Catachan Heavy weapon missile launcher team and squad done!

Finally my my last HWT missile launcher team is done(one of the old school models to boot!). I am really pleased by how it came out, the detailing on the old models are just so much a pleasure to paint. 

The finished HWT also means that i can finally wield a fully painted squad of missile launchers!

The next project will be ogryns. I am gonna trade my old ogryns(the new models) away for the old ones(old school for the win!). So for December my painting goal will be to paint up a small squad of ogryns and as a bonus goal if i manage, will be to paint up Nork and hereby finishing all of the 4 catachan special characters!! I hope i manage.

Best wishes Ras

Catachan update

On the 12 july 2010 i started my catachan army. Much have happened since then. When i started it was meant to be a pure fluffy army following the old catachan deathworld codex. Painting and collecting was meant to be the main purpose of the army. However that changed a few months later when i went to the local gaming club and suddently playing the game started growing to almost rival the painting and collecting aspect.

 However one thing remained the same and that was the two guys i started painting with over the web. We are all 3 from Denmark however they both come from the eastern part of the country and going there by bus or train is a 5 hour trip. But belive it or not one of the guys is coming to Aalborg this week and i been working to get everything in my army to the highest standard for a game or two with him this thursday.

I where missing some guardsmen to fill up the infantry squads and veteran squad now that i didnt use Heavy weapon teams or Demolition charges. So i painted 4 more.

Now i wanted also the Vendetta to be finished and i used the one complete cockpit i had lying around, glued it on and did some weathering on it. I am still to Really catachanize it but i need to figure out how to do it properly. I want "Tropic thunder" spelled on the side of it with maybe a lightning going through it. Kill markings etc aswell.

I did manage to add the guardsmen in the door way and i am really happy how that cam out. I think it adds alot of feel to it. Speaking of the cockpit. I called GWs customerservice and i have to say that i am impressed. The guy was so nice and understanding and he quickly found my email and explained that the delay was cause they actually have to make it for me  first and thats why it was delayed.

 The moneyshot! ;)

Ras

The infantry blob

 It occurred to me that i where using the infantry squads as less effective heavy weapon teams(one heavy weapon only in each squad). That meant that I had a heavy weapon team that you couldn’t kill of fast like normal weapon teams, but I was wasting the last 8 guardsmen most of the game since I had to keep them static to use the HWT. 


 I then later combined two infantry squads to a blob with 2 heavy weapon teams in one squad. Only one “bring it down” order where needed now, but now I was wasting 16 guardsmen! So why not remove the HWTs and get full usage out of the blob?

Why use a mobile blob?
- Provides a role for your platoon’s infantry squads while at the same time strengthens it.
- Makes full use of lasguns.
- Provides a tough stabile tar pit if you add a commissar, which can claim objectives.
- Makes a tar pit out of the unit that can actually fight back effectively if you equip your sergeants and commissar with power weapons.
- If you add Straken to the mix and keep his command squad nearby, the blob gets even stronger with counter attack, furious charge and gives you the option of doing “First rank fire, second rank fire” first without losing the extra attack if your target is still alive and charges the blob.

What to watch out for
- Flamers! You will always want to keep your blog in cover since the blob only have flak armor(5+ save).
However as we all know flamers eat both 5+ saves and cover saves..
- Units with a lot of attacks that strike before or at the same time as your blob. Example would be ork boys on the charge, dark eldar wyches etc. You get the point.
- Big blast weapons or small blast barrage. Make sure to spread your blog out with 2 inces in-between each mode.


Best wishes Ras

Vendetta and Valkerie WIP and army overview

 Where to begin. Well i went to my first tournament yesterday and i had a absolute blast! I didn't do very well(actually i lost all 3 games and i placed last outta all 8 players), but i did learn a few things.

1. Focus on the missions..! In pretty much all 3 games i thought i was going great, just to loose on last minute objective/table-quarter grabbing or on failure to positioning my units to support the missions.

2. My army list needs a bit of tweaking.

3. I need to start playing more games.

4. Focus on missions!

 I didn't manage to finish my Vendettas for the tournament for several reasons. For starters i couldn't build 2 vendettas since i ran outta lascannons and wasn't able to get the last in time(they are on the way now tho), so i had to build a Valkyrie which was alright(although they are both magnetized so i can have 2 Valkyries, two vendettas or one of both. So i painted em up, made the bases and was gonna put the cockpit on so i could do the last weathering, guess what? One of the cockpit have a defect.. SO instead of going with one that had the cockpit and one without, i then decided to go with both without so they wouldn't look apart.

