My Unkindness of Ravens

[tentagil]

I've only been playing 40k since the end of 6th, and been Orks most of that time. I loved the look of the Phobos stuff so I split a box of Shadowspear back when it came out and have just recently started getting my Ravens assembled and painted up. Coming from an ork background I can't build any kit 100% as designed, and I love the beakie aesthetic so all of my models have a head swap at the least, and in some cases I've done some heavy head modding to get the looks I wanted. The force is rather small at the moment, but wanted to show it off a little.

 

For my Shadow Captain I used a Phobos Captain wiht the head from Captain Solaq from the 7th ed Shadow Force Solaq box and I removed the servo skull.
 

For my Eliminators I carved out the front of the hooded heads a bit and then attached the front half of the bird skulls from the Citadel Skulls box. I like the more sinister almost plague doctor look it gives them.

 

And here is the whole Command force for the moment, Infiltrators just have heads swapped with beakies from various sources and the addition of sholders and some bits from the Raven Guard upgrade sprue on the Sgts.

I've got the LT, Libraria nearly done. And then moving onto the Suppressors. Also picked up a squad of Inceptors and some Aggressors to experiment with in my force. 

[WAR]

Awesome stuff. Welcome to the Ravenspire

[Frater Cornelius]

*looks at Phobos Captain*

 

That helmet.

 

*takes a puff of a cigarette*

 

Haven't seen that one in years.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I commend your efforts on the well-painted Force CAPT, but the Honor Guard helmet looks silly on him. Are the wings on his face a sign he took a vow of silence- killing his enemies in silence (stealthily) and forsaking the honor he'd otherwise win, in penance for some transgression?

[duz_]

Great work! Can't wait to see more of this army!

I also believe the Corvus Cabal from Warcry are a good source of raven esque bits especially for head gear :tu:

[Yosef Hausakluif]

Love the skull helmets on the snipers. Great work and nice to see so many MK VI helms too.

Looking forward to what comes next!

[tentagil]

I've added two more models to the roster

 

 

A Phobos Lieutenant. As far as I can trace it the head is from Anvil Industries, though it doesn't look like they sell this one anymore. The bolter is from the Raven Guard upgrade sprue. I borrowed a pack from the Eliminators because I liked the look of it.

 

 

Phobos Librarian, the only change I actually made to this model was swapping in the raven charm for his neclace.

[Frater Cornelius]

Good use of the various Ravenwing bits.

[tentagil]

I've added some Gravis Armor to my small force with a squad of Aggressors and one of Inceptors. Both of which should give me some soft anti-tank and be good for clearing hoardes.

 

 

For the Aggressors I kept things simple with just swapping in some beakier helmets and shoulder pads from the Raven Guard upgrade sprue. I'm really looking forward to seeing how these guys play, as I've heard alot of good things.

 

 

The Inceptors got new shoulder pads, a few feather and skull bits from the upgrade sprue, and then I made some custom flight stands for them with things from my bits box, some epoxy putty, and the use of magnets stuck to the back of the minis and the top of the flight stands. Which minimizes the worries of broken flight stands and gives a tiny bit of posability to them. I also modded the open visor in the kit so all three have closed visors, which I liked the look of better.

[WAR]

Very nice

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Inceptors and Aggressors.

[tentagil]

Played a 25ish power level Patrol mission this weekend against Sisters of Battle. Was a Sweep and Clear Crusade mission.

I ran:
Captain in Phobos Armour: 1. Shoot and Fade, Ex Tenebris

2x 5man Infiltrator Squad: Infiltrator Comms Array

3man Aggressor Squad: Boltstorm Gauntlets, Fragstorm Grenade

3man Eliminators Squad: Bolt sniper rifle
 

He had:

Cannones with a fancy sword and ridiculous army that only allowed hits on 4,5,6

5man Battle Sister Squad
Penitent Engine with Flamers

4man Sisters Repentia Squad
Repentia Superior

5man Arco Flagellant Squad

Immolator

And then one more character I can't remember the name of.
He Piled the Canoness and the Repentias into the Immolator

 

We agreed to use the pre-faq power levels for this game.

 

I used the Strike from the Shadows stratagem so I could drop in the Aggressors in a useful spot later, and everyone else used concealed deployment to be spread out on the board but near objectives. The Infiltrators both close to the mid field ones, Eliminators on a high point further back near the objective in my Deployment zone, and my Captain with them to start so they could get the reroll aura, but with Shoot and Fade available to start moving him up the map quickly.

 

 

Round 1

First round my friend pushed forward with the Immolator on one side and the Penitent Engine on the other with the plan of sitting on the objectives and flaming the :cuss out of me. Both my squads of Infiltrators manged to survive the fire storms with only one wound lost a piece thanks to some lucky rolls. And his attempts to hit on with his battle sisters failed thanks to my guys being over 12 from them and in some cover.

My turn I dropped the Aggressors in 9 inches from his Immolator, moved the second squad of Infiltrators a little closer so both squads could do Rapid Fire, and then everything I had fired into that damn tank. He had wrecked me with in in a previous game so I wanted to remove it quickly. I knocked it down to 3 wounds from all the concentrated fire. A follow up charge from the Aggressors blew it sky high and he used a CP for Emergency disembarkment that killed the Repentia Superior and one Sister Repentia, as well as one of my Infiltrators and dropped put some damage on one Aggressor.

I ended my turn by using another CP dropping a booby trap on the objective my Infiltrators were on with Deadly Prize.

 

Round 2 (10 - 10)

He scored 10 points for having his battle sisters on the objective in his own Deployment zone. Then the Penitent Engine moved forward onto a second objective and sent flames into nearby Infiltrators, thankfully only killing one of them. The Repentias attempted to move towards my other Infiltrators and the Objective, but Deadly Prize ended up costing him two more of them, leaving only a single one remaining. His Canoness fired her Plasma gun into my Aggressors, eliminating one of them, and a second was shot down by his Sisters of battle. The Repentia finished off the third Aggressor on a charge and the Penitent Engine charged into my Infiltrators, taking out one and leaving another with one wound.

