Monday 26 November 2012

Badab War, Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Centurion.

Here is my completed tyrants legion Centurion. He's a simple kitbash with a regular body. Company champion shoulderpads, apothecary head and veterans powerfist from the plastic command squad sprue. The stormbolter and backpack decoration are from the commander sprue (I have to say i stole the idea for the backpack decoration from john at 'johns toy soldiers' excellent tyrants legion - i seriously recommend his blog. Theres a link to it in the bloglist on this site).
Overall I'm pretty pleased with how he came out. Especially his posing, I can just see him stalking the corridors of a loyalist starship. I wanted to give him a slightly sinister look and I think the segmented company champion shoulderpads really make him and give him a hunched, malevolent feel
And a rear view, every Centurion worth his salt needs an auspex in a boarding assault. I will try and add a better picture (as i have done with the retaliator squad) when there is some daylight when I'm not at work!
Now I just need to hurry up and finish the legion cohort and I'll actually getting somewhere with this mini project.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Badab war. Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Retaliator Squad.

I have finally finished my first tyrants legion unit, an elite squad of Retaliators. Huron's discipline masters and shock troops. First up the sergeant...
He's a pretty simple kitbash, the head is a maxmini steampunk knight head with the laurels from the small commander sprue, as is the loincloth thingy. the axe shaft and arm are the company standard bearers arm from the command squad sprue, the axe head is an old Chaos space marines bit. The part I'm most pleased with is his combat shield, with its cool feline heads. This is from the plastic warhammer fantasy knightly orders box (knights panther I assume)
Next is the squads weapons specialist with a melta gun. A basic conversion of a tac marine with an empire fantasy shield.
Next is a gnarled old veteran, brother Tanin. He has another maxmini steam knight head, the combat shield from the plastic company champion, and a bionic arm.
Next another really basic conversion of a marine with another empire shield
Lastly a marine with a black Templars chainsword arm (I scraped the iron crosses off) and the combat shield from the plastic assault squad box. This combat shield arm (unlike the company champions) doesn't hold a bolt pistol. So I made sure to put a holster on this model.
I'm really pleased with this squad and looking forward to getting the legion cohort and characters painted, and then thinking about the twenty auxillia that are a old school style 'mandatory' troops choice for a tyrants legion army. I think at some point I'll bite my tongue and pay ten quid for a sheet of forgeworld transfers to finish them off properly, if you've looked at the photos you will understand painting them is beyond my skills!

Sunday 11 November 2012

Remembrance

As a hobbyist I think it's important to take a moment to think about the true cost of war. Rather than the romanticized, abstract parody that we dabble in.

Monday 5 November 2012

Badab war... Astral Claws Work in progress.

A quick update on the Astral Claws. Apologies for the rubbish photos... I will try and get some better ones with the finished units.
Here are the Retaliators I have finished. The Sergeant is now undercoated and awaiting paint and I need to sort out another combat shield arm for the final trooper in the 5 man squad. I hope to have the squad finished in the next week to ten days.
And a couple of members of the (to be) fifteen strong Cohort. I want to put a lot less gold and detailing on the bulk of the squad. To represent them being the newly recruited neophytes that pushed the astral claws numbers into the thousands, the sergeant, however is a hoary old veteran, he's almost finished on the paint front, just a couple more details and the base to do. I also have my centurion and corpse taker assembled. But I think I'll put off painting them till I've got a few more regular marines painted.