Ork Battlewagon

Orktober and the big Waaaaagh! is over, and we have gotten a lot of new vehicles for the Orks. I have one of each of the new ones, and I plan to build them gradually throughout the winter alongside my Astra Militarum forces. But the Orks gives so many options to do modifications, and that is some of the fun with the army.
This weekend my local Games Workshop store had an event they called "The Mad Dok Workshop" where they let us use their bitbox and take any parts we wanted and use them to modify a vehicle, character or unit in our ork army. I had long thought about making a Battlewagon with a Deff Rolla, so when this event came up I went for it.

The picures are not the best, but they do give an idea of how the Battlewagon looks...
In the front I added a skull from some Ork kit (think it was the Stompa) to make this look like it is part of the same Ork clan that operate Da Punisha! (my Stompa).

You can see a lot more of the details on this picture. I made a gun tower with twin heavy bolters that I found in the bitbox. The bottom and back wall are from a Battle Wagon set, the sides are from a Rhinox that is used by the Astra Militarum and the top is made of two track links from the track of a super heavy tank. The second small tower is built from the instructions in the Battlewagon box.
I also added some sort of rocket pod (might also be from the Rhinox, but not sure) to the front of the vehicle. In the back there are two rocket pods mounted one on each side of the lower panels of the cargo hold. Above them are two boarding planks (also one on each side) and these are taken from an Ork trukk set.
I wanted to use the big turret on a tank conversion, so I took the turret from the tank and placed on this vehicle. I felt I needed an ork in the turret to show that he could fit, so I took the scout from the big tower and cut off a bit of his base and glued him on there. To keep the tower on, I glued a terminator base on to the tower base after I had placed it, but before I glued the roof of the cargo compartment on to the walls. I also used a 20mm base as floor in the tower to place the ork upon as the original piece did not fit in the Leman Russ tower.

I have also made the turret with the big claw, so if I like I can replace the Heavy bolter turret with the original turret with claw. Only problem with that turret is that it is so unbalanced because of the the claw that it falls out of its hole and down on the ground if you don't hold on to it. But I plan to add a little lead weight under it, and hopefully that will take care of the problem. Just need to make the turret heavier than the arm with the claw.

I would like to convert one more Battlewagon for my army (maybe even more in the future, who knows) and that should get a big gun mounted on the floor in the cargo area. Forgeworld have done this, and they sell a cannon named Ork Supa Cannon. It's not too expensive, so I might buy that. But there is a lot of fun in making something by kitbashing too, and one possibility I have is to take the gun platform from a Basilisk and use that for my gun. Then I can use the Basilisk chassis to make a transport, towing or rescue vehicle for one of my Imperial armies. 

I'll see what I end up with, but the finished result will be shown here.

A grand Knight (Freeblade)

I think I have mentioned this one before, but  it seems like I haven't shown pictures on the blog.
The knight is painted by a  former staff member at my local Games Workshop store in Oslo, Mats Stangjordet.
Mats is not only a great painter, but he is a great guy too and he has helped me a lot with my painting and unit building over the years. I could always ask him for advice, and he would say what he would have done and if you chose to do it another way he would support you anyway and help you as best he could when you asked for it.
Mats has a big interest in Japan (and actually live there now) and you will see Japanese writing on several places on the Knight, and it also has a Manga inspired female on its left shoulder.

On the pictures the banner that is supposed to be hanging under the torso is laying on the ground. This is just because I want to attach the same piece to some of my own knights before I try to do it on this one as I do not want to damage anything.

Here is a close-up of the shoulder with the anime figure. You can also see a delicate checkerboard pattern on the middle section of the knight, painted in quite neutral colors. This is one of the details that help this Knight stand out, and it is repeated on other armor panels other places on the body.

I keep this Knight on top of my work table as an inspiration for myself to try and always paint each miniature a little bit better than the last, and also it is very pretty to rest my eyes on when I need to look up from the figure I am building or painting. 

I would love to try and make the same kind of bases as Mats did on this for my knight army as such a big figure deserves a base that is more than just some paint slapped on a flat base. I don't think I will get the exact same colors, but I will try to do something similar.

The knight will be brought to games if I can, and I'll be proud to field it among any of my Imperial armies.

