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As for many others, Betrayal at Calth caused me to start a new army and get up on this 30k train! I decided to go for Raven Guard because they are my Favourites and you don't see them that often. I've been pretty lazy because of lack of time and energy, so I decided to try to hide my laziness with a lot of weathering! It's kinda worked . My general idea is that they're fighting in the middle of the escape from the Urgall Depression, hence the battle damage and dust everywhere. Also the veteran tactical squads because I figured everyone would be a veteran by this point! It's not really a super great force game wise, but I've restricted myself to Zone Mortalis games so far.


1700 of Raven Gard


Praetor Antareus Brex. So far good only at getting punched in the face by Allexus Pollux


Apothecary Bros. yet to see the table.


Centurion/Consul Delegatus. His job is to provide a cheap alternative HQ for Zone Mortalis


Dat sweet, sweet Cameloline


Contemptor. The only model in my force who has consistently pulled his weight.


Such Weathering


MEDICORE freehand


Terminators who are good at dying to breachers in combat, bad at killing things, but infuriatinly good at passing 4+ Invulnerable saves.


Plasma Gun Support Squad. Have not yet had a chance to kill themselves through glorious overheating.



Three Veteran Tac Squads. One squad hasn't seen the table yet, one got the Allexus Pollux experience (Which was short and painful), they last squad managed to actually shoot some foemen. Notably Exodus, who got vaped by a Meltagun in overwatch. Reaction fire is deadly yo.

Speaking of Zone Mortalis! PICTURES:




Game started out pretty bad. I infiltrated a small veteran squad forward, the foe siezed the initiative and immediately discovered my squad. With a Dreadnaught and Terminator Squad. Yes, they all have combi plasmas.


Luckily I only lost 2 marines in the firestorm and decided to do the Raven Guard thing and fade away, only to be ambushed by Exodus, the Alpha Legion assassin.


The Terminators retreated in search of more worthy prey, while a duel of ancients erupted as my Contemptor strode onto the table.


Exodus guns down two marines, but gets killed by a Meta Gun on overwatch as he charges in to finish them off!


Battle is joined! Assault cannon rounds ping off my contemptor, while the Fists Dread shrugs 3 Melta hits. Time to settle it mano a mano!


Flailing ensues. All 7 attacks miss in the first round of combat, but in the second round my Dread deals 2 hull points to one, and stunned his foe, allowing him to win via TKO in the 3rd.


My Teminators and Praetor face down Alexus Pollux and a Breacher Squad with accompanying Apothecary in the command centre.


And from the other end. My Terminators shrug off a volley of plasma from the fists termis who are still lurking around without a single casualty. One of the firsts died to overheating.


The Fists boldly stride forwards ...


And the Charge thunders home. My praetor kills a couple of marines, Pollux punches out my sergeant, his sergeant kills a couple of terminators. This is going bad for team raven.


It goes worse. My Terminators whiff two rounds in a row while the Breachers Sergeant keeps punching terminators like a champion. My Praetor fails to kill Alexus, and gets king hit (Sorry, Coward Punched) in return. It's all over.


My other Tac squad holds out, finishing off the breachers and the Apothecary, the Vexilla bearer defying Pollux himself, surviving 2 round of combat and wounding the future Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists into the bargain! We ended up losing quite convincingly. We managed to hold some ground, but Pollux got both our warlords and they ended up up on KPs as well. Still a great game, I need more Ravens.

Cheers man, The Zone Mortalis Board was custom cut by a friend who works for a Lasercutting company. They were developing it for sale, but it ended up being very nearly as expensive as a Forgeworld Board once you took shipping (even domestic within AUS) into account. As a result they've shelved the idea for now.

darkness screamer wrote:I really like your Raven Guard but one tiny thing,please drill the barrels out

Haha yeah. I've been suitably Barrel shamed at this point. My original excuse was that I'd lost my drill in the mess that is my workbench. I've since found it .. And broken my 1mm Drill bit. Yay! I am totally going to get around to it some time.

Udo wrote:Great looking army. That basing scheme is particularly nice. Any chance you could give us a run down on how you did it?

Cheers man! Glad you like the bases. The method is as follows.

