KickStarter Boost!

If you haven't already heard, the guys from Fallout Hobbies are Kickstarting a design it yourself decal sheet! Why am I mentioning this? Well, if you are in any way like me and have a difficult time painting freehand or in a straight line; this could be the way to go. You can make up your own design and request them to make a sheet full of your design!

As they have explained on their site, you cannot print white! There is no standard white colored ink you can use in your regular desktop laserjet or inkjet printer. Without the white as a base any light colored decals you put onto a dark background tend to disappear. You can see an example of this 'fail' on my Scythe's Commanders backpack banner. The strong yellow became quite faded. You may not have noticed if I didn't admit this. This was a decal I printed out for myself. I didn't create it.

If you have ever worked with decals, you may notice that may of the bright colored decals have a white background when you look at the backside. In painting terms, think of this as the base color before the main layer goes down. It gives the light color something to build off of when placed onto the dark colors.

Why am I excited for this? Because the decals I have for my Scythes are a perfect candidate for this upgrade! Here are the decals from the Bell of Lost Souls site. I also created a sheet of generic unit designations too. These would be great in white!

       

jpeg version

jpeg version

You don't have to recreate the pyramids to take advantage of this opportunity. The decals on the Bell of Lost Souls site are free. You can grab some of the BOLS decal sheets that are in color and have them redone on a white background. It would make it so much easier to build up your Heresy era Space Marines, especially for Ironhands or Raven Guard. Here is a quick link to help you find them faster!

So, hurry now as the Kickstarter ends on the 23rd of July. I am sure you can still order from them afterwards, but I am also sure the cost would be higher.

Scythe's Combat Vehicles

My Scythes are built around an idea of movement. Whether it be in Rhinos and Storm Landspeeders or Attack Bikes and Dreadnoughts being delivered via Drop Pod. It's a concept I am still trying to learn. A theory of move and fire. I only want to engage in melee combat once I know I have the edge. Playing to a theme that each model is more than just a figure, but that each one is a valuable. It is a very conservative notion. Outside of the Ravenwing and White Scars, I am envisioning the Scythes to be a mobile force as well.

To carry on that picture, one of the first units I put together was a squadron of Attack Bikes. Three Bikes each one different in insignia. Allowing for them to be deployed separately, but also enough alike that if they were deployed as one, they would still meld together.

 

The bikes were modeled in a way that allows for either the Mulit-melta to be used or the Heavy Bolter. I did this without using magnets. Just a simple paperclip and a hole drilled carefully into the waist of the gunners. Much easier than magnets to carry out and a bit cheaper too.

Why even have the Heavy Bolters when all the meta says Meltas are the way to go? This squadron is an awesome anti-horde unit. And they can move and shoot. Able to bring their firepower anywhere on the board. With all the shots, they have the potential to put a wound on any monster that is thrown at the Scythes. Just as well with the Multi-meltas they are a gun target due to their high threat value against everything. Albeit, just one wound at a time if they hit.

                           

 

If I really need some heavy anti-armor, I just bring in my lone Dreadnought. I deploy him via Drop Pod only. With his HK missiles and melt gun, he can be dropped alongside a tank and cause havoc in the backfield immediately. I have only ever used him with the Dread Close Combat Arm and Seismic Hammer. I just wish the Dread was more reliable. Even with the 13 armor they are still fragile until they can engage in combat. For around 200 points, he is a reliable gun magnet. I love the model and the potential he has is awesome. I must get another two at least.

Scythes Transports

This one can be the boring post. Transports are rarely exciting. They fight through the fire to deliver their cargo. And much like a male spider after it delivers its cargo, they tend to die or get ignored.

Even still, I tried to make them look good! 

There are only two Rhinos currently. If or when I enlarge the company, there will definitely be more vehicles. I just have to remember most of the heavy tanks have been lost so I will avoid the Land Raiders and Predators. 

Should the Company Commander decide to ride, his wheels are suitably ready and unique in its adornment. The Grim Reaper is from a US Navy insignia I found on the internet. Using Photoshop, I resized it a bit and reversed the colors where all the black was clear and yellow was black. It is able to stand out nicely as a command Rhino.

                      

                  

I must say the Drop Pod kit looks great when finished, but it is a pain to put together! Why couldn't GW just put some pins in for the vanes to slide into? The entire process was extremely frustrating. Almost like they rushed it or a non-modeler built it on the computer. In order to get it to look good, you also have to pre-paint much of it before the final build. That's where I tried to do the electric look for the sensor dome or machine spirit. The Drop Pod is quite easy to paint up. Dry-brushing goes a long way with this item.

