Friday 26 February 2021

Project: Stormtrooper, the PDF

 The great painting spree continues and I'm on to the second force, which is still part of the same overall force and the scions but forms the other side of the army, I am of course talking about the Hildasay PDF. There are not many models in this force, just 18 models, as the rest have already been painted up. This force includes the two company commanders, a command squad, a grenade special weapons squad (which my be expanded to a full vet squad at some point) and a bare bones infantry squad. These guys are here to act as screen and counter attack units for anything that gets to close to all the heavy weapons teams, which form the other part of the PDF force. 


The tray of primed models. The model top left is my reference models.

While I had some of the paints out, I made a start on a couple of characters, a commissar to keep everyone inline and a priest to add some extra punch if needed. 

Commissar

Priest


Tuesday 23 February 2021

Primaris units


 

With Christmas and a small spending spree on eBay, I've amassed a small collection of primaris marines to build my various marine forces. Although I've listed my various armies and the plan for which units to use, I thought I would go through exactly what units I have and which armies they will be used in. 

HQ
Marneus Calgar
Captain in gravis armour
Captain in Phobos armour
Captain with relic shield

Lieutenant in Phobos armour
Lieutenant with power sword
Lieutenant with bolt rifle
Lieutenant with shield

Vanguard librarian

Non-force org
Victrix guard

Troops
10 infiltrators
15 intercessors
10 assault intercessors

Elite
Ancient 
6 Reivers

Fast
Suppressors
Inceptors
Outriders

Heavy
Eliminator
5 Hellblasters

In addition I have also purchased a selection is AoS Stormcast Eternal models, which will be converted up into;

Librarian
Chaplain
Judiciar
5 Bladeguard
Bladeguard Ancient

This gives me a whole host of models to choose from but the basic list is going to look like this;

Emperor's Disciples - Ultramarines successor - because I've got Calgar and I want to use him
Marneus Calgar with Victrix guard
Lieutenant with power sword
Ancient
5 Intercessors

Brazen Hawks - Imperial Fist successor - heavy hitting stuff,
Captain in Gravis armour
Heavy Intercessors (in new Kill Team box)
Hellblasters

Stone Dragons - Space Wolves Successor - sneaky sneaky stuff
Captain in Phobos armour
Lieutenant in reiver armour (using standard Reiver)
5 Infiltrators
5 Reivers
Eliminators

Dark Guardians - Dark Angels Successor - fast and sneaky
Librarian in Phobos armour
5 Infiltrators
Outriders
Inceptors

Eagle Knights - Blood Angels Successor - smashy smashy, with a bit of range
Captain with relic shield
Lieutenant with relic shield
Lieutenant with bolt rifle
Librarian
Chaplain
Judiciar
Bladeguard Ancient
5 Bladeguard
10 Assault Intercessors
10 Intercessors
Suppressors

So, four 500 point or so lists and one 1000 point plus list, with very little I want to add. The only things that I would like to add is some transport vehicles for the Eagle Knights to keep them fast and mobile, as they should be.  I may add other units over time but for now this is it and all effort will be put into getting everything i have painted up properly. 



Friday 19 February 2021

Project: Stormtrooper update part 2

 The second part of this update is very picture heavy! There's not much fluff here, that's on the Dagr Ormr page, which I'm hoping to get updates sometime soon. 

The commanders, the 2ic, Tempestor Prime Muninn and the company commander, Tempestor Prime Agnarr.

Command squad Ljos (or Light), the Assault command squad, these guys usually accompany the 2ic, launching themselves of the enemy.

Command squad Myrkr (or Dark), always accompany commander Agnarr in to battle. This squad has the standard, medic and vox plus some close support in the shape of a flamer. Now, the sharp eyed will notice there are 5 models, as there are 2 flamers here, one of which has dropped his gun (and hand). One of these will usually accompany one of the other squads to boost there numbers and firepower.

Squad purple, 9 plasma squad. As with all the squads, the Sgt is kneeling and there is a vox caster.


Squad Orange, 10 man hotshot volley gun. There are currently only 2 volley guns, I could have 2 more to max out the firepower.


Squad Red, the second hotshot volley gun squad.


Squad Blue, The second plasma squad.


Squad Green, one of the melta squads.


Squad Yellow, the second melta squad.


So there is the complete Dagr Ormr force, two commanders, two command squads and 6 Scion squads, totalling 67 models. There are plans to add to this force, adding more special weapons, to get it to 4 per squad, and also adding transports but I have a separate post planned for that. 

Tuesday 16 February 2021

Project: stormtrooper update

 Surprisingly, I've already finished all the stormtroopers! Ok, so there not 100 percent finished, they need sealing and flocking but I'm not really able to do that right now. They are however, all painted and tabletop ready. 

The force consists of two Tempestor Primes, two command squads and 6 squads of Scions, making a battalion detachment, the largest detachment that can be formed of purely Militarum Tempestus forces. I could add another commander and command squad but that's a discussion for another post. This post will look at the overview of the force and a few of the stand out models for me, the next post will go through the various squads and characters.

The force in all its glory, Tempestor Primes to the fore ground.


2ic, Tempestor Prime Muninn and command squad Myrkr (dark) and the bulk of Daggri (dawn) platoon. Technically this is set up the wrong way around, as Myrkr should be accompanying the company commander rather than the 2ic. 

