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Interesting text there at the end, your right with what your saying.
Is this army going to be turnament ultra competetive or do you just want alot to choose from? I collect my armies with a blend of competetive and what I think is cool. This also gives me alot of options and I can play apocalypse games with my armies because I got a bit of everyting . So consider what you are aiming for with your army before you expand it and I think you will be fine

Sternguard.

Although they may or may not be a good tactical match for a bike army, these Sternguard are some of my favorite troops. So far I have finished painting four models although I may add some more features to the bare headed model. I have two more finished but not painted. I have four additional recruits, that is prebuilt old tactical space marine models that I plan to rebuild into Sternguard. Even though Games Workshop® produces attractive Sternguard models, I have converted my Sternguard from old bits and old models because 1) I am cheap, 2) to have better control over their style and weapons, and 3) because conversion is fun.

Four Finished Sternguard Veterans.



Three of the finished models have combi-flamers and one of the finished models has a combi-melta. All of them are carrying bolt pistols and grenades. The combi-flamers are made from regular flamers joined to regular bolt guns with green stuff. I used plastic tubing to add the extended flash suppressor/bolt accelerators and plastic tubing, plastic rods, and wire to build the super-scopes on top of the bolt guns. The bullets and magazines are from the Dark Angels spruce from the Ravenwing Battleforce. The combi-melta is from a captain’s set.

Four Sternguard Veterans.



This view shows the seams between the bolt guns and the flamers. Notice that the purity seals cover the seams to hide any irregularity caused by the green stuff.

Two Unpainted Sternguard Veterans.



The two unpainted models, one a sergeant, also have combi-meltas. The sergeant has a powerfist in lieu of a bolt pistol. The second veteran is partially painted. But I replaced his left arm and head so these need to be repainted.

Sergeant Rocky Ridge.



Rocky’s head is a squire’s head from one of the Bretonnia® knight’s sets. I sculpted the left eye piece, a pouch, and studs on his left shoulder from green stuff. This is really the first time I have tried to sculpt green stuff rather than use it to join parts together. I was surprised how tiny these parts are. To make the studs on the shoulder, I pinched off the tiniest amount of green stuff I could, rolled it into a ball, and then cut the ball in half with a knife and rolled out one half into a second ball. For the eyepiece on Rocky, I pinched and rolled out the smallest amount of green stuff I could pinch off, cut it in thirds, rolled it out, and cut it again so I had a speck of green stuff which I used a wet tooth pick to push into his eye and to shape. I am fairly pleased with the results but will need to see it painted. I have gained an appreciation for those Game Workshop artists who are sculpted the original models and for the other P&M bloggers who sculpt their models with green stuff. Having now tried it myself, I am amazed at the tiny detail that these artists are able to create.

The Four Recruits.



I will be upgrading these four models into Sternguard veterans. My favorite is the model on the left with a Bretonnia® knight’s helmet. I will upgrade his weapon to a combi-flamer. One of the models is primed but unpainted model from Assault on Black Reach. The other two models I will be stripping down. I will add a combi-melta to one and possibly lascannons to the other two.

This would give me eight veterans with a powerfist, four combi-meltas, four combi-flamers, all with special ammo, and two veterans with lascannons. Add a Rhino and I have a hammer unit that should be able to take care of anything.

Predators with Whip Antennas.

Hi Rose Mountainz, thanks for the encouragement. I build and play for fun but I would like my army to be competitive. Still, I usually build what I think is cool, rather than strictly what is ultra-competitive. Like you, I like having lots of options. Besides a non-competitive model might become really competitive when GW updates their codices.

These two Predators were fun to build. I like the turrets and I think that Predators are the best looking of the Rhino based tanks.

Two Predators.



I made the whip antennas from brass wire. For the ball at the end of the antenna, I cut off the skull from the bike antennas. Since I did not put antennas on most of my bikes, I have a number of these antennas left. I cut the skull off from the biker antenna and then drilled a hole in the base of the skull. Since the copper wire was thinner than the hole I drilled, I filled the hole with green stuff before inserting the wire into it. I glued a little plastic square to the top of the turret as a base for the whip antenna. I drilled a hole through the base and into the top of the turret to hold the whip antenna. I then shaped the wire to the bent configuration. The hold down cord is actually dental floss. I drilled a hole through the side of the turret and threaded the dental floss through the hole. I tied that other end to a short piece of brass wire shaped in figure 8 hook and put one end of the figure 8 over the antenna.

