Salamanders update (with pictures!)
I've been consistently building and painting, and I swear it never seems like I'm making progress. There's a lot more green marines, though.
I haven't played a lot, but when I have, it's been better than the beatings I'd been receiving. With a few exceptions, though, my opponents weren't very good. One of my FLGS (Comics & More) attracts a... younger... crowd. I seriously don't know where 8-15 year-olds get the money for this hobby, but they do. Playing them is one part teaching and one part vengeance for all the time I had my backside handed to me by 12-year-olds at Magic: The Gathering (which I said good riddance to in order to finance my Crimson Fists). If nothing else, it's good practice.
My best match came with my Salamanders against Nids, played by a quite worthy opponent (who usually plays Chaos). We were both surprised when I wiped him out on turn 4 - Apparently, bugs burn and are squished by thunder hammers.
My Blood Angels trounced another Nid player and two Space Marine players (Sicarius/Tigirus and Lysander armies, respectively).
But, you're tired of text from me. This time... I have pictures!
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This is Honoured Sergeant Tel'Yan, 6th Company Detachment. See what I did there with the name? I am soooo original. This model was fun (and is obviously not finished). I wanted the elongated barrel, stock and strap, so I cut one of the spare sniper rifles up and heated some plasticard. The camo pattern is straight out of my camo tutorial, using desert tones (Graveyard Earth, Kommando Khaki and Bleached Bone with an Ogryn Flesh wash and dotting with Chadronite Granite).
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Land Raider 1 of 2 (2 is still in the box), "We Are His Righteous Hammer," is currently built out as a Crusader pattern. After my first Blood Angels Land Raider where I magnetized all of the weapons, I realized that I wasn't very happy with the hurricane bolters. I had an extra set of sponson mounts (without the weapons) laying around, so I used the Godhammer sponsons specifically for the Hurricane bolters. The Flamestorm cannons and lascannons will share a separate set, which I have yet to build (all of my current lists use Crusaders, so I'm not in a rush).
The freehanding on the top uses an non-metallic metal technique. I didn't use it on the rest, because I actually like the multi-angle shine that metallics give you. I went with it on the freehand, because I wanted it to look like it was actually painted on by the chapter.
Lastly, the Rhino chassis I spoke about in my last post:
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I messed up when I was magnetizing the Predator sponsons, and the only fix was to make them permanently Lascannons (which is about all I use anyway). Other than that, this has nearly every option I could think of (except for HK missiles and an extra Storm Bolter, that is). Not show are the Heavy Bolter turret, which needs to be primed, and the Dozer Blade that I forgot to put into the picture. I built it in such a way that I can clip it to any Rhino chassis. I've even got the lascannon/plasmagun combo in there. Next project for this will be a heavy flamer turret.
Here's what it turns into:
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Now, I've got to go make a not-cheezy list for the next tournament. Because against these kids, I can't justify 14 Thunder Hammer terminators, Vulkan, and two Land Raiders. It's just not sporting.
Maybe I'll get those Sternguard primed and ready.
Whoa, I have a blog here!
Apparently I haven't updated in a while, which sucks a bunch because I've been doing a lot of work (mainly on my Salamanders) and haven't bothered to take pictures. I really should rectify that, because here's what I've been up to:
1) A squad of 10 Sternguard complete with combi-weapons (flamers and meltas). I started with a tac squad box and tossed in Terminator Honour shoulder pads, and then converted the weapons. They look pretty awesome! Two of them even have heavy flamers, which are also conversions.
2) A Rhino chassis with a bunch of upgrades. Initially it was intended to be the Sterguard's chariot (which it will still likely be at some point). I used a Vindicator box for the chassis and extra armour (I still need to build the rest of the Vindi), and grabbed a spare Heavy Bolter turret to give it a Razorback option. I'm pretty happy with the paint job, and there's some freehanding on the back.
4) Assault marines! I've got a 5-man squad of them built and primed, and another waiting to come out of the box. The sarge has a Thunder Hammer that I made using the power axe they come with and the head of one of the hammer from the Death Company box.
5) Scouts! One squad built, primed and basecoated, and another squad half built. Did a custom conversion on the sarge to allow him to count as Telion - even used some plasticard and green stuff!
