TheArtilleryman’s Raven Guard Army

[TheArtilleryman]

Hi!

 

So I was given a random assault intercessor by my son, which I converted into a vanguard vet using spare parts I had in my bits box, including a sanguinary guard jump pack. This has inspired me to start a Raven Guard army, as I’ve always loved the idea of an all-beaky force.
 

Here’s the first guy. I’m quite proud of the hand painted symbol on the shoulder pad. Found a great image at www.fromthewarp.blogspot.com which gave me a step-by-step method that made this really much simpler than I thought it would be. Also posted a screenshot of that image in case it’s handy for anyone.

 

Next up will be my attempt at Kayvaan Shrike!

 

 

Edited February 21 by TheArtilleryman
Edited topic title

[TheArtilleryman]

Kayvaan Shrike. OK, so like many people I really dislike the “raw” GW model for Shrike, with the weird haircut, and I got tons of inspiration from other users on this site for how he could look with a little work.

 

Now, before I post - my painting standard isn’t anywhere near the level of some of the amazing Shrikes that have already been posted on this site. However, I still thought I would post mine as an example of what a mere mortal can do :p

 

I did a bit of kitbashing on the model during construction:

 

1. I very carefully cut the gun hand away and replaced it with a hand stolen from a vanguard infiltrator. I then used parts of the gun and a stock from an old boltgun to make the gun look like it is holstered.

2. I cut the helmet from his belt, being careful to save the pouches and Raven skulls. I then cut the neck from the bare head and glued it to the bottom of the helmet so it could sit nicely on his shoulders. The pouches went on his belt, taking care to cover the hole left behind at his waist.

3. I didn’t like all the pouches on his chest, so I used a spare purity seal to cover the little gaps left by not using them.

4. I also modelled the foot claws the opposite way round to how they are in the instructions, as though they are gripping the ruins for balance. I also imagined they would be more effective this way, used to rake across enemies as he flies low over them, rather than landing on them.

 

I’m pretty happy with the result, and feel like he looks a lot more convincing as Shrike than he did before. Hope you like it!

Edited June 28, 2023 by TheArtilleryman
Typos

[WAR]

Very nice and Welcome to the Ravenspire @TheArtilleryman 

[TheArtilleryman]

Thanks! Bit gutted I’ve only just noticed the Call to Arms or I’d have held off for a couple days! I’ll have to put in a vow for my kit bashed vanguard vets and beaky phobos guys :)

Edited June 28, 2023 by TheArtilleryman

[TheArtilleryman]

So here is my completed (and apparently now illegal) Vanguard Veteran Squad. Kitbashed from some assault intercessors with VV lightning claws and Sanguinary Guard jump packs:

 

 

 

PS yes I know Raven Guard should have one shoulder pad trimmed black, but I like them this way :)

Edited July 24, 2023 by TheArtilleryman

[TheArtilleryman]

OK so loads more progress made on this army since the original posts because of the decluttering challenge and the call to arms.

 

New units:

 

Phobos Lieutenant:

 

 

Primaris Eliminators:

 

Infiltrator squad 1:

 

Infiltrator squad 2:

 

[TheArtilleryman]

Shot of the whole 515 point force. Beaky heads all round :)

 

 

Completed all the infiltrators, the lieutenant and the eliminators in a single day. Did the black using a dawnstone base coat and ulthuan grey drybrush, then covered with a watered down armour wash (an old Citadel pot from about 20 years ago!!!). Saved so much time rather than edge highlighting.

[TheArtilleryman]

Now trying to decide what to get next. Want to have everything in the army based in either speed or stealth, so considering a storm speeder thunder strike and las fusil eliminators for some anti-armour firepower…

[Dracos]

Invictor Tactical Warsuit

[Orion]

3 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

Now trying to decide what to get next. Want to have everything in the army based in either speed or stealth, so considering a storm speeder thunder strike and las fusil eliminators for some anti-armour firepower…

Other than maybe enclosing the gunner, the Storm Speeder is a fantastic looking model.