I also cut a piece of plastic card to make a shield for the heavy bolter at the top of the turret.

The most difficult conversion, however, was the hand with the pointing finger on the gunner on the right. Normally, the gunner has both of his hands on the handles of the heavy bolter. I had to cut off one of the arms and a portion of the handle of the heavy bolter. Then I had to graft in, using wire and green stuff, a new portion of the handle with no hand. This took a little bit of trimming and cutting to get it right. I then had to pin both the pointing arm and the arm holding the handle since neither really would support themselves. This was a lot of work for an effect that is barely noticed in the pictures but I love these small little conversions that give models a little personality.

The Pointing Finger.



I am still painting these Predators although the one on the left is further along.

The Heart of My Bike Army



I have just about completed a basic army consisting of:

Captain on bike with artificer armor, storm shield, and relic blade.

Librarian on bike.

Command Squad on bikes with company champion, pair lighting claws, storm shield, thunderhammmer, and company standard.

1st Bike Squad (white) with Powerfist, 2 extra bikes, 2 meltaguns.

2nd Bike Squad (red) with Powerfist, 2 extra bikes, 2 meltaguns, Attack Bike with Multi-melta.

3rd Bike Squad (blue) with Powerfist, 2 extra bikes, 2 meltaguns, Attack Bike with Multi-melta.

Land Speeder with Typhoon missile launcher.

Land Speeder with Typhoon missile launcher.

Predator with autocannon and heavy bolter.

Predator with autocannon and heavy bolter.

Land Speeder Storm with 5 scouts.

3 scout bikes.

I am working on the following support models:

land raider crusader and assault terminators with a possible librarian in terminator armor

ten sternguards with rhino

I am considering building the following

1 – 3 vindicators

Another bike squad with 8 bikes, 2 flamers, and an attack bike with heavy bolter.

This bike squad would be anti-infantry rather than the anti-tank configuration of squads 1 – 3. I would get one more Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce which gives me 6 bikes, plus an attack bike and another land speeder. I would pull 2 or 3 pistol armed bikes from the bike squads. Another bike squad may be the best support for my bike army and it would give me a total of 30 bikes including the three attack bikes.

I am also recalculating the models needed for a 1000, 1500, and 1750 point bike army.

Stripping the Land Raider.

I have been on vacation for a few weeks so I have this nagging message about not posting for over two weeks. I haven’t worked on any models for several weeks but I do have pictures showing how I stripped my land raider.

Step 1: Soak the Land Raider for 24 hours in Purple Power, an industrial strength cleaner/degreaser. I purchased it at Wal-Mart. Make sure to wear gloves.

Mr. Hands pointing to the Land Raider.



Step 2: After soaking, scrub off the paint with on old toothbrush. While scrubbing, rinse the excess paint in the Purple Power. Be sure to wear gloves. Do not use the toothbrush afterwards to brush your teeth.

Scrubbing the Land Raider.



Scrubbing the Land Raider 2.



More Scrubbing the Land Raider.



Step 3: After scrubbing, scrub and rinse in cold water. Wear gloves until the Purple Power is completely rinsed from the model.

Rinsing and Scrubbing the Land Raider.



Rinsing the Land Raider.



The Finished Product

Nice effort on the bikers, its pretty brave to go and do the camo scheme as people are obv going to frown on it a little. Im not sold on it myself but I do think it is well executed, and the cherry icons are well done also. I like your take on sternguard, although I immediatly thought "lootas" when I saw them, somthing about the big ass ammo chains maybe. Your bikers are all looking solid, and I do quite like the use of the different trim colours per biker for weapon annotation, the power sword lightning effects are also really nice. Finally and to round the comment off I have to disagree with you and say that Vindicators are by far and above the best rhino chasis tanks!
Good work, and although it seems that you might be finishing soon I urge you to continue with all gusto regardless of the lack of responses!

Do my Sternguard look like Lootas?

Trilobite, Thanks for the comments. I think my Sternguard look somewhat like Lootas, too. I think it has to do with the size and placement of the weapons. For fun, in the pictures below I posed one of my Sternguard with a couple of unpainted Lootas.

Twins Separated at Birth.



