Horus Heresy Salamander Characters

More Horus Heresy miniatures today!

Here are my two Salamanders Praetors or Centurions. The first is wearing artificer power armor, with a thunder hammer, inferno pistol and Iron Halo. This miniature uses some of the Mk III plastics and some resin Forgeworld parts.

Just a little plug for ebay here! I have been able to find individual Forgeworld bits on ebay for really cheap. For example I bought the helmet, chest piece and bits for the terminator below, for just a dollar of so per piece.

My power armor Praetor.

The Salamanders characters can swap their Plasma Pistol for an Inferno Pistol.

I originally equipped him with a power axe, but swapped it for the new thunder hammer.

Next up is my Cataphractii Terminator Praetor! I started with the plastic Steloc Aethon miniature from Betrayal at Calth and added a few Forgeworld bits. All I can say is 2+ armor save and 3+ invulnerable save... nice.

The thunder hammer is from the 40k range.

The shield is a resin Forgeworld piece.

One of the shoulder guard flames is a bit and I sculpted the other from greenstuff.

Horus Heresy Kyr Vhalen

This is my custom made Iron Warriors character Kyr Vhalen from the Horus Heresy!

I really enjoy the lore behind the Warhammer Horus Heresy, and now with that time period being fleshed out with the Black Library novels it is even more immersive. I also have... lets just say access to all the Forgeworld Horus Heresy books, which are stellar. For those of you who have never checked out any of the Forgeworld books, think an Osprey historical campaign book set in the Warhammer 40k universe. These books flesh out the military equipment and organization of the forces it covers using great illustrations and photographs. They specifically cover the origins, equipment, tactics and history of the Space Marine Legions in much greater depth than the novels (or perhaps in a much more believable manner than the novels).

One of the legions that is fleshed out more is the IVth legion, the Iron Warriors! The Iron Warriors are one of the nine space marine legions that turn on the Emperor and sided with Warmaster Horus. I'm not all about the 40k Chaos Space Marines, don't get me wrong, they are good villains but they don't appeal to me in the 40k universe. Flash back 10,000 years to the time of the Horus Heresy and those space marine legions are just turning traitor. Well lets just say when the Primarchs (leaders of each legion) turn traitor, not all of their troops go along with them!

One such space marine was Kyr Vhalen, the Warsmith in command of the Iron Warrior's 77th Grand Battalion. Not all of the some 100,000 odd Iron Warriors would side with their Primarch when the Horus Heresy broke out, Vhalen's 77th Grand Battalion would fight against the full strength of the traitor Alpha Legion and Dark Mechanicum forces on the planet Paramar. The planet would fall to the traitors but Kyr Vhalen would survive the battle, full of hate for his traitorous brothers...

Kyr Vhalen. made from old bits and the new plastic Mk III marines.

There is currently no miniature for Kyr Vhalen but the Horus Heresy - Book 3: Extermination covers his equipment in great detail. Therefore I set out to create a custom miniature for the warsmith.

I started with a plastic Mk III space marine torso, legs and arms, then I modified the backpack power unit with a metal servo arm from a techmarine. The head is from the new Legio Custodes plastics and the Volkite Charger is a cut down resin Volkite Caliver. I had an old metal powersword sitting around that I used for his paragon blade. The I finished things off with various pouches and some ork bullets behind his head for the Iron Halo or Cortex Controller wargear.

I cut down a Volkite Caliver to make his Volkite Charger.

I used a metal 40k Space Marine servo arm, mounted to the plastic Mk III backpack.

His Paragon Blade is a really old metal space marine power sword.

His head (which is the first space marine with no helmet I've made) is from the Legio Custodes sprue.

The pouch on his hip is from the original Rogue Trader plastic beakie marines.

I added some Ork bullets behind his head to represent his Iron Halo or Cortex Controller.

Overall I am very happy with this conversion as it was my first attempt at and Iron Warrior from the Horus Heresy timeline.

