Wolfs16 was interested in seeing my marines, so here they are! More to come, as they are part of an escalation league among friends.

"We are scattered, we are lost, but we are not yet dead. We become Crows now, until the 10th flies high once more." - Commander Korvydae, Shadowcaptain of Raven Guard 10th Company, “The Shadow Crows”

Thoughts Behind the Army:
When I began to plan for this army I decided that I wanted a few specific things.
Jump Packs, Lightning Claws, and Beakies. Raven Guard became an obvious choice, and I did enjoy what little fluff they have.

While Shrike or Korvydae's Forgeworld rules would work OK for a jump pack list, I feel the Blood Angels rules really make it much more viable. Korvydae's rules mimic Dante (although he is very much Dante's junior), so I chose to establish him at a time where he has grown considerably in power, and perhaps at the head of a more gritted force. My Korvydante army was born.

Being rather disappointed with the showing for Raven Guard fluff in the Imperial Armor book, I've modeled this force off of an interpretation of Korvydae further on in his life. His scouts have been torn asunder, and he has begun a campaign to replenish the 10th company. I'm not entirely sure if he has gone rogue, or is heading a newly founded chapter at this point. Their equipment colors have been stripped down to the base materials either in penance or because they have been cast off. It is possible that they have uncovered long lost equipment belonging to the chapter (a rather tired idea in space marine back stories, but one that could explain the propensity for full fledged marines in the army, and fervor mimicking the red thirst and blood chalices.)

Current Showing:
The army is forming in tune to a monthly escalation league. My killteam 200pt force performed very well, although I have chosen to give the scouts the boot for the next round. In their place, a librarian dread and a fully fleshed out assault squad to bring it to 400.
My plans are to add another assault squad, vanguard veterans, blood priests, and possibly an infantry librarian.

The Good Stuff (Painting):
Here is what I have so far. Its mostly done, minus a bit of detailing and base-work.

Assault Squad: The sergeant and melta-gunners have magnetized arms (the Sergeant normally runs only one LC, he's showing off here)








Scout squad:




Librarian Furioso:




The Force Assembled:

I must say, these guys look great! I really like the color scheme; is that Charadon Granite? The conversion work is also very nicely done and is especially noticeable for the Dreadnought.

Thanks for sharing! (I'm finding that converting Marines is very different than converting Tau, so any Space Marine project are useful!)

Thanks! Its actually a base of vallejo leather brown, stonewall grey, and black in a 2:2:1 mix, I'd say probably a little bit more brown/green from a chardonite granite. Its drybrushed with a variety of greys and a bit of bluegrey, and some sepia washing to change the hue a bit. The metal spots are tinny tin, but its a bit too shiny for my tastes. They need a bit of weathering to take the sheen out, as can be seen with the scouts.

The scout sergeant and dread are the two pieces I have spent a good deal of time converting so far. My vanguard vets, priests, and Korvydante will be fairly converted as well. The rest are a mix of assault squad and forgeworld Raven Guard equipment.

I agree that converting marines is a different feel from Tau. One thing I've marveled at is all the bits I have to work with! After playing with the Venerable Dread and Sanguinary Guard sprues, I can only hope that they put this much detail and variety into the next generation of Tau.

"excuse me while I scrape me jaw off the floor
Holy Moly that is some sweet stuff you have there! The grey is sublime, my favorite is the red weapons, can you give a rundown on that 9been trying to paint red power weapons, hasnt worked out well...) And can we get close ups of the dreadnought pilot?

Everything is fantastic looking. And I will concur with Wolfs16, I love the color scheme. I just did my first Red Scorpion with ink washed codex grey and love the look of the dark grey. But the marbled look on yours is fantastic. I do hope there's more to grace us with.

If not, I can completely understand the "scattered" nature of your Crows

Thank you for the comments! Here is a bit of modeling work I got done on my sanguinary priest and librarian.
Priest:


Magnetized for more options! Hes about as ornate as my Raven Guard are going to get. The fervor he provides to the troops comes in the form of a relic banner. All of the overt Blood Angels stuff has been removed, but I'll be converting the rest of it to a bit more Raven Guard feel. He has since received a greenstuff hood which might come off due to it not really looking all that good.

Librarian:





I've reworked my 10+ year old Ezekiel model into a new angel of death. I've always loved this model and was a bit sad to strip little youngling Revenant's paint job. Despite the nostalgia, I felt with some converting it could really shine. I took some Sanguinary Guard jump pack and legs and spent quite awhile working them into a dynamic mid-air pose. My girlfriend was instrumental in advice on what looked anatomically correct or not. I added some purity seals and a set of flag strips from some Wood Elf bits I had lying around to give the feeling of movement. The robe sculpting came last, and was relatively quick.