Another Pair.

Sternguard Sergeant Rocky Ridge.

These Sternguard models are some of my favorite and Sergeant Rocky Ridge is my favorite of these Sternguard. Rocky’s head is a squire’s head from one of the Bretonnia® knight’s sets. I sculpted the right eye piece from green stuff. It is difficult to work green stuff with that degree of detail and his eye piece needs a more work. The antenna is brass wire with a skull from a biker antenna glued on. I have just about finished painting him although I may touch up a few details, including painting his eyes and the eyes of the model to his right.

Sternguard facing down Orks.



Sergeant Rocky Ridge.

My New Bikes.

I just bought a new Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce which has six bikes, one assault bike, and one land speeder. I spent part of last Saturday preparing the bike cores. All of the bike cores, including the assault bike, are identical with identical legs for the bikers. I like to make all the bike cores in one sitting. It is somewhat relaxing since I don’t need to look for bits and make any decisions. Because all bike cores are alike, I build them in an assembly line like manner, letting the glue set on one bike while I start another. The bike itself comes with a left and right side which are held together by the wheels, legs, the pipe assembly, and the handlebars. I trim and blend the seams with a Xacto knife because the left and right assemblies do not always mesh perfectly. I also assembly line the torso and packs since I am going to build a standard bike squad so all the marines have the same torso and pack.

Seven Core Bikes and Torsos Ready to be Customized.



When I have the bikes to this stage, I get a little excited. Each core bike has the potential to be a biker sergeant, a flamer or melta-gunner, a pistol shooter, assault bike driver, or even an exotic like a space marine captain, a librarian, or a command squad veteran. For now, I am making a standard bike squad. Although it is a basic, I am going to make a few fun modifications. Unlike the other bike squads which were anti-tank with meltaguns and a multi-melta, I am making this squad anti-infantry and will do some new type customizations on the bikers. Now I am ready for the creative part where each biker assumes a personality.

The Front of an Unfinished Bike.



I always drill out the barrel of my guns with the Warhammer’s hand drill.

The Back of an Unfinished Bike.




In addition to the gun bores, I also drilled out the exhaust pipes.

The next stage, building the individual biker, is the most fun and frustrating. Fun because this is the most creative. Frustrating because I have to look through my bits for the right part, and then cut up, modify, and add green stuff to make the parts fit, all without making a major goof. My biggest problem is that I often drop the tiny part I am working on and have to get under the table and look for it.

Bases and Terrain.

I paint both my bases and the terrain sheet the same way. I have jar of white gesso and a jar of black gesso which I mix. I add the black gesso first, just a little, and then add the white until I get the right color of gray. I then add medium grit ballast. This gives me a gray gritty mixture which I can paint on terrain and bases. The terrain sheet is an artist canvas board I had. It is a perfect size for displaying my army as a whole. I like its simplicity. It looks like a asphalt landing field or the surface of some desolate planet or moon. I also streaked it with a lighter gray mixture of Gesso which gives it depth. Note how that the terrain appears uneven in some of the pictures although it is perfectly flat. That is a pure illusion.

Assault Marine Facing Orks.



The gray gesso mix is also great for the bases of my bikers. I like a simple base design. I have been impressed with some of fancy bases that others have made but I don’t use them for four reasons. 1) It is too much work. 2) Complex bases overwhelm the model. 3) Simple bases more easily blend into all terrains. 4) I want an illusion that the bikes are moving. The more complex the base, the more static the model appears. Notice the bike bases in the picture below.

Bikers with Meltaguns.



These are my six melta gunners although normally they would be deployed in three separate squads. Melta gunners on Bikes are slightly crazy since they try to get as close to the target as possible. If the target is a land raider and they miss, that land raider is going to come after them. If they hit the land raider, whatever is inside that land raider is coming after them.

A Close Up of the Assault Marine.



My son painted this assault marine when he was twelve or thirteen. He considers it one of his best painted models and I agree. He painted it during a class at the local Warhammer Store (now closed). The model would be even better if we drilled out the pistol barrel and painted grey gesso mix on the base.

The Whirlwind and Space Marine with Binoculars.

I have an old whirlwind which I stripped with Purple Power several weeks ago. I added a wire antenna and glued on an a couple of spare missiles on the top. I have just put on the primer but have not repainted it.

