The Solar Watch - part 4.

High in geosynchronous orbit above the Imperial Palace, the cruiser 'Incarnadine Angel' hung like a predator of the void, held as it was amongst the bustling space lanes of the Throneworld. Huge whaleships of pilgrims jostled for space with the bulktraders of the Administratum, and threaded through with the patrol vessels of Battle fleet Solar. Sleek and dangerous, the 'Incarnadine Angel' bore the colours of the Solar Watch and the heraldry of the Talons of the Emperor, it's engines dark and lifeless for the moment.

On the bridge, the crew worked at their stations relaying information from their servitor machines and calling out flight paths of passing ships. The two hulking figures stood on the command diss tuned all this background noise out and watched intently upon their own data streams within their helmets.

Far below, the Allarus Terminators and Blade-Champion Desh were dealing with a corrupt ritual. The closest to the Imperial Palace for seven thousand years and the rest of the force was on standby in the Teleportarium.

Custodian-Vexilla Castivar Sanish reviewed the reports again, the numbers, the details were what mattered. Questions of how this had happened would come, but the priority was stopping the heretics and killing the cult from the head.

At his side Custodian-Serjant Gallimadean Calax suddenly stood up straight. He had been reviewing the same data streams as Sanish, noting the efficiency of the Terminators and that the cultists were all but destroyed in a matter of moments, when a vox-link had been pushed through on a secure channel.

Calax had reacted first to this and accessed the vox before patching Sanish into the link.

"This is Yor'Tar Dawne, Solar Watch respond" the faint crackle sounded in their helmets.

The second Blade-Champion of their cohort was calling, he had been called away on a long sweep of the Solar System and wouldn't have voxed through out of schedule if it wasn't important.

"Serjant Calax responding, report Blade-Champion, where are you?".

"Mercury, we have a problem. You are destroying some heretics on Terra correct?"

"Remember security protocols, that is not the subject for discussion over vox!" Castivar Sanish spat with venom, loathing the lack of security protocols.

"We don't have time, they belong to the Cult of the Eye, their leader Herath has just translated through a warp portal and rouses the masses here. We need the cohort to respond to the Mercury Command Hive, I'll do what I can and shunt a data-packet with what intelligence I have gathered, but I fear the upper reaches of the hive may be lost to corruption before we respond in force" a blast over the vox knocked out the signal.

Sanish and Calax looked at one another, then without saying a word broke away.

Sanish leaving the bridge to rouse the Shield-Captain from his training meditations and Calax calling out orders to recall all planetside units from their cohort, to bring the engines up to power and to plot a course to Mercury in as little a time as possible.

The race to Mercury, the race to stop the heretics and the race to support Blade-Champion Yor'Tar Dawne we're all just beginning...

*****

After a hobby break over the school summer holidays, and after finishing the previous Armoured Car, I have now managed to sit down and a nice painting session with these three characters from the Solar Watch army.

The first is the second Blade-Champion of the force, this time dual wielding his weapons:

He follows much the same as the previous Blade-Champion, I unconsciously followed the previous model and painted his cloak the deep red, when I had originally wanted to do this one black instead for some variation.

The biggest divergence is that he is bare headed. When I got the army from Fraser to paint, every model apart from the Shield-Captain had a helmet on and it looked odd for just that one model to be bareheaded.

So a pair of clippers and a little leverage cleared off some helmets and allowed me to replace them with Custodian bare heads.

The fleshtones add some painting variance into what becomes an essay in details as you have the work on the embossed filigree of the armour panels as you work around them.

In this case it is Cadian Fleshtone with a wash of Earthshade, a highlight with Cadian and then a wash of Riekland Flesh shade to finish.

Here he is next to the previous Blade-Champion:

The second character I finished off was this Vexilla:

I really like the imperious pose on this model, with the Vexilla held high for all to see.

Again it was just a case of sticking with the base palette of colours and working from there, no need to introduce extra colours into the scheme as it would just look messy then.

Lastly I finished off this Custodian Guard:

Another model down from the army, I know that Custodes don't have particular unit leaders, but this is the one featured in the story text above.

He follows all the usual colour scheme for the army and will be accompanied by a unit in due course.

