This Old Whirlwind

What we have here is the first Whirlwind model released by Games-Workshop. Sure there was the template for making your own multi-launcher way back in White Dwarf 117, but this is the first one that came in a box with the words Whirlwind on it. Released back in the spring of 1995. Back then when GW did a big army launch the new stuff would appear in the UK first before being released to the rest of the world. I think it was almost two months before these hit the shelves in the USA. Our parents were on a vacation to England at the time and my brother gave them a list of models and miniatures that he wanted for his birthday. The way the dollar to Pound Sterling rate conversion worked it was cheaper to go* to the UK to buy these things and ship them home than it was to just get them here. (Hint, it still is!) .  So he got almost all of the Ultramarines for 2nd edition before most folks here in the States did. 

Also, this is really the point here, is that GW in the UK was still producing their metal miniatures in lead while here in the States GWUS had already switched to pewter. The lead was definitely better at catching details in my opinion and the flash was easier to clean up. And the weight difference was also quite substantial as well. The lead was definitely heavier! 

My brother was eager to paint this thing, and after painting a few Marines for practice he dove into painting this thing. And you know, it holds up a lot better than either of us felt at the time. Really, for the first vehicle he ever painted this isn't bad at all. The only issues with it were some of the decals. Particularly on the side door where the decal disintegrated while he was trying to position it. I have been trying to track down one of the the old Whirlwind decal sheets so I could correct this, but it has proven to be terribly scarce. 

As far as the painting goes, I think it holds up. The only exception are the winged skulls that adorn the Multilauncher tubes and the hatch next to the radar dish. So in order to update this thing to conform to my current Ultramarines scheme, I want to re-paint the winged skulls, paint the rocket tips, and give the whole tank a Fenrisian Grey edge highlight. The temptation to paint all the rivets a silver color was abandoned as I have always felt that this wouldn't make sense. In reality these things ate typical painted over to protect from rust and decay so to me it makes sense to give the impression that these would be painted over. 

And I did everything I just said I would to this, but this damaged decal needed a bit more attention...

Some light battle damage / wear and tear was the logical choice in lieu of not having a replacement decal. A few swipes of Stormhost Silver...

And a few low-lights of Abaddon Black and Macrage Blue and I think I got the result I wanted. 

But it didn't make sense to have this be the only wear on this thing right? So I grabbed a sponge and lightly dabbed Stormhost Silver on areas that I thought would most likely acrue wear on the paint. 

Mostly this scouring  would be applied to the fromt corners of the tank and the running boards since I think I these areas are most likely to be weathered. 

Also the rear of the tank where the ramp would drop was worthy of the sponge also. 

But there was one more area that now earned my attentuon: the gunner. I find his lack of should iconography...disturbing. and foresee that fixing it will challenging.  I painted one of these models for my Space Wolves about 20 years ago and I was able to convincingly free-hand that iconography, but the Ultramarines icons are wickedly tough to do. 

No decals on the gunner.

I cur down the decals to get them to fit and after a bit of work got them on. 

Decals on the gunner.. 

Amusingly I think I got the shoulder pad icons on the wrong sides. Oops. HAHA... I can't be bothered to fix it. 

Well, this old Whirlwind is sufficiently updated to my satisfaction and after I spray it with some sealant it will be ready to see the tabletop again. 

*Assuming one doesn't factor in the travel and lodging expenses. Also assuming of course that this isn't your only reason to go to the UK, in which case one must re-evaluate the priorities in life.  I'm specifically talking about the  cost of the items.

Distracted by Rhinos...pt2

What better thing to do on a 4th of July than parade your armies about? Well since I had no plans at all on the 4th, and it was for the most part a rainy day, I stayed in to paint models. Instead of finishing that regiment of Fantasy Orcs, I found myself painting tanks. Again, I was distracted-by-rhinos!

In particular, I just wanted to get this rhino painted. It has been kicking around with just a shadow grey base coat for almost a decade now, and I was tired of seeing it in this state. BTW, this is one that my previous local game store gave me, it was left behind after a weekend of gaming and unclaimed after a few weeks so he gave it to me. It was torn up bad and missing pieces, so I added an assortment of tank accessories from some Tamiya kits and other bits to sort of make up for it.

Drawing on the claws in pencil.