[TheArtilleryman]

3 hours ago, Dracos said:

Invictor Tactical Warsuit

See I would normally like walkers but it isn’t fast or stealthy so on this occasion it doesn’t make the cut …

3 hours ago, JayJapanB said:

Other than maybe enclosing the gunner, the Storm Speeder is a fantastic looking model.

Agreed. I have never had a landspeeder because I never liked the model, but the new one is one of the only primaris vehicles that I actually like. Ironic really as the tanks I have the opposite opinion on.

[Dracos]

Well the lore says ….

 

Quote

It has been designed with sound-dampening materials which are intended to allow the Invictor to move at great speed with minimal noise output, in support of the the pilot's Vanguard Marine brethren.

 …. it was specifically designed to accompany Infiltrators and Incursors, but to each their own. 
 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Dracos

[TheArtilleryman]

5 hours ago, Dracos said:

Well the lore says ….

 

 …. it was specifically designed to accompany Infiltrators and Incursors, but to each their own. 
 

 

Ah ok. Haven’t read that. However, it only has an 8” move so not that fast on the table… thanks for the suggestion though, I’ll look into it further.

[Dracos]

Let’s be very clear … I am NOT a used Invictor salesman … but … 

 

 … just so you know the Invictor has the same Scout rule as the Incursors, so they are absolutely a fantastic support unit for Phobos themed army. 
 

Now I admittedly slightly less for your Infiltrators but as all things YMMV

 

In 8e I used a lot of Infiltrator and Lasfusil Eleminator teams working in tandem on the flanks or areas of denial and it was a nice narrative combo. 
 

I skipped 9e after first year because … ugh … anyway

 

10e I’m focusing on an all Gravis build … I also looking strongly at breaking down the purity of that build because of some of the nice combos I suspect once the Codex out by using a combined arms approach of Phobos and Gravis … (Sorry Tacticus, not jumping on that Desolator bandwagon)

 

Anyway hope you have success and enjoy the Phobos theme Shrike’s fun

[TheArtilleryman]

Thanks for the insights. These days, I play very few games, and none particularly competitive, so I tend to go for the “what looks cool or thematic” approach. It usually gets me slaughtered by players that study the meta, like when I took my Razorback-mounted vanilla marines against a Dark Eldar tournament player a few years ago and got thoroughly embarrassed!

 

Interested to see the codex too, but just hoping they will fix the vanguard vets cos this force is currently illegal …

[Dracos]

I wouldn’t worry too much about the “legality” of your VV. I play tournaments couple times a year when I’m playing and at anything less than a GT and I’m betting most of those, as long as you talk out what they do legally on your list no one’s going to give a hoot about WYSIWYG with those guys. I’ve seen a lot wilder modeling proxies for sure at RTTs

 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Dracos

[TheArtilleryman]

1 hour ago, Dracos said:

I wouldn’t worry too much about the “legality” of your VV. I play tournaments couple times a year when I’m playing and at anything less than a GT and I’m betting most of those, as long as you talk out what they do legally on your list no one’s going to give a hoot about WYSIWYG with those guys. I’ve seen a lot wilder modeling proxies for sure at RTTs

 

 

Yeah I meant about the lightning claws and power fist that now have to be “heirloom weapons.” Pretty annoyed about that change tbh. Just hoping it was to make the data sheet “simplified not simple” and that the proper loadout options will return in the codex.

[duz_]

Impressive progress! These models look great! You've done more in a short time than I have in the last 3 years 

[TheArtilleryman]

10 hours ago, duz_ said:

Impressive progress! These models look great! You've done more in a short time than I have in the last 3 years 

 

Haha thanks! To be honest it was the call to arms and decluttering challenge that did it, otherwise I’d probably just be procrastinating as usual lol

[tajj]

Really nice job, I also like the physical camo added to the eliminators, I might steal that lol!. 