My round started with using False Flight to back my Infiltrators away from the Engine, and begging to move my Captain forward, and also moving my Eliminators. As my opponent was making good use of Line of Sight to limit their effectiveness. Both Squads of Infiltrators fired, putting no wounds on the Canoness but 4 wounds on the Engine. My Eliminators managed to get a single wound on the Canoness. And my Shadow captain did some damage to the Engine before shifting up within range of the objective it was on. My charging in my Infiltrators on the Engine proved a costly mistake, wiping the squad. But my Captain finished it off.

 

Round 3 (30 - 20)

He scored 10 points for having an objective. Then proceeded to batter my remaining Infiltrators with shots from his Battle sisters and the Canoness's Plasma gun. Followed by the Canoness charging them. They were no match for her power sword, but I managed to keep one alive.

 

Thanks to that one lowly Infiltrator I had enough objectives to score 20 points on this round, giving me the lead. My shadow Captain and Eliminators both failed to put any wounds on the Canoness from range, and the Infiltrator was no more effective in melee, dying by rounds end.

 

Round 4 (40 - 30)

He scored 10 points again, tieing us for the moment, and sent his Canoness in my Captains direction, spending a miracle die to ensure she had the movement to contest the objective. Meanwhile the battle sisters moved forward and attempted to shoot my Captain down, but even with Rapid Fire the The Shadow Captain avoided their shots.

Seeing no other real option, my Captain and the Eliminators fired at the Canonees with no luck and then he prepared for the charge. The melee was brutal, both Canonees and Captain lost two wounds. Putting her at 1 and the Captain at 4.

 

 

Round 5 (50 - 50)

Thanks to his contesting the point, he now had full control of more objectives then me and scored 20 points. The battle Sisters took some shots at my Eliminators, but had no luck doing any Damage. The melee between my Captain and his Canoness continued to be a tight fight as we ended the melee with only one wound remaining each.

 

I scored my 10 points to tie us up, and then in a desperate bid I used False Flight again to fall back my Captain, made a vein attempt to shoot the Cannoess off the board with him and the Eliminators and then charged in. I managed to roll nothing but 2s & 3s. Which against anything other then her relic armor would have been great. The return swings from her Power Sword laid my Captain low as the game ended in a draw.

 

Over all, the game lasted about 90 minutes from setup till end of round 5, even including lots of rule look ups as I'm learning Space Marines in general and Raven Guard in particular.

[thewarriorhunter]

Great looking stuff. Your LT does have a head from Anvil Industries, I used them on my assault marines before they were discontinued. That Solaq head is great. I've been chasing that model around for a long time but haven't been successful on finding one at a reasonable price because I love that helm.

[tentagil]

I don't know how useful they will be in my army, but I knocked out some Reivers. I love the dynamic poses in this kit and the models look very cool. Now just hoping for rules to match how badass they look.

 

First a group shot

 

 

I kept these guys fairly simple. Just added beakies to everyone, along with shoulder pads from the upgrade sprue. While the Reiver stock heads are cool looking, they just didn't fit the asthetic I'm going for with this force. It should also be noted that within my gaming group we don't worry to much about wysiwyg so I have a mix of weapons here to make each model look the way I want it.

 

 

Close-up. I used beakies from a ton of different sets, and for this 5-man I put a space wolf head on the Sgt to make him standout. I love the look of the Grapple Launcher so had to make sure at least one of them had one. 

 

 

Close-up of the second 5-man. For this squad I have another Grapple of course, and then the Sgt has a head off a Devastator along with a pack from the Infiltrator kit to make him stand-out. Plus when I run them as a 10-man I like the idea that he gets his orders in via comms and then the unit goes to work.

 

 

 

[duz_]

Looking great!

 

I really like the Reiver models! (I have 20 :lol: )

Hopefully they'll get a boost and propose in 9th!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your models are well-assembled and painted.

[tentagil]

Life has gotten in the way of hobby stuff the last two months. But did finally get an Invictor Warsuit built, magnetized, and painted up. I made a custom base from bits of a Sector Mechanicus terrain piece. And magnetized it to allow me to swap out the fist and bolter, the cannons are just swapped with a friction fit at the moment. used some sprue and milliput to create the connection point on the Stubber since the kit only comes with one. Then a mix of decals from the Raven Guard Upgrade Kit and the old Forge World Decal sheet. 

 

Haven't had a chance to run him in a game yet, but pretty happy with how the model game out. My next project is going to be a 10 man squad of Primaris sized Vanguard Vets. Looking forward to getting more Jump Pack Units into my army.

[Dracos]

Sweet work. Really like that base. Tons of flavor.

[tentagil]

Sweet work. Really like that base. Tons of flavor.

Thanks, I'm really happy with how it came out. Involved a lot of cutting, sanding, and filling to get the edges looking right. And then layered it on some plasticard to get a flat bottom and embedded several magnets so it will stay put on the metal tray in my case. I also added a post in the torso, which allows it to turn and actually lets me remove the top half if I want. I may eventually adjust the pose as it ended up leaning back slightly more then I intended after I decided to have the left leg raised on that rubble.

 

My newest project is a lot simpler, just building out some Primaris sized Vanguard Vets using Infiltrator bodies and mostly bits from the Vanguard Veteran kit. The lightning claw arms actually look perfectly scaled on the Primaris bodies. I figure I'll get these five done and then get a second Vanguard kit to do another five. Probably get Shrike done somewhere in there as well since I plan on him rolling with them for the most part.