Ar'ka:
The marbling effect was a very conscious attempt to add in some color variance into the gray, to really feel like their armor is not a uniform maintained color. I've always been a fan of the scorpions, do you have any to show?

Don't worry about me adding to the army, I need to do 200pts a month at the least!

Terminatorinhell:
Sure thing! Click the pic for an uncomfortably close photo of the dread pilot. This was probably the sloppiest part of the piece, I didn't spend a lot of energy on the psychic hood cables, nor the painting. I need to fix those little skulls


As far as the red weapons, I can do some step by step pics if needed. My formula:

hand-primed white blades, thin layers and let them dry. Its important to have an even and fully white result.

Base coat in red, again a few thin layers. I used a P3 Khador red, as my Vallejo red always lets me down a bit.

Paint the yellow lines with a thin brush, making a cobblestone like pattern at my whim. I go back over it again if the yellow doesn't fully cover.

A quick addition of yellow/white mixed 50/50 as thin of a line as possible, and especially hitting intersection areas of the yellow. I also edge the weapon with this mix with the flat of the brush.

Take a purple/black mix watered down and add fill in some of the red spots, leaving an edge of red/yellow/orange. At the end of this step is a pretty good lava look, but I wanted to give mine a more red hue and a bit of a gradient to it.

1-2 watered down layers of red ink, with a quick thumbswipe at the top of the blade to have it very light at those spots. The ink glaze will really add to the vibrancy, but wash out a lot of the yellow and white.

3 light layers of leviathan purple wash, first layer 50% of the blade from the base (and early thumbswipes to help the transition if needed)then 25%, then just a bit at the base. You have to spend a while waiting for it to dry in between, but it is important not to rush. The wash will dull this section down, and will help the untouched area to really pop.

The only TRUE Red Scorpion I've got is Carab Culln in his Terminator Armor. I don't have the IA book giving me an accurate description of their armor color, but what I got from Lexicanum did help.

I went with a base coat of Codex Grey and washed it with Badab black to get that charcoal grey look. As for the mustard yellow...well, I didn't have anything close to it and my yellow was dried out, so I the shoulder pauldron and top of the one knee a quick hit with bone white and washed it with badab to get a darker color. I actually like the way it turned out.



I've got 2 other RS Terminators in the works...just waiting on the Wolf Terminator heads to arrive to finish them off. I'm also debating on whether or not I need to spend the cash and buy RS pauldrons from FW.

Ah, he looks great! Are they going to be a small force attached with your Black Templar, or just a side project for the sake of painting?

Well, I've been looking at the Geonide Crusade as a starting point for at least two characters...Hadrian & Trajan. So while they are not considered part of that Crusade, I do plan on getting a small Terminator force of Black Templars & Red Scorpions together for some type of mission.

Not sure where I'd go with it. I think the two have similar ideologies, so it could be something like the Anphelion Project dealing with Tyranids, or quite possibly something dealing with an upcoming gaming scenario that involves Ungrok the Unstoppable. Once I figure out a premise, I can figure out the fluff. I have completed Trajan & Hadrian as Sword Brethren in Terminator Armor...so I've got my visuals.

Well, its not a 40k model (although I'm tempted to make a Shadow Crows Stormbird out of one), but it is the most ambitious project I've completed to date, so I wanted to share it with you all. I've been working on it for about 6 months as a piece to auction for my friend's Mass Effect Marathon. It was auctioned in November for quite a tidy donation, with the winner patiently waiting for me to finish it up.

The originals were made out of plasticard and balsa wood. I tried my hand at my first silicon molds, and casted it in plaster. Many little modifications such as magnetic wings were made to solve the weak joint strength and weight. I won't bore you with details, you can see more pictures and a few WIP posts at my blog in my signature.

Now that this is out of the way, the Shadow Crows are up. 3 boxes of assault marines to make my next assault squad and the vanguard vets to fill out to my 1k pt list. After that I've got a bunch of Cryx that need LED modification....

HOLY CRAP!

That is an amazing piece of work. I love that Trilogy and think Bioware has done a tremendous job with their IP. Amazing work, definitely does justice to their vision.

Now bring on the SR-2!!

Thanks It was a great deal of work, and despite putting a lot of effort into it I fell flat on a few details. I despaired at certain stages after realizing mistakes that couldn't be corrected that far in. At some point you have to let some of the little stuff go. I think I'm well prepared for the next one...