The Whirlwind.



I built the tank commander with binoculars several months ago for one of my predators. Then I decided to make a different tank commander with twin bolters for the predator, because 1) it looked good, 2) it gave the predator a little more firepower, and 3) it gave the predator a spare gun just in case. So I pulled the old tank commander off the predator, cut off the old hatch on the whirlwind, and stuck the old commander on the whirlwind.

Space Marine with Binoculars.



The binoculars are made from plastic tubing and green stuff.

Space Marine with Binoculars on Whirlwind.



The whirlwind is a nice little addition to a marine army. I watched my son play it several times. It is a fairly low point model that stays hidden in the back of the battlefield lobbing long range artillery blasts at the opponent’s infantry. The opponent has a choice. Either lose some infantry every turn or deploy a costly unit to try to destroy the whirlwind, tying up that unit for several moves, and maybe placing that unit in a vulnerable position where it can be destroyed.

A Final View of the Whirlwind.

Just Playing Around.

Several weeks ago, I had fun creating a picture of a biker shooting an Ork. I still have the Ork with the guts flying out so for this picture, I just replaced the biker with one of my new Sternguard. I did better on keeping both the Sternguard and the Ork in focus.

A Good Day to Kill Orks.

Hey Oldmanronald,

Nice to see a camo army! Just wondering...the bolt shot into the ork...what are you using for that? I've not seen it before and it is a great idea....

Hi Manoknok

The bolt shot is short length of wire. I use both brass wire and piano wire on my models. The piano wire is stiffer but hard to cut. I think that is what I used. The brass is easier to cut but it will bend. I painted the wire black and then painted the end near the pistol reds and yellows. I scrapped the wire to remove the paint to give it the streaking look. I had drilled out the bolt pistol with the Warhammer hand drill so the bore has to be about 1 mm. The wire is just set in the bore hole in the bolt pistol and I think the wire is 1 mm in diameter but I will check that tonight. I drilled a hole in the Ork and put the other end of the wire in the Ork hole. The guts are just green stuff.

Painting Camouflage.

When my son and I first started Warhammer 40K, we started building a space marine army. Since we didn’t know what color scheme to pick, I choose camouflage based on my own experience in the military which is that elite units use camouflage on their combat uniforms. We did a somewhat ad hoc pattern which worked but when I later signed up my son for a class at the Warhammer store, he was taught a more complex camouflage pattern which I adopted for my space marines. My son, who is now building space wolves, is using a more traditional pattern for his army but I am still retaining the camouflage.

The following are the steps for painting the camouflage.

Step 1: Apply a base coat of Chaos Black. Actually, for all our models I apply a base coat of Chaos Black. The exception is the flag I build for the standard in which I used a white base coat. The white base coat allowed the flag to have brighter colors. Still, the biker holding the flag has a Chaos black base coat.

Step 2: Apply Orkshade Green every place where there will be camouflage.



Orkshade Green on a standing Lasercannon gunner.

Step 3: Apply Kerri Brown to create brown spots on the camouflage.



Kerri Brown on a kneeling lasercannon gunner.

Step 4: Apply Catachen Green to the non-spots on the camouflage.



Catachen Green on a Biker with Pistol.

Step 5: Apply Scorched Brown to the spots on the camouflage.



Scorched Brown on a Biker with Knight’s Helmet.

Step 6: Apply Bestial Brown around the spots on the camouflage.



Bestial Brown on a Biker with a partial Knight’s Helmet.

Step 7: Apply Cammo Green over the Bestial Brown.



Cammo Green on a Biker with a Trumpet.



Bike with a Trumpet and Helmet on Bike.

Notice that this biker is bare faced but that there is a helmet on the side of the bike. My army has a new SOP (standard operating procedure). All soldiers must have helmets. Those models who are not wearing helmets will have a helmet that they can put on. I was reading an discussion on Dakka Dakka where someone suggested that it was unrealistic for a disciplined space marine to go into combat on a strange planet not wearing a helmet. I had assumed that the power armor generated a protective field that would provide protection to the head regardless of whether a helmet was worn or not. Still, in a destructive combat environment a soldier should have a helmet on in case his protective field fails, even if momentarily. Historically, well disciplined troops, such as space marines, will always wear helmets in combat.

