Dread-full December, Thunderbolts Relic Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, More Progress.

Hi All

Been busy painting my Contemptor for the last week or so now and I've reached the final stages, most of the detailing is done now and I'm starting on the white plating. This will be a long process as the model will have a lot of white plating as you can see from the large amount of grey which is the base coat for the white. Done the first coat on the right leg and crotch...it's a start!
I've also repositioned him on the base as I wasn't wholly happy, I've moved him forward slightly and rotated him 90 degrees which places him launching off the front face of the rocks now, which I think gives him a greater sense of momentum.
Piccies......

More later...

Bluddtoof

Dreadful December, Thunderbolts Relic Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, Work in Progress.

Hi All

So here's my second contribution to Dreadful December, my Relic Contemptor Dreadnought for my Thunderbolts Chapter. I built this model 2 years ago, you can see my post about the build of this quality model here  and here's a few piccies of my w.i.p;

Stay tuned for more on this;

Bluddtoof.

Thunderbolts Master of the Forge on Bike with Conversion Beamer.

Hi All

Finally finished my Master of the Forge on bike, it's taken quite a while since I first started this model. I spent a lot of time deciding how I wanted to do this one, I knew I wanted to use an attack bike as his ride with the conversion beamer in the sidecar, I just didn't know how I wanted to represent the gun. Bear in mind that I wanted to do this model as soon as I'd read the 5th edition marine codex, that's a while ago now and back then there was no model for the conversion beamer available unless you could get hold of the very old metal version from the rogue trader era dreadnoughts. Way back in the mists of time!
So I've been umming and arring for a long time, never quite happy with any of the ideas I had, then lo and behold the Contemptor was released a couple of years ago, with a conversion beamer available; alas I don't much like it, it's a bit too small for the look I had in mind.
So I looked around a bit more, saw some dudes version on ebay, he'd used a pair of lascannons in the sidecar, didn't like that much either. Then I was rummaging through my bitz box a while back when I was building my quad autocannon dread and found the remnants of an ironclad kit, specifically the bits that make the seismic hammer. The penny dropped as they say and I finally had my eureka moment, several sensor bitz, targeting gubbinz and some chopping later and I had my unique conversion beamer.
I wanted it to look BIG, I feel it should be something he's been tinkering on for many years in the depths of the forge, using his position of authority to mess with potentially dangerous ancient archeotech for the benefit of the chapter and what he's developed is a unique beam weapon.
Anyway see what you think......

Overall I'm pleased with the model, the master of the forge himself is built from the legs of a marine biker, the torso and head from the iron warriors forge father I've used bits from in one of my earlier techmarines, a biker right arm and the left arm from a missile launcher devastator, vehicle crew shoulder guards and a basic plastic backpack. Originally I'd looked at using a techmarine figure but cutting off the legs without messing up all the cabling and other details proved too much and rather than have it look messy I plumped for this.

As ever feedback is welcome.

Bluddtoof

Latest Techmarine from the Thunderbolts Forge

Hi All

Been quite productive this week for a change and as promised I've finished my stand alone Techmarine. Also got my new marine codex and I'm very pleased overall, I like the new style chapter tactics and as the fluff for my chapter is that they're descended from the Iron Hands and I love my Dreads, the Iron Hands doctrines work nicely, I've also got my sergeants their Thunderhammers back, which in my fluff are awarded to veteran sergeants and other officers as marks of valorous and honourable action. I'm looking forward to feel no pain (even 6+) across the board and regenerating dreads and characters.
Anyway back to the latest Techmarine, he's a minor conversion using the Thunderfire Techmarine model with a basic plastic backpack chopped around and fitted with the Servo Arm from the Iron Warriors Forge Father, (that models torso is used in my Master of the Forge on bike, my next post...)

I'll be using him primarily to man the quad gun on my aegis defence line when I field it, another nice point in the new codex is that I can take him in a free slot if I have another non techmarine HQ and he's even modelled with an auspex for reducing cover saves.
Next job is to finish off my Master of the Forge on his bike and then on to painting the long awaited Contemptor Dreadnought and my ancients assault force will be ready for the field.

Bluddtoof

Thunderfire Cannon fresh from the Thunderbolts Forge

I've been a bit lax in my painting time recently and so it's a while since I finished anything and thus a long time since I posted here.
I'm currently working on a group of techmarines, firstly my new Thunderfire Cannon. The techmarine is built from parts from various sources; the body and right arm are my old metal techmarine which was the first figure I painted for my Thunderbolts many years ago (stripped of course), the servo harness is from the thunderfire kit and the bionic left arm is from an Iron Warriors forge father which I picked up at Games Day a couple of years ago.
Here's a few pics....

 

 

Next, and hopefully to be posted later this week is a stand alone techmarine with servo arm.

That's all for now. As ever feedback is always welcome.

Bluddtoof

WW13 Thunderbolts completed

Hi All

Hurrah! with 3 weeks to spare I have finished my WW13 list. After some practice games with the 1500pt Pod list I decided I didn't like it and rewrote the list completely! Here's a few pics of the finished list and some of the newly painted models for it, including a jump pack chaplain (my HQ slot), the remodelled assault sergeant and a his squad, 1/2 of whom had to have their squad markings redone and a few weapons remodelled, my new dreadnought ( bringing my collection to 9 now!) and a remodelled land speeder tornado (paired multimeltas now).
I found the pod list was just too unreliable and simply never had enough guns on the ground at any time. This list should be able to lay down decent amounts of fire from the get go. But hey we'll just have to wait and see....
Here's the pics.....

That's all for now. I'm now starting a new project, with the release of the new Eldar codex I have now finalised what I want in my long awaited Eldar Corsair army and I've started building the first corsair squad. So keep watching for updates on their progress........

Bluddtoof

Thunderbolts Forges Working at Maximum Capacity!

Hi All

Continuing with my Thunderbolts 1500pt Drop Pod army, I've now completed the 5 man Devastator squad. This is the first unit I've painted exclusively with GWs new paint range and I'm generally impressed by the improvements, particularly metallics, specifically leadbelcher, ironbreaker and runefang steel which I use to layer up the silver armour and brass scorpion which replaces brazen brass, all four give much smoother coverage and a brighter finish too. Instead of ice blue I'm now using Lothern blue which is slightly darker so I mixed in some white for the base coat and then more for the layers and highlights and it worked out quite well I think. The other colour of note is moot green which is used for the cabling and also gives a much smoother and consistent finish. In all this led to me needing less coats to get the desired finish and thus a much quicker process which is a major bonus since I paint at geological speeds!
Here's a few pics of the finished squad...........

 

Next will be their drop pod...
Till next time.......

Thunderbolts from the Skies

Hi All

With SvaXIII done and dusted I can now concentrate on my next tournament, a one day affair organised by Doc and others from the code. This will comprise 3 games at 1500pt with all comers and using the "Swis System".
I'm going back to my Marine Drop pod list for this as it gives me an incentive to paint up at least a couple more pods and my Sternguard finally.
I've squeezed a suprising amount into 1500pt; 41 marines and 4 pods to be exact. Once it's all done I'll post piccies of the complete force, for now though you can see here the latest addition; a squad of 5 vanguard veterans with jump packs and power weapons..........