 

I did similar to my Shrike -

 

 

It's for a custom Raven Guard chapter so I got rid of the shoulder pad and the feathers. Kept the gun but gave it a bigger suppressor from a spare eliminator rifle. 

 

Not a great fan of the beakies so most of mine won't have them but kept it here. 

 

I presume very few like the emo head then lol. 

 

Haven't got round to painting him yet, I have a whole host of troops for my phobos focused list built and primed, but very little painted but so far it's 2 Invictors, 10 Reivers, 5 Infiltrators, 5 Incursors, 6 Eliminators, 5 Assault intercessors that I am waiting for jump packs for, 2 phobos librarians and the phobos lt from the leviathan box that I have kitbashed so he can basically be either the combi lt or a normal phobos lt.

 

I've also got some Inceptors coming as well and I want to add a phobos captain and probably a terminator squad.

 

Only finished ones are the combi Lt and one squad of Eliminators so far -

 

[TheArtilleryman]

On 8/17/2023 at 3:55 PM, tajj said:

Really nice job, I also like the physical camo added to the eliminators, I might steal that lol!. 

 

I did similar to my Shrike -

 

 

It's for a custom Raven Guard chapter so I got rid of the shoulder pad and the feathers. Kept the gun but gave it a bigger suppressor from a spare eliminator rifle. 

 

Not a great fan of the beakies so most of mine won't have them but kept it here. 

 

I presume very few like the emo head then lol. 

 

Haven't got round to painting him yet, I have a whole host of troops for my phobos focused list built and primed, but very little painted but so far it's 2 Invictors, 10 Reivers, 5 Infiltrators, 5 Incursors, 6 Eliminators, 5 Assault intercessors that I am waiting for jump packs for, 2 phobos librarians and the phobos lt from the leviathan box that I have kitbashed so he can basically be either the combi lt or a normal phobos lt.

 

I've also got some Inceptors coming as well and I want to add a phobos captain and probably a terminator squad.

 

Only finished ones are the combi Lt and one squad of Eliminators so far -

 

Nice! Yeah the emo head isn’t very popular :) Looks good. I kinda wish I had used a different shoulder pad too because now the icon doesn’t match with the hand-painted icons on the rest of my army, but c’est la vie…

[tajj]

Finished painting my Shrike conversion - 

 

 

I want to get similar terrain pieces for his squad to be landing on, has anyone got any suggestions? 

[TheArtilleryman]

Not updated this in a while as I haven’t had any new Raven Guard! However, I’ve been looking at my Grey Knights Land Raider for a while and not liking the decade-old paint job, so decided to respray it and repurpose the asset for the beaky boys.

 

This is how it used to look:

 

 

So far I’ve done the guns in the same light grey as the other Raven Guard earlier in this thread, and for the main black colour I started with black spray then added two layers of what I’m going to loosely call “precision drybrushing” with eshin grey and then dawnstone. I didn’t want to painstakingly edge highlight the whole thing as I did this the last time and was pretty unhappy with it. It now looks like this:
 

 

Not done any of the metallic sections or the details. Do you think it still looks black enough or have I gone too far? Or does it in fact need another lighter highlight on some of the vertices? Don’t want to overdo it but I do want it to look good. Thoughts welcome :)

 

Edited February 19 by TheArtilleryman

[Dracos]

Looks ghostly. Pretty neat trick for a vehicle 

[TheArtilleryman]

And done:

 

 

Wanted to make sure the tone of the black matched up with the others I’ve painted, as it’s yet another different paint scheme:

 

 

It’s definitely different but I think it matches up OK. See what you think.

 

Edit: it actually looks a lot lighter under those fluorescent lights. I think these photos capture the tone you’re more likely to see in real life a bit better:

 

 

Just realised that last photo was before weathering… really hope I made the right choice to do that as it’s a bit late now if I didn’t!

Edited February 19 by TheArtilleryman