FORCED MARCH Part 2

 Keith's Forced March challenge also includes vehicles, especially if you have done multiple. You may remember this landspeeder I did a long time ago

I've given it a quick update to include chapter symbol on the tail, claw tattoo's on the crews face, and chipping to make it look used and individual. For it's two squadron members I've had to look to ebay, as GW have ceased production of these vehicles in favour of the Primaris version. Both had been stuck together and crew glued in, unfortunately both had not been put together properly, and needed repairing before painting, no idea on what glue they used, but it was strong, so couldn't get the crew out, and had to paint them in situ, luckily the shoulder pads were missing, so I could add in my own symbols and paint them before gluing them in. The antenna snapped off in transit to me, which wasn't a problem as I replace them with wire, also both were missing weapons, but luckily I have plenty of spares.

As customary here is a group shot of the now completed squadron.

I have another speeder from this purchase, to show later, as that had more problems to deal with, but more on that in it's own post, so that's all for today, so until next time, stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

FORCED MARCH part 1

 So Keith's Forced March has now begun and today I have my first entry the second squad of scouts that I got back at Christmas, once I heard of Keith's challenge I saved these for it. They were painted with the same method I showed earlier. The first three include the Sergeant, the demolition expert, and the sniper

I have one criticism of these models, the demolition trooper and sniper don't have a pistol in their boot holster, small niggle for me, the other four are basic troopers.

and here is the group shot of the whole squad

I'm thinking in gaming terms, I will group the snipers from all the squads I have, and also all the demolitions troopers in squads together, then move the troopers around to make up the numbers in the squads. That's all for todays post, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

MEDIC !

 As I've started my 1 st Company marines, they need their own air ambulance as I've done for other company's but with relevant looking models, being the veterans I've also increased the firepower of the landspeeder by using a Tornado assault cannon.

All the helmets are Grey Knight's the torso's have the sword in the centre for Wing Knights, and shoulder pads 

Above is a close up of the Apothecary, thought having him shooting while riding in the back would be fun, where I have run out of legs, these used to be chaos ones which I cleaned all the markings off of them, I also added the double helix to both the shoulder pad and chest symbols. Now I just need to get some more veterans ! LOL With this air ambulance finished I need to do two more, one for the 3 rd Company, and one for the 5 th Company, as this is the company I have the most models for, I really should do that one next ! LOL That's all for today, as I really need to get on with some squads for Keith's Forward March Challenge so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

THIS IS A TEST

 Back when I started my Night Hawk chapter, I painted up a squad of veterans (1 st Company) which got photographed for the White Dwarf article that featured my army, this was back before I had different symbols for my squads, here's what they looked like

You may notice some of the models I showed recently in my assault squad, as all the models here are no longer together or veterans. To mark them as veterans I painted the helms with a feathered pattern. Fast forward a couple of years, and a friend wrote some background and named the 1 st Company the Wing Knights, loved the name, and wanted to change the look to match the name, I've finally come up with a look I like.

The head comes from a Grey Knights, the shoulder pad is my own design, which I've also incorporated in a chest symbol on the harness. I think I still want to have MK VI beakies in the units as well, but it's a start.

I have actually finished another assault squad for my 5 th Company as well, these first 3 are a sergeant model, a plastic combination, and a MK VI Space Wolf Blood Claw.

The next 4 are all Rogue Trader models

The last 3 of the squad are metal Blood Company models and some of the arms actually came from the plastic blood company box as well

I did remember to take a squad picture as well

Many years ago when I worked at GW, my staff made a comment that if I ever ran out of Marine models to make up, they'd watch Satan skate to work, well apparently hell must have frozen over as I've had to resort to sculpting up models that I'd used for parts as you can see below

Yes I'm going to have order in more bits, as sections of the bits box is now completely empty, no bodies, no legs and no helmeted heads left, never thought I'd get to this point ! LOL

This will be my last entry for my challenge, don't worry I will still be following all your blogs to see if you post up entries over the next couple of weeks. That's all for today, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

BACK IN TIME

 For any long term readers you may remember me updating my tournament scouts, as I hadn't finished them in time for the tournament, but still wanted to finish them properly. Well since the last squad I showed this unit has sat on my desk, with an occasional bit of work on them I have finally got round to finishing my shotgun squad. When this squad was built, there was only the metal scouts, of which there was only two models produced with shotguns, as you may have noticed I don't really like duplicates, which ment I was going to need to convert a 80 % of the squad. The sergeant was converted from the sergeant with bolt pistol and close combat weapon, as was the scout next to him, the third was made from the scout with heavy bolter.

The next three include the two production models, the third was a Space Wolf scout model which I converted.

The next four were all converted from scouts with pistol and close combat weapons, I think they have all been watching too many Tarentino movies with how they are holding shotguns ! LOL

Dai recently asked if I could start doing squad photo's, so here is me trying to do that to the best I can, hopefully they will improve with practice ! LOL

I have one scout squad left to revisit, and hopefully these wont take as long to finish, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

EVERY MODEL COUNTS

 Over the years i have bought many Space Marine models, and just because newer ones have come out, I never felt like I shouldn't use the old ones as well. This squad of Assault Marines is a prime example of this, the first 3 models are from the Rogue Trader era, and the two bare headed ones were actually the limited edition Christmas Marines, before being modified.

The next 3 are all MK VI armour one was originally a Blood Angel, another was a Space Wolf Blood Claw, and the third was a basic MK VI.

The 4 MK VII models originally started as 2 from the Death Company range, and the other 2 were from the Assault Marine box, from the Second Edition set.

All the above models are metal, with some plastic arms and weapons, including the Rogue Trader era models, to tie them together. They have been painted as part of the 5 th Company, shown by the black knee pad, and are squad 1 also marked on the knee pad. So why not save them for Keith's challenge, well they were mostly done before I was taken ill last year, and only required a little finishing off.

That's all for this post, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

NUNS WITH GUNS

 No I am not talking that terrible movie of the above name, but the remaining Sisters of Battle models that I had left over from my Twisted Sister project, as I am trying to reduce my bits box collection rather than add to it, I thought I could add them as a small unit to go with the Inquisitor I have to check out my Space Marines, as I thought they would probably send a lot of different elements. The first thing was to choose an order for them, not wanting to go for any of the main ones, I had a quick search on Google, and found the Order of the Thorn, as seen below.

As I haven't bought a GW army book in many years I had no idea about them, but liked the color scheme, below are the four sisters and the cherub that came in the box.

No conversions on the above, just straight from the box, once these were finished I looked at the standard bearer bits, and thought I'd make a couple of shrines as gaming markers.

While I was searching the bits boxes I found a couple of Raging Heroes models that would fit with Sisters of Battle, so painted them up in the same color scheme, the one on the left was converted using some spares from the GW box set, to tie it in more, the one on the right is standard.

While I was routing through the bits boxes I also found the original Rogue Trader Assassin model, so painted that up as well, went for a black ninja color scheme, as the footwear and hood suggested a resemblance, I also darkened down any metal areas to reduce shine.

So why am I not finishing my Star Wars squads at the moment, well I'm saving them for Keith's Forced March painting challenge, where it's all about painting squads during March, this is not to be confused with imperial rebel ork and Wudughasts challenge of the same name where they are trying to paint Imperial Guard armies by the end of March. If Keith's blog has closed on comments, let me know in the comments, and I'll email your details across for you.

That's all for today, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave