Leman Russ Executioner Conversion (Part 2)

Well thats the turret conversion finished, it looks a little messy in the pics, but thats down to the contrast between the green an grey the surfaces are really smooth, better then I'd hoped for infact. In the end rather then wiring I went for an armoured cover above the plasma destroyers mounting, seems to work okay.

At some point in the future I'll do some more turrets, not quite sure what yet but with plans to renovate four older leman russ to join the 6 conqueror turreted vehicles I'll be able to give myself plenty of options.

Conflict Bristol 2008

Well thats Conflict Bristol over for another year, for those not familiar with the UK Conflict circuit these events are 1000pt, one day, three game regional tournaments. As with the past five years or so the event was great, the people friendly and relaxed, a great atmosphere and some great games. The event was'nt quite as well organised as it has been in previous years and terrain was a bit lacking, my understanding being that this seems to lie with the Cribbs Causeway Manager who I'm told was organising it this year, but despite that it was none the less really enjoyable.

I fielded a variation of a fairly successful 1000pt list that I've used for a couple of years now for games of this size.

DOCTURINES
Iron Discipline, Close Order Drill, Roughriders

HQ
Junior Officer inc. Iron Discipline
Command Section inc. Veteran with Company Standard, Autocannon @71pts
Fire Support Squad inc. 3 Heavy Bolters @80pts
Fire Support Squad inc. 3 Heavy Bolters @80pts

TROOPS

Infantry Platoon
Junior Officer inc. Iron Discipline
Command Section inc. Autocannon @60pts
Infantry Squad inc. Lascannon, Plasma Gun @95pts
Infantry Squad inc. Lascannon, Plasma Gun @95pts

Infantry Platoon
Junior Officer inc. Iron Discipline
Command Section inc. Autocannon @60pts
Infantry Squad inc. Lascannon, Plasma Gun @95pts
Infantry Squad inc. Lascannon, Plasma Gun @95pts

FAST ATTACK

Roughrider Squadron inc. Veteran Sergeant, 4 Roughriders, Hunting Lances @61pts

Roughrider Squadron inc. 5 Roughriders @40pts

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman Russ inc. 3 Heavy Bolters, Heavy Stubber, Searchlight @168pts

Total = 1000pts



My first game was against a custom marine chapter, his army included a chaplain with jump pack, three tactical squads one in a rhino, a largish assault squad and a pair of landspeeder tornado's. My opponent really had the worst of it from the off, terrain was very poor giving him little cover against my firepower and when I got first turn and nailed a pair of landspeeders things just kept going down hill. The Roughriders got in an ideal charge on the assault squad once it was weakend by a turns shooting killing off the chaplain, though they did'nt quite wipe out the squad leaving a Veteran Sergeant with powerfist who proceded to finish off the Roughriders before being left in the open and finished by shooting. His tactical squads tried to get to grips with my line but were gradually cut down for fairly small return loses - I dont think I lost any other complete squads, he did manage to keep some marines alive however with clever use of the rhino as mobile cover.

The second game was against Eldar with an Avatar, two small jetbike squadrons, two Falcons with Fire Dragon squads mounted and a Fireprism. The terrain was much more substancial this time, with a hill bisecting his deployment zone. This gave me real trouble as the gam progressed as his grav tanks jumped from one side to the other preventing me from pinning him down while the jetbikes held back. Loses for both sides were fairly small in the end for me a couple of infantry squads and the roughriders which charged the avatar unsuccessfully - though in doing so buying me time to pull back a little and finish it off with shooting. Did'nt matter how much I chuck at the grav tanks though I just could'nt bring them down though I did manage a number of shaken results and knocked off a couple of weapons which no doubt helped minimise my loses. In the end though he cleared me from one loot counter and contested the other I had held with speeding just bikes and the weaponless Fireprism. He then held two, plus one which I had held, though with some last luck shooting I finally managed to down one of the Falcons and reduce the Fire Dragon Squad it had been carrying below half strength denying him the objective. Still it was a clear victory to the Eldar with a margin of about 500pts (the two objectives he held).

My final game was Imperial Fists, a Terminator Chaplain, Terminator Squad, two Tactical Squads, a Devastator Squad and three Landspeeder Tornado's, one of which along with the Terminators were held in reserve to deep strike. Terrain was again reasonable however my greater weight of firepower quite quickly dealt with the Tactical Squads and Devatators so that they were'nt a major threat. The Tornado's made their presense felt, using their Assault cannons to affects against one Roughrider Squad and immobilsing and knocking the battle cannon from my Russ, however my Autocannons took revenge knocking two of them out, the last one not arriving until turn 5 and having little affact on the game in the end. The Terminators deep struck on my weaker right flank and proceaded to mop up the infantry there while I realligned my line and pulled a couple of squads back towards my left, by the end of the game I'd lost a platoon, a heavy bolter squad, the laspistol & close combat weapon roughriders and had my tank damaged with a couple of other squads reduced below half strength, however he was left with only a stunned speeder and the terminators - they were almost my undoing however as a seek and destroy mission they earned him a very useful 250VP bonus for being an active scoring unit resulting in only a solid victory for me.