Drawing the claws onto the roof hatch, added door handles after this.

I have gotten fairly good at hand drawing and painting these 'claw' iconography onto Space Wolf tanks. It is still a pain the but doing them on Space Marine shoulder pads though.

Adding the scab red basecoat.

Adding the Firey Orange base-coat for the yellow

Yeah, yeah, I hear you: "But Neverness, don't you hate Blood Claws?" Well, not the concept, just their current state. And this tank was always theirs. So I stuck with plan.

Adding the mid-coat.

Adding the Space Wolf Grey coat.

 It wasn't long after this that I had the realization that I would never but Blood Claws into this tank. It only makes sense to put them, in a maxed out squad, into a Land Crusader.

All well...LOL

I also deepened the low-lights on my Leman Russ Exterminator (that'll get it's own post eventually) and my whirlwind, which has earned it's additional paint job with it's recent battlefield performance. I not only darkened it's tone, but finished the hull all the way up to the white highlight. I just need to apply a few more touch-ups and it is done. Also I am stuck on where to place the Storm Bolter add on? This original model really didn't provide a spot for it. Thinking on it, it is the reason we stuck the stormbolter on the dover-blade on this Dark Angel whirlwind.  I rarely take any upgrades to my whirlwinds, as they really only have one role, so I might just leave it off.

Looking at it reduced, I think I need to darken it a bit more...

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SITE UPDATE:
I have added a new page called Other Armies to summarize and provide links to my armies that aren't Space Wolves or Orks. Check it out on the top bar on this blog. I have pics there that do not appear anywhere else on this blog. It is a never-ending work in progress which I intend to continuously update.

 I hope you enjoy!

Tau about that?

Deploying in cover.

Taking a break from painting a sea of green (more on that in a future post) I found myself scrambling an army together and marched over to HobbyTown-USA in Johnson-City where Da Masta Cheef and I decided to give his girlfriend's newly constructed Tau army a workout. It was my 1st game against the new Tau Codex, so I was expected to be gunned to death. We both took pics and are both writing battle reports  (in fact, he has beaten me to it, the-first-engagement-of-my-gfs-tau-army. (kinda of bold using 'engagement' and 'GF' in the same sentence, but that's the Cheef's fearless tendencies for you).

To make this fun for us, I have intentionally not yet read his battle report, just for the sake of perspective and to make it fun to compare and contrast the two against each other.

1500pts of Ultramarines

 So once again I mustered the ultra-flashback.army but with a few unit adjustments. This time I wanted to use both Legion of the Damned and Sternguard, but I was limited to only 5 Legion of the Damned. The whirlwind ought to make a mockery of the Tau's pathetic attempts to stay at arm's length from me. Muhahaha!

The Tau assemble.

The Tau totally camped out in this building. We suspect it is a brothel...

The Tau deploy the big guns. They never tire apparently, which is why they weren't allowed in the brothel...

"Sarge! Xenos scum have taken the brothel?! They're ruining our shore-leave!"

Once again we had diagonal deployment and once again I rolled Master of Cities for my Warlord trait! This is becoming a trend, but one that I like (so long as I am playing on this board). I tried to position the Whirlwind so it could strike deep into the Tau position but not be so easily picked out by his big guns. The Landraider was packed with Sternguard.

"Concentrate fire on the brothel, we MUST retake it!!!"

 We had 4 objective markers scattered about the board, in the pic above there is a building with black and white tiles to the right of the Land Raider. On the opposite side of it is an objective marker. On this side of it there is a squad of Tactical Marines that will quickly take it.

On the 1st turn, we just moved in a bit, taking objectives and getting our shots lined up. Tau has the first turn, where he attempted blast the Land Raider but failed to do any harm to it. He killed these marines:

The first to go to Ultramarine Valhalla!

The two on the bottom are from the squad that was stacked up in the tall building, the in the middle was in the squad under the squad in the tall building and the guy in the rear was sniped by from the squad that too the closest objective to my line.

On my first turn we killed only 3 Tau, one from a bolter shot and two from the scattering whirlwind.

Turn two would set the stage for who was going to have the toughest uphill climb...




The 1st stealthsuit unit enters the Tau's zone, while Da Cheef premeasures his target...



The 2nd Stealthsuit arrive in the Utlramarine DZ.

