Assault Marines The first 5

Well I have finished the first 5 of my 10/12 Assault Marines for my Mantis Warriors army.  This set of 5 has the Sgt with a Power Fist, and 1 of the other Marines with a Plasma Pistol. I am holding off on basing them until once I have most of the army completed, or at least the rest of the squad.

The Assault Sgt

 This is the first Squad that has the custom shoulder pads that I made, I think they turned out alright.

Shot of the 5 Squad Members shoulder pads

All 5 together

Also the army painter army green paint was a spot on match to the primer, looks awesome and works great.

Like always questions and comments are always welcome.

Sitnam Scouts

The first scout squad for the Sitnam Warriors.  I decided to go with five scouts 4 with Bolters, and the SGT with a Power Fist.  I really don't have much of a tactical idea of how to use these guys other than maybe outflanking, and holding objectives. 

It is funny how having first turn can make all the difference in the world, how scouts are going to be used.  Infiltrate or Reserves...  I have had a little success with using them in the role of Infiltrate, scout move and rapid fire.  I was able to take and hold an objective from a Tau player for a couple of turns.  They focused their attention and I was able move my Assault Marines into Assault and then follow with tactical squads.  I ended up with the Big W!

So the plan is to finish basing the last Marine, then wash the squad with Badab Black, and seal them.

Questions and Comments are Welcome

Shoulder Pads MkIII

So I have made some molds of some custom Space Marine shoulder pads.  I have just been doing very basic symbols on the pads, crossed arrows for the Assault Squads, Arrows for the Tactical Squads, and Chevrons for the Devastator Squads.

An Example of a Tactical Sgt w/ Laurel to show rank

This afternoon I have been casting shoulder pads like it is going out of style! The resin that I am using is a rather fast acting resin it has a working time of about 90 seconds so I have to move rather quick to get the molds set and ready.

Here are three of the Molds with the Resin in them

The resin only takes about 10 minutes to finish hardening up before it is ready to come out of the Mold. I purchased a kit at the local Hobby Lobby and it came with the everything I needed to make the molds and even the resin.  I think if I try to make molds again I'll see if I can get a more flexible rubber for the molds. Each mold makes two shoulder pads.

The Sgt Shoulder Pad Mold open with the Pads in it

Here is a Tactical Pad, Look at all the Flash

  The nice thing is that the flash is paper thin, and is easily cleaned up. This set turned out pretty good if I say so my self.

All the shoulder pads out of the molds and waiting to be cleaned

A Number of the pads cleaned up and waiting to get primed

Some of the shoulder pads had air bubbles so I'll be adding a little green stuff to fill in the gaps.  These shoulder pads ar turning out better than I had thought they would. and I think they will give my Tact, Assault, and Dev Squads a unique look to them.  I can't wait to get them primed and painted.

Questions and Comments are welcome

Kitting out a Tactical Squad

Two troops choices and a HQ, that is the base for the standard Space Marine force organization chart.  That is the standard base for any army in the game. I thought that I would talk what my thought process was when I put together a all Plasma Squad.  I say all Plasma because it is a standard tactical  squad with ten men in it and I have given the Sgt a Plasma Pistol, one of the tactical Marines a Plasma Rifle, and an other a Plasma Cannon.

 

Ten Man Tactical Squad

For the Sgt. I went with the Plasma Pistol over the Combi-Plasma Rifle, is because of the assault I want to be-able to have one more Plasma burst before close combat. I feel like the constancy of the 12 inch range and being able to have more than one shot of plasma from the Sgt, is more beneficial to the range of the single shot Combi-Plasma Rifle.  

Sgt with Plasma Pistol

Next is the Tactical Marine with the Plasma Rifle, Str 7 AP 2 is not too shabby, having the option to move on still shoot 12 inches is nice also and the rapid fire.  I wish that I could field a squad with two special weapons much like the Space Wolves or Chaos Space Marines. I think that the Plasma Rifle is me favorite special weapon that the Tactical squad has to offer. The AP 2 is crucial for tacking down heavy infantry, and the 24 inch range is what makes this my favorite.

Tactical Marine with Plasma Rifle

The final piece to this team is the Tactical Marine with the Heavy Weapon, that heavy weapon is over course the Plasma Cannon, 36 inch range Str 7 AP 2 template! This is heavy infantries worst enemy.  The AP2 means invulnerable save if they have them, if it was only str 8 it would also double out most things.  Not one to look a gift house in the mouth putting down a AP 2 Template does quite that damage. When it comes to holding the line this is my weapon of choice.

