More 15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines and a Land Raider!

                                         

Okay so today I'm gonna say this project is "finished". These are 15mm Space Marines for my Blood Drinkers army, 3D-printed by Conscript ByronM. It was a bit "challenging" to find STL files for these character models but of course Byron came through.

From left to right here we've got a Chaplain, standard-bearer, Captain, Librarian, and Techmarine.

I had to do something different with the reverse side of the flag, just painted on every Bloo Angels/Drinkers insignia I could there.

The Chaplain's weapon is literally nearly as big as he is.

The Captain has to have a power sword, because power sword!

Never was too keen on Librarians or Techmarines but here they are.

Of course they need a ride! Here's the last Rhino of the four Byron printed for me.

The chalice is hand-painted of course :-)

Lastly, I painted a Land Raider for the boys. My favourite version, this. Just a great looking vehicle eh!

Here's the whole Blood Drinkers force. I like how they turned out and am looking forward to having a game with them. I just need somebody else to jump into the scale. Greg has lots of 15mm Space Marines though so maybe next time we get together, we can have a game! We'll just have to figure out what rules to use... HINT: it won't be 10th edition :-)

More 15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines!

                                         

So at the same time I've been working on Germanic Tribesmen and Romans, I've been interspersing some other painting work - namely these 3D-printed 15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines. I burned through the first 20 of these quickly and enjoyed them so much that I had Conscript Byron print me up some more of 'em, plus some vehicles. I particularly needed some heavy weapons and special weapons, and Sergeants to fill out the platoon.

I also had him print some Rhino transports. As with the Space Marines, I painted the vehicles Mephiston Red and highlighted them Evil Sunz Scarlet, then washed them with Nuln Oil, The tracks were painted Leadbelcher and washed with Nuln and Agrax Earthshade. Most of the insignia are decals from the Blood Angels 40K sheet, but the aerial recognition insignia on the rear decks are hand painted. Weathering was done with some sponge chipping using Vallejo German Camo Black-Brown and drybrushing dirt colours.

Here's the whole bunch that I've painted so far. There's three squads of 10, each led by a sergeant, including one missile launcher, one meltagun, and seven Marines with bolters. At the front of the photo I've put the extra dudes I've painted - more Marines with bolters, another missile launcher, and some random command-types.

I still have the Company command section, their Rhino, and a Land Raider to paint. After that this mini-project will be finished and it'll be back to Legionaries and hairy Germans.      

There will be more!

15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines!

                                         

Well I suppose I have Conscript GregB to thank for this one... I had Conscript ByronM do some 3D printing for me, and when I went to pick up the prints Byron told me that Greg had asked him to print me some 15mm Space Marines! Cool!

So somewhat on a whim and as a palate cleanser, I knocked out the 20 models Byron had printed for me. Originally I was considering painting them as Iron Warriors, but these beakies were just begging to be painted in the blood-red power armour of the Blood Drinkers. It's just a bonus that the chapter insignia is super-easy to put on the shoulder pads with a black technical pen :-)

These guys all carry boltguns of course. But once these guys were painted I had to get in touch with Byron to print me some more dudes with heavy weapons, as well as some vehicles. Escalation!!

 

For the record, the paint job was pretty straightforward. Basecoated Mephiston Red, heavily highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet, then washed with Nuln Oil, Backpacks and boltguns are Leadbelcher washed with Nuln Oil.

  

These two are the start of a command squad I reckon. We'll see what else Mr. B can come up with for me.

Here's a comparo shot of my 40K scale Blood Drinker with his tiny colleagues.

Hope you like 'em!

PrairieCon XL Horus Heresy Siege of Terra Game

For PrairieCon this year I ran a Horus Heresy game set at the Siege of Terra. I had previously created two imperial wall sections to represent a breach in the wall. The legions involved were Imperial Fists and Blood Angels trying to hold the breach while Sons of Horus and World Eaters stormed through. The mission was a modified Blitz mission from the 40k 8th Edition rule book. The traitor forces earned 1 victory point for having models within the first line of defense. If they got models within the second line of defense they earned 2 points per unit. The game looked great and we got to showcase some models that we don't normally use in a game. The only downside was the game was set late in the day on Sunday (Father's Day!) and several of us had to get back to Winnipeg , so the game was cut short. Here are some pictures of the game:

The Loyalists set up everything behind fortifications. The World Eaters started on the board and got fist turn

The Sons of Horus moved on the board first turn, but were mostly mounted in transports.

The Imperial Fists scored some early kills, but the arrival of the Fellblade was an ominous sign.

This was the first game for the Cerberus. I knew its fate was sealed, but Conscript Curt valiantly commanded it to destruction!

The Cerberus has an unstable reactor rule which has a chance of exploding catastrophically! It of course exploded catastrophically during the game and killed several loyalist models.

The Sons of Horus hit the first line.

The Fellblade goes to work.

By the time the game was called, it was basically a draw. The Traitor Legions had several units in the first line, while he Loyalists had killed several Traitor units and earned victory points for each. However, the Traitors had a clear path to the second line on the right flank and would likely get into the Blood Angels lines. The Fellblade was also going to be a problem that the Loyalists didn't have a solution for. I guess that outcome is basically how the siege went down. Horus had the material to win, but he ran out of time!