 These Stealthsuits changed the game for me, taking away my biggest gun by blowing up the Whirlwind! And getting the First Blood VP!!!

The Sternguard React.

On my turn two, after watching most of my other units getting picked apart by Tau firepower, my reserves arrived. More on that in a sec; check out how the Land Raider Turned around and discharged the Sternguard....

The results of the Sternguard reacting!

 ...it was a thorough and deep cleansing as they mowed the Stealthsuits down!

They arrived, with a boom box blasting 'Maiden's Children of the Damned.

The Legion of the Damned arrived, and they blew apart the Devilfish! On turn 3, they would be completely blown away by the Tau big guns! (Da Cheef hates metal and would have none of that racket in his DZ!) I think I stated that a 3+ invulnerable saves looks good on paper, but I can't roll anything higher than a 2, it doesn't matter anyway. Not seeing how they earned back their worth in points, when I might've had the same result with a lame scout squad! LOL!

The Librarian and his Terminator Squad arrives! "Focus on the brothel men, we must save those ladies!"

My Librarian shows up, focusing on dealing with the concentration of xenos filth that infests this particular zone. They dumped everything they had at the Crisis Battlesuit in the ruins, and managing only to knock out his drone...(Arrrgh! Frustrating dice!!!)
 

Imagine LOTS of tracers, lasers, missiles, bullets, women's undergarments, and obscenities blasting the terminators!

The rain of firepower that was dumped into this Terminator squad could've wiped out an Imperial Guard unit! Some how the Librarian lived, albeit with a single wound, and two terminators.

"Take the brothel! You are expendable, it is NOT!!!"

Notice in the pic above that there is only two terminators now? The other was shredded by the utterly INSANE amount of overwatch fire that this unit endured! It is a miracle that any of them survived. To add insult to injury, the Terminators failed to wipe this squad out on the charge and would be stuck in combat until the top of turn 4.

"HA! We did it!" "Sir, what about the other squad?" "...sigh.."

The Tau army warlord would come around the corner and kill the Librarian, earning the Tau a Slay the Warlord VP, while the remaining terminator would kill the Tau commander's partner and then charge the Tau commander, who in turn kills the terminator with overwatch shooting!

The sole survivor of the squad that started on the burnt out rhino.

 This guy would have his unit gunned down by Stealtsuits and Drones, but manage to dive into the door of the Shrine of the Aquila where he could see the objective on the other side of the door and the Tau squad holding it. He threw a frag grenade, which scattered and killed a Pathfinder...

"Liquidate him.:

 ...not taking that crap, that squad would line up, and gun down the trooper, who never lost sight of the goal while never seeing the odds stacking up so badly against him...

Moving up the street...

 This pic shows the crater, where for about 3 turns of the game I had a unit holding this objective. The big guns of the Tau reduced them to ash. just to the left there is another set of ruins where the surviving Sgt from the squad that was holding the tall building was hiding out, waiting for a last minute grab for this objective, however he was spotted by that gun drone and was killed.

"Sir, they just won't give up that brothel; it must really be the best in the sector!"

The Sternguard had deployed from the Landraider and tore apart the Tau that was on the upper level of the ruins, but they did not break, but instead went down stairs to claim the objective! ( !@#$% BASTARDS!!!!) while their Commander wandered over to see what the big deal was about these Sternguard. He even killed one! My Landraider killed that last Crisis suit, and turned it's attention on the Stealtsuits...

 ...while the machine spirit targeted the unit holding the objective at the Shrine of Aquila. The shots on the Stealthsuits failed to kill anything.

"Ignore him and he'll go away!"

The Sternguard ignored the tasty targets of the Tau Commander and the Stealthsuits and instead fired long range at the Tau holding the objective at the Shrine of the Aquila. Although they killed a good chunk of the unit, they just couldn't kill them all and the Tau simply refused to run away!

"We held this useless ruin for 6 rounds and NOW you tell us that the other place was a brothel?! Damn it!"

 This squad above held the objective for the whole game, taking only a single casualty on turn one. They shot down a lot of drones in this game and made a lot of saves! Well done men, you earned us our 3 VPs! While the Tau took two objectives, plus two secondary objectives to earn 8 VPs total!