The company commander, Tempestor prime Agnarr with Dagalien (dusk) platoon and Ljos (light) command squad. Ljos with its hotshot lasguns, should be with the 2ic, as the offensive unit and Myrkr are the rear command squad with the company colours, medic and master vox-caster.

That's the overall company, as I mentioned above, I'm hoping to add to the force in the future but not until I have the new codex in hand.

Next are a few of the standout characters in the squads.

Company standard bearer, classic and simple standard, all business and no flashy bots, just like the regiment.

Above and below, a Scion with melts gun and token of a past kill. 


By now you've probably clocked that these aren't GW models, in fact they are from the now defunct Dreamforge Games, although the range has been picked up by Wargames Atlantic which is great. One of the things that I like these kits is the fact that there are male and female models, with subtle differences between the two. I'll apologise for the crappy pictures but I'm somewhat limited to where I can go around the house, broken leg, crutches and all that, so I'm using my phone, a sheet of paper and a couple of pillows to prop the whole lot up. 

It's hard to see but there are different face plates, with the male one being wider and flatter


Another difference is the legs, which are more streamlined on the female models, giving a lot sleeker look to them.

Next up, the squads and characters themselves.

Tuesday 9 February 2021

Project: Stormtrooper


With the completion of the Hellhammer and updating of the Hjaltland Light Infantry, it is time to move on to the next project. The next lot of models on the table are the Militarum Tempestus Dagr Ormr Strike Force. This force is partially completed with all the PDF heavy weapons squads, alongside a handful of Militarum forces, are painted and based, ready for action. This batch of models consists of two trays of storm troopers and a tray of PDF, approximately 45 storm troopers and 20 PDF soldiers. 


These should not take to long as they have a fairly basic colour scheme, with the storm troopers being based their dark red and then silver and black with some spot colours, like blue for scopes and eye lenses. 

Some of the original batch


The squads have been given their markings already, there are 6 squads plus two command squads and the two commanders, giving quite a colourful display on the table.

5 of the squads, yellow is missing, plus white and black command squad and silver and gold commanders. 

The last tray of models is for the PDF, and consists of 2 commanders, a command squad, a special weapons squad and a squad of vets. These are for defensive actions and protection of the heavy weapons and so are only a few models that need painting.

Some of the original PDF.

Hopefully I'll get all these painted over the next couple of weeks, mostly due to recent developments.


Yep, that's a broken ankle, a classic winter injury. It's been very icey lately and we had a bit of an incident. Anyway, on checking the damage I managed to slip and break my ankle. To be fair, there was nothing the driver could have done and the council have been great in dealing with it, just annoying that one of the cars is being written off.





By the time you guys all read this I'll know if I need an operation on it, which I'm hoping, given the state of hospitals currently, I don't need! 

Friday 5 February 2021

The Hellhammer

Towards the end of last year, for the club tournament, I did some repainting and upgrading of my hellhammer. The upgrading was mostly in relation to rebuilding and fixing a few issue with the model, which I brought of a fellow club member a few years ago, mostly because I wanted a superheavy. Here's a couple of picture of the vehicle as I bought it; 

Headless and handless commander, missing lascannon, broken heavy bolters and on the far track, just visible, missing links in the track.

The rear end of the tank. While it's all present and correct, it needed a bit of an upgrade, as you can't see all the details unless you really look hard. 

It took a while to do but the whole tank has had a repaint, keeping to the original colour scheme but reducing the colours to more muted tones and adding in some extra glass prices, while also changing the colour to a gloss blue from the slightly washed out yellow.  First up though, the tank commander update.

New hand with laspistol and new head, with helmet and face mask. The laspistol is a little but pointless but goes to the old "drive me closer, i want to hit them with my sword" thing. the helmet is there for two reasons, one it means i didn't need to paint the face and secondly it looks cooler. He's all business and i imagine there is data scrolling up his eye lenses, enemy targets, ammo counts, engine speeds, orders and the like, all within easy reach.

The rest of the tank repaint can be seen here and while the colours haven't changed much, still brown and green, the tones are more muted. I could have changed the colours and made it all green or put camouflage on but i decided to keep it looking as original as possible. 


The grey panel on the side is not unpainted or been missed, i left it grey on purpose. This is where a panel was missing when i bought it and was originally painted to hide it but i decided to paint it grey, like its been primed or its the under chassis and the armour panel is missing or been damaged and the crew is waiting for a new replacement panel.


Lastly, painting wise at least, is the rear end, which contains quite a bit of detail. I've repainted the lights and the intercom system to make them stand out more and look functional. I've also repainted the reliquary on the other side, with mechanicus symbol and purity seals. This adds some details to the rear, which is actually one of the more detailed sections of the vehicle.


The front view, showing the Hellhammer in all its glory.


One thing that needed to be fixed was the tracks. There were several section missing at the front of the left hand track, so I did some chopping to get some extra track links. While it's not perfect, it's pretty good, you'd not notice from the picture above. Anyway, I broke off some sections of the tracts from the bottom of the tank and chopped off some of the links and halted some to fill the gaps and used the whole ones to patch the front of the tracks.

Chopped tracks

Not perfect, you can see the gap about a third  of the way along, but in game its not really something anyone will notice.

So there we are, the updated Hellhammer, completely battle ready and, as we've seen, some time beast on the table top.