With these three done, it brings the total count to:

To do:

• Shield-Captain 
• 8 Custodian Guard
• 3 Allarus Terminators 
• 6 Venatari

Done:

• 2 Sword-Champions
• Vexilla
• 6 Custodian Guard 
• 3 Allarus Terminators 

Twelve models down, Eighteen to go, I am planning on visiting Warhammer World at the end of the month (27th September) so am thinking of taking whatever I've gotten finished with me and getting a few photos on one of their lovely modelled terrain tables if they're free at the time.

Anyway, Until next time, have nice day...

Paul Sawyer - Fat Bloke.

 

I'm sure most of you, in the wargaming circle at least, will have seen the announcement by Warlord Games about Paul Sawyer recently:

The esteemed "Fat Bloke" when he was the editor of White Dwarf (arguably the best period of White Dwarf) and went on to become a co-founder of Warlord Games:

It's odd to write a post about a person you've never met, but this felt familiar somehow.

Paul Sawyer had such a lasting impact on the hobby, especially over the turn of the millennium and throughout his time with Warlord Games that I don't think a lot of people realise how much influence he had during that time. His legacy is such that it can dredge up memories which are over twenty-five years old and have such impact that I go back to reread the articles I talk about...

I remember as a kid grabbing White Dwarf each month and reading through it in the back of my dad's car on the way home from town.

My first issue was WD214, the Gorkamorka issue, and the very next issue, WD215 was the first on edited by Pauk Sawyer and it's often held up as a lot of people's favourite:

I still have my old battered copy, which I kept for the Piscina campaign in it, but looking back you could see the start of the inimitable style which would be the feature of the magazine for the next several years.

His fondness for self deprecating humour, infectious enthusiasm for the games and worlds, and of course, bacon butties all round:

The key of this time was having fun, and making what you could, which is what I think Paul Sawyer brought forward into everyone at the time.

WD222 with the Praetorian Vs Orks, Glazer's Creek scenario (Rourke's Drift, a scenario he would historically recreate with a Warlord Games box years later) is a fan favourite:

The bunker assault scenario with his White Scars Vs Graham Davey's Black Legion is another game which is up there which I remember devouring the article and going back to reread it again and again:

For me personally, I think the crowning achievement of his run with White Dwarf was the two issue battle report during the Armageddon campaign, issues WD248 and WD249:

With all the interacting tables and armies on display something I have always intended to do, but can never organise as I don't have enough friends:

The photo of him rubbing his hands before the carnage starts is a lasting memory, just how enthused he is in the middle of it all:

There are a lot more articles I could mention, like his Beastmen army and his Chaos army building series. Sadly I don't know much of what he got up to at Warlord Games as I never really followed the company, and during my late twenties/early thirties I sort of drifted in hibernation in the hobby for a while before getting back into it when I started this blog proper.

His own post, not the company one at the start of this post makes for sobering reading, even if it is lit through with his sense of humour:

What I do know is that whilst he will be missed by the community, we as fans will not understand the same level of grief that his family and friends will have. My own grief at loosing my dad to cancer won't compare to his family's as everyone is different and deals with things in their own way.

I wish him well to his end and for his family afterwards.

Thank you for the memories Paul.

Imperial Armour, An Armoured Squadron Tale - Part 3.

 

"Alert, I repeat Alert" the voice warbled down the vox, "we are under attack. Greenskins have overrun the infantry screen, Sentinel screen damage, we need support!".

"Oi, Rowe, get yourself moving, they need us back at the front" Sergeant Argall shouted, "Lieutenant Vayce is in trouble and the Sentinel's as well".

"I'm coming, I'm coming" Rowe replied as he finished his ablutions, buttoning up his uniform.

"Move your arse man, my brother is in trouble up there".

With a clang side doors were slammed shut and the engine coughed into life. Argall checked the ammo load on his autocannon as the SteG-4 armoured car lurched forward into motion, loose scree scattering from its tyres as they found purchase.

"Squadron command, this is Scout One, we're inbound, situation report?" Argall voxed.

"Scout One, we have greenskins pushing up the road, heavy armour, armoured infantry, we require support over".

"We're on our way sir. Skirting back along the track North-northwest at marker 52B, ETA three minutes".

Argall bounced in his turret seat, Rowe in the driver's fighting with the steering as they slid down the track infront of them, trees whipping past on each side. Argall clutched the Aquilla pendant he wore next to his tags, praying to the Emperor that his brothers Sentinel walker was alright, a bump dug the corner of the wings into his palm and drew blood. Darkly he wondered if that was a good or bad omen, he was snatched back from his thoughts as Rowe shouted.

"What's the plan, were coming up on the treeline now".