More Astra Militarum

I did a little search in my Imperial Guard boxes when I was at my unbuilt model-storage, and brought home most of my unbuilt vehicles.
I have two Basilisk ordnance batteries, one Hydra, one Manticore/Deathstrike, four Chimeras and four Leman Russ tanks. I left two Sentinels, two Tauroxes and two Valkyries in my boxes with the troops to be built at a later time.

I also did a check on my finished models, and I don't have any finished Basilisks from before, but looking at my almost finished Hydra, I think that is the one I remember putting together and painting up. But two Basilisk boxes is a good start, and I look forward to building them. I have two different generations of boxes, but the sprues looks identical. I plan on building these at the same time.
I would love to think up a canon to use to build another type of gun, as the cannon on the basilisk would look great on an ork vehicle, maybe even on a Stompa.

The four Chimeras are also two different generations. Two of the boxes are no longer available, they provide one Chimera and one 10-man squad of Imperial Guard Cadian troopers. This is the exact same Chimera that is in the single model box (still on sale) with identical sprues.
The fourth box is an older box, and this has different sprues. It is a lot more to assemble, and one of the major differences are on the tracks and drive wheels. It also have different communiation gear, but apart from that it seems identical so I don't think it will look much different when built.

I have started to assemble the Manticore/Deathstrike model, and decided I will build it as a Manticore. I also know that the Deathstrike missile looks way to good not to use with my Orks. To buld the Deathstike I need to take two of the rockets from the Manticore, so somewhere along the line I will build a manticore that has fired off two rockets. But that will not be this first one. There will also be a Deathstrike somewhere down the line.

The Leman Russ tanks are two different boxes. I have one that build the Battle tank version and three that builds the Demolisher. I have too few regular Battle tank versions, so I plan to build one now.
I would also like to take the Exterminator cannon from this box and put it on one of the Demolishers to make one of those. It is quite a common version, so I would like to have some of that in my ranks.
I do have several Demolishers, but I think it is ok to have at least a squad of those, so I might add one more from the four. Then the last one will be built as a Punisher. With these I have enough tanks for my first company and a squad for the second company. I do not know what tanks I will pair together in squads yet, but I will start to work on that as I paint them up as I need to paint squad markings as described in my last post.
What I do know is that my colonel and one major rides to battle in Vanquishers, but I do not think my seond major will do that, instead he will ride in an Eradicator or an Executioner.

Mechanised units for the Astra Militarum

This winter I will work on my Astra Militarum army among other things. One of the things I will do is paint up my armor. I hope to paint up quite a lot of infantry units too, as I have at least one box full of troops and heavy weapon teams.
I've done a count of my assembled units, and I have 9 Leman Russ tanks of different variants that is either patially painted or primed (10 if I count the tank that is supposed to be done, if it isn't too thick with paint I will re-do it yet again, if not it will be as is).
I would like to make unit markings on my tanks as I want to give them a place in the larger army and field them as companies if I ever get to take place in really big battles. So I have thought out a way of marking the tanks with both squad and company markings, and I believe I have found a way to do it.
The plate that the turret is connected to is sort of a raised ring on the hull, and I like to paint this in another color than my tank. Both to get more color on the model and to build up some contrast. I will also see if it looks ok if I paint the side armor on the turret in the same color.
I will use Averland Sunset (sort of matte yellow) on command vehicles, Khorne red on one squad, Caliban green on number two and Administratum grey on the third squad. This will then serve as my squad markings. Then I will paint three vertical stripes (one of each color) on the side of the tanks near the front, and use that as company or regiment markings. I might make it regimental markings as I don't think I will manage to make up too many different combinations that will loook good on the tanks.

One of the Leman Russ tanks is a Vanquisher with Knight Commander Pask in the turret. In my army he will be Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman, the commander in charge of the entire 2nd Armored Regiment. His turret will have a yellow ring indicating command, and then I will add some sort of units to follow him as escort. I will have to figure out what kind of vehicles it should be, but at the moment I'm thinking at least one tank and one or two Chimeras with troops and command.
I plan on  modifying two figures to serve as my majors as I would like to have them to have the same uniforms but different heads. I'm not sure if they will ride in tanks or a command Chimera, but I will figure that out eventually, so that wen I am done both Majors Jobal Early and James Ewell Brown Stuart (in dayly life called Jeb Stuart) are represented on the battlefield.

