was replaced with a modern grenade hand as the pose was a asking for it. The middle Marine has his original Bolt Pistol drawn, They are tiny!

The rear shot showing the Combat Blades and the holstered Bolt Pistols.

Thanks to all the participants of Squaduary for the motivation, and to Stepping Between Games for organizing this great event, cheers. Siph.

Legio Crucius - Reaver Titan - WIP #7 - Titan Power Fist

Hi one and all! thanks for looking!

Up next is the Titan arm I've built and really wanted to share the pictures rather than the comparison pics - that will be next, I promise.

I decided to have the option of a Titan Power Fist as firstly I really like the look of it, it fits the old school look of the Reaver I remember with a right ranged weapon, and left arm a CC one. It also looks very similar to one of my favourite moments in the classic 'Transformers Movie (the G1 version, not the new Bay stuff), where Unicron transforms into robot mode to attack Cybertron - there is a close up of his hand  as it smashes into the planet - The Reaver hand has a similar look.

I've built the arm similar to the other arms- with a screw embedded into the arm to then lock into the shoulder mount. This was the key reason I wanted to do the shoulders this way, as the Fist Shoulder doesn't have a ball joint like the others, thus to magnetise it would have meant being more accurate with the placement of the magnets/cutting into the joint etc. I'm happy with the results.

Its a sizeable fist! I've not glued the hand to the arm yet as I am looking at maybe magnetising this joint to allow rotation.

Below are pictures of the fist mounted to the body of the titan.

 The Reaver likes to dance.

This isn't the final pose of the titan, its angled to the right due to the weight of the right arm. Once its fixed into position I am hoping it will be more upright.

Thanks for stopping by!

Terrain and Scenery - Gamemat.eu Pre-Painted Desert Rocks Set

Hi Readers, thanks for dropping by. I saw these reviewed on Winters SEO You Tube channel, (BTW, check his channel out, great battle reports!) and I already had some Containers and the Battle Mat from Gamemat.eu, so I knew they are a good company. If you are in Europe or UK, check them out for Battle Mats and Scenery!

So this arrived, only a week after I ordered which is not bad at all from Europe.

The terrain is very well packed for transit.

Each piece is well protected and individually bagged.

Out of the box, the full set.

Here is the biggest Mesa piece. Space Marine for scale. A nice LOS blocking piece and a flat top for placing those Devastators.

The second largest piece, a Butte. Taller than it is wider, and great for LOS blocking too. Not too heavy, dense resin but slightly hollow I reckon.

Then the scatter pieces of rock, 5x2 sets of identical pairs, each turned around to show the different sides. These are all solid resin.

Two arched formations.

Two tall rock pillars, and the last two scatter rocks.

Two shorter rock pillars, shown next to one of the taller columns, and a Space Marine again for scale.

So, here is the whole set, that is a 6x4 foot table and this set alone provides almost enough scenery. Add a few buildings or some more terrain, a desert temple or something and you are good to go. Straight out of the box and a decent paint job, 9/10 for Gamemat.eu, the dropped point is only for price. I think its quite fair, decent detail and decent paintjob, but it might be out of some peoples budgets.

Oh, and the underside of the resin is smooth and painted so everything is steady and easily moved and won't damage your playing surface. Great product, I'm a very happy customer.

Cheers, Siph.

Squaduary - Week 3 Progress - RTB01 Tactical Squad

Hi Readers, thanks for dropping by and checking out my progress. So, a little more done this week, two more Marines finished and a third at the highlighting stage. That's now over the halfway mark, 6 finished, 4 to go. Should have these all finished and showcased by the end of the month, easy. Thanks Squaduary, great motivation from reading other participants progress and seeing their squads come together.

For those who might be wondering what Squaduary is, its all about building and painting a squad in February and is a hobby related event being run by Stepping Between Games. A great way to get motivated to paint some of those miniatures lurking in the cupboard of doom To-Do pile.

Here's a close up of the newest members to this RTB01 squad, the old school Missile Launcher and a Bolter marine. I added a Bolt Pistol to the leg of the Bolter marine, and some spare missiles to the heavy weapons trooper. Missile Launchers are very meh... at least in my battles, but the rule of cool won for this squad, I had the bits so he had to have one.

Right, that's any tricky bits now completed, just Bolter armed marines left. It's a shame that when these were glued together half a tube of glue was over-used on each marine! They have needed a lot of filing and smoothing to get to this stage, but I think they look quite passable.

Cheers for stopping by, Siph.

Legio Crucius - Reaver Titan - WIP #6 - Gatling Blaster

 Hi, Thanks for dropping by!

I'm making steady progress with the build, this time the left arm is ready for painting - the Gatling Blaster! I've been on the receiving end of Siph's Gatling Blaster, its great for taking out anything MEQ with AP3, as well as light/medium armoured tanks.

As the Laser Blaster, I've positioned a screw into the shoulder joint to act as the method to change the load out of the weapons. For this I used a drill to bore into the ball joint, and then glue the screw into place with JB weld.

Below is a comparison of the two weapons side by side, some serious fire power there!

 And then two comparison shots next to a Razorback and Sternguard Space Marine.

The big reveal moment, here is where I'm at, the arms attached with the pauldrons in place, again the Sternguard and razorback are there for a size comparison!

It was asked in a previous post if I was going to sink the washers into place- I've had a look at this 

  an option, and have (at the moment) opted not to, I feel the shape of the pauldron hides the washer   

  well. 

Thanks for looking! Next post.. more comparisons.