The last transport is for my Ironclad Dreadnought. I should have placed a picture of the two Drop Pods next to each other so you could get an idea of the size difference. The Dread Pod is fat with only three doors. A Dread base can just fit inside the Pod. Mine will not completely fit due to the Hunter Killer missiles on top. You will see him in another post soon. The Forge World Pod was much easier to build and is more stable than the plastic one. 

Update!

You can see the Dread Pod is about twice the size. You may also see in the back my latest WIP

Scythes' Space Marines

The Scouts may be the most numerous of members of my Scythes of the Emperor, but the graduated Space Marines are the backbones. Going with the theme that either they are rookies or veterans, my Scythes have two squads of Sternguard Veterans and one squad of regular Marines.

This is the regular squad. They tend to ride in a rhino transport. Why a multi-melta? Cheaper than a lascannon and still good at putting a wound on a Tyranid monster. Usually don't have to worry too much about range. The bugs tend to help you out there just fine. The Sergeant has a power pick for a weapon. I claim it as an axe ahead of time. The pick was a nasty anti-armor weapon back in medieval times. So, it fits just fine with the armor piercing of a power axe.

You can also see redeemed Lamenters amongst the unit. As the Scythes were assigned to oversee the Penance of the Lamenters following the Badab War; the Lamenters suffered heavily during the Kraken invasion. With the overall decimation of the Scythes Chapter, any surviving Lamenters amongst the Scythes number deemed vindicated were incorporated into the existing Chapter. I am sure the Inquisition will have questions regarding this action. Yet, it can be easier to ask forgiveness than permission considering the situation the Scythes current face. At the least, his gene seed may not be saved if it ever comes to it.

The first of two Sternguard squads is displayed above. The squad is made up of a mix of metal and plastic Marines. This squad has combi-meltas and a heavy flamer from a Terminator. The Veteran Sergeant is equipped with Lightning Claws. Usually deployed via drop pod into the middle of the enemy to draw them away from the front lines and to just cause as much damage as possible. There are only nine guys in the squad as a character sometimes deploys with them. They are great for chewing up Tyranid Warriors. The unit has successfully been used to alpha strike a Hive Tyrant leading to a complete disorganization of a Tyranid assault.

The last Space Marine unit is the heavy weapon Sternguard. I will combat squad this unit with the heavy weapons staying behind leaving the Veteran Sergeant and comrades to provide forward cover. It's also not too difficult to simply leave them all combined and shoot Kraken rounds too. It's difficult to see, but there are also a couple of comb-plasmas in here as well. I know it is not a standard use of the unit, but again, I play more for fluff.

Many of the plastic figures are modified to have service studs on their shoulder pads. The pads were made with Testors putty filled across the entire face then left to dry overnight then sanded smooth. With a pen, I chose several locations for the studs to go and lightly drilled into the putty with a pin vise. The studs themselves are tiny silica beads. You tend to get them with items shipped in boxes. I left a dollop of super glue on piece of paper, using a toothpick, I put a touch of the glue into the drilled hole. The silica bead was then carefully pressed into the hole. 

Some of the battle damage was a result of the pin vise drilling and the putty chipping off on the shoulder pads. Other was created by simply hitting the model with a file. Since the figures were primed in white and then yellow over the top, the file tends to show the white primer and the grey of the plastic underneath. This looks best on the black armor locations.

Each of the figures are individual with alternating color schemes and decal usage. Normally I make my Marines uniform per squad. Each one using the same numeration and symbols. Since many of the Veteran Scythes survived the Hivefleet attack, the disciplined rules are a bit more lax.

Now being colorblind, I never knew the lining I did on the yellow was red. I originally thought I grabbed the brown micron pen. It wasn't until the Necronomicon Tournament that I was told, 'I like how you used the red for the lining.' Aww, crap! Even still I can't tell it's red.

Scythes' Scout Speeder Storm

Back in 2008, the Space Marines 5th edition codex came out. It was filled with new pictures and new units that were not yet released. One of those units was the Scout transport, the Land Speeder Storm. A concept I attach to Agis Neugebauer way back when. He originally came up with the idea of using a standard Speeder to carry space marines into combat with them hanging onto the sides. His inspiration came from the movie Blackhawk Down. Alas, he no longer has the pictures on the site of his original creation. From what I remember, GW had asked a few of their dedicated gamers to submit ideas for new units. That was his submission with rules and a painted up model to boot.