Now i did write WIP, so i will finish them both as soon as Games Workshop sends me another cockpit(hopefully) and then i will do the last weathering and really catachanize them up. I decided to take a few pictures of my whole army in my display Cabinet(yes i do pack em up and down every time i go to play in the club and when i get home, to the amusement of my wife).

I hope you enjoy the pictures

Best wishes Ras

Quick update. More catachans!

 Finished the last guardsmen for my list. I customized another demolition charge guardsmen from the old lascannon crew from the old HWT blister.

The last guy is for the vendetta. I plan on having him sitting in one of the doors in the vendetta like the Americans did in Vietnam. He is one of the old tank crews for the Leman Russ exterminator as far as i remember(i might be wrong tho)

Next update will be about the first vendetta.

Ras

Catachan oldschool models!

Quick update guys. 3 more guardsmen to go and i will have finished the infantry for the list! I am planning on finishing them and to start up on the first vendetta this week. Expect  awesomeness, when i kit out the vendetta  to go to war with the biggest and baddest guardsmen in the imperial guard army!

ps. Yes they are all old school metal models. How cool is that? :D

Catachan flamers! Platoon command squad done for the tournament!

Can you guys guess which ones are the newer ones?

Burn it up! I had to convert more flamers. I already got all the old school models painted up but 3 more where needed, so i went on to build em from the plastic spruces. I really love how they came out! I didn't expect it but i think they go well with the old ones and add ferocity to the squad!

First bunch of guardsmen done! My platoon command squad with flamers are done and i will be moving on to the special weapons squad, but first i want to talk a little about the models.

Here is how it ended up looking.

I messed up one of the flamers when i build him. I wanted everyone of them to be unique. I decided on a guardsmen that pointed to the rest and i took a arm from the newer catachan command sprues. These models are slimmer tho and when the models had dried i noticed to my horror that there was a huge cleft between the shoulder and arm! 

I decided to try something i often do. I use the model and work my magic with the brush! I gave him a metal right torso(I had to be replaced after a Tau plasma riffle blew  of a piece of the poor guy.. That never stopped a catachan tho!).

The platoon command squad for my list.

I also managed to paint up the platoon commander, which is a model i been dying to paint for a long time. The old school sergeant with laspistol and close combat weapon that i got of Ebay a while ago.

Look at that mug, they just don't make models like that anymore!

I also finished another demolition charge guardsmen and a old heavy bolter crewmen for the special weapons squad AND i built my first Vendetta! I changed my list abit as well, but still need the last parts to fall into place. More to come guys.

Ras

Beaten by feber..

Against all the odds, i caught something a few days before the tournament started. What started out as a sore throat the day before, escalated into a fever and i was now not able to finish the last bit and in the end to compete in R3T.. 

This is what i had prepared the night before. I had primed the last 3 mortar crews and made the 3 bases for them. 

My objective marker that i quickly threw together the night before(sorry Sune, there wasn't enough time to come up with a good enough idea for your puntrap idea). The idea was a crashes VIP as the sole survivor in the jungle waiting for the jungle fighters to get him the heck outta there! I plan on doing him very muddy and hurt!

The 3 mortar crews i had already finished.

 I plan on finishing the last bit during next week if the fever is gone(if god will it) and then do a battle report with pictures of the whole thing against someone at the club versus his R3T list vs my own R3T list  just so i get to play a fully painted army for the first time and also at the same time play against one!

The imperial guard basilisk catachanized!

 The basilisk in all its glory! This bad boy was very fun to do and it had a ton of extra parts to really customize it as you want. I used one of the crew from the last mortar team from Drax for one of its crew. Funny enough the old mortar shells fit the basilisk barrel perfectly! I also used the extra shells from both the mortar teams to use as extra ammo for the loader.

The weathering is more in line with the newer chimera and i am really liking less weathering even tho i am not hating on the old rust bucket chimera i did the first try for the Company Command Squad.

