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Thanks guys. I'll try and get some better pics of the squad and its members this evening.

@Warboss: Your latter suggestion is very much what I had in mind; it's suffered crippling damage to its leg but it's going down fighting. Kind of sums up the whole theme of the army, really, and in the plastic, it isn't quite as wonky as the pics might suggest.

@Ustrello: It was more the knife arm/blade throwing off the focus than the black itself, but yeah, photographing black can be a bit of a pain!

Anyone got any ideas for the Vigilator's cloak? Being a stealthy sniper type, he's not exactly going to have a flash cape, but equally, I do want him to stand out a bit and not just have a black mode with a black cape. I'm thinking either dark brown, or maybe a mid-grey?

Look into urban camo? Dark greys and black, little white?

Hmm, not too keen on camo on Marines in general. I could work with those colours, though. Perhaps something goes from very dark to very light, almost sheen-like, so imply it's a camo-cloak type thing that can take on the look of its surroundings when activated?

Bloody hell you're quick. What was all that about having essays to do?

With the Contemptor. could you build up the base to have it look a little more upright while still on its knees? Love the idea, but it does look a bit like he's falling over at the moment.

A contemptor in a kneeling pose suffers from that, the only way to amend it is by adding the suspension/strut system found in a normal box chassis dread.

I have to get some brass rod and some GS to make mine not look like it is falling, though there is some leeway with mine as his foot has been blown off by a word bearer.

You could try elevating the low side of the base with rock or rubble or dead marines and rubble, thus removing most of the falling affect. Oh lol, the post above me said to do that already.

The Istivaan V battles were fought in rough rocky terrain weren't they? Grey-brown maybe, you know earth colours.

Your rate of progress is ... well at least it's difficult to get board waiting for an update lol.

I'm finding it difficult making out colour and detail on your models though, until I read your comments with the images and looked hard I found it hard to tell what legions your marines were meant to be from :(. Maybe It's just me and old tired eyes.

Hey Para! Great looking models! I also want to thank you for introducing me to the Vigilator I'm starting Raven Guard and don't have any of the HH books and didn't know there were cool units like seekers and even an HQ to go with them that has the special issue ammo too. Epic man.

I love how you're incorporating all of the Istvaan survivors into 1 force! When you game with them though, which legion rules will you use?

Thanks guys.

Honestly, I think the dread will remain how it is for now. The model as it sits on the shelf looks much less precarious than the pics make it out to be. I'll see if I can get some pics that represent it a little better at some point.

@OMN: Not sure what you mean? I appreciate that some of the pics aren't the best (though I'm still using a camera much worse than the one I had access to the summer), but the colours and details at least look clear enough to me.

@Castellan: The Vigilator is pretty awesome as a concept. Shooty SM HQs are pretty rare, and this guy has a similar rule to the Raptors Chapter Master in 40k, he gets a pre-game attack against an enemy unit of choice which is awesome. I think it's D6 S5 AP6 shots, so with some good rolling you could easily take out a model or two or strip a hull point (it always hits the weakest armour). Can't remember if he does get special issue ammo like the Seekers, but I wouldn't be surprised (and it'd make him even more awesome). He's also got Centurion stats just like any other, so give him a power weapon and your Seeker squad becomes a valid melee threat as well.

As far as rules go, I'll just use them as a generic legion list (for the ones that don't have rules yet there's a list of USRs you can pick from, I might just go with one of those) or the Salamanders rules if I want to bust out Vulkan at 2k points.

And to finish off for the night, as the Vigilator isn't quite done yet, another squad pic, slightly better. Still a little blurry at the edges, but so far as I can tell there's no way around that with this camera.

Lovely bunch there. Nice work mate.

I like the idea of a wet blended cloak kind of giving the impression it is shifting its colours to suit the environment.

Finished squad is looking.

Excellent idea with the vexhilla.

EDC

The vexilla guy is mean! I'm looking forward to seeing the aesthetic of this next squad. I love it when a unit tells a story from their freeze frame, and your capturing this to a tee! Keep it up man

Squad looks cracking Para - stonkingly great work as usual

Some nice gritty looking marines there Para

1/3 of the Tactical Legionary's done already? Excellent stuff. Really like the theme of these too. I like how the disparate schemes are united by the sombre colours...but is it a slippery slope into 30k and lots of spending?

Resin tanks for Christmas!

Paintingness happens!

Raven Guard Vigilator is done! For the cape, I originally had it in a shiny grey, but that wasn't working, so I hit it with a blue wash. And then a green one. And then it looked a bit Alpha Legion-y, which for those who know their Istvaan is actually quite fitting.... His story is he killed an Alpha Legionnaire and took the camo cloak, but who knows?






Pretty pleased with the final result, half way through it really wasn't looking good but I think I've pulled it back from the brink of disaster. The gun is the only bit I'm not happy with, I might revisit that at some point.

And a bit more assembly:

Flamer Vet, simple conversion here just to change the angle of the leg and give him a striding pose:



And a chainsword guy. All these guys have BP/CCW/Bolter, and I'm not one to let a good chainsword go to waste, so it ended up here:



That's all for now! Good news is the essays are now all done and handed in, so I've got a lot more free time and a lot less pressure; hopefully I can kick it up a notch and get the rest of this next squad built up and painted. The Vexilla bearer is up next, and from all your comments on the pose I'm basically going to have to absolutely nail it to do it justice! Anyone think it particularly suits either Iron Hands or Salamanders? I'm thinking Sallies myself.

