Thunder Warriors!

 Today is a short post with some recently finish Thunder Warriors (or Thunderstorm Soldiers) from Tortuga-Bay Miniatures. 

I really like the lore for Warhammer 40k or pre-30k in this case! One time period is the Age of Strife and the Wars of Unification, when the Emperor of Mankind was conquering Terra with his legions. This was pre- Space Marines, so he relied on massive amounts of human soldiers, his Custodes and of course... Thunder Warriors. These folks are the giant, rage filled, gene-enhanced warriors that the Emperor needed to conquer all the Mad Max villain's that ruled Terra at this time. I won't go into all the details of the Thunder Warriors, but they are superior to Space Marines and just short of a Custodes in combat, but were much more unstable, both mentally and physically, due to the process of their creation being much more haphazard than it would be later.

While I rarely play Warhammer 30k or 40k these days, I still do a little converting and modeling, when I have time. I picked up a few squads of Thunder Warriors from Tortuga-Bay and was amazed by the quality of the resin miniatures I received. There was almost no clean up needed and the detail on the miniatures is top notch! I also have ordered some Thunder Warrior heads from Liber Daemonica miniatures, but have not received them yet.

I wanted to stay away from the shiny gold and silver armor of much of the artwork for the Thunder Warriors and go with a much more worn and dirty look. I dry brushed silver and then used Olive Drab splotched in on any large surface, leaving the edges still bare metal, my intention was for it to look like the armor was originally OD, but most of the paint has worn off. However, I don't really love how things turned out for these first two miniatures, so I may try a darker green for the next batch.

First up is a heavily converted Captain for my Thunder Warriors. This miniature is a mixture of parts from Tortuga-Bay's Primarkh and Captain-General miniatures. There are a lot of great extra bits with the Captain-General miniature. 

Bases are still a WIP.

A captain for my Thunder Warriors.

I see this captain as being more of a champion than an officer.

I used some Custodes bits and even a piece from Kingdom Death.

I really like the pseudo-guardian spear!

I really went with dirty for the armor, but it would probably look great in gold!

The first basic Thunder Warrior.

I added a chainsword.

I love the MK I armor.

This is my WIP Thunder Warrior Primarch.

A comparison between the Captain and warrior.

A comparison with a Custodes. These boys are big!

World War III - Team Yankee - Soviets

For this post I wanted to show off some of my Battlefront WWIII Soviets. I first started playing Soviets for Team Yankee simply because everyone else was collecting US forces. While I really didn't want to paint another huge monotone army, I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I've enjoyed putting this force together.

Starting with the motor rifles, I was at first concerned about the number of BTR-60's I would need to build. I really dislike the huge parking lots of Soviet transports I've seen and while I understand that is pretty effective, its not for me. I settled for a few small companies which still means over a dozen BTR's! But they are a lot of fun to build, having that real Mad Max feel to them.

I wanted my battalion commander to be easy to pick out. 

A few Storm Anti Tank Missile tanks to crack that heavy armor.

While I have some Spandrel's to help out with those NATO tanks as well.

Once again, I found myself appreciating the utilitarian design of these Soviet tanks.

A few SA-8 Gecko's for AA support.

More BTR-60's on the hunt.

I also have some SA-13 Gophers for more SAM coverage.

Some Soviet infantry. I have one metal company and one plastic.

Each has at least one AT-4 Spigot to hold off armor.

Holding down a railway.

My only BMP's right now are are in a BMP-2 recon platoon.

I figure the recon boys would work out a little camo.

T-72's are my main armor... just because I have so many of them.

This town is certainly secure.

I have been adding more T-64's as of late.

But I am still working out if I want the better stats or more numbers.

Stopping for some petrol.

Then I been working on some T-80U's for the main tank battalion.

Experimented with some camo for them as well.

They are a great looking vehicle.

Planned on doing more camo for the BMP-3's but went plain, for now.

Another good looking vehicle.

I did paint a few plan T80's.

They look great mixed in on the board.

I have more Soviets to come!

WWIII Team Yankee - US Tanks

 Following up from my previous post about US Mechanized forces, today's post is of my US tanks! I have enough US armor for a M60 company or an M1 Abrams company. When I first got into Team Yankee I went with the Soviets because I knew most people in my area would be building US forces, and I've never been a fan of blue on blue games. Later when the Stripes book came out and introduced the M60A3's I then jumped in. Since then I have added a Mechanized company to go along with my US Army M60A3 company, and I've finally fallen for the M1 Abrams, which had not really interested me in the past.

I really like the M60A3 tanks.

These were my first US tanks that I painted for TY.

The M60 is also a great value when making a US force.

Now with TOW II's, you can get support that can kill most things the M60's can't.

You just have to use a lot of them!

Probably my favorite US tank for my play style, the IPM1.

The gun is still the older 105mm but with better armor.

I really went all out with these!

I also have a few old M1 Abrams, just for the points.

But the IPM1's are still my main tank.

However, I couldn't help but make a few M1A2 Abrams as well!

That 120mm gun and great armor is something else.

But so are their points cost!