Death from the Skies!

Among the few units I haven't fielded often in Warhammer 40K are Flyers.  I've always liked the look of F/W's flyers, and in fact have two Tau Barracudas, however before 6th Ed there really wasn't much of a point.  I LOOOOOOVE Apoc games, but organized events are so few and far between that I find myself wanting to put a Titan- or Fellblade-class vehicle on the board rather than my flyers when I'm limited to one "Apoc" force-org slot (which is typical of narrative style events over the past several years, and fits the HH:Betrayal Lords of War model too).

Obviously, all of that changed last year with 6th, and I thought it was time to catch up with the program!

In the middle of my Imperial Fists building bash, I also picked up an Avenger (needed *something* to get me over the free shipping threshold, but didn't want any more Legion models to paint!)  I had to put it on hold until the VII Legion was ready for WW, and now that I've back from the event, I am taking a break from the VII Legion to build and paint it.

The model went together like a dream.  It was one of the best Forge World models I've received from a casting and fit perspective.  There were very few spots that required green stuff, and almost nothing that required a soak in hot water to fix warpage . . .  rare for an all resin build.

Below you can see the model and the canopies masked up for a trip to the airbrush table.  I've decided to do the underbelly first.  I'll be going for a smoggy orange/brown, mottled appearance no the belly.  I figure the skies of Terra in the 30th Millennium probably look like the skies over China today -- that is to say a perpetual haze.  So, ground up we'd be orange . . .  Top-down -- it would seem the "ground" around the Imperial Palace would entirely be fortified, so I'm going to go with a mottled urban-grey for the top.

And, just to keep things interesting... I figured I'd do up a few of the new Wall of Martyrs set pieces in said urban-gray appearance to start pulling together an overall "look" for this corner of my collection.

Hopefully more back in a day or three off of the painting table!

The LIST goes on . . .

Well, work has gotten the better of me, so I haven't had time to take pictures of the army as it stood when we walked away from the "Betrayal" event, but I did update the project log.  I had to add a new category ... "Table Legal" to my model count because I have so many models that need revisiting.  ;-)

One model you'll see on the list is a "MM Turret" under the heading "3D Models."  I realized about three weeks in to building the models on this list that there are a decided lack "Pintle Mount" options for any Land Raider other than the flimsy MM mount that comes with a LR Crusader ...  and there are none available for purchase from F/W.

I got this little number modeled and 3D Printed right before heading off to the event (while I was in the US for a couple of weeks), then promptly forgot to paint it until the night before we were supposed to be on the tables!  Please pardon the chipping and wear to the paint job itself... that's an artifact of not putting a seal coat on before transporting the model back to Saudi from Nottingham!

Here it is on a Land Raider to give a sense of scale.

And, while the shot below is atrociously crappy from a photographic perspective, I think the colors are the "truest" of any pic I've take yet of the models in the army...  love the "cold light of the morning."

Based, and ready for action!!!

In the run-up to the Horus Heresy Gaming Weekend, much frantic painting occurred, all of the infantry models shed their plain plastic bases for bases from Dragonforge, and very few hours of sleep were obtained by myself.  My lovely wife was a HUGE help in getting minis table ready (as she is with every "push" to hit a Con' or Event), and I will owe her big for months to come as a result.

Here are the Dragonforge bases.  I tried to keep them muted and gritty -- I think that maybe they are too muted, and I might go hit them with some additional dry-brushing as I go back and work through better shading and detailing on each unit's spot-colors.

Below you can see most of the VII Legion separated from their plastic bases, and ready for their new resin upgrades.

And, lastly, here are two shots of "Team Bumblebee" (as my son decided to call them through the whole event.)  At this point, there were still several hours of mad scambling ahead to get every mini table-worthy at a three color minimum... and, at midnight the night before the event I finally got over that line!

At some point in the next week I'll get everything out of the Battlefoam shipping crate and take properly white-balanced photos of their current state... that will probably make a good place to start a better PLOG.

Last, but not least, here is a photo from the event itself!  In game three I was up against "Damien" and his BEAUTIFUL Deathguard.  Here you can see my Assault Squad hammering in to his 20 man Tactical Squad...

More thoughts on the event itself, how the army played, and why I like "30K" better than "40K" to come in a later post!

Cheers!