Finished up my second Stormraven. Though not without some issues. The major problem was me carrying it downstairs to photograph with it still on the flight stand and having it fall down a flight of stairs and smash into a bunch of pieces! Luckily I used super-glue to attach the wings on and they snapped off where they should have. Some dings and dents, but I just like to think of it as battle damage.
I also masked off a couple parts of the model that will have the checkered pattern on it. I used blue painters tape, and then cut squares out and laid out in the area to do the black. Much easier than free-handing all of them, though I will need to go do some cleanup. I’m planning on adding more black and red details to break up the yellow and give it some nice contrast. This model is also magnetized, and I made sure the polarity lined up with the other Storm Raven so I won’t have to keep the different bits separate from each other. The result should be finishing the model in a fraction of the time, to a higher quality.
For my Birthday I got a little cash in addition to the other wonderful presents. With the price increases coming I decided to pick up another Storm Raven and Land Raider before they become prohibitively expensive. The Land Raider will be build as normal, but I would like to do something special with the Storm Raven. I’m not sure exactly what yet, maybe try and convert it to a Storm Eagle or just a simple weapon swap.
Also ordered some conversion bits from Chapter House Studios though they have not arrived yet. I am most excited about the jump packs which I am going to use with a Death Company kit to make some Vanguard Veterans. At this point I’m winding down the purchases for the army. I still would like to expand a few more options out, getting a couple Land Speeders, some shooty terminators, and getting up to 40 assault marines. Another Baal Predator and Vindicator wouldn’t be bad, but I have enough to keep me busy for a while and for some crazy reason I’m thinking about stripping and repainting my Eldar force as I’m really not very happy with the paint job or color scheme.
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| Storm Raven w/ assault cannon and hurricane bolters |
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| Plasma cannons |
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| Side view with lascannons |
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| Magnetized Lascannon and armor plating. |
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| Magnetized hurricane bolters. |
So I managed to get a game in today after a month and half or so of not playing. I played Mark from The Overlords Podcast and we played all three mission types in Bay Area Open style. We did do a few things wrong, in that we did all five objectives for Seize Ground rather than just three, and we did an even distribution Nova style instead. I would be interested to play the “correct” way in the future.
HQ: Librarian in Terminator Armour – Epistolary, Unleash Rage, Sanguine Sword
Elite:
Furioso Dreadnought – Heavy Flamer, Talons
2x Sanguinary Priest – Jump Pack, Power Sword
Terminator Assault Squad – 5x Lightening Claw, 5x Thunder Hammer
1 Land Raider Crusader – Multi-Melta
Troops:
Assault Squad – 2x Melta, 1 Power Fist, 1 Infernus Pistol
Assault Squad – 2x Melta, 1 Power Fist, 1 Infernus Pistol
Fast Attack:
Baal Predator – Flamestorm Cannon
Heavy Support:
Stormraven Gunship – Lascannon, Multi-Melta
On turn three he wiped out both of my troop squads, one with a Trygon, the other with the remaining Shrikes. His Swarmlord charged into my Terminators and killed two, leaving one lone Terminator to fend for himself. It was looking nasty for the Lamenters but both the Storm Raven and the Baal managed to come-in from reserves. The predator outflanked into his deployment zone and roasted the 5 termagants the Tervigon has pooped out on the first turn. The Storm Raven moved on and split the Terminators off to one side and the Dreadnought off to the other. The Furioso toasted the Genestealers with a heavy flamer and then assaulted, and I got to see the magic of the Blood Talons which chewed through the entire squad. The Terminators charged the Trygon and brought it down, while the Land Raider zoomed up to shoot at some Termagants that were running away to grab an objective.
At this point my only hope for even a tie, would be to kill off his troops remaining: 3 termagants on the other side of the board, and the Tervigon on the other side that was down a couple wounds from pot shots. He charged in and immobilized the Land Raider, while I made a desperate gamble and jumped out the Sanguinary Priest inside to shoot and charge the Tervigon. Brought him down to one wound, which he then destroyed the Land Raider and priest in retaliation. The Baal zoomed up and flamed the Tervigon as well bringing him down to a single wound. He immobilized the Storm Raven and killed off all but one Terminator as well. On turn five I was down to one Sanguinary Priest, One TH/SS terminator, and an immobilized Storm Raven. I shot and killed the Tervigon from across the board with the Storm Raven’s Lascannon and then made a beline across the board with the Sanguinary Priest in the hopes of catching the two termagants still alive to kill of his last troop. It went to turn 6 and I managed to shoot and kill one gaunt who fled off the board bringing the game down to kill points. After counting up KP’s I had killed 10, while Mark had killed 9. Victory was mine. Though at a horrible cost. Only a lone Sanguinary Priest was alive! He will definitely be getting his paint job improved as a reward!
I had a ton of fun playing, and Mark really helped me play better. He had a bunch of suggestions as we played and helped me understand the army much better. He’s a real stand up guy and a ton of fun to play against.
My currently fully painted Lamenters force. Small, but the initial momentum is done and I have a lot of stuff that is really close to completion. Having that painted core is great, because it really inspires you to flesh out the army. Right now I can field just shy of 1500 points, though that would not be an even remotely competitive army. I am almost done with a number of units and vehicles that will let me field a decent little army though.
Near completion: Baal and normal Predator, Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer (magnetized for either option), 10 additional assault marines, Sanguinary Priest with jump pack, and 5 lightening claw terminators. Each unit will take a couple hours in the evening to complete.
Had a little more time to work on the Storm Raven. It’s coming together nicely, but still a lot of details to paint. The main challenge tonight was working while the wife was also working on a sewing project. We were sharing a long folding table in front of the TV and when she started sewing it felt like I was trying to paint in an earthquake. Her sewing machine is older than she is and really starts to shake things up. So much to the point I spilled a new jar of paint while trying to paint. I had to give up after a while, but did manage to get a nice coat of brighter yellow on the top of the vehicle. I did manage to do a little shading, though I think I will try and gloss coat it and try using oil paints to do the line shading. I haven’t decided if I”m going to do weather or not yet.