"Stop at the treeline, we'll recce, then move round to support where needed".

"Aye"

Second later they slid to a halt on the mushy track, the leaf litter causing a loss of traction and warning lights to flash manically on Rowe's dashboard in the driver position. Argall threw open the turret hatch and hauled himself up, magnoculars raised, he was met by a whirlwind of noise as rounds cooked off in an explosion nearby.

The great burning wreck of an Ork tank blazed away to his left, another tank dueled with a Leman Russ hitting it squarely and engulfing the tank in flame and smoke. The twin Vanquisher's were jockeying for position trying to get a firing line, as Ork infantry charged up the slope from the south, grey-black smoke trailing from the crude rockets they were firing wildly. Most importantly, all four sentinels were moving towards their squadron, two leaking heavy greasy black smoke, but they were all there.

Sighing with relief, he dropped back into the turret, closing the hatch behind him.

"Out of the track, hard left and we'll begin taking on those rocket firing types, keep the speed up so they can't get a bead on us".

Rowe nodded and buried the accelerator, causing the armoured car to shoot forward. He dropped a gear and slammed the brakes as they emerged from the trees, pulling a near U-turn and the autocannon began firing as the car found it's traction again and shot forwards.

"Greenskin bastards!" Argall shouted as he squeezed the firing paddle of his cannon, the rounds shredding the closest foot troops and an unfortunate Ork Buggy which was closing through his arc of fire...

*****

It's been a while since I've done anything Imperial Guard* related and I wanted to just do something different from the Custodes, Japanese and Tyranids I've been painting a lot of this year. I also wanted to test out a 3D print STL I downloaded for a Weird World War Two project which is still on the cards.

So this is a Staghound Armoured Car, the STL was listed as one for Dust1947, which is an alternate history world war 2 setting. As such the turret comes with various sci-fi weapons like a laser cannon and a mortar as well as the regular cannon the historical car was fitted with.

When she came off of the build plate, I was pleasantly surprised at the detail on the model as she looked quite sparse in Chitubox (the software we use), just with a slight misprint to one of the mudguards, but I could say that was general wear and tear**.

The turret printed well, just the weapons had bent on the print bed, and weren't usable.

In a flash of inspiration, I decided to quickly convert this to a a 40k model of a SteG-4*** and rooting through the bits box, grabbed an autocannon, a couple of Lasguns, some stowage and a sentinel searchlight and antenna.

It was then just a case of adding the details to the vehicle, replacing the weapons with the 40k equivalent and then layering on some medical gauze for camo netting, to match my Vanquisher and Leman Russ tanks.

With a first pass of Death Guard Green spray and details being picked out:

You can see the bent front mudguard in this photo, I'll accept that as a misprint any day:

And the engine bay area:

On with the homemade Doombull Brown wash and the Fire Dragon Bright follow up for rust:

Squadron and Army Group markings added next, I also added the Army Group markings to the roof of the turret as there was a large flat area which looked odd:

And now some finished photo's after the dust drybrushing steps, Baneblade Brown and Ushabti Bone for the top layer. 

I also picked out the searchlight after this, to make sure it was nice and bright to shine the light forwards:

Finally, I dusted off the two other tanks and took a Squadron photo:

I'm pretty pleased with how well I could follow my previous posts and get the scheme back, having not touched this paint scheme for just under THREE YEARS!

Now there are no official rules for an Armoured Car in 40k, however thanks to Reddit, I have a full copy of the vehicle design rules for 3rd/4th edition and so i am sure I can use those to make something suitable.

I will come back to the squadron at some point, but need to get a couple of other things cranked out first, namely get the Custodes finished, and I want to get enough Feudal Japanese minis finished to begin playing a Lion Rampant campaign I have planned for when I finish my gaming table.

Until next time, have nice day...

*I still say it, that they will always be the Imperial Guard, NOT the Astra Militarum (Space Army - stupid name).

**A damaged mudguard is nothing in the scheme of armoured/working vehicles. You should see the state of some of the railway flatbed wagons I work with currently!

***For those who don't know, the SteG-4 was an armoured car created by Dan Abnett in the Gaunts Ghosts novel series, I believe they first appear in Honour Guard (book 4). A four wheeled fast moving vehicle armed with an autocannon, this model fitted perfectly with the description.

In the novels they're used by the enemy who have overrun the sabbat worlds which produce them, but I imagine that there are many still in Imperial service despite this.