Heavy Weapon Marine (Plasma Cannon)

At 200 points this unit will hold its own in shooting and hold the line fairly well.  I like to use this unit as one of my two troop choices nine times out of ten.  I enjoy running this troop choice so much that I am currently building another one.


Questions and Comments are always welcome.

BADAB WAR (Chapter Master Mantoea)

I thought I would paint up the BOLS Named Character in their BADAB war campaign.  This character is a HQ choice that is on a Space Marine Bike, his chapter tactics all the units in the army gain the scout USR, however only the TROOPS can out flank.  Not too bad, but it really didn't make too much sense that he is on a bike.  I figure that if I play around with some different builds I'll find a list that works well.

Right now this model is still a work in progress.  But here are the photos to date.

I primed with Army Painter "Army Green"

Next added Black

Next Brown

Next Silver

Followed with Yellow

Just Used Gold to trim the Bike

 

 

 

I'll be adding the decals to the front of the bike and the shoulder pad.  I'll post the finished model once I finish it.

Like always questions and comments are welcome

A little more painting progress

On the "Sitnam Warriors" front I have been making some more head way.  Right now I am at the point that I need to base and put decals on about nine models to finish them.  Plus I have two company commanders pretty much finished up.  The one in the Terminator Armor is just waiting for me to put the decal on, the one with the power sword is waiting for me to make up my mind whether to give him a storm bolter or plasma pistol of just a bolt pistol.

You can see three more model almost finished

I have also put together and painted up another Terminator this one will be the first assault Terminator this one will have a thunder hammer and storm shield.  When it is all said and done I'll end up with a total of ten assault five with lighting claws and five with thunder hammers and storm shields.  On the power weapons they have a muted purple color to them right now I am going to be dry brushing a blue over the purple and hopefully it will give them a pretty cool effect.

Here is a close up of the unfinished power weapon

The above photo is going to be one of the two company commanders. You can also kind of see the purple color on the power weapon right now, I'll post photos of the finished model once I make up my mind what weapon to equip  him with.  (Comments will be very appreciated)

Terminator company commander

This is the Terminator command unit you can also see that purple color on the lighting claws.  I will be painting the skull on the Iron Halo white, and then also adding a gold color to it as well.

Like always questions and comments are welcome.

Getting off my Duff

After typing up my last post I got to to thinking, I what I have in front of me really is not too much.  This afternoon I decided to pick up my brush and start working on the next Sternguard Vet for my Kill Zone list.

Here is the model primed

As you can see this guy has a number of grenades on him, the cool thing about the Kill Zone rules set is that models can throw their grenades.  This will be a little in game reminder for me.  It is pretty cool, however with this guy being a Sternguard Vet I will most likely be using the special issue ammo.

Here we are after some paint

I still need to go back and do some touch up painting on the model, but once that is finished and the shoulder pads are painted and glued on this guy will be finished.  Oh yeah I also have to paint the back pack as well.  I am going to keep the helmet skull theme on all of my Sternguard Vets for this army.  It is not too difficult to do.

Better look at the helmet detailing

That is all for now, like always questions and comments are welcome

The Next Five Sitnam Marines

I have 5 more space marines that are ready for basing and the finishing touches.  They need to be based, and the purity seals need to be painted, the Marine with the power fist needs both shoulder pads and the others only need the chapter symbol on them.  I do have about 8 shoulder pads ready to have the decal put on them.  I am hoping that I can get those done before Christmas.

In the left corner you can see my Term Cpt.

I do like how the Sgt has turned out so far

The first 4 are going to be used to fill out the second squad, an all plasma squad.  With these 4 I just have 2 more standard Marines to paint up to finish up the squad. The Army is coming along at a pretty nice pace, not screaming fast, but not at a snails pace ether. I hope that I can get another 2 Marines primed, 2 more scouts primed, and 2 more Marines for my Kill Team primed as well.  right now it has been way to wet out side to prime anything so that has been a little disappointing.

Questions and Comments are welcome.

Shoulder Pads The Next Generation

In my previous post I used Green Stuff to sculpt tactical squad markings.  After reading the blog lascannons and lances  and seeing what he had done with his Space Marine chapter marking and shoulder pads I commissioned him to make me some very basic chapter markings.

