Sons of Horus Drop Pod WIP

Saturday I had the opportunity to relax an get some modeling done. It was much needed R&R after a week of dealing with Attorneys for the company.  This is the result. One Sons of Horus drop pod ready to carry its payload of 8 multi-melta equipped troops into battle. When escalation and stronghold assault came out, I realized I needed a counter to heavy fortifications and super heavies. The ten man melts-squad is my solution. Points-wise it is an expensive unit, but it does threaten just about anything. In a legion list, the tactical support squad is a troops choice, so this unit benefits from being scoring as well. The two extra slots are saved for the apothecary and the praetor, who bring more punch. So in addition to vaporizing what they target, the squad has three sets of artificer armor and feel no pain saves.

It might look done on causal inspection, but there is still a lot of work to do on the model. I experimented with my own mixture of oil wash rather than my usual dark brown AK-Interactive wash, and the results clearly demonstrate AK as the superior product. Targeted washes, paint chipping, and edge cleanup are all on the docket.

Storm Eagle Base

I built this base to echo the emperors children dreadnought standing over a dead Sons of Horus marine. I was hoping that that green of the storm eagle would go really well with the purple on the base. Initially the dreadnought stood out too much, so I doused it in weathering powders. I am not sure what to do at this point. The pose is awkward, the painting is now covered in dirt, and all of the cool little wires and tubs spilling out from the ruined casket are hidden. I do like the way the concrete turned out. The embedded mesh is a bit sharp though.

Does this work well enough to keep? It is sufficiently off from my vision that I can't see it. That is the problem with a strong vision, it gets in the way of practical construction sometimes. The key problem which cascaded here was the support pillar for the Storm Eagle. That chunk of clear plastic just gets in the way of everything.

Sons of Horus Master of Signals and Volkite Heavy Support Squad

I had trouble with the gold Sons of Horus Transfers. They just seem to leave tiny silver patches near the gold areas. I used every technique possible on these guys, including gloss varnish and repeated micro-sol applications to no avail. This batch turned out better than the terminators, but not good enough for me to keep using the transfers. I hadn't planned on painting a volkite squad, but knowing that I will likely face swarm tyranids forces at the Nova Open Narrative Event, I knew needed something to handle crowd control.

Photos of the Storm Eagle are coming once I figure out the basing. I should probably paint up two troop units so I have a legal force points wise, but I think a predator would be more fun.

Storm Eagle Almost Complete

The storm eagle is now oil weathered, and some details have been painted. The next step is weathering. I plan to paint chip the model, and follow that with horizontal airbrush streaks of black smoke over the wings. This will simulate flying through anti-aircraft fire. I was thinking about adding some horizontal grime streaking, but am not sure that is appropriate, even if I really enjoy painting the effect.

If only the flu I brought to and then back from London would go away.

Oops I flew to London

I planned to post some updated shots of the now oil weathered storm eagle, but a last minute email on Monday had me buying a same day ticket and flying out that night. I arrived this morning, though my luggage is still in dc. Now all I have to do is count down the days to warhammer world on Friday.

Need to stay awake for two more hours.... Incredible enough, I have two sets of meetings. Wish me luck!


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Sons of Horus Storm Eagle

The mint green base coat on the Storm Eagle complete. I keep taking the doors off and playing with the hydraulic ramp in the back, which is slowing things down. I guess that is just a side effect of having a finished interior that is interesting to look at. I have to decide on the placement of the dark grey and light grey stripes. My plan is to put black Sons of Horus symbols on the side hatches, and then use the gold symbols over black/mint grey stripes on the wings. The engine cowlings will be the minty light grey GW makes.  I am eager to get to the weathering stage, but there is just so much detail to paint I will probably not reach my goal of finishing the model today. The base is another matter altogether, it has yet to be designed.

I hope everyone is enjoying a pleasant Sunday.

Storm Eagle Hydraulics

This Storm Eagle is supposed to be one of the center pieces of my Sons of Horus army. However no matter how hard I try, I cannot get the kit to fit together properly. This kit is hell. So after another unsatisfying round of trying to fit it together, I decided I would experiment with hydraulics. in order to make the ramps more interesting. The design is relatively simple, and should survive the next dozen attempt to glue the body together.  I've got a pack of secret weapon cables that I will glue onto the main portion of the hydraulics as well as some plastic rivets.

So what to do with the front ramp? I can't very well have one cool ramp and not another. I guess it is back to the desk to fabricate another set.


*EDIT
I found my Secret Weapon metal cables and added them to the hydraulics. Also, after consulting the FW directions, it appears they can't even build one of these things with all the angles lining up properly. I think I am good to go. Now I just need to wire in the fiber optics. ;)

**EDIT

Added some paint