Before my army is done I plan to have 9 more Leman Russ tanks and a command Chimera to make up my second tank company, and then I need the vehicles that will ride along with my Colonel in his command squad. But this is a long time goal, not something I plan to do this winter. I think I have a few more taks unbuilt in storage.

But the army is not just built up of Leman Russ tanks. They have a company of Super Heavy tanks, and this is just called  the 1st Super Heavy Tank Company and they are under the command of Major Winfield Scott Hancock.
At the moment he has three super heay tanks at his disposal, a Baneblade, a Shadowsword and a Hellhammer. The Hellhammer is equipped for urban fighting, and has four side sponsons instead of the regular two.
Major Hancock has ordered another Baneblade, and is told it is on a transport, and hopefully it will reach him before the Walpurgian 3rd Brigade reaches their next conflict area.

I have built one command Chimera to go along with my Leman Russ tank company, and I will build one more almost identical for the second company. I will also need some command vehiles for Colonel Sherman, but they might have a different configuration.

The 56th Artillery Company under the command of Major Belle Boyd haven't got too may vehicles done yet, but I am quite sure I have a finished Basilisk in storage or in the display case. If so I will bring it back to the desk and make sure it is painted up eactly like the other armored vehicles.
I do have both Basilisks and Wyverns in storage to be built, and Deathstrike/Manticore launch platforms too...

The support company under the command of Major Joseph Eggleston Johnston have some of their vehicles ready too. I have one Hydra Flaktank that only needs some wethering and unit and company colors before it is ready for action.

This company also have all the Hellhound variants in the Regiment, and as of now they have 4 of these to use. One of them just need a touch-up on the paint to get the right colrorscheme like painting the turret black instead of Mechanicus Standard Grey (if I find that looks good), company markings and so on. The other three are all sprayed Mechanicus Standard Grey.

With time this company will administer the Chimeras that are used by the two Infantry regiments (the Walpurgian 25th and 27th) and the Abhuman regiment (they get the vehicles the other regiments no longer want to drive in, so when I paint them up they will get more rust and grime on them).

Deathwatch characters

I thought I should write an update on the work with getting the Deathwatch force together.
According to the codex, a typical Watch Fortess have four Watch Companies that each are led by a captain. And a typical company have four killteams, but this do vary a lot.
Watch Fortress Alamo de Béxar have 6 companies. 4 regular ones, one primaris and one special company (that will be explained towards the bottom of the post). The Companies are usually just called one, two and so on in high gothic so Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus and Sextus.

Watch Company Primus have a Watch Captain called Aramis and he is a Mortifactor. Aramis is the character that comes with the Start Collecting box under the name of Artemis, but I wanted to be able to give him his own story.
The watch company have four killteams, each consisting of ten marines and each team is led by a Watch Sergeant. The Sergeants are not named yet, but they hail from the Imperial Fists, Ultramarines, Raven Guards and Black Knights chapters. Kill team two also have a champion from the Dark Angels.

Watch Company Secundus is led by Watch Captain Athos of the Silver Skulls. He also have four ten marines strong killteams with sergeants leading them. The Sergeants are from the Raven Guards, Dark Angels, Iron Hands and Novamarines. The first killteam have a Blackshield champion.

I have put in some charchters from the Deathwatch range in the third killteam, they are led by Sergeant Ennox Sarlacc so the team is called Killteam Sarlacc. This is actually Ennox Sorrlock from the Cassius box, but to change him in to another character I took the name of the monster in the Star Wars movies that swallowed Boba Fett as it was kind of similar.
His killteam also have several other known charcters that I need to find alternative names for. They are Vael Donatus, Rodricus Grytt and a company champion named Zameon Gydrael. These are also from the Cassius box.

Watch Company Tertius are mission specialists. Their leader is Terminator Captain Porthos. Porthos has served the Deathwatch for as long as anyone can remember and don't wear any chapter markings. He has three five-man Terminator killteams under his command. They are all led by Terminator sergeants, two of the teams are made up from Dark Angels Terminators, but the first team have a Terminator from the Salamanders. This is Garran Branatar from the Cassius box, and he also needs a new name.