The helmet are easy to make and I have plenty of spares since each bike spruce comes with a helmet and so do most of the other sets. I simply trimmed off the neck of the helmet and glued the helmet to a bumper or belt.

Step 8: Apply Thraka Green Wash on all the camouflage but the brown spots.



Thakka Green on a Flamer with the Horse-head Helmet.

Step 9: Apply Gryphonne Sepia on the brown spots.



Gryphonne Sepia on a Flammer with the Dragon-head Helmet.

This flammer is one of my favorite models.



Gryphonne Sepia on Sergeant Staghorn.

Sergeant Staghorn is another of my favorite models.



Gryphonne Sepia on an Attack Bike.

Notice that I paint the bike and the sidecar separately and only add them together once they are both painted.

The Dragon flames some Orks.



Mmm, it smells like sautéed mushrooms. Sergeant Victor Staghorn rushes in to protect the Dragon as the Dragon flames the Orks.

This may be my favorite of all my pictures. The Dragon is one of the flamers in Staghorn’s Rowdies, the fourth bike squad of the 6th Biker Troop. Unlike the other bike squads, the Rowdies are armed with two flamers rather than two meltaguns and the squad attack bike has a heavy bolter instead of a multi-melta. Sergeant Victor Staghorn is armed with a power axe instead of the powerfists carried by the three pretty boy sergeants. Finally, the Rowdies do not have a distinctive color trim like the other three bike squads. All the Rowdies carry totally unauthorized Chaos space marine Berzerkers knives.

Yoink.

The sound of me stealing your ideas for helmets...

The Orkses getting flamed is awesome!

Sergeant Victor Staghorn



Sergeant Staghorn in the Lead.

My favorite pose for my bikers is with the front wheel pinned and the back wheel free and up. I use a short piece of piano wire bent to form an L shape. One leg of the L is glued under the base; the other end goes through a hole drilled in the front part of the base and glued into the front tire. The bike looks like moving and floating over its base.



The Pointing Finger.

One of the best pieces that Warhammer makes is the pointing finger. I love the pointing finger and cannot have enough figures with the pointing finger.

Generally Space Marines, like most pious people, tend to be serious, almost stuffy, in their approach to life. Not for them is the individualistic, humorous, and boisterous lifestyle of Space Wolves and others. Yet even within the Space Marines, there are a few individuals that recognize that compared to the Creator, we mortals are merely clowns and fools. Our most sacred and pious acts must seem like a joke, mere child’s play, to the Creator Who Is Over All. Sergeant Victor Staghorn is one of these, a warrior who approaches combat with enthusiasm, imagination, and even humor. Because of his attitude, in his original chapter with its traditional and stuffy captains and chapter master, Staghorn was often in trouble. But in the 6th Bike Troop, Staghorn has become the expert in leading a nimble squad of fast moving and lightly armed bikers in lighting raids.



Painting Sergeant Staghorn.

Very inspiring stuff since I'm planning to make a 1000 point White Scars bike force sometime in the future (with almost the same list as you xD). I was wondering about the Ravenwing pack, do you get any special weapons with it, and how well do the bikes lend themselfs to special weapon conversions?

I wasn't even aware of the old rule about 2h weapons and bikes, makes sense thought. Glad they changed it cause that means I can use this guy http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440271a&prodId=prod810030a as a relic blade captain (I imagine he'll just use it as a lance, infact, that could make for a fun conversion....)

Oh, and I'd love to hear how your army does in a 1000 points game

Lastly I was wondering if you assemble the whole bike before you paint it or if you paint it in parts

Hi Limbo

The best way to build a bike army is to build it from the Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce. For the price of six bikes, the battleforce includes six normal space marine bikes, one normal space marine assault bike, and one normal space marine land speeder as well as a number of Dark Angels upgrade spruces.

The bikes in the Battleforce are the same as regular space marines except for the torso, arms, and heads of the riders. I like the Dark Angel riders better than the regular bikers. I did buy one regular Space Marine bike squad and the rider’s arms, torso, and heads were each a single metal component. One of the biker’s torsos had a multamelta, one had a plasma gun, and one had a sword. These metal models are difficult to customize and the only one I could use was the one with the meltamelta. The arms, torso, and heads of the Battleforce are regular marines but are a much more workable plastic.