 Nothing more to say than that i have 4 days to finish 3 mortar teams + the objective marker for the tournament! Luckily i have 2 days of school on Thursday and Friday and i told the missus that does are reserved to painting.

I'm planning on going back to it later and do some combat graffiti on it like the chimeras, also i am abit unsatisfied with the mud on the ramp after i looked closer at the pictures. Also i missed the scroll on both sides but again after the tournament!

Fluff wise i am imagining the basilisk standing in the outskirts of the jungle in the camp ready to rain shells over enemies approaching or supporting squads/companies engaged. Today's  howitzers can shot up to 31,1 km and that's small sized compare to the basilisk and this is in the future so imagine the support one of these could offer. I cant wait to try it out at the tournament satureday..

If anyone else cant find some places i forgot please lemme know! Now i have some mortar teams that wont paint themselves!

 Ras signing out.

First mortar squad.. check!

 Took me a while to get these done. The old school mortar from Drax was really fast to do as i just absolutely love that team! But the two next ones was to familiar to the other HWTs i did, but also the fact that i been painting alot lately is leaving its mark.

R3T is in less than 14 days and i still need to paint the basilisk, another squad of mortars and 1 objective marker. I will not compromise on my painting, so no rushing being sloppy from my part just to make it. If i don't make it, then i don't make it. After all i have to look at my models long after the tournament is over.

But back to the objective marker. You guys have any idea what to put on it? I really want something to fit in with the army and at the same time look great. We all know Drax amazing Objective marker and even tho making one as awesome one as his is close to impossible, i would like something down that road(In the term of awesomeness!).

My thought have been on a jungle fighter dragging another mate wounded mate trough the jungle. But that will require green stuff and heavy converting to look good. So if any of you guys got any ideas please tell me!

Chimera for the Plasma command squad done!

I tried to go with less rust, more of a little cleaner look while still being worn, muddy and rusty. Literally trying not to overdo the rust again!

Now i still got the basilisk left and then all i have left in my army mech vise to paint up, is the 2 last sentinels. I will paint them the same way, worn, muddy and rusty. 

Catachan tank crews typically adorn their vehicles with non-standard stylized decals, kill-markings and unofficial nicknames in addition to standard army badges.

I  am gonna go back and further catachanize the chimeras and basilisk after i finish painting up the rest of the tourny list. Also i am not 100% happy about the searchlight, just looks to plain. I will go in and redo that one as well. I am still thinking about possible adding some camouflage netting to but it will have to do for the tournament.

I already started base coating a few ratlings so they will be finished during this week. I really wanna get the 1st squad of Mortars done in this month, so i only need to paint the basilisk and the 2nd squad of mortars til the 23 of April(that's when the tournament starts!)

As always i would love to hear what you guys think on the chimera. Both good and bad!

Ras

Platoon command squad with plasma done

I got the plasma gun i needed from Alex(thanks alot my friend!) at the club Thursday evening so i have no excuse not to finish it. I am very happy how the plasma came out. I went back and redid the plasma gun on the commander so it matched the rest. I planned on running the commander with a bolgun but  as you saw from my last post i decided to go with the plasmapistol.

Time to kick ass and chew bubblegum and i am all outta gum! I am very happy i did get the boltgun commander painted tho as he was very fun to paint and i just love the Duke Nukem glasses and the cigar in his mouth! This model is one of the reasons why i am collecting all the old school models(the plasma gun guy at the furthest to the right is also a old school model.)

Coming up next is their ride which i plan on improving the weathering on compared to the last one. You guys will as always be the judges if i succeed or not.

Until next time guys

Ras

Catachan Chimera part 3 and last.

First chimera done. Am am afraid that i went a little overboard with the pigments, but since this is the first time i used pigments of anything, i am fairly happy about how it came out. I learned a lot of this one and i am sure the next one will be better. I will begin working on the next one along with the plasma platoon command squad, saving the basilisk for last.

 Lessons learned:

1. Pigments are fairly easy to used, however have a plan on where you want the rust and mud positioned or you will end up like this one ended up, dirty but in an unnatural way.

As you can see on the first picture from on the top. The rust is lying in unnatural ways and should be put in places where the mud and water would normally be seen. In my eagerness to dirty it up i ended up with to much. Little is more in this situation in my humble opinion.