The third team is a close combat team, and are all Blood Angels.
This company also have a killteam using bikes, they are led by White Scar sergant Jetek Suberei, but he will get another name at a later time. He is also from the Cassius box. He leads a team of four Raven Wing bikers.

The final two teams are both ten man Vanguard teams. They are led by sergeants Antor Delassio of the Flesh Tearers and a yet un-named Raven Guards sergeant. In the latest of the two teams Edryc Setorax of the Raaven Guards serve. These two characters are also from the Cassius box and will be renamed.

Watch Company Quartus is led by a currently un-named Utltramarine captain. He has for killteams under his command, and the sergeants leading them are Brazen Claws, Ultramarines, Black Templars and Black Consuls. The first killteam has a Blackshiled champion.

Watch Company Quintus is a primaris company. The Company Captain is Ultramarines Captain Octavius. He has two killteams consiting of regular primaris marines and they are led by lieutenants from the Ultramarines.
He also have  team of Hellblasters led by a Dark Angels primaris sergeant and a team of Reivers led by a Flesh Tearers primaris sergeant.

The captain also has two three man Agressor killteams led by Ultramarines and Dark Angels primaris sergeants.

Finally there is a contingent of Space Wolves that have sworn themselves to serve in the Deathwath to repent a failure of a mission. They consist of two ten man squads of regular space Wolves and a five man Terminator team. They are led by a Wolf Lord who now serve as a Deathwatch Captain. His name is Asgeir Frostbite, and I have a larger backstory for him that can be told at a later time.

Did you get the literary reference in the captains? If not, I will explain... Aramis, Athos and Porthos (the captains of my first three wach companies are the names of the three musketeers from the classic book by Alexandre Dumas).

Deathwatch

While documenting my Deathwatch army on paper I found out that I was actually missing one killteam (10 man squad) so I had to get one more start collecting box. That also gave me another dreadnought, so now I have one for each of the original five Watch companies. Four Dreadnoughts (think they actually are Venerable Dreadnoguhts) for my regular Companies and a Redemptor dreadnought to go with my Primaris company. The new killteam is built and primed, and ready to be painted up and sent in to action.

While priming my Redemptor I think I got a little too much spray primer on the hinges on the front, so now he top panel is stuck in an upward position. Because of that I am considering sending that Dreadnought to serve with my Gatekeepers and building my second one to use with Deathwatch. Or I can just close the lid and glue it shut. I will see what I end up doing.

Now all that is left is naming some of my characters, and painting the entire army up  to a good standard. I have no hurry in getting the army ready, so I will take my time and paint them to the best of my abilities. As I paint one unit at a time I will also make sure I have a name for the sergeant (or lieutennant if it is a primaris squad) and other members of the squad if they stand out for some reason (an example here is the characters from the Cassius killteam box and also special troopers like Champions and such).

I have named my Watch Fortress  Alamo de Béxar, and I am trying to think up a natural place for it to be located in the universe.
The commander of the Fortress is Watch Master Barret Travis.
After he was made captain in the Deathwatch, he knew he would serve the Deathwatch for the rest of his life. Rumors have it that he then got a Techmarine  to bless his armor and send the shoulder guard with the chapter insignia back to his chapter to serve the chapter with honor. Other rumors say his chapter has later turned traitor and that this is the real reson he has removed the insignia from his armor. Only the Watch Maste himself knows the truth, but now he only wear Deathwatch insignia and he serves with duty and dedication. 

This is the only finished and based model that I have in my army for now, and he stands on my desk so that I can use him as reference for all other Deathwatch models that will be painted.

The Reclusiam is lead by Chaplain Deus, an Ultramarine who trained extensively under Chaplain Cassius and has followed in his footsteps. For this figure I am using the Cassius model that came in the killteam box, but I don't want to use him as Cassius as he has a lot of back story in the existing lore. 

I want to have someone I can make up a story for myself. Deus is a latin word and is often used for sky or heaven, so I thought it to be a fitting name for a chaplain.  

I also have three Chaplains that are missing names for now. One Mortifactors Primaris Chaplain, one Dark Angels Chaplain and one Blood Angels chaplain with jump pack. Of my Reclusiasm models, the Primaris chaplain is the only one that has gotten any paint. He is more than 50% done.

