Operation Downfall Campaign - Battle 3: War Train Raid

 Inspired by Bill, I decided to do a video battle report this time:

Operation Downfall: War Train Raid


A few of my favorite pictures from the game:

Two More Veterans

 After not getting much hobby time recently, I finally got a little chance to paint today and finished up these two veteran tactical marines. Because the MkIII is so time-consiming to paint, I am taking these guys on in smaller batches rather than all ten at once. All decals will be added at the end. 

The three members of the squad so far. 

Codex Drop Troopers - Featuring the Xhorik 87th

 A Drop Trooper hobbyist group got together and created an unofficial fan Codex for the new edition of WH40k, since the Drop Troopers have been... dropped... and are no longer officially supported. They saw some of my photos and wanted me to submit some for the Codex so I did and they show up in a few places, including the Regimental Colors pages. Here are a few samples:

I have not played 9th edition and don't have any plans to start in the near future, but this fan codex is really impressive and it is cool to see the Xhorik 87th featured as an unofficial part of the Imperium.

Veteran Test Model

 Test model for the Sons of Horus Veteran Tactical Squad in MKIII armor:

The crest was originally pure red, which looked too bright, so I went with a red-black blend. I think that gives the right amount of color without being overpowering. 

I started with the shoulder pads black and brass, just like the tactical squad.

But then I painted in the eye red to make them stand out and pop a bit more. 

Next on to the other nine members of the squad.

Ezmen Vyke: The Dagger of Horus

 
Before his recruitment, Ezmen Vyke was a native of Cthonia, a ferocious and nearly-feral ganger eking out an existence of constant warfare in the ruined remnants of the shattered hive cities. Charismatic and ferocious, he excelled at the XVIth Legion's favored style of warfare: the sudden and brutal application of overwhelming force against an opponent, preferably before they even knew they were fighting. To him, war was a matter of identifying the strength and leadership of the enemy, isolating it and then obliterating it. Throughout the Great Crusade, he fought as a member of the elite Justaerian, striking the first, and often last, blow of every campaign. He worshipped Horus and was unflinchingly loyal in every action. When the Heresy began, there was no consideration in his mind on where his allegiance lay. He had always been a tool of war. His purpose was to fight, destroy and win, at the direction of Horus. He never gave a thought to peace, or civilization, or humantiy or any greater purpose beyond the next conflict, and after that, the next campaign. To him, the legions were weapons and the purpose of a weapon is to destroy whomever its weilder directs it toward. He is a weapon and Horus weilds him well. 

This was a simple conversion of the Calth terminator captain. It is not my favorite model and so I put off painting it for a few years. After looking at it, I realized the head was the main thing I didn't care for. I just don't like the look of a guy in super heavy armor with the most vulnerable part of his body totally exposed for no reason, not to mention his view being blocked by his own shoulder. But in order to swap the bare head for a helmet, I also had to cut away the gorget, which was not too bad and I think I smoothed it down enough that you cannot really tell. I felt the MKIII helmet really matched the style of the Cataphractii armor and adding a top knot helps to make it fit a bit more with the Justaerian. The only other change was that I broke the cable to his chain fist and could not get it to glue straight so I made a new one out of guitar wire. It does not line up perfectly but it isn't too noticeable. 

Look at that ugly head...

I had so much fun painting this guy. After doing quite a few batches of infantry lately, it was really nice to sit down with just a single character model to paint. I felt like I could really take my time and enjoy the steps, after the assembly line grind of painting 19 nearly-identical Steel Legion troopers. And the black and red color scheme is one of my all-time favorites, going all the way back to starting my ork army decades ago. Black and red is simply one of the most powerful and bold color combinations (along with white and red, which I also love). Not to mention, a black model feels 25% done immediately after priming it so you get a nice psychological boost. For the cloak, I kept it a more muted grey/green, rather than the richer green of my armor. I did not want it to clash with the red, black and gold of the armor. And I don't think a fabric cape would need to be the same exact shade as painted metal armor.

This guy was so much fun, I might need to put some Justaerian terminators higher on my priority list!

Halovox 450th Armored Regiment

The Xhroik 6th Armored Divison consists entirely of armored regiments of battle tanks, mechanized infantry and mobile artillery. The Halovox 450th is one such regiment, drawn from the mecha-nomads that migrate with the extremely slow rotation of their planet, also known as Xhorik Secundus or Aeternum. They come from a people eternally on the move with their vast caravans of vehicles, harvesters, and even mobile cities complete with factories and refineries. So it is no surprise that they favor a doctrine of warfare similar to their lifestyle: slowly rolling heavy vehicles always moving forward. The nomadic people formed an instant bond with the White Scars who helped to bring their planet into the new Imperium during the Great Crusade. The White Scars took recruits, but also enlisted many armored regiments into the Crusade armies they led, pleased to find a force capable of fighting mobile warfare. Although the lumbering mechanized Halovox armies were not fast or able to assist the White Scars in their lightning hit-and-run strikes and feints, they could keep up a steady, grinding pace night and day. The armored divisions were able to cover ground much faster than the typical infantry regiments of the Imperial Army or militias and cuold provide a mighty hammer blow where and when it was needed. Because of their history of fighting alongside the Vth Legion during the Crusade, the armored regiments of Halovox were given badges consisting of a red lightning bolt on a white sky, an honor indicating their alliance with the White Scars.

