Legio Gryphonicus Reaver (more shots)

Just a few more shots of the Reaver from different angles and showing all of the painted weapon systems for it. I am really disappointed that you can not equip the Volcano canon on the carapace mount in the Reaver's rule book entry.

I have not done any decal work yet and have to plan out the banners for this titan. I will probably complete these as well as a set for the Warhound as I wanted to rework some parts of those. I have yet to settle on a  a name for this titan that I like. Currently it is "Furore Imperatoris" which is most likely a shitty online translation for "Fury of the Emperor" but I find this name too generic and boring.

Both titans will have honour banners hanging between their legs and kill banners for the weapons. I am debating if I also want to add the Legio banners on to the carapaces of the titans. These may look neat but I will have to plan those out, especially the Reaver as it may have to be mounted either on or behind the Apocalypse launcher.

I was also playing with the idea of making a bas relief set of legio icons and casting them up to use instead of decals in some areas. To this end I managed to track down griffon head bits from the AoS GW line and may use these as the griffon heads in the icons. Still thinking about it though.

Anyway here is the Reaver ready for table top use at the very least.

Legio Gryphonicus Reaver

Been more than a year since the last update. My apologies. In short work has had some rather serious issues that have upended everything really. By June things should be more or less back to normal.

This Christmas break I started painting the Reaver and dedicated about 6 weeks in total getting it to this point which is essentially table top quality. I still have the banners and decals to do but I need a break from working on this model.

For anyone who cares, this was all brush work as with the Warhound. I tried painting in other details  on the flat parts and some of it works for me (on the twin engine cowlings at the back-top of the carapace) and some doesn't (on the yellow "gorget" under the head). But there is good, then there is good enough. Nice to see you again "Good Enough". You always make things easier.

All painting used GW paints and some Vallejo metallics. I will do a better photo shoot of the model once I glue in some of the missiles in the launcher.

Space Wolf Fire Raptor: Habrok

The last of the Forge World flyers to be completed (assembly-wise anyway). I was pleased to see that the size of my converted Storm Eagle has pretty much the same footprint as the Fire Raptor. Conversions like that, especially without another model as a reference, always concern me somewhat as I do not want an opposing to player to think that I would model for advantage on the table-top.

As is usual with my FW builds I screwed up and glued the guide rails to the backs of the side weapon pods. The end result is that the autocanons are locked pointing downwards. I can easily adjust this with some plasticard and magnets but in truth, that's the way I envision those canons being used primarily so I am good with it for  now.

As is usual there is a selection of SW icons cast and added. I replaced the top hatch with the central image from the Grand Annulus ) from the floor of Logan's sleigh....seriously, a sleigh pulled by wolves...). The conversion looked rough but I am waiting until after the priming step to make the final adjustments.

So I will hopefully have the interest to go back to painting. What to paint now....didn't I say something before about Space Wolves? Anyway crappy pics as always....

Space Wolf Thunderhawk because it is current year.

A new project, just to keep the theme of the blog.

I was wanting to finish assembly on a few larger projects before the weather got too cold to prime models outside and I almost made it with this one....almost.

Anyway I had purchased a Thunderhawk model from e-bay years ago and to be honest, judging by the quality of the cast (i.e. poor) and the lowness of the cost, I think it may not be a FW original. Still work to do and all that. So I had to do a significant amount of repair and hiding work for some of the larger cracked pieces. I had decided that this ship would be a Space Wolf craft and have endeavoured to make it look like one.

I mounted the model using a piece of pvc piping and a t-junction piece that was trimmed down and sunk into the craft's underbelly, so this monster can plug into and out of it's base. Aside from the cockpit the interior will not be done or even visible as all doors will be glued shut. This was a decision I made based on the amount of work that would be required and it just does not compute for me. Besides the craft is modeled coming in with it's airbrakes slightly opened and the ailerons extended to slow the craft down...I know, like a flying brick needs something to disrupt it's aerodynamic curves.

The pictures are not great as the unprimed set were quickly snapped upstairs in the living room. The primed photos were taken in the basement with a poor attempt at better lighting. Oddly this project is starting to get me in the mood to get back to painting Wolves. I want to complete a major army this year and it will either be Wolves, Eldar or Nids. Wolves have the most progress and they are the nearest and dearest to my heart so they look likely. Another consequence of this build however is that I have a Fire Raptor that has been sitting for about a year, so I am going to assemble that beast before I break out the brushes.

So yeah, this happened for no reason at all. I am consistent in my inconsistency.

Now the mostly primed shots.