The Librarius is led by Chief Librarian Voldus who like the Chapter Master doesn't show any other loyalties than to the Librarius and the Deathwatch. This model is the model for Grand Master Voldus from the GeyKnights, but I like him so much I decided to use it as Deathwatch. The shoulderguards fit, and my story for him will be solid. I also have two other Librarians, an Imperial Fist Primaris Librarian and the Blood Ravens Codicier Librarian Jensu Natorian (who I might re-name as he is from the Cassius box).

These are the models I have specific names for as of now, but I am working on finding fitting names for the others. I want to have names that sound correct according to what chapter they hail from, but I do not want to use names that is used in official lore. However if a character has two names, I might take two well known names and add them together in a new way to create my character.

Armies on Parade! Results are in!

Today was parade day!

I managed to finish everything yesterday evening, but while doing so I discovered a lot of small holes in the expandable foam where the paint hadn't covered the foam. I covered all that I found yesterday, but while setting up the board today I saw several more. So I hoped people wouldn't notice it too much. Apart from that I was quite happy with everything.

I had not tried to put everything up on the board, but I had thought out how I would like to do it. Here it is all set up and ready for the parade.

There are a few different scenes on the board. One of them is this where the Big Mek (Mek Gyvva) meets with the team of Grot Mechs who build the crazy weapons he thinks up.

Here is a close up of the Grot Engineseers or Mechs, The one in front on the right is the leder and he has lifted his arm in salute for the Big Mek.

Here is a better picture of Big Mek Gyvva. I might give him a new name in the future if I find an ork that is quite a lot bigger, as I would like my biggest Mek to be big both in size and stature. But I am very pleased with the look of this one, and I am very happy to use him as Mek Gyvva even though I have another Mek who is just as big.

A Grot tank is out in the terrain, while the Rokkit trucks are driving up to the field where they will test fire their Grot missiles.

On the top, the Rokkit trucks are lining up to fire as a single grot tank armed with a  lascannon is standing guard looking for enemy aircraft. On this side you can still see the reegular mechanicum scull on the tower. I am sure the grots will change this too eventually (but I only had one skull to use).

The orks that ride in the Morkanaut are out in the field while the grots are working on fixing some minor electrical issues and reloading the weapons.

The Mech Grots have started to adapt the area to their liking, and have stated by making their own version of the mechanicus holy cog symbol by tearing down the human looking skull on the wall and replacing it with one more fitting for orks and grots.

On the hill the stompa Da Punisha is standing guard in case the Tyranids or the Dark Eldar from the neighbouring tables feel like trying something...

Here is a better picture ofthe skull symbol on the front. What the picture isn't showing so well is the weathering that I did with Doombull Brown and Ryza Rust on the spikes at the bottom of the skull. But when I take my table home from the Games Workshop store in a while I will line up the different units and take some pictures to present on this blog. I will then take better pictures of this.

There are several Grots outside on the stompa, worrking on small repairs. One of them is either being a daredevil, or he has slipped while working and is now hanging on for dear life. It's a good thing he is wearing a helmet...

I wanted to add a little color to the board, as it looked very brown, so I found a broken pipe from the Promethium relay pipe set, and glued it on. Then I used a bright green to paint the river of sludge and then pored on a solid amount of Nurgle Rot on top of it.

The people that came in to the store and voted liked what I had done this year, and I got my first Armies on Parade award, earning myself a third place. Here is the bronze medal on the table.

Here is a better picture of the bronze medal. I am very happy with winning third place, as this is the first time on three tries that I actually win something in Armies on Parade.

I was also awarded a diploma for "Best monster or machine" for my Stompa, and that was also very fun. But in all fairness I think it was because they had enough diplomas to go around, as the Tyranids on the table beside me were better. They were the best painted 'nids I've seen at Games Workshop, but he won "Best themed army" and also won the gold medal.

That sums up the Armies on Parade for 2018, and the #AoP tag can get a little rest until it is time to do some serious thinking about the 2019 entry. I already have a few things in mind that I will explore. If I do as I have so far, then next year should be a Age of Sigmar entry, and then I am toying with an idea of an entry with the Kharadron Overlords. If I go with Warhammer 40K then it might be a two level board with Imperial Guard and some urban warfare. But I am leaning towards the Kharadron as I would love to paint those models.