So, my thoughts on Tau? They finally live up to their hype as the best guns in the galaxy! OMG -the amount of firepower! Staggering! Especially on the overwatch reactions! This would've been a sick game if I had brought the orks (which I almost did). The markerlights have always annoyed me, but in this game they didn't make too much of a difference. The shoot-around-corners missiles were a surprise but not one that felt I could do anything about. The Tau's use of cover saves was impressive as well. I look forward to seeing more of this army, and I wonder if Da Cheef's gal would let me paint a Crisis suit (simply because I have never painted a Tau model before)?

The sternguard, again, I love this unit and SO wish the Space Wolves had something this awesome!

All in all, a good game, although I kept wondering how the Space Marines earn the background they have when their in game performance would suggest otherwise? A rant for another time...

The cruel tutelage of Screech.

Over on the other table Screech has been showing Jim how to maximize the cheese in his army list while showing him that he can do the same with his. I hear it was a total bloodbath!

Honorable mention to Ben who showed up in the beginning to wow us with his High Elves! I hope to be sacrificing Orcs to him in the near future...

Till next time!

The Doctor's Dark Angels Part 2

Work on my own minis has been slow, and what progress I have made is sort of not blog-worthy (at least not yet) so before I dash our of town again for business (with my portable Neverness Kit of course) I figured I would post the rest of the Dark Angels that I painted back in '99 for my old pal "the Doctor", who, for professional reasons, we've agreed to keep his identity vague.

Any way, what we have here is a Dark Angel's Rhino based off the original Rogue Trader era plastic kit The dozer blade is from the 1st vehicle accessory sprue that came with the Leman Russ tank models. I watched him cut the thing right in half, trim it a bit, and re-glue it. Such a simple conversion, yet I know I would probably screw this up bad if I tried it myself. The end result was a far more dynamic dozer blade, with the more of a vicious plow effect going on. I can imagine this thing plowing it's way down crowded streets...anyway, you get the, um, point!

Yes that's a storm bolter in the front of the plow. He decided to do unique customizing to the top, using the metal components from the 2nd edition era Whirlwind kit. Unfortunately this left no where for the storm bolter to go, so we stuck it there after having a good chuckle over it (more on this in a minute).

This next pic is the rear hatches. I do not recall why he decided to make the rear doors that way, but I suppose it works.

A note on the twin barrels for the exhausts. I really wanted them too look old and weathered. Sort of belying a greater sense of age to this machine than the paint job would suggest. Also, according to the doctor it was my idea to make his Dark Angels be from the 2rd chapter. I supposed my only reasoning for this was that I liked the way the Red contrasts against that dark green. The red on the top hatch is solid primary color, which I wanted have pop has intensely as I could get it. All these years later I still think that works well.

Also, all the satchels and kit all over this Rhino came from the Tamiya kits for customizing WWII kits that you can get pretty much anywhere.

Now in case you were wondering why this rhino has such a strange big flat area on it's back hatch...

...it is because it is not always a Rhino!

Presenting the original version of the Whirlwind. This is the result of following the instructions in White Dwarf 117 (someone correct me if this is wrong!) for scratch-building Whirlwinds! This is what they looked like in the orignal Epic games as well. The coversion was mostly plexy card, the bottom of the large 30mm monster base, and an extra set of the hatch handles from the Rhino kit. And a flat magnet.

The pulled back antenna are just brass wire, but we both agreed it added to the effect. You can also get a view of my least favorite decal ever, the 2-part whirlwind aquila for the side doors. Doc insisted on using some bonding solution from somewhere that has caused it to yellow prematurely. I couldn't talk him out of it. Still, I have never seen this decal look good on any tank, accept the 'eavy metal team's tanks...but ultimately i think it works here well. I think on future tanks he should use a 3-dimensional aquilla instead.

Ok, so was had this HUGE area that opened up behind the dozer plow, and we had no where for the storm bolter to go. So we came up with this bizarre hazing ritual: stick a guy right up front! Imagine the hail of expended shells discharging rapidly from the blazing storm bolter while this scream guy ar the front is yelling "yeah! Get some! yeah!!!" at the top his lungs. Also, we added ALOT of sublte battle damage to the front of this take to indicate that most of the guys going through this hazing, probably don't live through it...

And finally, the aquila is from the metal Thunderhawk kit.
Alright, that's all for now. Any questions? Just leave a comment!