Legio Gryphonicus banners (redux)

First I have finally settled on a name for the Reaver based solely on the fact that there is a limit to how many b.s. Latin names I can make up. So the Reaver has been dubbed "Ferrum Ira" or iron Wrath. Short, brutal, but most importantly short. 

I decided to redo the banners as some parts of the original set looked sub-par even by my generous standards. Instead of trying to copy the banner styles from the "Doom of Mymeara" Forge World book, this time I went back to the original source material: the Adeptus Titanicus and Codex Titanicus rule books. This was the first place the War Griffons were ever represented (including several other well known legions such as the Warp Runners and the Tiger Eyes).

The colour plates from the Codex Titanicus rules expansion went over the different type of banners and their iconography. They were a lot more colourful as were the War Griffons colour scheme compared to the relatively muted scheme being used by Forge World currently. So I decided to use this basic format.

Doing banners I now prefer to cheat i.e. us a photocopy or printout of the desired banner and paint that in. This sounds a lot easier than it actually is as there is a lot of fine detail and I usually lack the patience to do these properly. For mine I actually had to construct icons like the Legio "T" and princeps badges so while I did use the pictures of the original banners I also did replace some detail with my own. In truth this way is a simple way to throw together a banner and is equivalent to using transfers to decorate a banner.

The banners are arranged into 3 types:

Weapon kill banners hang from the weapon (no surprise). I used a mixture of colours to represent the heraldry of the individual moderati. The Apocalypse launcher on the Reaver is going to be a bit harder as there really is no way to hang a typical kill banner. I may mark kills on the side of the launcher or design a different banner.

The Legio Order banner is usually flown from a carapace hardpoint. The Legio symbol is nearest the flag pole with the eagle of the Divisio Militaris in the corner. The Imperial aquila is also in black against a yellow background marking the titan's dedication to the Legio Militaris and by extension, the Imperium. For the Reaver's Order banner I also included the Heresy Banner campaign badge earned by the titan during the heresy. It shows a griffon's claw savaging an eye of chaos icon and is given to titans in the order who have faced traitor engines in battle. Usually this is flown as a separate banner but i decided to incorporate it into the Ferrum Ira's Order banner instead in order to make it stand out compared to Filum Sector.

The Honour banner is hung between the titan's legs and incorporates the princeps' rank badge on the banner and displays kill markings for the princeps while piloting this titan. The Ferrum Ira's princeps is a "princeps seniores" as represented by the 12 lug nuts arranged around the badge and the whilte feathers on the legio icon (which have still not been painted in).

The princeps of Filum Sector is more junior and thus currently has the 4 lug nuts earned upon elevation to princeps and awarding of their own command of a battle titan.

The kill markings are as follows. Chaos stars unsurprisingly represent traitor engines; the diamonds represent Eldar titans; the triangles represent ork titans; and the circles represent unknown war engines. And I have just realized that I have to paint over the Chaos kill markings on Filum Sector's Legio banner as this titan does not have the Heresy banner included. Alternatively I can leave the kill markings and just use Ferrum Ira's Legio banner on Filum Sector. Again because of the Apocalypse launcher, mounting a banner on the top of the Reaver is going to look weird. So I was already considering having the Legio banner on Filum Sector only so this may be the easier solution.

Below I included shots of the banners as print outs and the painted versions (except the Honour banners, they are just the print outs). Still not the fine job I would prefer but see my above comment about my patience and the lack of it. I have started the mountings for the banners and will put up shots when they are completed. There is a shot of the magnet housing pieces that I carved and used (from plastic tubing). They will all be magnetized as I only want two kill banners per titan and they have to interchange with all of the weapon options.

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.