..Which will be the SR-2 for next year's marathon auction. Hopefully I can get it fully completed in time for the actual event this time around.

Also much thanks to Mangozac's Tau Superheavy Walker log, it provided many helpful hints for my build. In particular, I used the same resin compound to make the main hull master, and it worked very well!

Work has progressed on the Shadow Crows! I am currently up to about 1250 points worth of troops, though the snipers and dreadnought are optional in my mind. The color is a little off due to the landscape shots, I did not have time to set up a proper photo booth. The first picture is the closest match to their actual color, while the others get a bit more of the detail.


While they are finished well enough, I have a few details to go back and work on. Specifically, I want to add some wear and tear to their weapons, and mark them out for squads and rank. In terms of rank I would like to avoid shoulder pads, as with magnets I will have some that switch out. I was considering the jet pack, using the left side and top for chevron markings of rank, and the right side and top for squad specific icon or number. I like the idea of assault marines dropping in formation, able to discern their squad and sergeant below them as they drop. I could be swayed to try something else if anyone has any other ideas.



While deciding on these options, I've spent some time detailing the completed assault marines. I made use of black dry brushing, black wash, and smokey brown ink to give the back thrusters a well worn look. After doing so, I felt like I was ignoring the actual thrusters, as I usually just left them at a dry brushed state. I took my 5 marines that most looked like they were using their jet packs and tried out a scheme similar to my power weapons to give them an in-use feel. The pictures don't quite do them justice, but get the point across. I really want to try some smoke cloud effects like I've done for a friend's koptas(though on a much smaller scale), but it will likely block out most of this detail that I've done. I have a few options now:
I can extend the in-use glow to all of my marines, or leave it for the ones who look like they're using their packs.
I can add smoke trails for the in use marines, or leave them as-is.
What do you all think?






The Vanguard Veterans are up next for painting. I am planning to give them much more black to show their founding chapter heritage. They are waiting on some custom jump packs and a few extra beakie helmets. As you can see I went magnet-happy on them. In addition to this squad, 4 weapon specialists, 2 sergeants, and the priest are all magnetized to allow for optimal weapon switching. This allows me to quickly play with weapon load outs on the VV, or to equip them as regular assault marines if needed. It was important to me that the army be as WYSIWYG as possible, to not put any extra stress on my opponents when identifying what unit is what.





Moving ahead, I will need to decide on HQ and honor guard colors. My HQ's, honor guard, and priests will all be in winged jump packs, and if I am to follow Blood Angel conventions, they would do best with the Tinny Tin I've been using for exposed metal on my normal marines. I am not entirely sold on this, as I've been trying to avoid metalics in this army.

However, it could make a good basis for changing views in the newer echelons of leadership. Perhaps a fervor brought on from salvation through ancient rites of their primarch. This would show a dueling views between a new elite who champion ancient rites and relics of the original legion, and the disillusioned old guard veterans. I really need to assess my backstory some more and come up with something concrete. Here is a possibility, quickly written.

A dread shadow has fallen over the Raven Guard. Only a decade ago a handful of recruits would die from rejected geneseed. This was an acceptable loss as part of the ritual of modification. But the loss of an entire initiate class was unheard of. Then another class mortally rejected, and another. Already a poorly replenished chapter, the loss of so many dealt a serious blow to both manpower and morale. In the back of every raven's mind lies the genetic memory of the modifications that their Primarch wrought millenia ago. Corrupted geneseed had struck the chapter before, and they had paid dearly for it.

"Adapt or die." Captain Korvydae of the 10th company vowed to seek out a solution, no matter the cost. His task force formed into a shadow chapter, insignia identifying them as Raven Guard was obfuscated into a new chapter. Any Inquisitive eyes that caught wind of what Korvydae was seeking would be led into following a successor chapter that did not officially exist. Such was the secrecy within the Raven Guard that only the Chapter Master and a select few Captains would know of this gambit. Korvydae hoped to find salvation through retracing his progenitors steps in their chapters darkest hour after the massacre on Istvaan. The Captain would be wholly unprepared for the price of such salvation..

As always any suggestions or critique is welcome!

edit: I try to avoid talking about army lists and composition here, but if you are interested you may find my thoughts on this current force posted on my blog.

Work continues on my Vanguard Veterans and Priest. The thunderhammer still needs some fixing on the lightsource, and they still need their jumppacks... Hopefully I will get them done this weekend!

I love what your doing with your army. Your painting is great and I like what you've done with bases. I'm looking forward to seeeing th e rest of this army.

Thanks! I admire your work as well, the gritty nature of your Tau is inspiring.