Howling... for Griffons

Hey guys, its me again... yeah, yeah I know, but you are stuck with me. So no photos today. Instead I'm sharing the Howling Griffon guide I created using Bolter and Chainsword's Space Marine Painter program (which if you haven't tried yet I suggest you do. You can find it here.) This is the paint scheme for my basic marines (Tactical, Assault, and Devastator). I will be doing a bit more in depth scheme on my Vets and Command models (more about that in another post).

Army construction and paint wise, I have most of what I need for GW's 1000pt Iron Painter contest being run during the month of August built and primed white. All I have left to build is 1 squad of tactical marines. I will be painting a Master of the Forge, 2 Tactical squads, a Scout squad, a Dreadnought, a Rhino, a Landspeeder Storm, and a Predator Destructor for the contest. For larger games I also have 5 Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields, 5 Sternguard, Pedro Kantor, an Ironclad Dreadnought, and a second Drop Pod built and primed as well.

Today kicks off the Lentrel Prime campaign at GW Sugarland. The Lentrel Prime campaign combines a 4 round Escalation League with some campaign elements. As noted on the Dead Tau Project (another great blog which I think you should check out here), players start with a non-named independent character to build the story of the campaign around plus a 1000pt army comprised of:

1. 1 HQ Choices
2. 6 Troop Choices
3. 1 Elite Choice
4. 1 Fast Attack Choice
5. 1 Heavy Support Choice

In addition to the above force org players also start with 2 Catalysts. Catalysts modify the above force org allowing for example additional HQ, Elite, Fast Attack and Heavy Support choices to be taken. Other examples include allowing 1 troop choice to cost only 50% of its total value when building your list, stat increases for your character, and even an extra 50 points. Players can not have more then 12 Catalysts at anyone time. Players gain and lose Catalysts by playing games. Each player must bid 1 Catalyst and an additional one is rolled for randomly. The winner of the game gets their choice of any two while the loser get the remaining one. Pretty cool if you ask me.

I am using the Griffons for the campaign. My starting two Catalysts give me an extra Elite and an extra Heavy Support slot. Here is a copy of my list:

HQ Master of the Forge w/ Thunder Hammer
TR (10) Tactical Marines w/ Power Fist, Flamer, Missile Launcher
TR (5) Scouts w/ Power Fist
FA Landspeed Storm w/ Multimelta
EL (5) Assault Terminators w/ Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
HS Dreadnought w/ Multimelta in Drop Pod
HS Ironclad Dreadnought w/Chainfist in Drop Pod

Let me know what you think of the list.

Next time expect some pics of my progress on the Howling Griffons and maybe a short tutorial on how to paint them. See you next time.

Alright, as promised pics!

Hey guys, as I promised earlier today here are a whole score of pics I have been meaning to take and post. In addition to the pics I've notice that the last several weeks I have been posting on Thursdays usually so I have decided to start doing Update Thursdays as a regular bit of content (new name coming soon) on which every Thursday I will post something hobby related from techniques, to pictures of my models, or updates on what I have been working on. I expect to post more often then just on the Thursdays coming up but expect larger and longer post on Thursdays.


Okay, so now it is time for the good stuff. Lets start with the interior of the Landraider Crusader that I just finished. I am going to need this sucker on Saturday so it was important for me to get the interior done tonight.




Pic 1 is a hallway shot, looking in from the front down to the engine. Pic 2 is a close up of what the side panels look like. Pic 3 is a close up of the engine.

Next up we have the WIPs for 1st Company Captain Raphael (Belail) and the 20 Termies for my 1750 army.

As you can see Raphael was converted using peices for several GW plastic kits (7 actually) and that I still need to prime the Lightning Claw termies I intend to use as Death Company. Unfotunately I can not find the micro masking tape that I have so that I can mask off the red areas to create the DC red Xs.

As soon as I find my roll or find a place where I can get some more I will get them based.

And finally here is a complete storm of photos of my Ravening Biker Battle force that I painted in 8 days for the GW Iron Painter event. While I think I spent to much time on the bases and not enough on the models themselves, I think they still turned out good even thought the bikers need a bit more work (as do the bases which need highlights on the rocks and static grass).