Back from the digression, GW at one time had a habit releasing units with no models to support them. That was the case with the Storm. I was in the process of beginning my Scythes in early 2009. I was needing a full army for the 2009 Necronomicon Gaming tournament that was held every June down here in Orlando, since kaput. My Scouts had no transports and Game Workshop had not yet released the Storm. So I had to build my own. Mind you, this article is pretty useless now as GW released the Storm in May of 2009...

The process I followed utilized three Speeders to create the two Storms, as they had three engines each. Not very cost effective money-wise, but needs must.

                          

  

I had no help with the build. The only thing going for me was a pre-release image of the CAD design of the Speeder and whatever was in the 5th edition codex. Otherwise, I was winging the production.

                          

 

I even had to create my own Scout crewmen. They way I envisioned it, there would be one pilot and no gunner. I figure he's a space marine and he can control the gun himself much like the pilot of an Apache gunship. The other seat would be taken up by the Sergeant when the squad was embarked, getting his info and data from the onboard systems.

                         

 

The most difficult part was the bay in between the cockpit and the engines. I had to concoct a way to get them to join and make it sturdy enough that it wouldn't just fold in on itself. To do this, extra sprue was cut to act as the support beams. Diamond pattern sheet styrene was put down for the bottom of the crew bay. A blank sheet of styrene was placed as the bottom of the bay to give it thickness.

                          

 

You can get an idea of what extra bits were put to use. Lots of extra Leman Russ parts everywhere. Anything extra from the third Speeder was also put to work. The extra fins were used a rudder else it looked a bit off and unbalanced.

                           

 

To give the bottom of definition, I just cut squares of styrene out and glued them randomly to the bottom. Much like the appearance of the standard speeder. You can also see I went for a Heavy Flamer and Assault Cannon approach for weapons.

                           

 


The completed and painted Storms. In general they came out much like the actual models. A tad bit longer though. I even used a smoke launcher for the Cerberus Launcher.

In game, the Storm is fun to use. It's far from durable, but with the ability to charge from the vehicle, my Assault Scouts put it to good use. The flamer doesn't require a roll to hit, making it a nice easy weapon to use. The assault cannon does, but with 4 shots, it's got a good chance to connect. The model may not be the best, but I love the uses.

Needless to say, when I brought them to the Necronimocon tourney, the real Storm was released, upstaging my creations to no end. Nobody knew that mine were throw-togethers. I don't remember much from that weekend except I went 2-3, but I had a good time. Not too bad for a Scout heavy army.

Scythes of the Emperor Revisted

While filling in spots while my craft room is under construction, windows being rebuilt. I thought my Scythes should get revisited. as I never really showed much beyond one of the scout squads. To get re-inspired I visited one of my favorite websites, The Scythes.com, and found that the owner is moving on to other endeavors for some time. I wish him well.

Anyway, I thought I would start with showing the Scouts again. Remembering that most of the Scythes died fighting against Hive Fleet Kraken, to rebuild the Chapter, Scouts would have to be groomed.

These guys are the first of two Assault Scouts that I have. Each Sergeant has a combo flamer. As for their makeup, their armament is a toss up between shotguns and pistols with close combat weapons. The idea being either two shots before engaging with the shotguns, or one shot and an extra attack with the pistol combo. These squads are designed to harass or dig out units in cover.

I also built up a full squad of Sniper Scouts. This squad can be a huge boost or a huge bust depending on how the dice are rolling that day. Being that a sniper rifle is useful against anything excepting vehicles for the most part, they can really threaten the largest creatures the Tyranids can throw. They can also give Riptides, Wraith Knights, and C'tan issues.

Just to add flavor, the Scythes have incorporated their own Sergeant Telion. I have added veterans throughout the company to give it the mix of rookies and veterans. As many of the Scythes that survived would have definitely earned their veteran status in spades, there would be a lack of generic marines.

 

As for the camo cloaks, this was the first time I tried to do a complex scheme. Each scout had a unique style. They came out okay for me. Knowing now what I didn't know then, I would have added a filter to tie it together. As they stand, I am fairly happy with them. The idea comes across.

I had some extra scouts and decided to make a support unit with a missile launcher and bolters. Potentially this unit could sit on a Storm Scout Speeder in the back field or just occupy an objective.

As for the Scouts in general, outside of the snipers, I tried to make each guy different. Mainly this was accomplished with their head selections. Having each guy looking the same can really lend to a boring unit. The power fist for the Assault Scout is an old terminator power fist. It fit in real well.