Friday, November 27, 2015

HORUS HERESY: Tartaros Pattern Terminator Squad

HORUS HERESY: Today I am showing you the Tartaros Pattern Terminator Squad for my World Eaters Legion:

During the time of the Horus Heresy several different designs of terminator armor were developed and in use by Space Marine, one of the more advanced versions of those armors is the Tartaros Pattern armor.

I really like how much this armor reminds me of the Mk4 Maximus Space Marine armor when you compare all the details like the head, legs, etc. The Tartaros armor has a very smooth and functional look to it and I really hope that this pattern sees a plastic release also some time in the future by GW...

The squad currently encompasses 5 terminators, for heavy weapons I added a scratchbuilt Plasma Blaster, which I think fits in great with the overall useage of Plasma weapons in the World Eaters legion, thinking of Angron, Kharn and the plastic Berserkers. And it is a usefull weapon to support when this squad charges as it is an assault weapon too. 

The rest of the squad is equiped with Chain Axes (count as power weapons) and Combi bolters, plus one trooper is armed with a Power fist and the Sergeant carries a Chain fist to be able to assault armored opponents and tanks. Here is a scale shot with the Primarch Angron also.

Hope you like them! Some more Terminators are also currently in the making i.e. the plastic Cataphractii pattern ones from the Betrayal of Calth box.

Happy thanksgiving!

invivos 


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

HORUS HERESY: Plastic Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters Legion!

HORUS HERESY: Well it is now time for the Lord of the World Eaters Legion to hit the scene: make room for Angron, the Red Angel, the dreaded Primarch of the World Eaters Legion


 
A while ago Forge World released a model for Angron made out of resin, however a few of the details of the built I did not favor too much, so I decided to built my own Angron Primarch from various plastic bits. When GW released the Sigmarite Liberators for Age of Sigmar, this was a perfect base for my conversion. The Liberator miniature stands over a head taller than a standard GW Space Marine, which is perfect size for any Primarch conversion. 

The Liberator was cut apart at various positions so that I could fully repose the legs and the arms. I wanted a simelar pose to the FW Angron miniature for my Angron so all bits were repositioned until I was happy. Lower arms and hands come old Chaos Space Marines, the chain axes are built from Ork Nob bits and Beserker chain axes, the cape is the banner from the Black Ork sprue. 

I also added a few things to the Primarch which are not featured on the FW model, but which I found necessary to add. First of all I added an old Chaos Space Marine backpack to Angron´s back, after all Angron is wearing power armor and not some old knights armor according to the fluff! And power armor needs a powered backpack to be powered. ;) Also this old backpack is alot bigger than the normal Space Marine backpacks which I think is fitting for a being of this size. The next addition was Angron´s Plasma pistol, Spite Furnace, which is a converted and lengthened Berserker plasma pistol. The final addition were some skulls to make him look more feral but also serves as reminder of his lost gladiator comrades. 

 The base was also scratchbuild from various pieces and was built to enhance the dramatic and dynamic pose of the mini. The level of the base is tilted and consists of a fallen building that has collapsed and buried some enemy Mk7 Space Marines below it. I am very happy how this build came out, it is very dynamic and aggressive looking. The pose is simelar to the original model so people should be able to identify this mini as Angron in a game pretty quickly. 

 More stuff to follow soon, Terminators are up next!

Cheers 
invivos



Sunday, November 22, 2015

HORUS HERESY: Primed Spartan and Deimos Pattern Predator tanks

HORUS HERESY: Well the weather was pretty mixed here the last days however I still found a time spot to prime both tanks with some white paint. 

Priming a model really brings all the previously different colored details and plastic bits together, but also shows you where some more sanding and work is needed on the model.

The front hatch of the Spartan e.g. requires some more sanding down, the rest of the tank looks pretty good I think. With the white paint on it looks already solid as a rock. :) The Deimos is also very nice.

More pics of other models to follow soon, so stay tuned!

Cheers
invivos










Tuesday, November 17, 2015

HORUS HERESY: Storm Eagle Gunship Painting in progress

HORUS HERESY: This is my scratchbuilt Storm Eagle Gunship for my World Eaters.  It is based on GW´s Storm Raven kit with many changes.


The chassis of the Storm Raven gunship was lengthened by about 5" in the rear to be able to accommodate ~20 Marines and the entire rear section plus Missile Launcher is totally new. A new pilot MK6 Armor pilot was added in the cockpit and the landing gear was enlarged to cope with the extra bulk of the plane and look convincing.


