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

WIP: Old OOP catachan Missile launcher team

This is what i got painted this Sunday evening. I just need to make the base, pin the missile launcher to the gunner and my painting goals for this month will be reached!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend
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

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

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!

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!

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.

Missile launcher HWT and WIP

Finished my first missilelauncher HWT a week ago but i wanted to wait with showing it before i had build my second one. These two HWT goes with my infantry squads and i have still to do 3 more for my HWT missile launcher squad.

Now i wanted to continue the idea that HWTs don't just sit on their asses and wait til something comes within range to fire on. These guys spend most of their time dragging these heavy ass weapons through the jungle so their squad have some firepower with a more heavy punch to it.

Like the Auto cannon HWTs i made 1 that is actually set up, ready to do some havoc. His helper is ready with another missile. The first one i think came out pretty nice, the only thing i have been on doubt with is the white dirty missile head. I wanted it to be the classic white missile with red top on it so it stands out a bit from the more camouflaged look. I plan on doing the sentinel missile launcher the same way, however after putting it with the rest of the squad when i put it with the rest of my army, it looks a bit outta place. Maybe because its the only one so far with the white head on top..?

I also build the missile launchers with the thought in my mind that these where actually a bit lighter in weight, so they didn't needed to get set up the same way as the rest of the HWTs(more bazooka, than actual artillery).  This i tried to show on my next WIP HWT, one guy carrying and the other guy defends his mate and help spots potential targets.


Now to the WIP, as before mentioned i wanted to show the easier job of transporting this Heavy weapon. Its so easy for some catachans to carry that they can at the same time even use the other arm chopping down branches that's in the way! I put the branch there to show a newly cut branch just seconds ago.

Maybe it was Harker in his youth that started out as a missile launcher crew before he got veteran status and promoted to Sargent;). Jokes aside we all know that the catachans are more hardier and stronger than normal imperial guards, do you think does biceps are just for show? Another note is if you closely you will see i left a mold line on his left forearm. This is something i do sometimes to show the artery, which gives the muscle a more natural look. Its not always possible tho, depends on certain arms where the mold line fits perfectly.

Ras signing out.

heavy weapons team with autocannons done

Yesterday i managed to finish my last auto cannon for my HWT auto cannon team and here is how it came out. For some reason the barrel didn't go perfectly in the front guys hand as i had measure it to do, some somewhere along the line that had gone wrong. Al tho i am happy to finally have the first team done.

The goal for this month is this one and 2 missile launcher heavy weapons for my two infantry squads. I will go with the same style as with the auto cannons to add some diversity into my army.

I have a whooping 5 missile launcher teams in my current 1000 point list, which works very well and gives me a lot of flexibility when it comes to both hordes and light vehicles.

Where the missile launcher is limited to either low toughness squads or single strong toughness targets, the auto cannon puts out twice the amount of shots and are much better at taking out 4+ - 7+ toughness squads cause of this.


Ras signing out..

Oldschool Junglefighters, Catachan Devils and last Autocannon Heavy weapons team WIP.

lately i been shopping Catachans at Ebay for some of the older metal models, as i am crazy about their looks. They old metal models where one of the big reasons why i even started this Army. Sadly they are rare in hobby shops now a days so ebay or by pure luck is the only ways to get em. However i am in the lucky situation that very few people actually collect Catachan so i managed to get some not only amazing models, but they where also cheap!

Now i wanna mix the old models with the new ones for a more diverse look of my army. A few squads might compose of pure plastic as i don't wanna use the same looking metal models together. I am guessing i can collect about 10-12 metal lasgunners, one of each of the weapon teams(flamer, melta, plasma and grenade launcher), the 2 heavy flamer teams, the demolition teams. The sniper teams(thinking of using these 3, converting another 7 to use as proxy for ratlings(The codex says that the catachans are renown for their sniper teams but they are the same stats as cadians(BS=3)3?). I also got some of the metal Commanders and sergeants(still got a few more to get), which i will show later when i start painting does.


The first squad i will mix metal and plastic is Harkers Catachan devils. I already got harker and 2 more painted, although i am considering painting camouflage on their skin(got an idea on how to paint some interesting camouflage from the IG codex) and i put together the rest of the devils yesterday evening.

As you can see on the pictures, Harkers squad consist of: 2 meltas, vox caster, 1 heavyflamer, 6 lasgunners and big bad Harker himself. I just noticed by looking at the pictures, that i need to drill the gun barrels of the meltas and heavyflamer, but thats quick and easy. The plastic models i used for his squad came from the command sprue and one of the HWT sprue.


