Jervis Johnson is wrong again

I just got around to reading Jervis Johnson's standard bearer article in US WD 361 on page 76 today.   He says, "The days that you had to use converted models in your army, like Aly and I did, have long gone." Man, that really ticked me off when I read that and reflected on all the missing models that we have to convert.

Not so Mr. Johnson, I guess you haven't been constructing enough armies to realize how wrong you are.  I'll rattle off a few models that we need to convert because they don't exist as products by GW Citadel Miniatures and we are not talking Forgeworld models either.  Vendetta, Manticore, Medusa, Hydra, Griffon, Thunderwolf Cavalry, Long Fangs (regular Devastators aren't Wolf enough!), half the Tyranid models in the new book, Space Marine Razorback with Las/Twin Plasma, and the Blood Angels Stormraven Gunship (Don't worry about the Stormraven, I've got it covered for everyone!).

So we, the consumers, who want to spend our hard-earned money on your products (GW) expect that you (GW) create the models for the Codices that you publish. PERIOD.  Stop lolly-gagging around in your comfy studio and start speaking more to the public about what's missing.   If you need help, I'm happy to help.  You know how to get in contact with me!

Death Company Dreams

For many years, I've always wanted to build a Death Company army and now it looks like I might be able to do that soon with the new Death Company plastics now available on Advance Order off the GW website.  The plastics are full of all manner of excellent details such as little skulls, blood drops, and angelic wings. 

 

These models look great and I'm very excited to purchase gobs of these for my collection!

Blood Angel Stormraven Gunship Details and Revalations

I've been thinking about what the Blood Angel Stormraven Gunship should look like. I'm imagining that it will be a flying brick with a few guns and short wings.  It would be a cross between a Land Raider Assault Tank and a Thunderhawk Gunship.  I think the old Epic Thunderhawk Gunship Flying Bricks might be just about right but with the flair of the Aquilla Lander Winged style wings.  That would be right and proper Blood Angel-y.

I'll post up a couple of sketches what I think it should look like and begin building one.  Chime in with some thoughts.

These cool pictures have been floating around the internet too. GW have brought the Space Hulk levels of details to the new Blood Angels range.  Great job GW!

Death Company with lots of great interesting details.

Assault Marines of the 2nd Company (note the yellow teardrop on the right shoulder pad signifying Company designation), with a cool special character.  Note the inferno pistol held by the model in the top right of the photograph and the handguard of the chainsword held by the model in front of the Rhino.

Rumor says these are Sanguinary Guard. I can't say for certain but they certainly are some of the coolest models GW have ever made.  There on tons of great details in the picture so you've got to find all the cool stuff for yourself.

More Lamenters

Years ago on the GW website when the 4th edition Space Marine Codex was released, GW put up some awesome marine sketches.  Mark Gibbons, now with Blizzard Entertainment, was doing concept art for GW at the time, and contributed some great variety to the ever growing Space Marine ideas vault.  One that captured my attention was a heavily armored heavy weapon totting Marine.  This conversion is one of my attempts at playing around with a few different ideas.
 

 I expect this marine to withstand a fearsome barrage of weaponry and still maintain a high fire output due to the additional protection of the shield and armor plating.  

This marine has personalized his equipment with a lone bleeding heart on his knee guard and the artificiers have placed a zorathrax hair crest on his helmet.

 Maybe I'll get around to painting more of the Lamenters one day. But before then, I'll be working on my Blood Angels

Lamenter Marine for Gospog

This one's just for you, Gospog. I only have a single unit of Lamenter Marines in my Badab Crusade Army but they stand out above all others. Yellow just draws the eye from across the room.   What I really like about my Crusade army is that I can paint all kinds of different units and colors so I have lots of variety to choose from.

Badab Crusade Banner

This is my banner for my Badab Crusade Army carried by a Mantis Warrior Space Marine.   Its big, its cool, and contains a bunch of interesting iconography. See if you can figure any of it out. The pole is made out of a long tube of brass, topped by an Aquila.  The banner is flanked by litanies of purity, honor, achievements, and crimes of the Badab traitors.

Shown above is a side view of the Mantis Warrior. I used Dark Eldar jaggedy bits behind the forearms to carry the Mantis claw arm theme from the dreadnought onto the rest of my Mantis Warriors.  I'm pleased with the result.

Mantis Warrior Dreadnought

Behold, this is my Mantis Warrior Dreadnought Brother Fornaxa for my Badab Crusade Army.   The Power Claw was made out of thick plasticard and was cut and scraped to get the look of a Praying Mantis claw.  I've always envisioned in my mind that this dreadnought silently moving through the forest killing enemies at will.   The claw is really huge but that makes is even more scary!

My Badab Crusade army is made up of all the loyalist chapters that participated in the Badab War and that didn't flee to the Maelstrom with Huron Blackheart.   Each member of the Crusade carries at black shoulder pad on the right with my robed Crusader device and their Chapter iconography on the left shoulder.

Intrepid readers will know that I made this army about 5 years ago and many of the forthcoming units were shown in a great series of White Dwarf Battle Reports against John Shaffer and his Huron Blackheart crew.   This model was never photographed or published so I'm sharing him now.