Saturday 9 November 2019

I see no Ships



Ladies, gentlemen and assembled Servojurors, I refer you to the first piece of evidence, this blog article. Some way down the page, note where the accused describes himself as a 'man with no bikes'. I put it to you, here and now, that this is clear evidence of lies and, ipso facto, Heresy! Burn him at once!




So, yeah, this Mantis Warriors army was supposed to be a quick sidebar to other projects. One cannot sidebar in this wretched hobby. Crowbar, perhaps, turn a crack into a gaping hole using main strength and a reliance on nobody noticing what you're doing to obscure your wrongdoing.

This was a rescue mission from eBay. Someone had built this trio of bikers and blessed them with some Blanchitsu-style smeary paints. Snapping them up, I set about converting the one who was driving full tilt into the side of some masonry, and then sprayed them ready for painting.


Whatever that red-brown slurry was, it ate right through the spray coat! Something oil-based, is my guess, although I've not seen it happen before. Luckily, it went inert after tainting the Corax White, and the green went on fairly easily after that. Three coats easily, at least, it's not a very forgiving paint to use (Greenskin from Army Painter, thinner than I want it).


The conversion is a bike captain with stormshield (thanks, Ogryns) and thunder hammer (thanks, a variety of different sources including a Dreadknight and some Frostgrave barbarians). Or he could be a tooled-up sergeant, I guess. Either way, he's a veteran of the Tranquility Campaign, a colour scheme from waaaay back when.


This Rhino was actually finished weeks ago, I just forgot to take pics until now. So there's that for the Marines too.


What is even more embarrassing is that this isn't even all the bikes yet. Oh, Kraken, your willpower score truly is -.

12 comments:

  1. Lovely colours. I like the way the Mantis Warriors are shaping up - we'll have you at Chapter-strength in no time!

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    1. It's the heavy fire support options I'm short on, I reckon. Thunderfire Cannon? Whirlwind? Something to sit at the back and sling mud while the others get into position for that turn three charge, anyway! The more obscure the choice, the better, in my view - something I haven't already painted a dozen times!

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    2. I'll bet a canny hobbyist could make some decent Thunderfire Cannons from spare Knight guns and galvanic servo haulers.

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    3. You know what, I even have an old lead Thudd gun somewhere...

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  2. Lovely looking force. I really like the colour scheme.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! Wish I could take credit for inventing it.

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  3. Proper old school schemes, a very under represented Chapter, bravo.

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  4. These guys look great! I'm very keen to get up against them on Skype at some point!

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    Replies
    1. Well, the alpha Legion are ready to go (and getting new rules later this week!)

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    2. Everyone run in terror from the XX Legion and their dreaded ... name generator.

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    3. I think a d20 that gives you 'Alpharius' on every result is well worth the price of admission.

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