1. Tear up some corkboard into little rock like chunks, ideally with flat bases. I'm using stuff that's about 4mm think that I got from a hardware store.
2. Glue the chunks onto the bases with PVA or superglue.
3. Dab some watered down PVA around the rock and else where on the bases to create some sandy areas.
4. Dip it in sand to attach the sand.
5. Wait for it to dry.
6. Or don't! I'm impatient. Spray that sucker black.
7. Paint the Rock/Sand Baneblade brown. Cover the flat black areas that we didn't texture with a Agrellan Earth. If you think it's gone on way too think, you've probably added enough,
8. Leave to dry, in the sun if possible. (Gives bigger cracks)
9. Drybrush the whole base Pallid Wytch Flesh
10. Drybrush the base Ceramite white (Lightly)
11. Attach model. I usually clip off any tabs and just superglue them on top. I'll pin them if I'm feeling sensible.
12. When you weather the model, work excess weathering powder into the base.
13. Enjoy what an inhospitable hell-hole Istvaan III was!

Paradigm wrote:Fantastic work! Really nice looking army there, the theme and tone are superb!

Cheers! It's been really fun to paint a Grim'n'gritty army for a change.

Boyz "R" Us wrote:Wonderfull work, great looking army!

Thanks!

Skimask Mohawk wrote:The only thing I don't like is the tribal pattern on the dread, I just hate the concept of it so much already as its super forced onto the XIX to sell their connection to the Space Sharks and I can't believe you painted it on your pattern free dread!!!

Really do like to see more heresy era RG and your stuff definitely looks nice

Haha Interesting. I have a friend with a Space Sharks army and we're enjoying the connection. personally I'm not fussed on the tribal pattern fro ma fluff perspective, but it helps break up the massive flat black areas of the dread, and it's somewhat reminiscent of Aboriginal Dot Painting and as an Aussie, I could hardly pass it up!

FeindusMaximus wrote:Nice

GodofHobos wrote:The raven guard look great! I like the dusty basing.


The imperial fists look fantastic. I love seeing two painted armies clash.

Did a dakka poster paint the Fists?

Cheers! Dust EVERYWHERE. It's SENSIBLE.
Not sure if the fists have been on Dakka, but mu opponent post under the name RustyMagos on WargamerAU and also on Warseer I think, so they've been about the interwebz.

evildrcheese wrote:Very nice. The action shots from the battle look great!

EDC

Thanks. Full painted table and armies always makes for a good photo opportunity!

SickSix wrote:Great looking ravens. The weathering is great. They really look like they have been scrambling around Isstvan for a while.

Cheers! That's the intention. To make them really filthy!

Well, in the meantime, things have taken a 40k turn. Mostly because I've run out of 30k stuff to paint for the moment, so I've been rummaging through old boxes like a hobby trash panda to find marines that can have Ravens applied to them.
The Result:



Quite possibly the least 30k thing possible. The much maligned Centurions. I've left off the crotch armour and the HUEG Shoulder pads, to give t hem a more streamlined Raven Approved look. They;re still bulky as hell, but I'm happier with this, especially with the MK IV Helmets. I did try MKVI Beakie Helmets, but they just don't fit! I actually had a lot of fun with these guys as the big armour panels lend themselves to subtle airbrushing and they had HEAPS of recessed detail to collect dust, see the second photo. So filthy. I've done a little tip of the hat to 30k by giving them the 30k Destroyer Unit symbol to them instead of the generic Devastator one. These guys have seen the table once where they actually did pretty well despite having Internet-Disapproved Heavy Bolter options. They shot up a whole bunch of Long Fangs, Blood Claws and even a Thunderwolf. Yes, Grav Cannons would have been better, but Heavy Bolters have Style

Something that I can actually use in 30k: Scouts/Recon Marines.



These guys are pulling double duty. In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, they will be Recon marines with a Nuncio Vox for calling in Artillery. IN the Even Farther Future (Which is also Grimmer and Darker), they will be Scouts in part of a Shadowstrike Killteam.
Why do they exist? I had been playing Dawn of War II and was loving Shotguns. and a friend had spare Scion Beret Heads. I combined the two. I'm still not sure if they look cool or stupid (or both!), but they actually look pretty decent on the table top despite the half-assed paintjob they've got. The pplastic scouts are pretty uninspiring. I also over weathered the Camo. There is a pattern there! Three different layers of colours, and highlighting! Can't see any of it now because I went nuts with the powder. Oh well lesson learnt for the next unit of scouts.

Spacewolverine wrote:The scouts are really cool, I may have to steal that idea. Great idea and many thanks. I think black berets would of been better but red definitely sticks out. Yay I'm not the only one with Raven Guard centurions. Everything looks awesome.

Cheers! I went with red because red berets are jsut cool and makes them a bit distinct on the table. I'm finding my Centurions are doing me proud!

Thanatos73 wrote:Centurions actually look much better with the shoulder pads and crotch armor left off. The dirtied up look also helps them and I like the destroyer icon on them.

