Assembling a Stormraven to magnetise for easy transport

So I am building the 'Raven tonight and as it will be a competitive list I am going to need to take this thing with me all over the place. The wings and tail make that prohibitive so I decided to magnetise them. I will also magnetise the weapon options for TL Assault Cannon, Plasma and Lascannon. I'll leave on the Multi Melta because no one in their right mind would use the Hvy Bolters or Missile Launcher. The doors/Hurricane Bolter sponsons will also be magnetised.

I'll start off with the wings first as they are the biggest task.

Assemble your Stormraven as above. Note I have glued 2 pieces of card to the inside of the doorways. I used normal thin card which I cut from a flap on a GW box. To get the correct shape I just drew round the side door part from the Stormraven kit and cut it out. It fits the doorway perfectly. This allows me to attach magnets for the sponsons/doors later on.

On the roof are the two points where the wings will be connected. GW very kindly provided us with 2 grooves which are otherwise unused. In there I glued 4 magnets as above.

I then 'stacked' a 2nd magnet on top of those I had glued in and put a blob of paint on each magnet. Then I pressed the wing down gently into the contact point so that the paint gave me the correct positioning on the wing part that I would need to attach the 2nd magnets. After the paint was dried I put a dot of super glue on the spot and pressed the wing gently down into the slot. You'll have a perfect fit!

Now this is the cool bit. You don't need to magnetise the turbines or the tail because the wings will hold them perfectly in place for you!

After spraying the wings, tail and turbines I just rigged them up like so and they are all held in place!

"Prime directive"

So everything more or less has been primed apart from the Stormraven which still remains unbuilt. I may do that tonight. Hopefully will have time tomorrow to do some base layers.

Real happy how Librarian Agur looks sprayed up. He actually looks like a stock mini. And that is always my aim when building conversions.

Assault Marine sergeants and special weapons

Just finished off basing and filling in any detail that needed fixing on my 3 sergeants and 2 meltaguns for my list ready to prime

Chain Axe tutorial

Forgeworld Chain Axes - How To....



So, for all Flesh Tearers commanders the Chain Axe is an essential piece of kit. The Forgeworld Chain Axe upgrade sprues look brilliant, but with no hands attached and resin being about as brittle as meringue it can be very hard to equip your marines with these axes.

This can be avoided if you have patience and a steady hand. I use this method to replace the Assault Marine chainswords as the parts are readily available.

Equipment you will need:


A chainsword arm, a paper clip, a FW Chain Axe, clippers, craft knife, pin vice drill.

First point is to clip off the chain sword. This is very easy to do because the fist gives you a nice guide to rest the clipper against.


After you have done this, cut off the crossguard and then using a craft knife cut off the pommel leaving one ridge of the grip below the hand. You will be left with this.


Take your pin vice and then drill a hole through the bottom of the grip you left underneath the hand. Use your eye to angle the pin vice so it comes out of the other side of the fist at a realistic angle. You will be left with this:


Take your paper clip and put a small amount of super glue on it then feed it through the hole in the hand. leave a couple of milimetres of pin exposed either side. It is better to leave more rather than less, as you can always cut off more wire with clippers if it is too long, but can't add more on if it is too short.


Take your chain axe and using your craft knife cut through the grip 2 ridges down


Trim the ends flat using your knife and then using the tip of the blade push a little dent in the very centre of the 2 pieces so you can begin to drill them hollow. Now, being very patient and careful, take your pin vice, line up the drill bit to the dent you made with the blade and begin to drill out the 2 pieces so they are hollow. You only need to drill out a few milimetres so you can afford to take your time and make sure you keep the drill bit straight and parallel with the axe pieces. It is important to remember you can only hollow out the grip, as the shaft of the axe is too thin, so make sure you stop when you get to the top of the grip on the axehead part otherwise you will ruin your resin axe. You will be left with something like this:


Then take the 2 now hollow axe parts and line them up to make sure they have enough hollowed out to fit flush against the fist. When you have drilled them out enough dab a spot of superglue onto the paper clip pin and attach them to the hand like so.


And then you can attach the arm to your marine, ready to bring righteous retribution for the Flesh Tearers chapter.

And so it begins

Primed these guys first but they will be getting painted next to last.

6 Death Compan
-2 Power Weapons
-1 Thunder Hammer

A 1750pt list for ToS that I can settle on...