Also be careful if you don't varnish it before applying pigments, that you don't rub of paint. I had to pigment over a few small places i noticed that the paint had been rubbed of. I also found out that if you apply it to thick it will become much more unnatural looking. I got much better effects of the pigments when i thinned it down more.

2. Games-workshops: Purity seal works! I had to seal the pigments to the tank with a varnish and the only spray i could get my hands on was Games-workshops: purity seal. 

I decided to test it and bought it. I put a lot of time into researching and i found many horrible stories about how the same varnish had ruins many hours work, but there was also some post saying that under the right circumstances it works like a charm. I tested it out on a few old painted models before varnishing the tank and they came out great! So i sprayed the tank and in my opinion its a good varnish. But remember to always test it on something first! One of the biggest problems appeared to be faulty cans a few years back and we all know how long they can stay hidden in shops or in stock.

3. Airsprays. If you don't have a air spray and you hate painting tanks with a brush, get someone who have one to do it. Michael painted the whole chassis for me and it was a breeze to paint afterward .I actually are looking forward to  painting the next one and the paint job he did speaks for itself!

Ps. I managed to sneak these two in to while waiting for the pigments to arrive, which completes my  two infantry squads for the tournament list!

Best wishes Ras

Catachan Chimera part 2.

Finally gotten around to painting my first Chimera before weathering it up with the pigments, sadly the sunlight wasn't very good you the highlights cant be seen very well.

Next step is weathering with the Vallejo pigments. Pictures of the weathered Chimera will be up tomorrow.

Ras

Catachan Chimera part 1.

Finally managed to put the Chimera together as i wanted it and Michael was great and told me to come over with it right away! I cant describe how pleased i am with the air-spray job on the chimera and how fast he did it! I am gonna make a 3 part post about the chimera as i really wanna share my joy with you guys all through the steps.

After i came home i was so pleased with it that i decided to go all the way with it. I ordered for 200 danish crowns worth of Vallejo pigments...! And i never used pigments before!! I am very exited about trying it out tho. However firstly  i need to paint the crewman,  weapons and tank details.

For people like me who either don't want  to pay for a air-spray setup just for a few tanks(or cant afford one), getting someone to do it for you is well worth it! I have all the details to do but basically Michael just did all the painting that i hate doing(and can never seem to come out as i want with a brush) so now i can enjoy painting all the fun parts and really get into personalizing it with weathering and lots of cool little small details. 

Michael have his own blog where he also have prices, pictures of his work and he almost always are running discounts on something. Hes a really cool and down to earth kinda guy whom you can always discuss prices with if you have a specific job you want done. Go give him a visit and check out his prices if you interested in getting some painting done by him.

Next part i will show you how the paint job came out and then the last part will be about the pigments and how they came out.

Another missile launcher complete, future updates and more

I just finished another heavy weapon team, the last missile launcher for my infantry squads. As normal i tried to make it as dynamic as i could. This team i wanted to show moving through the woods. The idea was a spotter and a guy with the missile launcher chopping down branches while moving closer to their target. 

You might reconise the models from an earlier post. Took me a while to get started on painting this bad boy, but the recent team tournament at the club have really motivated me to get started on the models needed for running my new 1000 point list fully painted.

On another note and very exiting for me... I finally got her! One of the hardest to come by models from the old Catachan model range. The female grenade launcher chick. I been on the prowl for her for more than 6 months but i never could find her for a reasonable price. I managed to trade her for a old farseer model i had lying with my eldar army.

She will go very well with Harkers catachan devils along with the 2 other grenade launchers i am planning on running with his squad. I cant wait to paint her op but it have to be after the chimera which is my second goal for the month. But the chimeras will be for another post. I am still in the process of putting it together. And i have some news about the paint job on it that i am very exited about, but that's for another post.

Ras signing out.

Company command squad Catachan style!

Finally my favorite unit in my Catachan army is done! I give you the Company command squad Catachan style. 

Straken with his two bodyguards

This command squad is designed to take the fight to the enemy and i will explain why. First, i took Straken for his kick ass abilities and his rock hard stats. In order to make sure his attacks have a high rate of actually killing i included a priest. Reroll all failed hits  on the charge and for some extra pain and vehicle destruction i gave him a eviscerator(counts as a powerfist with a +d6 for armor penetration). 