This is still Painting in progress, I will need to add weathering and paint the details.Below you can also see some pics of the build in progress. I have been working on this gunship for a long time with many pauses as was I unsure many times on how to proceed with the design. However I think the wait and brainstorming time has really paid out, it looks pretty menacing and convincing now already.

Here´s is also a scale shot of the Storm Eagle, Spartan and Deimos Predator, so you can see this one is a pretty big kit...


Haven´t use this one in a game so far, maybe next weekend though... :D

Cheers
     invivos



Monday, November 16, 2015

HORUS HERESY: Scratchbuilt Deimos pattern Predator tank

HORUS HERESY: The Deimos patter Predator tank is a variant of the Space Marine Predator that features the round, bowl shaped turret of the very first Predator plastic kits.

In Horus Heresy this tank has access to a number of unique and exotic weapon options, which makes it a very interesting choice gamewise. Three options are particularly interesting: the Executioner Plasma Cannon, the Magna-Melta Cannon and the heavy Conversion beamer. 

Since I had a suitable Plasma Cannon lying around for years from a non-GW kit, I decided to scratchbuilt the turret and make the weapon modular. The turret was made from half of a plastic styrene ball that was cut to the appropriate shape. The rear part of the turret was modelled with Milliput and the turret mount is a 6cm Warmachine/Hordes base. I made some changes to the front of the Rhino with old Rhino parts added plus new old style hatches and many rivets. 

The turret is fully movable and can be entirely removed, which gives me the option to add different turrets e.g. Scorpius Whirlwind is one idea I have at the moment or just add the Rhino doors and use it as normal Rhino transport. Regarding the weaponry I have already started on a Magna-Melta Cannon, however I am not entirely happy yet with the muzzles, so some work is needed. 

Anyway the Deimos Predator is now good to go for priming in the next days. 

Hope you like it! :)

Cheers
invivos




Sunday, November 15, 2015

HORUS HERESY: Scratchbuilt Spartan heavy tank

HORUS HERESY: This is one of the aforementioned side modelling projects I intended to finish prior to getting the Betrayal at Calth supplies for my World Eaters Legion.

The Spartan heavy tank is based on the standard GW Land Raider kit with many, many changes: visible tank tracks are now running all around the tank resp. over the roof similar to the older style Proteus Land Raiders from Forgeworld. The entire roof section was changed with a new hatch and now includes a new re-designed, movable Heavy Bolter emplacement.

The front assault ramp of the original Land Raider was removed and a new extended front section was built from plastic card and bits to symbolize the extra troop carrying capacity of the Spartan

The original twin Lascannon sponsons per side were upgraded to now host four Lascannons each and are still fully movable! The movable Heavy flamer on the roof can be exchanged for a Havoc Launcher or a solid round armor plate if no roof weapons are needed.  

In the last days I finished filling and sanding the gaps, added tons of rivets and made some minor modifications here and there. As of now if weather permits it will be primed as soon as possible.

The Spartan has already seen a lot of action in several games and the combination of its high armor value, two quad Lascannons and the Machine spirit capability is really devastating against enemy tanks and walkers.

Next up is the scratchbuilt Deimos Pattern Predator tank! Stay tuned!

Cheers
invivos


HORUS HERESY: Betrayal at Calth & World Eaters

HORUS HERESY: Yesterday Games Workshop finally released the Betrayal at Calth, Horus Heresy game, which makes it very easy for (new) players to start an all plastic Horus Heresy era themed Warhammer Space Marine army. I have been waiting for a plastic release for Horus Heresy for a long while now and I simply couldn´t resist the temptation to grab two boxes right from the start. :)

As you may know I am already building up a 30k World Eaters Heresy themed army and those boxes give me the option to expand this current army, but also to create 1 or possibly 2 new armies. One of those will be the Imperial Fists Space Marine Chapter, the defenders of Terra. The other maybe Death Guard or Word Bearers, we´ll see...

The World Eaters themselves have fought a couple of battles already, below you can see some pics of the World Eaters on my new gaming desert themed table. I still need to figure out a satisfying way to paint the World Eaters, at the moment the majority is just primed white...

Here are some pics of the World Eaters Legion in action (1500 points) vs another "count as World Eaters" loyalist legion. In this game I finally managed to make some good strategic use of my scratchbuilt Jetbikes, the real key to their survival and power is to stay beyond 24" of their preferred targets (infantry) and strike with Plasma cannon and Heavy Bolter fire from afar. The Rhino transport (on the right) was a dissapointment, in the very first round it failed its dangerous terrain test and impaled itself on the trench. My scratchbuilt Contemptor dreadnought also made a very good impression. All in all a fun battle which I lost by Victory points. 

I will also make some changes to the gaming board and terrain to blend terrain and board better together. If you look closely you´ll see that the board is rough and textured, this was achieved by using 3d effect spray cans which produce a sand like effect. The effect is quite nice and with some extra varnish I sprayed over the paint it will hopefully last a while.
For my World Eaters I have been very busy in the last weeks. To be prepared for the Betrayal at Calth release I wanted to get many of my side projects finished resp. ready for priming. One of those projects is my Storm Eagle Assault Gunship which is a lengthened GW Storm Raven with many extra bits. Here are some pics of it in assembly and primed. I used tape to help me mask the areas of the gunship that will be painted blue. All in all I really like the primed look of the gunship, it came together very nicely.
In the next days I´ll upload some more updates on projects I have been working on for my World Eaters so as always stay tuned!

Thank you! :)

invivos










Saturday, May 9, 2015

 Castellan Robots -Work in Progress-: I managed to spent some time today on the three Castellan robots and here are some WIP shots. I am quite happy with how the legs have turned out, they are attached with a ball joint at the hip and the foot and the lower leg and its piston is moveable i.e. I can adjust the stride of each leg separately which will be great for posing them on their scenic bases (i.e. with lots of rubble). Also I came up with a pretty nice and easy solution for the feet and toes using left over parts from the leg construction.
In case you wonder about the toes and the upper leg, they are made from old GW plastic electro fence parts. Tomorrow I´ll add some more details to the legs and will start building the scenic bases. After this I plan to glue the legs and hip in position on the base and continue working on the torso and the arms.

Cheers
invivos


Sunday, May 3, 2015

Castellan Robot Maniple: 


I started to work on a Maniple of scratchbuilt Castellan/Castellax robots for my World Eaters legion this weekendTo speed up robot construction I am building three robots at the same time rather than building each one separate. This also helps me to keep track of the available  parts in my bitz box, since I´ll need either 3x or 6x the same part to continue working, which is a bit of a challenge... The main robot body is made from 4 plastic spoons with various bits for the shoulder socket and the hip. Due to the ball socket design a lot of poses will be possible in the end, base size will be 60mm.
Next up is building legs, shoulder pads, arms and the torso weapon system. I´ll try to keep the torso gun interchangeable i.e. either Mauler Boltgun, Multi Melta or Dark Fire Lance as options. Hope you like them so far! :)



Friday, May 1, 2015

2015 Life sign:  No this is Blog is far from dead, there is just alot going on and I rarely find the time to take nice pics to post here. Truely sorry about that! :(

Anyway some pics to show you I have been busy:

Star Trek Borg Cubus: Scratchbuilt, shown here without its base, it uses the "large" base from Star Wars X-Wing. It has seen alot of combat already in our house rule set for Star Trek.
 30K Horus Heresy World Eaters: First shots of my growing World Eaters Legion Space Marine army for Horus Heresy. These were the first test models I painted, I am not entire happy with the paint job (e.g. too little contrast in the armor recesses) but I learned alot for the coming rest of the army to change.
Towering above the Space Marine is my scratchbuilt Contemptor Dreadnought with World Eater iconography, arms are moveable at the sockets, the Multi Melta can be exchanged for an Assault Cannon and there is an attachable top havoc launcher (not shown). Below is a WIP shot of the dreadnought.

Then there is a set of three scratchbuilt Space Marine Jetbikes, like I saied I was busy scratchbuilding stuff :) I haven´t use them too much effectiveness yet in the single game they saw, need to figure out the right way to use them.

Not shown here but in work are a scratchbuilt Spartan Tank (95%) done and a scratchbuilt Storm Eagle Assault gun ship for my World Eaters.

Additionaly I managed to built myself a new desert style gaming table plus city terrain, finally putting most of the City of Death sprues to some good use. :)


Zaku Jenice Custom: this is a kit from the GUNDAM range, which serves me as a test bed for new skills to learn: armor chipping using salt, oil colour and powders etc. Size is about 15cm tall, I applied battle damage using drills and soldering iron, the idea was that the Zaku nearly evaded a super hot Beam/Laser weapon that melted most of his right shoulder.  At the moment the model is primed in brown color and ready for some armor chipping.
That´s all for now, more to follow. At the moment I plan to work this weekend on a Castellax battle robot for Horus Heresy...