Ok, so after months of faffing about and weighing up the Mephiston issue I've finally gone for a list I am happy with. The main point for me is it needs to feel like a Flesh Tearers force. A nice contingent of Death Company is a must.

Let's go through the list first:

HQ:

Librarian 100
-Shield & Fear of Darkness
100pts

Elites:

Furioso Dreadnought 125
-Blood Fist & Meltagun
-Frag Cannon
-Magna Grapple 15
-Drop Pod 35
175pts

Troops:

6 Death Company 120
-2 Power Axes 30
-Thunder Hammer 30
Chaplain Lemartes 150
330pts

Death Company Dreadnought 125
-Blood Talons
125pts

5 Assault Marines 100
-Meltagun 10
-Lightning Claw 15
-Razorback 20
--T/L Heavy Flamer
145pts

5 Assault Marines 100
-Meltagun 10
-Lightning Claw 15
-Razorback 20
--T/L Heavy Flamer
145pts

5 Assault Marines 100
-Razorback 20
--T/L Lascannon 35
155pts

Fast Attack:

2 Attack Bikes 80
-2xMulti Meltas 20
100pts

Heavy:

Predator
-Autocannon
-Lascannon Sponsons 65
135pts

Predator
-Autocannon
-Lascannon Sponsons 65
135pts

Stormraven 200
-Extra Armour 15
-T/L Multi Melta
-T/L Assault Cannon
215pts


Ok so now the rundown...

Let's start in HQ.... I was playtesting with Mephiston for ages. He's a great unit and easily capable of making his points back. The only problem with him is meta. Poisoned Dark Eldar weapons, Rending S7 Psycannons and PSYK-OUT GRENADES...not even getting into Psychotroke... but Psyk Out grenades make him Nemesis fodder. And I expect there to be a lot of Grey Knights and Dark Eldar. We all know his strengths, but I think at 250pts he suffers too badly against prominent top tier lists. So instead we have gone for your basic Librarian with Shield, which I feel is vital for a heavily armoured list, and also Fear Of The Darkness. Whilst you might see Librarians used often in a BA list to support their close combat elements I am interested in their other strengths. Boosting the survivability of numerous AV13 targets is one. Being able to make a large number of units run off of objectives or even the board edge is another.

Elites.. An area of the BA codex, like many others in 5th ed, which is over-flowing with viable options. The obvious Priests, Assault Terminators, Furioso Dreadnoughts. All good options. I have gone for a Furioso in this list, but in a less common configuration. With a lot of light armoured vehicles as well as the Stormraven in my list, I feel I need a survivable alpha strike unit. I am particularly fearful of IG Hydra batteries and Long Fangs. A podding Furioso can handle both of these very well early on and with 13 front armour are likely to hang around. Mine is equipped with a Frag Cannon, Meltagun and Magna Grapple for a possible 4 shots on entry and the Blood Fist means he can tie up units in combat or assault vehicles as well.

Troops... After dropping Mephiston for a normal Librarian I added in an extra RAS unit with the 150 extra points to bring my scoring units up to 3. This time in a T/L Lascannon Razor so that it can sit in the backfield on home objective but also offer a threat. My two main objective taking units are 5 man RAS squads with Meltagun and Lightning Claw in T/L Heavy Flamer Razorbacks. These are very cheap units that are still able to provide a small threat. They will mainly be held in reserve and brought on late to objective claim.

And then the crux of the list, Lemartes and 6 DC in a Stormraven with a DC Dread with Talons. I'm a huge fan of Lemartes. I6 with Furious Charge means he goes before Halberds if he has to, and he cannot be targeted in combat either. He's a machine. The Dread is great against units that would otherwise decimate the DC, such as Grey Knights with Halberds or Death Cult Assassins. And if the Furioso is stlll around that makes for another very useful unit in assault that can tie up targets I want to avoid.

Fast Attack... 2 Attack Bikes. Multi Meltas. Standard fare.

Heavy... 2 AutoLas Predators for long ranged fire support. Stormraven for Death delivery.

So basically this will be a mainly reserved army, with the Predators, Las Razorback and Attack Bikes looking to out manoeuvre the enemy to get early kills, along with the Furioso to hit some rear armour and generally be a nuisance. Then we bring on reserves to clear house in turns 3-6. I am capitalising on the fact that I have a lot of units that can contest or hold objectives late in game, and am aiming to use a weight of force to overwhelm parts of the board.

Going to now try and learn to use an air brush in the space of a couple of days...

IT IS TIME

I am going to do exactly what it says on the box!