Conversion Corner: Witch Hunters Land Raider

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[::[Thought of the day: Honour thy wargear]::]

Hello, and welcome to Scriptarius' Conversion Corner. With the new Sisters of Battle White Dwarf codex out and several rumors skittering around the net, I thought it might be fitting to take a look at a little something I built quite a while ago with the old Codex: Witch Hunters in mind.

The original plan was to merge elements of the Exorcist with a Land Raider - creating a transport fit for the fiery fury of the Ordo Hereticus and Adepta Sororitas. This later evolved away from the organ tank look and became something more of a Land Raider cosplaying as a cathedral.

Parts used:

-Land Raider

-Sanctum imperialis

-Immolator

The first thing to do was to take some Sanctum Imperialis wall tiles and saw them into the correct height to act as extra armour on the sides of the land Raider. I went with the panel that has the statues holding a sword, since it had a lot of cool elements I wanted on the model. Sadly I was forced to pick between losing some of the handle or some of the blade due to height problems. In hindsight, it would've been possible to just cut a bit out of the statues' legs, keeping the sword more intact, if shorter. It might also have been beneficial to make the plates thinner so they would flow into the sides better. After the side plates I added a pair of extra statues behind the Lascannons on the side to keep the theme consistent. I opted to leave the plates off the Lascannons, since they looked fine on their own, and a more stripped feel felt fitting for a Witch Hunter vehicle. After all, WHs in general looked less bulky than their Daemonhunter counterparts.

Next, I wanted some extra detail on the interior. I cut up a door from the Sanctum Imperialis and used it instead of the usual engine block part at the back. This took some fitting to pull off but gave the interior a more "holy" feel. The sides of the same door were used on the front of the Land Raider, keeping the statue theme running around the machine. These changes aside, the Land Raider was built normally. Changing the front side doors to windows allowed one to look into the tank to see the interior from other angles than just the front ramp, even though the view was nice from there too. (Ignore the gaps, those are there because the tank needed to split into two parts so the interior could be painted.)

Finally, with the core tank assembled, I added various decorative bits from the Immolator sprue to enhance the Ordo Hereticus look. Several parts were tried on for size, including cherubs, wall segements, domes, icons and flags. In the end I went with a fairly simple combo: Sororitas-style Heavy Bolters on the turret, a chunk of wall on the ramp to give it some extra mass, a cherub laud hailer and a glass dome to let in some light into the interior of the tank, as well as large Fleur de Lys plates on the sides. Some Green Stuff was used later to fill out gaps between parts.

If any of you wish to make your own one, I'd suggest throwing in parts from the plastic Venerable Dreadnought kit. It has great stuff like the side panels and guns, all of which look suitably ornate for a project like this. Perhaps you could also try replacing the front side plates with the ones from an Exorcist, and possibly adding an Exorcist Launcher or Karamazov's throne (sans legs) on the top or inside.

And that's how I built my Witch Hunters Land Raider.

If you have any questions about this conversion or converting and kitbashing in general, feel free to contact me or drop a comment in here.

You can catch me at moisio_5@hotmail.com

By Scriptarius

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[::[The Emperor Protects]::]

Sisters Pictures, and a hint of things to come

Ask and you will receive.

Here are some pictures of a few things in my SoB army. I'll try and get a group pictures together later.


In the mean time I started working on a 40k skirmish game like Warbands for Warhammer Fantasy. The rules are in their second wave, and Beta testing has just started (I already found things I need to tweak). This will probably be an ongoing work in progress. More testing will go on tomorrow, so I'll let you guys know how it goes. If I am happy enough with it I'll post it up here.

Rhino

A bit of work on the rhino. Got the armor to a passable level. I am going to work on the skin and wings before I go any further with the armor. I want to look at the piece as a whole and make decisions about how the whole thing meshes together. I already know I want to go back and fix the linen on those cherubs.

Played a few games of Warhammer Fantasy warbands today with a new dwarf player. He is just starting out, and it was good to demo some of the rules and make situations where he would get introduced to different things. Another young kid sat and watched us play and I fielded his questions too. They both seemed to enjoy themselves, and that's always great. As an added bonus the young bystander was so taken by my little demos that he has completely changed his mind about GW games (a former Privateer Press snob, those guys are worse than Apple!) and will be starting up a Wood Elf army.

Not much to show on the rhino, as I played instead of painting today.

My list for the tournament will most likely be my normal list for 1000 point Sisters of Battle.

