WIP sheets part 2

Well, here are the other WIP sheets I was on about, for the Dark Guardians, Emperors Disciples and Hrossey MechVets. I was going to post this last week but with the news of specialist games coming back, it got bumped to this weeks post. So with out further delay, here are the other wip lists;



First up the Dark Guardians, and as you can see, its kinda red all over! Even the yellow is a little optimistic as they don't actually have their back packs attached and their not glued, just pressed together. The rest are in bits in bags in the box of doom/bits.

The Emperors Disciples, are not much better, a little more yellow and lots of blue. The blue are mostly Ultramarines at this point, so definitely need stripping! The Sternguard are also a little bit of a cheat as they don't have combi's at all, this is because they are the old metal models mostly and I don't want to damage the old metal work. Again most of the bits are in the box along with the parts for the Dark Guardians. These guys, as with the ones above are not high on the priority list, so by the time I get around to them we could be several codices down the line and the army will have changed quite a bit and depending upon what happens with Specialist Games, they may find themselves relegated to allied detachment, with little more then a min troop choice and a 10 man Sternguard and a 5 man missile Dev squad.

Lastly we have the Hrossey Mech vets. These boys are a little but more complete and are probably more complete than shown below as I have a number of models, quite a few of which are undercoated, sitting in the box that will form this army. However, I haven't dug down to the bottom of the box to confirm what's models are in what state so I've just done them in red for the moment. The only model missing at the moment is the 4th chimera, and all the compete models are ones that I haven't actually painted myself!

So, all in all, a lot of work to do and not really any time to do any! These will all get their time in the lime light at some point, but it could be a while.

Green Stuff

Well, a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was planning on doing some moulding in green stuff to finish off my box sets of Eisenkern Panzerjagers. This was due to the fact that the set comes with 4 sets of extra legs, extra arms and heads, all to add options. All that's missing from the pack are the extra bodies and backpacks. Previously, it hasn't been a problem, as I have added in vox casters and also some packs from a GW Scion box, in addition to adding in some spare Cadian bodies that I had lying around. However, I've run out of Cadian bodies and I don't really feel like robbing the bodies from the Cadian models as then I would have the opposite problem of on bodies for the Cadian legs. I have also modelled all of the vox casters and used up all my other cool packs, all one of them that I had. Therefore, I was a few packs down, not as many as I initially though, as I had a couple of spare packs. In the end I had to mould 4 bodies and 2 packs, and also I needed to mould up some extra mags for the HS lasguns.

The 4 moulded bodies

The 2 packs

 

So I forked out for some instant mould (aka, Blue Stuff, although mine was white) and a strip of Green Stuff. At first I was quite nervous about the process, but a few YouTube videos later and I was fairly confident that I could achieve something reasonable. So I gave it a go, modelling up one body and one pack. The moulding process was pretty simple, stick it in hot water and the wrap it round the piece being moulded. It took a few attempts to be quick enough to get the mould done to a standard I was happy with, as most of the time when trying to get one part moulded tights, another bit got pushed loose, but we got there in the end. One other issue I was worried about was getting the two half's of the mould square, but this seemed to be cured simple by the process of pressing the instant mould to the shape causing the instant mould to become irregular enough that when the top piece was applied it meant that the two went together nicely.

The green stuff was easy to work with, as long as you keep things wet! it was very evident when you were mixing it up and your fingers dried out and it gets very sticky. This is where the main issues arose though, the first cast of the body turned out to be far to thick as I put in too much green stuff and couldn't squeeze enough out to get a good mould, the same happened with the pack as well, but to a lesser degree. I changed the process for the next few, filling each half of the mould and then pressing together, this worked better, combined with using a G-clamp on the last few, meant that I the final few casts were pretty good, although they were still a little thicker than the originals. In addition, the moulds were not perfect, as in a few places there was some extra material, this was mainly on the packs, by the antenna part, but this was easily removed.

The extra thickness can be seen on the arm mounting points

 

You can also see the extra thickness on the packs

The detail on the original was well reproduced though and I think when painted on the table top it will be hard to identify the green stuff parts from the originals, so overall I am very happy with the results. I will be using the process again at some point to reproduce extras and possibly for a few other rare or random parts that are hard to get hold of, but I wound be trying to reproduce entire armies, its far to much work and there is a lot of flash and mould lines to clean afterwards.

Would I recommend the process, yes, I would, but like I say, only for a few little bits and extras. One thing that did surprise me was that all of the detail on the original models was reproduced, as they are very detailed models.

The details on the front of the chest plate. Although not quite as good as the original, but still very good.