6) Land Raider - completely built and ready to prime. Well, completely built as a Crusader. The Redeemer/Godhammer sponson is still in process. With this one and the Rhino, I decided to just seal them up. I could have spent the time to paint the interior, but (like a Drop Pod) the door actually gets in the way when playing, and I have built two Land Raiders already with the moving door, and I can't get it right. It always winds up off-kilter, and for that money, I wanted a really good looking tank.
7) On the Blood Angels front, I've actually worked on painting an assault squad! I've also got another Land Raider in the box, and the Adeptus Mechanus says it's going to them.
Blood Angels 8-5 Assault
I've actually got Blood Angels to show you! This is the 5th Assault Squad of the 8th Company. They are obviously a work in progress, but there's definitely some progress to show:
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Unless I'm running an all-mech list, the 5th will likely be my dedicated jump squad because they'll be the first with jump packs painted. The 3rd and 8th squads are currently sporting regular backpacks, but all of my assault troops have been magnetized to give me the option of either.
Here's a close-up view of the sergeant:
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He's sporting a power fist and bolt pistol and the blood drop halo cut off a back pack. I'm probably going to paint all of the power fists with the hazard striping, because it gives it a really cool effect.
The power fist from the Death Company box is at a really weird angle. Getting the pauldron to look right under normal circumstances was a pain in the neck, but that fist is magnetized, and the pauldron itself is magnetized. I think I'm going to give up and glue the pauldron in place and deal with it if I need to switch load-outs. While I have a few extra power fists from other sets, I really liked the idea of using an Angelus bolter as a bolt pistol, as suggested in the Codex itself. Since all of the Angelus bolters are left-handed, I'm restricted to right-handed power fists, and all of my spares are left-handed.
The Death Company box also presents a painting problem for a lot of models. Notice the white on the right leg - that's actually the 5th company symbol, a white saltire on black. Of course, that's supposed to be in a small circle on the right greave, but the styling on the greaves doesn't leave a lot of space for that. At least for the sarge, I decided to go with the whole leg to really capture his connection to the squad.
On some of the other models, this is much less of a problem. Some of them already have the saltire molded in due to the Death Company regalia. They've also got it on other parts, particularly pauldrons, so I've been painting them with the squad symbol as well.
I'll be missing AU's October tournament, but I'm hoping to get a few games in before November, and I'm really hoping to have a solidly painted 2000 point list complete by then. We'll see what happens, though.
Salamanders Expeditionary Force (4th Company)
I know there's a lot of kvetching among 40k players that Vulkan lists are simply cheesy and anyone who plays them is some kind of horrible power-gamer. This argument, as far as I've seen, tends to run into "counts-as" whining, and simply leads me to believe that people can't deal with people using the rules.
That being said, I am not the first person out there to recognize that Vulkan's upgrade is ridiculously awesome, nor will I be the last. To give myself some extra street cred here, I'd like to point out two things:
1) I didn't just find this list online and copy it wholesale.
2) My Vulkan list is actually Salamanders and is quite fluffy.
That's not likely to satisfy the nay-sayers, but I don't care about them anyway. I loved painting this army (it's not complete, but it's getting there), and it's the best I've done so far. I daresay I'm impressed with myself. Sure, there's a lot of room for improvement, but I've used techniques I'd never explored or considered with my Crimson Fists or Eldar.
Fluff-wise, the army (in all its 2000 point glory) is an expeditionary force assembled by the Forgefather himself out of elements of his old 4th Company tactical squads, as well as a number of Firedrakes, and some support vehicles. Everything drops from orbit, either teleporting or riding in Drop Pods.
So, after the jump, are a ton of pics (again, courtesy of Evan):
First, the man himself. Yes, I used the stock model. It was one of the first I painted for this army. I'm likely to redo parts of him before I call this army complete, especially the bottom of his cloak.
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On to the Fire Drakes. Take note of the magma pattern on their left greave. I'm pretty happy with the way that turned out. I've copied this pattern in a number of places. It's fairly time consuming to paint, though.
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I wanted to give them some unique basing, so I bought a starter box of Termagants and carved them up. Most of the Terminators have bits of hapless bugs strewn about.
Here's my Chaplain, here to inspire the troops to find whichever relic Vulkan is in search of. He carries a Combi-melta, which dramatically blew a Vendetta out of the sky and saved my backside in the last match I used him in.