30k Battle Report - Travel Woes for Horus' Herald

The elite of the XIX Legion await the followers of Horus...

We played a small game of 30k last week at Dallas' place.  The scenario imagined the Herald of the Warmaster was out making the rounds in some Imperial system, trying to put the facts straight about just what really happened in the Isstvan system - "Ignore the liberal bias in the mainstream news and astro-telepath channels! What can you expect from a publicly-funded and taxpayer-subsidized broadcaster like the Astronomican? They should just call it the Astronomiscam!" He had just completed a public appearance and was en route to his next stop when his party was waylaid by a hodge-podge assortment of loyalist bandits and Horus Denialists. Battle ensued!!

The table at turn one - the Rebel forces are deployed along the bottom of the photo, and would enter via that table edge.  Their objective was to drop of the Herald of the Warmaster at the shuttle landing pad on the top left of the photo. Easy peasy, right? WRONG!

A Slurm machine waits at the base of the landing pad to refresh thirsty shuttle crews

The Sons of Horus had to punch through the loyalist battle line in order to get the Herald of the Warmaster to his shuttle on time so he could make his next public appearance! The escort certainly had the tools to do the job - a Land raider, two dreadnoughts, three Rhino APCs and an assortment of fun infantry (breacher marines, tactical support marines and a seeker squad). What could possibly go wrong?

Deadly Mor Deythan strike team prepares to take their shots

Blood Drinkers with Volkite Calivers prepare a warm welcome

Dallas did such a great job on this Land Raider - always great to see it on the table. Have to say, however, it is much more fun when I manage to kill it

The loyalist cordon was thin, in my estimation.  It had small elements from three different Legions, representing, to our minds, small detachments of survivors and detached-duty forces coming together to try and strike where they can to slow the Warmaster's gains.  Whatever rivalries or jealousies which may have existed between these Legions no longer matter to these guys - what matters is finding a way to fight back! So tragic they could not channel this misplaced energy toward some constructive hope and change along with the Warmaster...

There were two small Mor Deythan squads from the Raven Guard, a tactical support squad, heavy support squad, a dreadnought, Land Raider, a laser destroyer on a tracked chassis from the Blood Drinkers company of the Ninth Legion, and a veteran squad of Space Wolves.  An odd assortment of desperate and delusional warriors clinging to the existence of their so-called "Emperor".

Seeker Squad moving out.  In the end all they would "seek" out was how to be ground into powder...

Seeker squad on the move, covered by the twin Kheres cannons of a Contemptor Mortis dreadnought...man those things are deadly...

It was a pretty small cordon - I doubted they were going to stop the Warmaster's Herald.  But in the grim darkness of the far future, it can be a b*tch to connect with your next flight...

Loyalists move a Land Raider forward, and the cowardly pro-"Emperor" fools of course lurk in its shadow...

Legionnaire "Davey Crockett" and a dreadnought ready to blast away at the Sons of Horus...this little cannon would take out my Land Raider - F@##!!!!

Dallas and Indo took command of the loyalist side, while Mike F and I went with the devout and correct followers of the Warmaster.  I was pretty confident.  I mean, what could happen? Lose our Land Raider on the first turn to an amazing shot from the laser destroyer? How likely is that?

*cough*

Sooo, anyway, it was not a smooth execution on the Rebels' part.  No matter the efforts of our Kheres-pattern autocannons, plasma cannons, or Mike's hard-fighting breacher marines, our task force ended up as junk!

Starts to look ugly in the middle - note the crater at the top of the photo, where the Sons of Horus Land Raider once stood...without it the Rhinos were kind of screwed...

A clash of Contemptor Dreadnoughts! Who would walk away the victor? Note the fallen breacher marine officer to the bottom left of the photo...

The Loyalists systematically took us apart, and without our Land Raider, it was rather tough going.  Sure, we pounded on a few units here and there, but overall we basically walked into a meat grinder - with the Space Wolves in particular extracting a rough toll, even if they lost quite a few squad members in the process.  Mike's breachers and dreadnought made the most progress (getting bashed to pieces for their trouble). The Herald didn't make the shuttle.  He didn't even make it out of his Rhino!

Not ones to wait around, the Space Wolf veterans charge straight at the Rhinos...a series of Krak grenades would sort the vehicles out before long...

Oh man - Horus is going to the pretty pissed that his Herald has been kidnapped by loyalist Legiones Astrates pro-"Emperor" terrorists.  I think the mission to recover him could make for an excellent scenario next time we play 30k. In a fit of pique, I can see Horus calling in some Alpha Legion troops to carry out the rescue, while he vents extreme displeasure at the flunkies in his own XVI Legion.

Alpha Legion on a rescue job. What could go wrong? I'm already looking forward to that!

Big thank you to Dallas for hosting, and to Mike and Indo for coming out to play.  Thanks also to Dallas for providing most of these photos. Somehow I seem to take fewer photos when the Sons of Horus are getting creamed...