The Battleforce has none of the special weapons like the multamelta, plasma gun, or sword. Neither the regular space squad nor the Battleforce has the pistols, powerfists, flamers, and battleaxes that I used. Actually, except for one multagunners, I used bits from other kits such as the assault squad, the company commander set, and regular space marine sets to get my weapons. I ordered many of my bits from bit suppliers such as http://www.thewarstore.com/SpaceMarineBitz.html. This is a US supplier but there are bit suppliers in Europe. You may be able to trade or get some of these bits from your local game shop.

I paint my bikes already assembled except for the assault bike. I paint the bike and the sidecar separately and then put them together. If you fit bits onto the assault bike, make sure that you check to make sure that the sidecar still fits. I use a black basecoat which means that the hard to paint areas remain black and disappear into the background. If you are painting White Scars and using a white base coat, you may have to experiment. When I painted my standard bearer, I painted the flag and the biker separately so I could use a white base coat on the flag to get brighter colors. I then painted on Chaos Black on the flag pole where I wanted to create shadows before I did the finish painting.

I haven’t had a chance to play the bike army in any competitive games yet. It does play differently than a regular space marine army. There are some great sites that discuss Space Marine bike strategy. I have the links on another computer so I will add them later.

Good luck with your White Scars army. I think the White Scars captain is a great looking model.

I see your army is coming along nicely. Good work!

like your military camo scheme.

First Flamer: The Dragon

The Dragon is a flamer in Staghorn’s Rowdies. The Dragon is one of my favorite models. I have a few Bike models that, to me, seem to be slightly more exciting than the others. This group includes the Dragon, Staghorn himself, my Bike Captain, my three pretty boy sergeants, my Command Squad Standard Bearer, and my simplest Command Squad Veteran. When I look at these models, they seem to have a personality, to be individuals that have a name and history. I like all my bike army, but these few models are my favorite.



The Dragon.

The red spare flamer tanks, shown in this picture and the one below, were some of the most difficult parts I have made. I cut up an old plastic missile I had in my bits collection, probably from the Whirlwind models. I then carved out the middle part, now painted red, leaving just the rims, trimmed with boltgun metal, and made the rounded bases and tops with green stuff. This is the kind of detail I like with each space marine carrying the equipment he needs for a long hard fight. When I was in the army, we often carried 100 pounds of equipment, ammo, and weapons so I figure that the space marines would carry as much as possible. In fact, I would added more stuff to the bikers but at some point I just have to tell myself, no more grenades and packs. I need to finish this army.



The Flamer in the Dragon’s Hand.

This shot shows how the Dragon holds the flamer like a pistol. Imagine the strength of an arm to hold a flamer like that.



Welcome to Hell, Heretic.

This may be the last mortal view many Orks and heretics have in this life. The next moment is merely flame, pain, and death.



Cleansing out an Ork Infection.

I had some fun with Styrofoam, orange paint, and few Ork bits.

Second Flamer: The Horse.



The Horse.

Another of Staghorn’s Rowdies is the Horse. Like Staghorn and the Dragon, I used some Warhammer knight pieces that we had left over to make the helmets. I actually had to carve down the helmets to remove some drapery over the backs of the helmets and to fit the necks into the Biker’s torsos. I also had to pin in the helmets and use some green stuff to fill in the gaps. Actually, I pinned about half the arms on my bikers. Of the package, the arms with weapons generally point toward the front of the model which would place the arms and weapons into the handlebars of the bike. So I had to cut and pin the arms so that they were sticking out to the side. It makes the models more dynamic.



Of course he’s flamboyant, he’s a flamer.

Very cool looking marines. It is nice to see some camo ones as people always seem to think it looks bad, with yours though I would have to say they look very good. The glowing eyes in the helmets look nice!

The Bugler.

The Bugler is an experiment. When I visited the Shiloh battlefield this summer, I went to the souvenir shop and they had some American Civil War cavalry toy soldiers. I really liked the bugler. So I decided to create a bugler for Staghorn’s Rowdies. This is the result.



The Bugler – Staghorn’s Rowdies.

Tactically in the game, the Bugler would be treated as a standard pistol carrying biker with no special abilities or weapon. If I break up the Rowdies into combat teams, I will consider him the Corporal over the second team.