 

Also the details of the vent on the side of the pack. The bolts/lugs on the bottom of the pack didn't come out as well, but their still there.

 

Also, I would like to note that I am in no way advocating illegally reproducing other peoples work as I respect the original sculptor and all the work that goes in to the modelling process. If I still lived in England I would have taken a quick trip down to the local bits shop (Graham's Wuerkshoppe) and picked up some more Cadian bodies, but living up north means that I don't have that option and the cost of bits on eBay is just silly. So this was a last resort, and I will be purchasing more boxes in the future, rather then just copy, as I would like to see more Eisenkern boxes in the future.

Space Marines pics

Well, it's been a busy week here with packing the house for moving, as such, there has been limited time to blog. Also, with the imminent release of the new Codex: Space Marine, there maybe a few changes to my Emperors Disciples SM force, which I will talk about as and when I know. So in the meantime here are some pictures of some of my marines. I'll apologise that some of these photos have been on the site before, I'll try and get some new ones up after the move.

First up are my Vanguard Veteran squad with jump packs. Again, most of the figures are DV Chaos ones, with a BA DC model thrown in for some loyal blood. I've removed most of the spikes and some of the iconography from the chaos models and I will be adding more details from the BA DC sprues and also the DA upgrade sprue. You can't see very well but there is a power maul, two sets of lighting claws, a power axe and a power sword in there, a bit of a mixed bag but pretty much able to deal with most threats up to Ap3.

This is my Sgt, with extra iconography. Again, he still has some work to be done, but I think he looks suitably mean for the job.

These guys are my Sternguard Vets, there are another 3 more that weren't pictured, including one with a power fist. They are a mix of old metal upgrades and plastic, which is why they have been earmarked as vets. There are plenty of chaos bits in there, apart from the metal up grades that is, most notably are the back packs.  



A close up of one of the marines to show off the white metal up grades. The chaos symbols will be left, as I don't want to damage the metal parts as they are old school and quite rare these days.

This is my Priest, (BA Sanguinary Priest), modelled with the Eagle Wings (BA Relics of Baal; The Angles Wings). He is a modified DV DA Librarian, with a BA DC chain sword and pad, with a one of the Vanguard Vet jump packs, placed on a 32mm base. I'm pretty happy with this model and once painted up in the appropriate colours it should look good.



An Attempt Fan Fiction

Right, this is a little piece of fiction that I've been thinking about. Now I'm no writer, so this will be rough, with a capital R, but I'm going to put it out there anyway.

"Sergeant"
.......
"Sergeant Maxen"
.......
"SERGEANT MAXEN"

"Yes, Demi-Sargent Ilar"

"Large rebel group approaching from the south west, intercept in 45 minutes"

"Is the target present"

"Target is presented"

"Continue over watch, secure evac route" not that Demi-sergeant Ilar would need such instructions.

Dam, why were they coming from the south west, they were supposed to be coming from the north west! 5 days laying in wait and they may end up getting trampled by hundreds of rebels, dam AM intelligence! Hopefully they will avoid the thick woods and marsh and keep to the road. At least with the ford ahead they will have little choice but to move in to the kill zone.

"Squad Epsilon, Target approaching, intercept in 40 minutes, ready all weapons, prepare for fighting withdrawal"

Even with his enhanced hearing the sounds of the squad around him preparing their weapons and bodies to react were barely audible, a good sign, even after all this time laying silently and still in the damp ground, his marines remained unaffected. He looked to his own weapon and started to run though the standard checks, testing the magazine, the bolt and a dozen other items. At the same time, he tensed and relaxed each muscle in his body, ensuring that each was ready for an rapid and instant  response should one be needed.

"Target moving north of location, 20 minutes to intercept"

Good, so luck at last. He thumbed a response and a green light lit up in his helmet to show it had been received. It was time to prepare mentally for the task I hand. A prayer to the Emperor and the Dorm and a blessing to his bolter, Some Concentration. The name still brought a smile to his face, even after all these years.

"Recruit Maxen, what are you doing!"

"Sergeant?"

"Your supposed to be shooting the target NOT the wall! Some days I wonder if you could hit a Thunderhawk with that bolt pistol, even if you were standing INSIDE the blessed thing! You'll never hit anything with out some concentration."

The next day they had been handed their personal weapons and from the first moment that he had laid eyes on the battered old bolter, only one thought had come to mind. While the other recruits had taken the existing names engraved by the previous recruit or had thought of new names, such as vengeance, destroyer, justice and slayer, he had only one name in mind, Some Concentration. While others had received their new bolters upon becoming full battle brothers, he had kept his and carried it all these years. With it he had become the best shot in the company and one of the best in the Chapter, and that way why he was here.....