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And of course it wouldn't be a good Salamander list without an Ironclad stomping around. I've been using the Chainfist with Meltagun instead of the Seismic Hammer and Heavy Flamer lately, as it gives him the ability to pop a tank when he lands. Of course, against horde armies, two twin-linked Heavy Flamers right in the face of one or more squads on the first turn is an impressive amount of destruction.
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On to the tacticals!
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Note the wrists on the Multi-melta and Flamer marines. I denote veteran status by giving them gold wrists. Anyone who packs a melta or flame weapon is assumed to be a veteran, because it's the Salamanders and that's how they roll.
Since Devestator boxes only come with one Multi-melta, and I've only purchased two Dev boxes, the third tac squad heavy weapon is either a Missile Launcher or a Plasma Cannon. Lately it's been the Missile Launcher, but I'm happy with the way this guy turned out:
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No veteran status for him though. I'm usually not a fan of decals, because they are a pain in the backside to work with and rarely turn out looking good. That being said, I'm actually quite happy with the way that these turned out. Of course, for every two decals that made it onto a model, another one wound up as a ball of useless goo.
On to the sergeants!
This is the first one I painted for Tactical Squad 2:
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Originally, he had a chain sword, but I wound up going with the power fist. It's an old one from a 3rd edition box, but I just loved the way it looked.
The Meltagun is a stand-in for a Comb-melta, which I'm actually hoping to have soon.
The Squad 6 sergeant looks slightly better:
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I got a micron pen and went absolutely nuts with it. I love the back of this guy's banner.
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And finally, the Land Speeder. I know that the Salamanders don't use much in the way of Fast Attack, but I didn't take that to mean "none at all." Besides, a twin-linked Multi-melta for 70 points dropping in behind a 250-point Land Raider is too good to pass up. Even if it dies on the next turn, it's still worth the investment.
And finally, just to satisfy any curiosities, here's my standard 2000 point Salamander list:
HQ
Vulkan
Chaplain with Terminator Armor and Combi-MeltaTroops
Tactical Squad 2 - Flamer, Multi-Melta, Sergeant with Power Fist and Combi-Melta in Drop Pod with Locator Beacon
Tactical Squad 3 - Flamer, Multi-Melta, Sergeant with Power Fist and Combi-Melta in Drop Pod with Locator Beacon
Tactical Squad 6 - Flamer, Missile Launcher, Sergeant with Power Fist and Combi-Melta in Drop Pod with Locator BeaconElites
Terminator Squad - 7 Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields
Terminator Squad - 6 Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields
Ironclad Dreadnought with Ironclad Assault Launchers, DCCW, Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, and Meltagun in Drop Pod with Locator BeaconFast Attack
Land Speeder with Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder with Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer
And that's all for now.
No Contest
Well, I didn't make it in time for the BoLS painting competition. I decided that it was better to sit it out than do a rush job that I'd regret later, so I put the brushes down and started assembling an assault squad.
Here's what I got done on the Death Company:
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Good from far, far from good. None of the blood drops are done, and they all need detail work.
Here's my favorite so far:
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All of them have magnetized shoulders and backpacks, which allows me to give them the full range of options available to them.
Here are some shots of the assault squad:
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The sergeants have the same customizability. Here is a three-fold shot of the assault weapon marine:
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The arms are glued in place, and there's a small magnet in his trigger hand that matches up with the guns.
Next up are three models from my honour guard. I'm using the Sanguinary Guard kits for them (combined with a command squad box), because I love the way they look. Notice the Blood Champion in the middle - I made the Thunder Hammer by cutting down one from the Death Company box.
The Standard Bearer has the ability to swap for the Company Standard as well as the Chapter Banner. Pics of that once I've got it painted.
And lastly, here's a shot of the Sanguinary Priests:
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That's the old Sanguinary Priest I've had kicking around for a few years. Ready to be re-primed.
Initial purchase
Fun times are here at last!
Here's a pic of the initial purchase of Blood Angels paraphernalia:
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Standard Land Raider, Razorback, two Baal Predators, Sanguinary Guard and Death Company. Already had the Codex, but it looked good in the picture.
On order are a Land Raider Crusader, two more Sanguinary Guard, and six Death Company boxes.
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