@Thraxas: No tanks... hate painting stuff like that! I may treat myself to some of the less-madly priced FW stuff in the new year, though, perhaps the IH Immortals or the Salamanders Firedrakes...

Thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

"kick it up a notch" he says ...

That's a really cool use for the chaplain I may consider doing something similar with mine, since I'm not a fan of the ridiculous looking crozius he carries around normally. Fantastic work as always.

I can see your pictures fine now, to cut the story short: software issues.

Cheers OMN! The pointing hand aside, that Chaplain conversion was very easy, would have been even simpler if I'd had my full Bits Box to work from. I'm tempted to grab another to do up with some different weapons at some point, as I've seen some really cool conversions already. Helps that the base model has a fantastic armour set and cloak, so the end result looks good even with minimal work.

Must admit I'm glad it was software issues on your end that messed up the pics, I was worried for a moment that my pics were completely terrible (as opposed to occasionally terrible ).

While I'm here, anyone got any ideas for power weapons in keeping with the style of this force? NMM/OSL doesn't seem like it would work, but the metallics+wash feels a little basic.

Vigilator looks cool man, he's come out real nice and fits the aesthetic well. I love how effectively you're capturing a balance of desperation and pissed-offness with your marines I dig it.

As far as power weapons go, it seems tough. I feel like a full energy weapon wouldn't fit, but they should still be an oppourtunity to add flare to a mini. The first thought I had was something along the lines of how GW do some of their power weapons? With the silver but some sort of OSL electrical charge emitting from certain areas?

Cheers! I think 'The Shattered Legions: Pissed Off and Desperate’ is officially the new working title for this army!

That method for power weapons could work. Not 100% sure how well it'll translate to claws though, which I'll be needing several of... Might give it a shot on a spare one tomorrow.

Vexilla bearer is done, the LC sarge is up next (predictably, he'll be a Raven), and I'll crack on with some more assembly, try and get the second squad and the Termies built, that just leaves the Seekers and the CC vets/command squad.

I like your vigilator guy a lot... You should have a house-rule for him that every turn he has to roll 2d6. On box cars or snake eyes it turns out he's an alpha and he turns his guns on his allies...

Can't wait to see the LC sarge, all the minis have been gorgeous so far.

Ta chaps! The LC sarge will have a few different bits and bobs on to set him apart from my Ravens thus far, hopefully I'll have him finished up this evening.

 brushcommando wrote:
You should have a house-rule for him that every turn he has to roll 2d6. On box cars or snake eyes it turns out he's an alpha and he turns his guns on his allies...

Best house rule ever

I think this thread needs some Contemptor love...which chapter will he be from?

Here's the Vexilla marine:





Pretty pleased with him.

Didn't get the sarge painted as I ended up playing40k (for the first time in about 18 months) instead. It was a rather impromptu, organised-at-the-last-minute team game so I was forced to play with some unpainted stuff and there were proxies and such everywhere, but there's a decent number of 40k players around it seems, so going forward this force should be hitting the table more than I'd expected. Between Batman and now 40k, my gaming schedule is pretty good right now.

My side (Legions, Skitarri and Blood Angels) took something of a pasting from a DE/Necron team (80% from the DE, Trueborn in Venoms were just throwing around an ungodly amount of Splinter Cannon shots ). Final score was 7-4 to them, although I take some consolation in that all 4 VPs we scored were won by the Shattered Legions. Ok, they took an absolute beating in the process, with the Dread and a 5-man Vet squad lost within 2 turns, the Termies not getting stuck in until just before time ran out on T3 (this is why I'm not a fan of team games like this, there's hardly ever a result) and the other Vet squad and a Vigilator just camping in a Bastion, but still. The Vigilator should have wrecked a Ravager with his pre-game Sabotage, rolling 6 hits and 5 glances/pens, but they were all saved by DE cover trickery. In the end, his first kill was a Night Scythe with an Icarus Lascannon, which promptly crashed on his head (though he survived, just).

Next week, we're doing 750 point matches, and I want to take to the field with a fully painted force. Got a few list options, thought I'd post them here and see if there's anything anyone particularly wants to see:

Option A:
Praetor
Termies
10-man (already painted) and 5-man Veteran Squads

Option B: Swap Termies for Contemptor

Option C: Swap 5-man Vet squad for 10-man bolter Tac squad (probably the 'best' option, but also the one that requires most painting/building, and might be the most boring on the tabletop as basic bolter Tacticals don't particularly excite me)

Option D: Swap Termies for Seeker Squad (not a massive fan of this, as it leaves me with nothing tougher than a bunch of expensive PA Marines)

So it'll likely be the Dread or Termie option, although I could be convinced by the other two... Bearing in mind I have a week to get whichever one I pick painted, any thoughts?

@Thraxas: Dread will be Iron Hands.

Thanks for reading, more soon!

nicce work Para. Vexilla looks fantastic.

Love that vexilla dude, Para! Also glad to hear that you're getting into actually playing 40k instead of just painting the models. It's a lot of fun, isn't it?

The Vexilla guy is gorgeous! Real nice work

I love that banner bearer. I don't know if it's just me, but the way he's holding it seems almost a taunt -- Sort of a "You want some?"

At 750 points a contemptor would probably be a handful for almost any army (save maybe necron). Would also minimise the number of models to paint.