His concentration was broken by the twinkling of comms lights in his helmet, two of the marines were talking. He opened up the channel to listen in.

"Confirmed, I have visual, targets entering Beta teams arcs"

So the target was entering the kill zone, sticking to the road and the dry ground, a good sign, maybe this wasn't going to be a disaster after all.

"Sergeant, Target entering kill zone"

"Confirmed"

He could see the target now, the old man was not as impressive as he thought he would be, but it was always the same. It was hard to believe at times, but the story was always the same, this old man had raised the population of Hjaltland in to rebellion with tales of freedom and democracy. Yet here he was, looking fat and well fed, his rich clothes flowing in the wind as he was fanned and carried aloft on a luxurious sedan by half starved, sweating men and women, while hundreds more followed along hoping for some hand out or another. His key followers could be seen similarly dressed and looking well fed and watered, trailing directly in his wake, acting like gods amongst men. There would be no glory today, just cold hard retribution and justice.

Maxen raised his bolter in to position and squinted slightly down the scope, reading off all the targeting information.

"5 minutes till intercept, stand ready"

A little longer and a little closer, then it would be his job to eliminate the target and the rest of the squad would take out any of the retinue that they could, hopefully killing off the power behind the rebellion. Although this would normally be a scout units job, the lack of available scouts and the importance of the mission meant that it had fallen to Squad Epsilon and himself.

"2 minutes"

This was it, the target was in the kill zone and in range. He drew his breath and thumbed the mic switch.....

VISUAL OVERLOAD...........
VISUAL SENSORS COMPENSATING.......

As his vision cleared he could see the crowd of rebels recoiling and the targets sedan was no longer in sight, but what caught the attention of the sergeant most, was the figures that had appeared across the ford, Scions. Not many of them, and now that the crown was reacting and weapons were appearing, not nearly enough of them.

"Target lost!!"

Maxen looked back to the crowd, the target was gone, the sedan lying discarded and broken on the floor, but he knew where to look as he scanned the back of the rebels. There he was, hurrying away like the coward he was, and they had the nerve to slander the Emperors name. When did He every run from the enemy. Maxen took aim with his bolter, zeroing in on the target as it moved through the crowd.

"Stand by to withdraw on my order"

He squinted down the scope, waiting for the shot. Waiting for that moment when the target would be in full view, even if only for a second.

He felt the bolter recoiled in to his shoulder, he felt the motion through his armour as if it was his own skin. He watched as the targets head exploded in a cloud of red and white, while the now lifeless corpse collapsed to the ground. He could see the reaction of the crowd around the dead body, recoiling in horror and shock. His job done, he took one last look at the scene, weapons had appeared on the rebel side, in quite some numbers, more than he would have expected and the Scions were starting to feel the effects of the rebels numbers.

"Beta squad withdraw, alpha squad prepare to over watch"

As the squad started to withdraw, marine Tegid spoke up

"Are we to support the Scions?"

"Negative, we withdraw as planned" This was not the time for action, they were outnumber and did not have any support elements in place.

"I don't think they'll need our support" can a reply from demi-sergeant Ilar.

Maxen was about to ask that mean when the roar of jet engines became clear and three Valkyries came roaring over head, multiple launch rocket pods spitting death, door gunners leaning out firing their heavy bolters randomly and indiscriminately in to the crowd.

"Withdraw at speed, we move to the extraction point at half run, weapons free, eliminate targets as necessary, move, move, move"

The tone of his voice left little doubt as to the urgency of the message, the last thing that the sergeant wanted was to get caught in the crossfire. The Valkyries rockets and Scions HS lasguns could make short work of the squad if they weren't careful.

One last look back at the kill zone before the marines disappear over the hill showed a scene of carnage, with bodies all over the place, the scions advancing over the ford, with the now hovering Valkyries, continuing to pore rockets, multilaser shots and heavy bolter shells in the fleeing rebels. It was uncertain whether the full retinue of the heretic's had been eliminated, but whatever the case, the rebels had been dealt a blow this day and the Emperors Disciples had opened their campaign on Hjaltland with a successful mission.

A game at last!

Its been a while since my last game, too long really but that's life, but I finally got one in. It was a 2000 point game and I was facing an Ultramarines derived force containing three Tac squads with rhinos, one with flamer/missile launcher. one with plasma cannon, plasma, and combi-plasma and one with lascannon, melta and combi-melta and also a well kitted out Company master with shield eternal and burning blade plus a full Honour Guard with a mix of power mauls, swords and axes, all mounted in a LR crusader. In reserve there was also a stormtalon escorting a stromraven.