However by being a imperial guard Straken and his squad only have Initiative 3. So i needed something that would give them the staying power. I added a medic for that Feel no pain save, i upgraded carapace armor  which gives the whole squad a 4+ save(this is very important because the most common troop weapon aka the bolter have ap5) AND i included 2 bodyguards for extra wounds(these guys also comes with a baseline attack of 2 as an added bonus). 

Now if i just wanted a good CC unit i would have stopped here, but Straken is an officer and every IG command knows that orders are very important especially if you have a lot of footsloggers. So i upgrade a guardsmen with a vox in order to improve the chance of does orders
going through.

Then to Boost the low IG leadership i give one guardsman a regimental standard. This allows me to re roll any failed moral and pinning checks within 12 incs of the squad(very hand when i spend my 2-3 first turns trowing orders to my Heavy weapons, which also guaranties that most of my army is within range or close). Last thing to do is to upgrade the last guardsman with Close-combat weapons for that extra attack(this unit is designed to assault so i want all the attacks i can muster charging).

How to use it

I keep em back in the first 2-3 turns boosting 2 heavy weapons squads a turn with orders . His order to make their weapons twin linked is awesome for taking out mech or force a unit to reroll their coversaves! I then get into the thick of battle, like real catachans, knife first! This unit maybe not be a typical IG unit, but its hugely refreshing and fun to play since they dont expect IG to actually want to get into a close combat fight(except for ogryns, but that's a story for later).

Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken finally painted!

"Damn it, follow me. Ill show you how its done."

                                       Colonel Straken at battle of Modens Ridge.

That is basically how Straken have performed 5 outta 6 games. Straken have been the hammer i can count on and my trusted Catachans have been the anvil. Straken embodies the true spirit of a catachan soldier, Tough, reliable and hard hitting! Many a times have my opponents underestimated him(he is after all just a Imperial guard right?) Wrong! So far in my short amount of games Straken and his revenue have been responsible for killing(not run down, but actual killing) the following in close combat:

"Squad of guardians, a Wraithlord, full squad of assault terminators, full squad of assault marines with chaplain, several combat squads of marines, full squad of plague marines with chaos sorcerer and twice a landraider"  

Why is this? You may ask. Sometimes the dice favors you, but more times his stats favors you. Lets have a look.

Colonel Straken: WS 5 BS 4 S 6 T 4 W 3 I 3 A 3 Ld 9 Sv 3+

Wargear: Flak armor, plasma pistol, shotgun, close-combat weapon, frag grenades and refractor field.

Not normal stats for a IG for sure, but that's not it, lets have a look at his special rules.

Gung-ho

Colonel Straken and his command squad is fearless.

Senior Officer

Straken can issue up to two orders each turn. He have a command radius of 12 incs. Straken can use "Bring it down!", "Fire on my target!", "Get back into to the fight!" as well as "First rank fire!, second rank fire!", "Incoming!", and "Move! Move! Move!"

Cold steel and courage

Friendly units within 12 incs of Straken gains the furious charge and counter attack, this includes Straken and his command squad.

Man of Adamantium

Strakens close-combat attacks ignores armor saves and roll an additional d6 for armor penetration.

Fearless means Straken and his command squad will stick in there even if you get his by bad luck on the first turn of close-combat. His aura of "Cold steel and courage" means that even ordinary IG grunts can actually put a bit of hurt in close-combat. Just a added bonus mind you, it wont be something you should play after believing your IG now will rival other units in close-combat, but very handy to push your close-combat specialists.

But the real killer lies in the "Man of Adamantium". WS 5, str 6(7 if he charges) and no armor save alloved. 

Against marines: you need a 3 to hit, then a 2 to wound and then the marine die. Straken have 4 attacks(5 on the charge)! Terminators are the same and demoted to a puny +5 invulnerable save(+3(Thank you Zachary for correcting me) if they got storm shields).

Straken have a few weaknesses that you need to be aware of tho. Al tho Straken hits damn hard, he still only have initiative 3(4 on the charge). This means that alot of the times you hit after your opponent but before power-fists. Even tho Straken is more resilient both in armor save and toughness than a normal IG officer, he still only have toughness 4. This means that power-fists(or anything at strength 8 or above) will instant kill him if he fails his save. Luckily he cant be targeted out unless hes whole retinue is dead or you chose to do so yourself.

Ras signing out