Horus Heresy Legio Custodes

Quick update. I have been quietly and patiently painting the occasional Warhammer 30k Space Marines since they started putting out Horus Heresy miniatures. I know that I have been harsh with Games Workshop in the past, but there is no doubt that most of their new plastic miniatures are perhaps the best quality plastics I ever seen. I went crazy and pre-ordered the new Horus Heresy box, The Burning of Prospero.

Come on! Thirty Mk III Space Marines, five Tartaros Terminators, five Legio Custodes, five Sisters of Silence and two characters, all multi part plastics with tons of options, perfect! I will be honest, I bought this huge box of miniatures just because I love the Horus Heresy books and because the miniatures looked great. That goes against my usual logic of never buying miniatures just because they look cool.

I will be posting pictures as I finish these miniatures.

First up are a few pictures of the Legio Custodes miniatures that I've finished thus far.

A Custodes Shield Captain with a WIP Sister of Silence and Salamander Sergeant.

A couple of finished Custodes... so much bling.

These guys! They huge and so fancy.

Battletech Covington Dragoons

I have been working on more Battletech miniatures lately and really enjoying it. My wife and I also have moved to a new house, a house with plenty of room for gaming!

I've finally gotten several MWO style custom miniatures in a trade and they look great! Many of the older Battletech miniatures are showing their age for sure. However, many of the newer Ironwind Metals miniatures look really good.

Also we have been playing a good bit of Battletech Alpha Strike lately and really having a good time with it.

The assault lance with  a Stalker, Banshee, Mauler and Zeus.

The Banshee in the center is one I converted to be the 5S version.

A custom resin Zeus.

The recon lance, with a Wolfhound, Raven, Cicada and Jenner.

A Cicada that I did some custom work on. The Cicada is one of my favorite mechs.

The Cicada.

From left to right, a Centurion, Shadowhawk, Crab and a Enforcer.

The Centurion on the far left looks so bad... and I even did some work to make it better.

The medium lance.

A heavy lance of all unseen mechs.

A resin Marauder MAD-3D.

I replaced the top autocannon with a large laser to make it a 3D version.

A metal Black Knight.

A metal Thudnerbolt, I love this sculpt, one again a MWO version.

This guy is bulky!

The unseen lance again.

The Marauder and Black Knight.

The Custom Thunderbolt and a IWM Archer.

Battletech Tanks

A quick post today with some Battletech tanks! 

I know, you're thinking Battletech, that's all about giant stompy robots. You would be right about that, but giant stompy robots, I would imagine, are difficult to build and in a huge galaxy each planet would still need to be able to defend itself. Thus the good ole battletank is still around and kicking/rolling. For Battletech Alpha Strike I have build a combined force of not just battlemechs but also tanks, infantry, battlearmored infantry and aircraft. The other vehicles give a great sense of scale to the battlemechs that really make the game more immersive.

Below you will see three Patton/Rommel tanks made by Ironwind Metals. They originally had odd protrusions on the sides of the turrets that I cut off and replaced with some FOW Panther tank schurzen. In Battletech the tanks are still very dangerous and tough to knock out. I look forward to using these soon!

The last picture is of two Goblin Tank/APC's and a venerable Vedette medium tank. I plan on adding more of these smaller more maneuverable tanks in the future.

Repainted FOW US Shermans

Recently I began to repaint my American Tank force as I really wasn't happy with how they originally turned out. I wanted to make a force that would roughly represent the 2nd Armored Division or most any other division if I needed to. I am in the process of repainting all the supporting vehicles now.

M4A1 Shermans.

These old M4A1's soldiered on till the end of the war.

My favorite Sherman version... for some reason, the M4A1 76mm.

Getting ready for Operation Cobra.

The 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions were the first to receive the 76mm versions.

Cautiously advancing.

Some M4A3 (early) Shermans.

M4A3 76mm Shermans.

The M4A3 76mm Shermans did not arrive until after Operation Cobra.

The wonderful M4A3E2 Assault Tank... aka Jumbo!

These are key to US tank forces.

My old M4A1 Sherman command tank.

This is the BF "Reb" Jackson miniature I love the tank commander.

Jumbos lead the way.