No pictures I'm afraid, didn't even think about it at the time, was to excited to be getting a game in!

The game itself was an Eternal War mission, The Emperors Will, and we only got three turns in, mostly because we spent a long time chatting and not so much time playing. My opponent was also looking towards KotN as well, so that was the focus of most of the discussion.

Anyway, my force was composed of my Hjaltland L.I. but modified by dropping the third platoon and including a SM force of a captain with combi-plasma, a sternguard squad with combi-plasma and a basic 5 man tac squad. I got to deploy first and took first turn after my opponent failed to seize. We both forgot about night fighting, not the only rule we got wrong!

I deployed in two sections, the majority behind my Aegis on my right, and with a platoon out on the left in a ruin with the SM tac squad in a ruin in the centre by my objective. He deployed his Raider on his left with two rhinos nearby, and the third off on the right by his objective. In the first two turns he moved his vehicles forward popping smoke where possible, while my first two turns were spent trying to take out the vehicles and destroying a scout squad with my wyverns. I ignored the raider as I had little that can deal with it apart from my Vendetta, but I managed to take out one rhino and damage another in the first two turns. Turn three I took out the other two rhinos, and started chipping away at the squads inside. The wyverns again proved their worth taking out the scout squad turn one and taking down a number of marines. The MoO also managed to take down a few marines as well!

The Raider meanwhile had disgorged its payload right in front of my Aegis and had assaulted, almost taking itself out of combat in the process. My opponent forgot to roll for his power mauls, if he had he would have inflicted enough wounds so that even with my initiative move and pile in he would have taken us out of combat! As it was, I managed to get one model in base to base and also a number in to support for a reasonable number of attacks. With casting Misfortune on the Honour Guard also made a difference, especially on turn three when I managed to get a large number of my units in to combat, at one point rolling 7 6's to wound! Well, that's the advantage of 30 man squads, even after a few wound they can still throw out a good number of attacks, especially when your priest is doing his job and issuing his war hyms.

The OotF was also doing his job and kept the Stromraven and Stormtalon  off the table for the entire game. By the end of turn 3 I had eliminated all three rhinos, claiming first blood in the process, destroyed 2 combat squads and whittled the others down to half strength at best and I had wiped out the Honour Guard leaving just the Chapter Master in combat. Unfortunately I still lost, 4 (obj + Line breaker) to 1 (first blood). This was partly my fault, I placed my objective very aggressively towards the edge of my half and then got carried away and didn't issue orders or consider my options properly. The main mistake was using units in the wrong order, which allowed a small SM unit to contest my objective. If the game had gone in to one more turn then I would probably been able to claim a win, as I think I could have removed the last two wounds off on the chapter master to deny line breaker and claim Slay the Warlord, and I would have moved the left platoon, which was pretty much intact up to deal with the marines contesting the objective. The only issue would have been the raider and the fact that the SM fliers would have been on automatically. I can see that this game would have gone to be a case of the fliers and Raider running around destroying my army as I ran around and tried to survive.

So, overall I'm happy with my performance. I just need to be more logical and think through my options before just jumping in. I think my deployment was good and my Sternguard in the vendetta worked well and will be tried again next game as well. Hopefully, I will have enough jump packs to try out the BA Vanguard Vets formation as well.

Emperors Disciples 2000pts list

This is the 2000pts list for the 15th Company of the Emperors Disciples. This list differs from the previous list as I have not run any part of this list and it is based mostly on theory. Personally I believe that it is a decent list with lots of options and possibilities, but I wont know for sure until I get around from recovering the models from the loft and getting them on the table.

The list-

Chapter master - 165
(Company Master Marcellus), Artificer armour, power sword

Honour Guard - 165
4 Vets, Razorback

Librarian - 90
ML2

Terminators - 240
Assault cannon, 2x chainfists

Dreadnought - 100

Sternguard - 225
5x sternguard, Combi bolter, razorback

Tactical - 145
10x marines, flamer, heavy bolter

Tactical - 145
10x marines, flamer, heavy bolter

Tactical - 180
10x marines, Rhino with stormbolter


Tactical - 175
10x marines, Rhino

Devastator - 170
4x missile, 4xflakk

Devastator - 200
2x plasma cannon, 2x lascannon, 5x marines

A simple list that should be easy to use. The Chapter master and the Librarian will join the honour guard in the razorback and go with the sternguard to deal with any troublesome units, while the tactical marines move on to the objectives and eliminate any enemy soldiers. The squads with the heavy bolter will combat squad, leaving the heavy bolter sections behind for fire support. The devi squad with flakk becomes the main anti air, while the other devi squad combat squads in to the two plasma and two lascannons to deal with different threats, i.e. 2+ saves and vehicles respectively. The termies will deep strike in to the back field and cause as much chaos as possible.

The Emperors Disciples Space Marines

The Emperors Disciples space marine chapter were founded during the 13th 'Black' Founding and is a small fleet based chapter, that spends much of its time in the outer fringes of the Segmentum Pacificus, guarding the Imperium from enemies from beyond the Emperors reach. The chapter is entirely fleet based and claims no home world, nor dominion over any systems. Instead it roams at will, fighting as and when it sees fit.

Whilst the founding chapter is officially unknown, many, both within and without, believe that the chapter is a descendant of the Imperial Fists, and while the chapter follows the teachings and ideas of Dorn and also Guilliman, they maintain a very different chapter structure. This is due to the fact that the the chapter is a highly mobile fleet based chapter, where each company can operate in relative isolation for long periods of time from the rest of the chapter. As such each company contains a sternguard, a vanguard and a terminator squad, in addition to the 6 tactical, 3 devastator and a single assault squad. This composition reflects both the isolated nature of the companies and there tactical doctrine, preferring long range fire power over close combat, as such the assault squad spends much of its time deployed on the companies attack bikes and land speeders. In addition, the company master maintains a personal honour guard. In addition to the attack bikes and land speeders, each company also maintain a small force of rhinos, razorbacks and predators, with a few companies containing valuable dreadnoughts. 

As many of the veterans are contained within the individual chapters, the 1st company is relatively small, containing only the chapter master and his personal honour guard, as well as the Apothercarion, the Chaplaincy and the Librarius, as well as the chapters Techmarines. However, many of these spend there time with the various companies, usually only returning to the 1st company at the request of the chapter master. The 2nd company, unlike many chapters, contains the chapters recruits, and travels with the 1st company, upon the chapters only battle barge, the Emperors Gift. This mighty vessel is also home to the chapters few land raiders, whirlwinds and vindicators.

As the Emperors Disciples prefer the use of long range firepower over close quarters fighting, spending large amounts of time perfecting their marksman ship, they do not maintain a large number of vehicles. This also shows in the fact that they are specialists in small scale surgical strikes in support of larger Imperial forces. 

Like many of the 13th founding chapters, the Emperors Disciples have suffered a number of tragedies, with the loss of three whole companies to the warp and an additional 3 companies lost to chaos, either partly or wholly turning on the imperium. Two of these companies have been purged to the man, as is only right for a traitor to the Emperor. The chapter also differs from many chapters in how it deals with such losses, and as such the current companies number, 3, 4, 7, 10, 14 and 15, with the lost companies not being reformed, in addition to there being no 13th company.

The chapter  is fiercely loyal to the Emperor, and believes in the complete destruction of the enemies of man, and that it is only this result that matter, not the means and so are willing to use any and all options at their disposal. As such the chapter is more than happy to experiment with xenos weaponry and technology or even delve in the powers of chaos for any advantage. Although the chapter is willing to use chaos artifacts and even the power of chaos itself to defeat the enemies of man, it is careful not to repeat the mistakes of the Relictors or Soul Drinker and other similar chapters. This may have resulted in the turning of the tainted companies and has resulted in the chapter being threatened with Excommunicate Traitoris many times, but it is a risk considered to be worthwhile in the fight for man’s survival. This has however, lead to a number of run-ins with the inquisition and other marine chapters and while the disciples aim to avoid any conflict with other forces of the imperium, it cannot always be avoided due to the closed mindedness of many weaker servants. There has however been some who share the views of the Disciples, mainly those of the Xanthism Radical faction of the Inquisition. This has led to a close working relationship between the emperors’ disciples and several members of the inquisition who operate within the Segmentum Pacificus. This has meant that the chapter has had some protection from those who would see the chapter excommunicated.

The 15^th (XV) Company

The 15^th company is the newest company of the Emperors Disciples and is commanded by Company Master Marcellus. The company is based upon the Emperors Claw Vanguard Class Cruiser and established less than 50 years, after the loss of the 12^th company to the warp nearly 200 years ago and it is keen to prove itself within the chapter. Due to the company’s recent creation, it has not fought in many battles, the largest and most important campaign was the battle of Hjaltland, where the company was deployed in its entirety for the first time in its history. The company is currently not at full compliment, standing at company master and honour guard, 5 man terminator squad, 5 man sternguard squad,  4 tactical squads, 2 devastator squads. The sole survivor of the 5th company, the dreadnought Emperors Courage, also resides with the 15th.

Emperors Disciple's Tactical Marine, notice the yellow helmet crest and hand, in honour of their founding chapter.