Three fun games with great opponents which would of by itself left me happy for a weekends gaming finishing in 26th place out of 48 gamers, but just to top the weekend off the Praetorians picked up their first award, gaining Best 40k Army at the event.

Lets just say I'm well chuffed!

Colonel Ackland (Part 1)

Back when I first delved into converting (on the second incarnation of my Praetorian Guard), I created a character called Major Ackland to lead the troops. An Heroic Senior Officer, he was part of a combat HQ (cant remember the last time I put one of those to field!) he was the most substancial conversion I'd done at that time, a now old Commissar with Powerfist & Sword, powerfist removed, carapace armour added from a space marine torso and all mounted on a horse.



I'd always thought about revisiting him, and with the coming Macharian Crusade Campaign Pack from the guys at The Bell of Lost Souls I was given my reason - you'll see why in the future.

As I kinda alluded too in my previous post I've picked the Commissar Gaunt model as a base this time, his equipment is changing somewhat from the old version as he joins the Praetorian Lancers. At the moment I've got some very early work done but he's coming together very quickly now with the body mounted, pith helmet added, the base of the legs ready to be sculpted onto and an armature for the arms.

What's he upto now?

Back along I happend to come into posession of a Commissar Gaunt model, the sword was quickly lapped up, but the rest never seemed to find a use. Infact I was'nt too keen on the pose, or the skinny legs! Thats not gonna stop this idea though, the pose is perfect and the legs are'nt an issue. I've got a cunning plan and I think it's really got legs - any guesses?

Concept - The Life Guards

Since there seems to have been a little bit of interest in the Life Guard's after my last post I thought I'd post up a few more pictures of them. The Life Guards are my Praetorian equvilient to Storm Troopers/Grenadiers, I loosely based the models on the British Regiment of Life Guards, the British Armies senior Regiment, they're actually Cavalry but I'm making mine mechanised, their orante uniforms, elite nature (and carapace armour!) just jumped out as being ideal to me.

These conversions were something I did a whopping 6 years ago now (cant believe how quick time has flown, did'nt realise it was so long ago until I looked at the date stamp!), they're based on Cadian plastics with the pockets filed off the trousers, a slit cut in the rear of the lower tunic and the armoured carapace greenstuffed into a curved breast plate. The arms were altered with gloves and epualettes and a Praetorian head was added with additional plume and aquilla badge added. Finally the weapons are swords in scabbard taken from Commissar Yarrick and cadian lasguns with catachan barrels added to extend the weapon, ammo clips are replaced with guitar wire which then connects to a cut down vox pack to finish the model.

Unfortunately most of these guys are now in a bit of a state of rerepair and they never got painted, a new version will form part of the project in the future however.

Yet more tanks... more future projects.

As part of my clear up I've been spending some time getting stuff assembled (takes up less space that way!), this time it's been starting work on some more projects effectively, though I dont expect them to really gain any ground for a bit yet.

First up is what will be the transports of for my Praetorian Life Guards (Grenadiers/Storm Troopers). I did a concept for the Life Guards a couple of years ago, based on Plastic Cadians with some minor Greenstuff work, Praetorian heads and a few other bits and pieces. In the future I plan on doing a Platoon of these guys, but almost certainly as components cast up in resin.



For now though - well their future transports are on the way at least!



Another project will be a new Salamander Scout Vehicle conversion, I did a version of this in a previous incarnation of my army years ago, the new version will be an improved take on this.



In addition to starting on the Salamander, the sixth and final Chimera chasis I'm working on will become a Hydra. I bought the Hydra Platform long ago so its simply a matter of converting the hull and fitting the turret onto it, nice an simple but with Flyers increasingly common will no doubt be useful.



Finally on the subject of tanks, the Executioner Turret I started in a previous entry is almost finished, I'll update that during the week, however I came across the batteries from a Space Marine Predator Annilator in my bits box recently and with plenty more spare Russ turrets that can only mean one thing, a Leman Russ Annilator is next!T

Sisters of Battle (Part 2)

Right, time to start catching up!

Earlier in the month I did a concept model for the Sisters scheme, the aim was something simple to do (to aid getting it done quickly) but something fairly striking as well based on the earlier picture done with the Bolter & Chainswords Sister of Battle Painter. The result was this.




I'm now working on finishing the first squad, I'd hoped to turn out one unit or vehicle a week... hmm yeah that was never gonna work! So far I've not finished the first squad even, though hopefully in the next week I will do (hmmm). I still need to finish converting the Seprahim Sister Superior and Canoness conversion as well, I'll probably have a crack at them later on, though I must admit I'm enjoying a break from sculpting instead turning my hand to having a bit of a clearout and making the most of the sunshine (something which definately wont last!).