Showcase: Flesh Tearers Vanguard kitbash

Before I undercoat them, I just wanted to post some pictures of my Flesh Tearers Vanguard made with the Horus Heresy Mark IV armour set and a big old pile of spare melee weapons. I didn't have much of a plan going in, I just slapped things together however they best seemed to fit but I'm quite pleased with the results:

Okay, I'm not too sure what the chap with the power sword is meant to be doing. