The flight of the Valkyrie

Well, this is how I spent my last shift at work, which was actually a couple of months back now, at the beginning of January. The Valkyrie had been sitting on my shelf for the last year as it was a present from my in-laws last Christmas and so I decided that it was time to get it out the box and built to a standard that I can actually play with it, even if its not likely to get any colour on it for a while longer, possibly another year at the rate that I'm going!

Here are a few WiP pictures, sorry for the quality, but u was at work and these were taken on my mobile phone.

Hull coming together

Major components complete. the tail is hanging off the desk as I'd just glued the tail sections to the body.

Front and side views of the grounded plane

and the final assembly complete

You'll notice that it isn't complete, the cockpit s missing and for the keen eye'd viewers, the top tails are missing. The cockpit has been left off to enable painting of the cockpit, as and when it gets painted, and the tails have been left off as I like it that way and I think it makes it look a little sleeker.

This is going to form the second part of the Navy contingent for the Hjaltland LI, and armed with the MRP's will compliment the Vendetta but going after infantry targets. With the new Cadian formation, a third bird may join the contingent, but I'm holding off until the new codex arrives, whenever that will be. As for colour schemes, I'm planning on doing this very different to the Vendettas blues, probably going with light greens and browns, but still keeping it different from the troops colours.

New rumours

Well, there are some new rumours around about a new SM supplement. So far things are still quite sketchy, but there are said to be new Warlord traits, relics and Psychic powers, as well as new units and chapter specific Formations/detachments. How this impacts on my Emperors Disciples I have no idea, but hopefully it wont cause to many issues as I'm busy finishing modelling them up!

I'll be keeping a good eye on these rumours and see where they leas and if they are going to be useful or not, otherwise I'll just stick with my plan and the CAD.

Edit (Wed 13th); Just seen a post on Faeit 212, IF bolster drill changes to reroll all missed, not just 1's, with the demi-company, looks promising.

Dark Guardians

Ok, this post has been written and rewritten several times. It started off as a run through of what I'd have to change after I went through all my models and bits box. The main changes were going to be the dropping of the storm shields from the vet squads, as I didn't have enough with doing the Knights force first.

This process then evolved when I redid the points, which lead me to drop the plasma vets from the list and up the tac squads with vet Sgts with plasma pistols and a marine with a plasma gun. In addition the forces gained a Libby with combi-plasma and conversion field and the Chaplin got a combi-plasma as well. This resulted in a smaller army but with a lot of plasma still. This would have left me with CAD list looking like this;
(new items in Red)

Interrogator – Stormshield, Combi-Plasma

Libarian - ML2, Combi-Plasma, Conversion Field 

Tac - Vet Sgt w/Plasma Pistol, Plasma Gun

Tac - Vet Sgt w/Plasma Pistol, Plasma Gun

Company Vets – Sgt w/Powerfist, 5x Combi-Melta, (lost Shields)

Command Squad – Champion, Company Standard, 3x Power Sword,  (lost Shields)

However, with the inclusion of the Calth box set, this is all going to change again. I will be going for the lighting claw option mostly, this will give me a squad the will look something like this;

Sgt. with storm bolter and power sword, heavy flamer with power fist and three lighting claws.

Why this set up? Well, I was tempted to go for a Sgt with claws as well, but I thought that the sword still gives ap3 attacks just without rerolls. The storm bolter also gives the squad some firepower, along side the flamer, both of which can also be used to do some damage before assaulting, where the claws will take over and do their job. This squad will add some decent assault capacity to non 2+ saving units.

This will also give some options for another squad, using the left over bits and some new bodies in the form of a SW body and 4 older plastic models, these will form another squad with the two remaining claws, some chain fists and possibly a heavy flamer to form another assault squad. Although I might have a  complete rethink and change the other flamer squad for a squad with a flamer and claws and have a squad full of chain fists to go wrecking vehicles. Alternatively, I may sell my old metal models to raise some cash and just keep the plastic models.

All in all though, this will add points to the force, resulting in a number of issues, namely what to do with the rest of the force? I don't really want to buy more models, but if I want to expand the Ravenwing I need Speeders and Attack Bikes, at least 2 of each, or if I want to expand the Deathwing I need some pods for the Dreads, again at least 2.

What would be nice would be a formation that wasn't either RW or DW, one other than the Lions Blade or Demi that is. I don't want to use some other formation, such as 1st company force from the SM codex or one of the BA ones as it would loose the DA feel to it, but right now I'm a little stuck.

Inq warband

So, with several dozen models still sitting around waiting to be painted, I have done what every sensible modeller does, started another project!

This time it is the Inquisition that are the focus of the modelling. I have always wanted to model some Inquisition forces as they are the entity that draw all my other forces together. The force itself is a fair size compared to many Inquisitors force's that I have come across in the past, which usually comprise of an Inquisitor and maybe a small retinue. The reason the force is so large is because I intend to use this as the main force with other force's as support, be it one of the SM or IG armies. This is possible, as the force is currently over 600pts and can easily grow with the addition of warhead and upping the numbers in the Elite 1 squad to maximum numbers.

So what is in the list? Well there are two Inquisitors and three henchmen bands. Although in the fluff the Inquisitors are of the Ordo Hereticus variety, I will be using the Xenos Inquisitors profile as the basic wargear and upgrades are more in line with how I want my force to play.

So, to the actual forces in question;

Xenos Inquisitor w/Power armour,  Power Sword, Rad grenades, Psykotroke grenades

Xenos Inquisitor w/Combi-plasma, Power Armour, Psyker ML1

Elite 1 – 7x Acolyte’s w/carapace, hotshot lasgun, 3x stormshield

Elite 2 – 10x Acolyte’s w/carapace, bolt gun, 1x psyker, 1x Priest

Elite 3 – 5x Crusader’s, 5x Death Cult Assassins, 2x Priest

So the plan.

One Inquisitor, with the combi, will go with Elite 1 and be tasked with hunting the high profile targets from a far. With ML1 he will attempt to provide Prescience for the squad to up their killing ability and take the edge of bs3. The storm shields are there to provide some extra resilience to high strength or low Ap weapons.

The second Inquisitor will go with Elite 3. This will be the up close and personal lot, with the Rad grenades and Psykotroke grenades all affecting the enemy and hopefully reducing their effectiveness in combat. Combining this with the DCA's initiative 6 and twin power swords and 4 attacks on the charge (for a total of 20 attacks at WS5, S6 and I6) and the Priests special rules, reroll to hit and hopefully, reroll to wound, this should do a lot of damage. The Crusaders are there to soak up some damage with their storm shields and to die in place of the DCA's, they can also add a few attacks as well, if any models survive to the I3 step. There are two priests for a very simple reason, that being at Ld7 they are not the most reliable of characters. So in order to give some extra assurance of getting the war hymns off, which are very useful and if I get both hymns off, there is always somewhere to use it, i.e. reroll saves.

The final unit are Elite 2, and are the bolter boys. 10 Acolytes with bolters for plain old massed fire. These guys are just as simple as that, they are there to support either of the other squads achieve there goals, either by poring shots in to a unit before the others assault, or by screening and dying to enable the Hotshot guys to get in to range. They are in effect a cheap expendable unit, with just enough upgrades to make them survive long enough to do their job. The priest is there to make them fearless and keep them where they need to be and the psyker is there to try and give prescience to the squad.

This is a fairly simple list, one close combat unit, one shooty unit and one sacrificial unit, most of which is operating at Ap3, so no clues as to who the Inquisition are look at!