Cannoness
Jump Pack, Cloak of St. Aspira, Blessed Weapon, Plasma Pistol

10 Battle Sisters
Veteran Superior, Plasma Pistol, Flamer, Heavy Flamer
Rhino
Extra Armor, Smoke

10 Battle Sisters
Veteran Superior, Plasma Pistol, Flamer, Heavy Flamer
Rhino
Extra Armor, Smoke

5 Seraphim
Veteran Superior, Plasma Pistol, Evicerator, 2 Twin Flame Pistols

6 Retributors
4 Heavy Bolters

Exorcist
Extra Armor

I think 5 Faith should be plenty. The games will indeed be played on a 4x4 board, which is weird. I think my flame weapons combined with rhinos at that short distance will make quick work of any troop I come across (they usually do).

For those who actually play SoBs you will notice a distinct lack of Celestians or Books of St. Lucius. I hate them. There, I said it. I consider both of those things the two worst things in the entire Codex. Now granted Repentia (and other options) suck something fierce, but it is obvious. Celestians and those Books on the other hand are sneaky points wasters, hence my dislike. They plague new lists like, well, the plague. I speak out against them wherever I can like a crusader....sorry got carried away for a second, but hopefully you now understand the depth of my loathing.

I will start out with the one main reason that they both fall under.

What type of army are you playing? Sisters of Battle are a shooty force. Granted they shoot people from right in front of their face, but they still shoot. At no point should your sisters ever ever EVER be in assault. The only exception to this is Seraphim, and then only when the time is right, as they are still better at shooting than assault.

What do Celestains do better than normal Sisters? They hit on 3+ in close combat. Where should your sisters not be? You guessed it, in close combat. Hitting on 3s doesn't matter when you are S3 T3 and only have 1 attack on profile. So in the end you are paying 2 extra points per model for a unit that can't score.

Books of St. Lucius are often just as useless. When 5th edition came out there was tons of hype about them in the Sisters community, and there still is. With combat now lowering your leadership for how much you lost by having stubborn 9 is pretty awesome, right? Yeah, it would be, if you wanted to be in combat in the first place. I tried them out for a tournament and took them back out the next day. This is something I see with a lot of gamers. They look at something and think "Wow, in this situation X would be awesome." They don't think to ask "How often will that come up?" All these players keep talking about how Celestians and Books will be awesome in case you get assaulted. Truth be told I almost NEVER get assaulted if I don't want to. Even in mid-level tournament play against armies like orks, even when I am blasting away at people in flamer range. In a foot slogging force (I will talk about their effectiveness in a later post) those Books might be more helpful.

Blarg! First post, I guess I will try one of these blog things.

This place will be my sounding board for tactics and painting for all sorts of wargames. I am not sure exactly what direction this will take.

If you know of any games that I might like, let me know and I will check them out!


So down to business for the first post. There is a small 1000 point 40k tournament coming up at the end of April, and I need to get ready. My Eldar will not be going, because of the low point setting. Also, I think we will be playing on small 4x4 tables rather than the normal 6x4, so I think the speed advantage of my Eldar would be lessened. Leaving my Jetbikes at home might dissapoint some people, but I will be taking my Sisters of Battle instead. Truth be told, it will be a breath of fresh air to go back to them.

I have done pretty well with my Inquisition list in the past placing 2nd, 1st, and 1st in the last 3 local tournaments (I have yet to play in a GT as I don't have the money to burn on a hotel and 100ish dollar entrance fee). I am probably a bit rusty, though, and this time around I will be in a new shop.

Over the next few weeks I will be testing and tweaking my old list to get it prepared. My only real descision I need to make is the choice between an evicerator for my Seraphim Superior and 5 faith points, or having an extra Retributor (for a total of 7) and 6 faith. I think that in only 1000 points 5 faith should be fine, as I normally have some left over. Having one less Ret worries me in the new edition, as does not having enough anti-tank when they are so much tougher. I normally just ignore most vehicles, as making them shaken is enough for me, but with a completely new crowd who knows what kind of playstyle they have developed.

No matter what I am going to take advantage of something that has for long been out of my reach. Painting score. Yes, for too long has my army been "mostly finished." Sure it looks fine. All my sisters are painted, and my tanks have the prerequisite 3 colors, but they are only halfway done. So I start on the first of my 3 vehicles, rhino #1.
Yep, I plan to have a bunch of freehanding. More to come