The Full Box


Landspeeder



Attack Bike


Squad 1






Squad 2

Well that is it, that is all the pics I have to share this time. Tune in next week as I post coverage of round 1 of the IFL Cure Luekemia benefit tournament happening this Saturday. Also I may through in some bonus footage of the Monpoc tournament I will be attending Sunday.

Until next time.

Tonight I promise pictures...

Hey guys, things have been going okay for me, I've had some ups and downs. Now, lets give this post some order.

The Bloodwing - are progressing and I promise I will post pics tonight of where I am at. I have 15 terminators base coated with Blood Red, 5 more Assault Terminators all with Lightning Claws ready for their Black base coat (as they are going to end up as Death Company), and my Blood Angels Belail stand in converted and primed. I magnetized his arms as I can see using any of the three different arm setups possible for different style lists in the future. Currently he has a pair of Lightning Claws.

Also I have an update on the Ravenwing boxset I painted for GW's Iron Painter contest that ended on the 24th. I managed to place second and got some prizes and my models have been on display at GW Sugarland since Sunday. I am going to pick them up tonight as I need to finish them (still have a layer of highlight, decals, and some weathering to do to the marines) but I will post pics when I get home tonight of how they are now. They, along with the Landraider Crusader I am currently paint the interior of will fill out my 1750pt Bloodwing army.

This weekend sees the Bloodwing's first deployment in the first round on a summer series of tournaments being run in my area to benefit research to find a cure for Leukemia. There will be 3 tournaments in that series that are going to be held on the last Saturday of each month at Eagle and Empire, a local Northern Virginia LGS. The tournaments will consist of 1750pt armies and players will be earning points at each event that at the end of the 3 tournaments will be totalled. The top players will then be invited to an invitation tournament at the end of August. I plan to participate in at least 2 of the regular tournaments this summer and hope to be invited to the final.

This tournament series is just the first of several tournaments I plan to attend this summer as I try to get back into the 40K tournament scene and prepare for the 70 player MechaniCon tournament happening in November of 2009 up in Philly. While I do not have much more info then that I do know it is happening the weekend of Nov 6-8 and as I am not going to Gencon it will probably end up being my personal vacation this year.

Okay, well see you all later (stay tuned for a plethora of pics this evening).

Update.

Hey guys, I know it has been a little while since I have posted anything and even longer since I provided you with some juicy pics of what I have been working on. Well fear not, while I can not provide you with anything today very soon you will get to see what I have been up to.

This week, GW stores are having an Iron Builder/Painter contest and guess who got suckered in... yup, this guy. Actually it comes at a good time. I am starting a little (not really that little) painting challenge this summer, testing both my ability to paint quality models quickly but also forcing me to up my game and add some new techniques and improve on some things I am weak at while getting a lot of models painted. More on that next week after this contest is over.

Okay, so what am I painting you ask? Well Blood Angels of course (not really of course, could have been Chaos, or Tau, or Eldar, or IG, or... or...). I have purchased and assembled a Ravenwing Battle Force which I am currently paint as Blood Angels. That said, most of the models in the Battle Force will end up being used as Ravenwing bikers in my up coming Bloodwing army that I posted a list for last week. I have broken the 6 bikes into 2 squad complete with 2 meltaguns each and a Vet Sergeant with Meltabomb. It seems I have meltas on the brain as the attack bike and the landspeeder are also equipped with Multimeltas. Things are going good. I have the interior of the Landspeeder done and the driver completed except for decals and highlights on his head.

Everything else is assembled, primed, and (except for the exterior of the landspeeder) has been base coated and had some basic highlighting done. One of the big advances for me is that pretty much all the large jobs like base coating and basic highlighting have been done with an airbrush (A first for me). Currently I am using the GW handflamer (a surprisingly good tool) and have had great success with it. I plan to in the future go out and pickup a better airbrush that will allow me to do more then just base coat and basic highlighting. But for now the GW handflamer is preforming admirably.

Well that is it for now, pics soon I promise.