Now the last thing i am gonna talk about is my last of the auto cannon HWTs. I am gonna try to duplicate last months success and convert a HWT on the move. This time they will be moving through the jungle instead of being in the process of setting up. I wanted to capture the team moving, on the way to the others. First guy is pointing and picking up pace, while the other just looks up to see why his mate is


hurrying and apparently shouting for;) Now like the others i always put em on the small bases for painting purposes and then after painting them, putting them together with the gun itself. The Auto cannon fits in the front guys raised hand and the back guys lowered hand, but for the above mentioned reason i just put it next to them so you can get a feeling on what i am trying to do.


I might put the guy behind on a slightly taller piece of group so it will look as they are moving downwards, but you will have to wait and see what i make up my mind to do.. So this is the goal for September. I am waiting on 6 bottles of Modelmasters Dullcoat varnish to come from my local hobby shop so i can varnish the two pieces of terrain i made. One of them being a small forest base. All the trees for it i got from a friend who was kind enough to give them to me from his own bit box(thanks again Adam;)) and i got just enough trees for one more. The Terrain will be posted in a future post, when i get em varnished.

Rasmus signing out.

2nd HWT finished.

Finally got my 2nd heavy weapons team painted up. The plan was originally to paint the sentinel first, but painting mech for the first time is rather scary, especially after having almost 3 weeks dry period from painting. Well finally i got some time to spare for painting and i m gonna get the sentinel finished to during the week.


I went a bit overboard on the team tho, exited about making the base for it, i ended up tweaking it a bit to far. I put a lasgun on the rock, which where to show the right guy putting it down and hurrying to set up the auto cannon with his mate. However that ended up being a bit of an error, since the lasgun where to high up and ate up some of the space where the auto cannon bulk where to be. Which resulted in the auto cannon being to high and not fitting perfectly with the crew anymore.


Overall i am very happy with it. I don't think you notice that much and its my first "conversion". Which means my first model which i didn't put together like they come in the pack. I'm planning on making the 3rd one with 2 crew moving with the auto cannon.

This experience gave me a taste of how different and original you can make your army with these plastic minis, so this will for sure not be my last conversion! Next up comes the sentinel..

Sentinel and heavyweapons team WIP

Time for some updates!
I have had a rather busy time with my girlfriends parents coming to visit from Romania and the death of my grandfather.. Easy to say its been a rather hard time with the ladder and happy but busy time with the first.

I did manage some work on my monthly goal which will be a scout sentinel for my 500 point list. I did not glue on the roof yet to make it easier to paint the pilot and the insides. This will be my first real vehicle and i am planning to add battle damage, weathering and personalize it. Suffice to say i got lots of plans on this and i cant wait to get started painting it!

The second thing i am working on at the moment is a another heavy weapons team and after reading a very motivating blog with a guy collecting the same army i got inspired to try a new approach on my own army.


So without further delay heres my second HWT. Instead of having 3 HWT sitting in attacking mode, i wanted this setup to reflect the way these teams work in the jungle. The HWT teams carry these heavy weapons out in the jungle to set em up when a bigger punch is needed. So i wanted one of my HWT to show em putting the weapon up ready for assault. I wanted this team to look like they are hurried to set it up(maybe they got some nasty incoming in the bushes :)).

Now the model is not finished put together and i do not want to glue them together before painting them since it will be much more difficult to paint together then separate. The Auto cannon will be glued in the handle to the guy pointing and the barrel will be lying in the two hands of the guy holding it. also the bases will be stripped and the two catachans will be glue to the big base. Suffice to say i am very pleased about this and i cant wait to paint them after the sentinel.

I am also working on some terrain which you will see a quick glimt of in my latest youtube movie on my channel "zacret"

Rasmus signing out.

Autocannons

Theory: Auto cannons is the best heavy weapon you can get. This is your heavy-weapon workhorse. First and foremost because they are your best weapon to hammer light and medium armored vehicles and those you love to shoot to pieces. It's something you have to do as a Guard player so you do not become overwhelmed right away. S7 shots you can always use against Aforementioned vehicles, monstrous creatures, and indeed infantry, in the absence of the others. They are your best defense against transportation that roars toward your gunline.

Conclusion: To be continued


So Friday i was trimming the next batch of models i where going to paint and i noticed the heavy weapons team sprues. I just had to try to assemble a heavy weapons team. I already knew i was gonna have 3 auto cannon heavy weapons teams in my 500 point list so i started putting it together. After i put it together i had a unstoppable feeling of painting it up.... so i did.