The first batch is painted. I was going for a big unit of riflemen for a Horus Heresy axulia unit, but there are only 19 because one of them was the test model I did in Contrast paint that needs to be stripped and re-primed as part of the next batch. I used a base coat, wash, dry brush approach. Drybrushing always gives me a sort of dusty look, but in this case, I think it is fitting since they should be rather dusty from their environment. I was not feeling the blue visor. I felt the blue gave a more techy sci-fi look that worked for the drop troopers but not these grunts. I tried one with a red visor and didn't like it, either. I felt a brightly colored visor doesn't work when it is not covering the face (like most of these models have) since it pulls the attention unnatrually away from the normal focal point. Ultimately, I went back to a black visor like the official models have, just representing normal sun shades. I really like the look of the white and red badges on the shoulders. They add some much-needed pop to the otherwise bland and dusty color scheme without throwing off the look of the faces and helmets. I spent about a month on these guys (although I was out of town one weekend) so the pace was not as fast as I had hoped but they are pretty simple to paint and I should be able to get the entire force of them done in a few more big batches likes this (I have six ten-man squads in total so I am one third done already). The next thing I will be doing for these guys is painted a few Chimeras so they get their rides. But now that I finally have some black undercoat, I may go back to the Sons for a bit first. 

Logan's Fenrisian Wolves

 Logan painted these guys in two sittings using Contrast paints. I helped him with the face. Models covered in texture make for a good use of Contrast paints since you don't get that blotchy effect I always get on flat surfaces. He got a little brown on the legs in a few areas but would rather call it "dirt" than fix it.

Don't I have a nice rack?

I decided to organize my hobby area with a paint rack. Browsing the interwebs for ideas, I found a hobbyist who hit on an amazing, low-cost solution: a simple nail polish rack. (Who knew anyone would own 60 bottles of nail polish, let alone that they are almost exactly the same size as Citadel paint pots?) 

For $16 and next-day delivery, you cannot beat it: Amazon link

It feels pretty sturdy and should last. The only problem is that it isn't big enough for all my paints, including washes, textures, and technicals so I will need to order another. (I guess even nail polish junkies don't need as many colors and textures as miniature painters who are working on three to four armies at once.) I am looking forward to getting the entire paint collection organized and neatly stacked. 

Update with the second rack. I didn't realize how many paints I had! There are some doubles of the same color (and eve a few triples), and a few that are all dried out and need to be tossed, so that will open up a bit of space. At least having it all organized I now know exactly what I have and can better keep track of what I need. 

Painting will be more organized from now on!

Xhorik 87th Commission Art

We have something a little different today.

A few months ago, I came across some nice-looking art for an Imperial Guard regiment on a hobby community site. I was intrigued enough that I reached out to the artist and asked what it would take to get a piece done for my Xhorik 87th Drop Troopers. The price seemed reasonable so I decided to give it a try. I shared with him the little bit of story I had written on this blog and a bunch of photos of painted models. I told him to just create whatever he felt would represent the models and the background.

After a few months, here is the result:

Antax pattern lascarbine sketch

I am very impressed with the effort he put into capturing the unique model of lasgun I converted. 

The second thing he created were the markings and emblems.

He drew a firebird based on the regimental banner model that I painted. And if you look at the badges, there are a lot of 8s and 7s in the imagery, such as the 7-sided polygons inside the 8-sided polygons or the numbers of spears, to represent the 87th. He used spears to represent this regiment being the spear tip of an Imperial army. And of course lots of orange, the regimental color. I really appreciated all the thought he put into the symbolism. The small badges are meant to be at a resolution that could be printed onto transfers for shoulder pads, if I ever want to try that.

Drop trooper sketch

Drop trooper in action

Here is everything put together. 

I think it turned out pretty great. You can tell he put a lot of thought into the project. The art of the trooper is a little busy for my taste, but I like that he captured the unique helmet (on the ground) and lasgun from my conversions and tried to convey a sense of what a drop trooper would be doing: calling in bombing strikes rather than fighting in the trenches. Overall, it was pretty cool to collaborate with someone else I've never met on a hobby project. 

More Stormtroopers

 Painted a few more stormtroopers. Added a few grenades, pouches and a knife to make them look as kitted-out as my drop troopers.