Yeah it jsut makes them look that bit sleeker and more industrial, rather than just fat!

ghostmaker wrote:Love it all. The scouts are a great idea!

Thanks! I'm trying to source more Scion heads to expand that unit to 10.

Winter wrote:The bases are fantastic, they really make the black stand out.

What was your process?

Cheers man. Process is:

1. Tear up some corkboard into little rock like chunks, ideally with flat bases. I'm using stuff that's about 4mm think that I got from a hardware store.
2. Glue the chunks onto the bases with PVA or superglue.
3. Dab some watered down PVA around the rock and else where on the bases to create some sandy areas.
4. Dip it in sand to attach the sand.
5. Wait for it to dry.
6. Or don't! I'm impatient. Spray that sucker black.
7. Paint the Rock/Sand Baneblade brown. Cover the flat black areas that we didn't texture with a Agrellan Earth. If you think it's gone on way too think, you've probably added enough,
8. Leave to dry, in the sun if possible. (Gives bigger cracks)
9. Drybrush the whole base Pallid Wytch Flesh
10. Drybrush the base Ceramite white (Lightly)
11. Attach model. I usually clip off any tabs and just superglue them on top. I'll pin them if I'm feeling sensible.
12. When you weather the model, work excess weathering powder into the base.
13. Enjoy what an inhospitable hell-hole Istvaan III was!

In the mean time, reinforcements have arrived for the glorious XIX!





Librarian Orrus (Named for a species of Australian Crow) has join the Librarium to give me a sensible 40k legal HQ! So far he has lead his brethren to glorious victory over the Sons of Fenris on the open field, bravely standing before the charge of the Wolf Lord to buy the Vanguard enough time to secure victory. He has also led a boarding assault on a traitor vessel, using how powers to ensure victory, though a daemonic attack seriously wounded him in the process.

This guy is really just a stop gap HQ until I get a Chaplain or Captain with the Jump Pack and Lightning Claws business. I think my go to HQ is goign to be a Chaplain with Swift-strike and Murder and the Raven Skull of Korvaad. He can kill a VERY healthy number of mans on the charge but is also 160 odd points to a 2 wound character. Orrus gets to be the sensible choice.

Also, what would a Raven Guard army be without Vanguard Veterans? I had some old metal Vanguard lying around and picked up a plastic box to supplement them. This is the result:





So the metal chumps got demoted to bolt pistol & chainsword bullet sponge duty, while the sexy plastics got to rock the new hotness. Also man it is hard to get the colours to come out right taking photos of models that are black and white! You might be wondering why there are only 9. One has sadly been lost in the warp. His brothers have refused to replace him in the hopes that one day he will be found (When I go through my bitz boxes). You might find bits that look even lazier than usual or stuff that is just plain not painted. I get a real bad case of "bling" fatigue on these guys and just gave up when they were most of the way there. Weathering powder hides many sins .

These guys have proved pretty monstrous (as their >200 point pricetag would indicate), smashing a Wolflord and all his mates in one round of combat and powering through a whole mess of filthy Slaaneshi degenerates in a boarding action. The only fly in the ointment has been the Sarge braining himself on a bulkhead. Turns out flying a jetpack down spaceship corridors is not super safe. Whoda thunk it?

Haha I know those feels! I suffered some pretty severe buyers remorse when I first picked them up and they sat in a box for aaaages until this project. Glad you like em.

I've smashed out a bit more in the last bit of my holidays.





A Rhino, the ubiquitous metal boxes of the 30th-41st milleniums. Nice and generic for transporting ... things. I have no idea who is going in this, I painted it because I had it. The paint job was pretty simple. Dark and Light grey airbrushed over the black primer, a couple of layers of weathering and then the dust. I think I may have gone a bit heavy, but I haven't sealed it, so it'll just wear off!






A Captain! Captain Rhynden Morior in this case. I did him as an albino as a homage to Brynden Rivers, the Bloodraven from A Song of Ice and Fire and just to make him a bit more visually interesting as he had mostly black armour. The head is from the Forgeworld Raven Guard Upgrade hit and I sculpted some hair on him. The claws are from the Warp Talon kit, the overtly Chaosy bits having been filed off. the only part I'm not really happy about is the Raven Skull on the chest. Like a numpty I primed him before the putty was dry, and accidently squished it. It's pretty mushy as a result. I'm a little tempted to just tear it off and start again.




Finally more scouts! I probably need to get a couple of Storms for the CC oriented bros to tool around in.

So here's the whole miserable brooding family so far!


I probably should start a Plog instead of just updating this so I can post WiP stuff...