So I'll be using the rubber stamp engraving that is on its way here, to make shoulder pads.  I'll be make a master mold and then casting my own shoulder pads.  I am looking forward to trying my best to work with resin, and rubber molds.  As this process goes I'll continue to up date the progress, and failure.  We will hope that failure is at a minimum.

Hopefully the rubber stamp engraving will be arriving before the first of the year.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Shoulder Pads

Well I have taken some green stuff and made a total of ten Tactical Arrow shoulder pads.  I'll be using these for the next Tactical Squad that I put together, I do think that I will try to make a chevron instead of the Arrow on the shoulder pad of the heavy weapons marine.  For this next squad I think it will be a Lascannon, or Heavy Bolter this time.

10X Tactical Arrows

There is a local Art Supply store here in town that has stuff to make rubber molds.  I think that I might try to make some casts out of resin of some shoulder pads.  We will see how that goes...  I have talked to the guy who runs the store and he makes molds all the time, however not for anything that small.

What Codex for Sitnam Warriors

This afternoon  I was searching the interwebs for some fluff about the Mantis Warriors, right now there really is not too much to be found. After Imperial Armor 10 I figure that will change.  This is not a bad thing, the lack of fluff is one of the main reasons I was drawn to the Chapter in the first place.  However I am looking forward to reading about them in Imperial Armor 10 to find out more about them.

In the mean time what I have found is that the chapter is known for having its own distinct close combat tactics.  This is something that the veterans are trained in as they progress up the ranks. Another interesting thing that I also learned was about a combat haze that in the heat of battle the battle brother will only see the enemy, much like tunnel vision.

With those interesting facts, it made me think and not only the codex Space Marines would be a fitting choice, but that Blood Angels could be fitting as well.  The tunnel vision (Black Rage) would fit in with the fluff that I have found so far.  Also the close combat tactics would also work with the assault nature of the Blood Angels as well.  So those are really the only two points I have for using the Blood Angels Codex.

Now another codex that I was looking at is the obvious choice, codex Space Marines this gives the chapter plenty of options.  Most of those options are available in the Blood Angels but there is no Black Rage with the Space Marines.

Think coming up with a list might be a good start, so I might want to do that, but in the mean time I need to pick a codex and run with it.

Hoping to get some feedback and ideas, so questions and comments are welcome.

Sitnam Warriors so far.

With the Imperial Armour 9 book out and everyone all sorts of excited about it, I thought that it was time to look at what I have in the way of a secessionist army.  For some time I have been working on a Sitnam Warriors Army.  (Sitnam is Mantis spelled backwards) This army has been going slow, because I have been piecing it together little bit by bit.  I have another Marine Army that I have finished painting all the Models, I just need to get the Rhinos and Heavy Support vehicles.  More on that army later... So here are the fully painted and based models that I have as of right now.

Terminator Sgt

Six Terminators, One Rhino, Four Tact Marines

One Assault Marine, One Dreadnought, Ten Tact Marines

These are all the models I have painted up so far, my plan is to make the Sitnam Warriors my primary Space Marine army.

As for right now:
Ten Marine Tact squad w/flamer and rocket launcher
Six Terminators squad w/heavy flamer
One Dreadnought
One Assault Marine
Four Marine Tact squad w/plasma pistol and plasma rifle
One Stern Guard Vet

On my painting desk I have the rest of the Marines for the second Tact squad waiting to be finished.  Five Scouts, One more Assault Marine, and a Terminator Captain with lighting claws.  With more to be built and painted.

Thanks for Checking out the page, questions and comments are always welcome

A Little Progress on the Sitnam Warriors

Seeing as I have not posted in quite so time I thought I would do an update.  I have still been working away at the Mantis Warriors.  As of right now I have three basic Bolt Gun Marines (BGM)  that need to be based and final details painted on, once I have those guys finished the squad just needs to have two more BGM and a heavy weapons Marine painted to finish out the squad.  The basic squad layout is a plasma heavy squad, plasma pistol, plasma rifle, and plasma cannon. I like the AP of the plasma and the blast template for the cannon also.

These are the first 4 finished

After listening to the Independent Characters Pod Cast, I have really been leaning towards getting the IA9 book, I figured that I would be getting the book sooner or later.  It now looks like I'll be getting it sooner they did a really good review of the book, and went over a boarding action game that they played and it sounds really cool.  I think I'll be casting more Hirst Arts models this month to try finish the Space Hulk / Boarding Action game pieces.

The mold cast count has not changed I have been lazy and not ordered a bigger box of dental plaster.