As far as a model, he didn’t turn out quite as good as I hoped. I have a few biker models that I had high expectations but come short of what I was hoping. These include this model, my captain in the sidecar, my company champion, and my apothecary. Oddly enough, I consider my Librarian in that category also, but partly because I accidently smashed him with some terrain and I haven’t been able to completely fix him. I don’t mean that I don’t like these models. It does mean that I thought these would be great models like Staghorn and the Biker Captain but they turned out okay rather than great.



The Bugler with Helmet on Bike.

Notice the helmet on the Bugler’s fender. As I noted in a prior post, all my bikers require helmets. Some of my bareheaded models, however, hang their helmet on the side of their bikes when they can get away with that. Disciplined Troops wear helmets in combat. Remember, however, the 6th Bike Troop has some discipline problems, unusual for Space Marines. Of course, he can't play the bugle with his helmet on.

I have a little bit of a conceptual (fluff) problem with the bugler. If the 6th Bike Troop is fighting on a lifeless, airless planet, the bugler would blow his lung out through his horn, not a pleasant experience. Even on a planet with a life supporting atmosphere, however, it is unlikely that the other Bikers on fast moving, loud bikes would be able to hear the bugle. Besides, the Bikers would be communicating by radio rather than pure sound.

Another Favorite.



A unnamed pistol gunner in Staghorn’s Rowdies.

In one of my posts I mentioned being disappointed in how a model was not quite as special as I thought it would be. However, there are some that unexpectedly delight me. This is one that is just a routine pistol biker but somehow he turned out to be one of my favorites. I am trying to figure out a good name for him but, as of now, he is merely an unnamed pistol gunner in Staghorn’s Rowdies.



A second shot of the pistol gunner.

The head is probably from the Empire or Bretonnian army, probably of a archer or yeoman soldier. He is not pretty. Just looking at his face, this trooper looks like a toughie who likes a good fight but doesn’t always follows the rules. My favorite detail is the right eye piece that I molded out of green stuff.

Notice that the gunner is wearing a partial helmet rather than a full helmet. He actually thought he was going to get away with this. But the Captain spotted this picture and ordered him to use a full helmet in combat. So now this trooper carries a full helmet on his bike. In one battle it actually saved his life. Once in an assault, a berzerker jumped on his back and tried to kill him. The gunner was able to grab his full helmet hanging on his bike and beat out the berzerker’s brains with it.



With his helmet on his Bike.



Another View of the Pistol Gunner.

The Pistol Gunner with the Iron Mask.



The Iron Mask.

The Iron Mask is another of Staghorn’s Rowdies. Again his head is a knight’s helmet from the Empire bits. I have written about models that are my favorite and models that I am disappointed with. This is neither, just a good solid model that helps complete my army.



Another View of the Iron Mask.

Staghorn’s Attack Bike.



This Attack Bike supports Staghorn’s Rowdies. Unlike my other three attack bikes, this bike has a heavy bolter instead of a combi-melta. I added two spare ammo boxes on the fender and a large ammo storage box on the front of the side-car. I figure that this long range patrol attack bike needs to carry all the ammo it can.

Below is a picture of the Attack Bike with Staghorn’s Rowdies. I designed Staghorn’s Rowdies to fill a niche that I needed for my army, a Bike squad with 30 less points than each of the other three Bike Squads. So Staghorn’s Rowdies are a pure anti-infantry unit with Staghorn carrying a power axe instead of a powerfist, the Horse and the Dragon each carrying a flamer instead of a meltagun, and the attack bike with only a heavy bolter.



Staghorn’s Rowdies.

Compare the Rowdies to one of the other squads. Here is a picture of the blue squad.



The Blue Squad.

The blue squad, as well as the white and red squads, is a heavy anti-tank unit. Of the six models in each squad, two have a meltaguns, one has a combi-melta, and the sergeant has a powerfist. With this concentration of melta, this is a squad that can take apart pretty much any individual armor vehicle.

Still, Staghorn's Rowdies are 30 points less and for my 1000, 1500, and 1850 point army, I need those extra points for my captain. In many ways Staghorn’s Rowdies is my favorite bike squad even if it is the cheapest without any anti-tank weapons. It just looks so scrappy and tough.



Another View of the Rowdies.



Another View of the Attack Bike.

I like the theme of the army as a whole. I like the tied down antennas too. Can't wait to see the Termies when they're done.