Legion Predator Turrets

This is a small adaptation that Ive had in mind for a while. I had a few spare turret options available for my Predator from various trades and spares. The idea was to make my Predator more versatile, as it often gets left at home for more powerful options. 

I managed to separate the predator cannon from the turret without and breakages and embedded a magnet into the turret. 

I then repeated the magnetisation of the turrets i had: an Executioner, Lascannon, and Predator Cannon.

This is my favourite turret option, as i think this will give my Pred' the right amount of punch to make it worth taking.

I'm hoping that these options will mean that the Predator doesn't stay at home quite so much and can come out to play a little more!

The GunGrave

Blessings of the Omnissiah: Avenger Strike Fighter 2 Complete

The second of the Avenger trio is now complete. I'm much happier with this build than the last - probably because i had a better idea of what i was doing! 

Engine detail and wing markings. I'm very happy with the markings on this Avenger. I almost went back to the first and re-did the markings, but decided that they should all look a bit different. That was the original idea after all.

Mechanicum standard base.

The cockpit is similar to the previous Avenger, but it was much simpler to build. This is mainly due to the use of the original canopies as the base to build on.

This is one of my favourite features on this Avenger, the tail gun. This will be a feature of the next Avenger as well as the first when i retrofit it!

The Punisher Cannons proxy for Autocannons was a good choice i think. The weapons aesthetic has much more continuity, and they generally just look beefier! I have a few more sets of these, so the other Avengers will be upgraded with them.

The GunGrave

A Long Overdue Heresy Game!

Just a quick post today to share some pictures of a recent Heresy game i played with my mate Matt the other day. We had a 3000pt game at our new FLGS Worcester Wargames. They had moved to a MUCH larger premises which was just fantastic! They now had enough space to have some permanent gaming boards in the shop, like the desert board we played on, complete with some Orky buildings!

I took 3000pts of Mechanicum (which is a surprisingly small number of units!) and Matt brought his Iron Hands.

The Automata cautiously advanced.

While  the Thanatar stayed back and provided some devastating supporting fire.

The Magos overseeing it all!

The Knight Acheron secured the right flank all on its own! He did have 10 Lascannon armed Legionaries to contend with though!

The Arch Magos' upgrades enabled 10 Thallax to deep strike without scattering.

The Myrmidon Secutors charged out of the Triaros to unleash 20 Plasma Fusil shots at the Iron Hands!

While the Thallax prepared to assault to building housing a Lascannon Squad and a Master of Signal.

When the dust settled, poor old Ferrus Manus was left on his lonesome, circled by some fearsome firepower.

The Acheron managed to survive the Lascannons (just) with 1 hull point remaining.

It was a great game , and it was about time i got the mechanicum out on the table.

Downstairs in the store, there is a hidden gem - a large gaming area housing a further 10 gaming tables! I think i'll be spending a lot more time at my FLGS now!

The GunGrave

Heresy Era Death Guard: Contemptor WIP

This is the final of the  three Contemptors that i had planned for the Death guard. He was long over due, so in a continued effort to move away from the Mechanicum for a while i got him built and ready to go. 

He's currently in the Mortis configuration, but this time round i magnetised the arms to give me more flexibility with the Dread's. 

It was pretty straight forward to do. I have a few Contemptor Fists to assemble as weapon options for the Dread's - I'm keen to see how close combat Contemptors fare!

I also removed the arms of the first contemptor and magnetised the arms. I haven't repeated this process with the second Mortis Contemptor, as the arms were stuck fast and i think I'd just damage it to  much.

now that i have a pair of magnetised Contemptors, I'll be taking a look at some weapons configurations! I'll be getting those fists done soon as well.

The GunGrave

Blessings of the Omnissiah: Thanatar Seige Automata!

Following another painting frenzy I've managed to hugely bolster my Mechanicum heavy support choices! Two more Thanatar Siege Beasts!!

These two Thanatar have more static poses as i wanted them to look as though they were just about to fire their Plasma Mortars.

I changed my approach on the glow on the plasma coils on the rear of the weapon. I basically replicated the plasma glow i did on the Myrmidon Secutors, which i much preferred! I actually went back to the first Thanatar and updated the glow on that one as well.

I glued the ammo belts for the mauler Cannon together before heating them in hoot water and posing them. This was SO MUCH EASIER! The first Thanatar had to endure hours of posing as i attempted to attache each ammo feed separately. Nightmare...

I managed to achieve a good level of shading on these Thanatar.

So, the Plasma Mortars. Big change from the first Thanatar, as i modelled these Mortars with their firing flaps open with a big chunk of OSL in the middle.

I was really pleased with this round of OSL, as i took a bit more  time to achieve it. This was done with the airbrush, but i used 3 different layers of successively lighter blue. Basic i know but it seemed to work well!

Here's the Thanatar family portrait. These bad boys can squad-up in teams of 5!!! WTF?? I'll only be running them as a 3, but they're just as nasty.

Finally here's is some WIP pics I took of one of the Tanatars along the way.

More Mechanicum action soon.

The GuGrave

Legion Vehicle Sponson Caps

So this is a cool idea that I originally saw on Mordian 7th's blog a few weeks ago. It was a cap that covered the weapon sponsons on Legion vehicles when the upgrade wasn't in use. I liked the idea so much i decided to give it a go myself!

So i started off with a 28mm base (these are the old ones mind, not the new larger GW ones) I sanded the surface flat to give it a smooth texture.

The base on its own is a bit bare, so i needed to add some rivets. I saw a rivet technique a few years ago that i wanted to try. It uses layers of PVA glue to create the rivets. I applied the PVA with a toothpick.

Simply dot on the glue where you want to rivets to be.

It only takes about 10 minutes to dry in the sun. I found that i needed 3 passes with this technique to ensure i got enough height with the rivets. With such a short drying time it wasn't a problem.

I then added some Legion iconography.

Painted it in the colours of the Legion!

And there you have it. I did of course forget to mention that this cap is magnetised, but i guess that goes without saying. As you can see the cap does protrude a bit from the hull of the tank. This is due to the way i  built the tank. Only part of the assembly for the sponsons is  magnetised, meaning that some of the assembly is glued to the hull. As this is a retrofit i couldn't rectify this. I don't think it looks that bad though!

I will probably  make another set or two of these for the other Sicarian model  of tanks. Give  it a go yourselves if you  like the idea!

The GunGrave

Blessings of the Omnissiah: Avenger Strike Fighter 2 - WIP 2

After the successful conversion, i i wanted to quickly get some paint on this fighter. The scheme is the same as the first Avenger but i wanted to make sure the aircraft markings were different as to distinguish each fighter slightly. 

I went with diagonal red striping and further utilised that cool cog stencil i picked up a few months ago. This proved quite a pain to apply, so i had to remove the engines (after some considerable painting had been done) I was able to do this with the minimal of damage :-S Once completed i was glad i took the time to do it!

Sticking the engines back on wasn't a problem. I could see the full effect of the markings now!

Just a bit of slight weathering and an oil paint wash and avenger 2 is complete!

The GunGrave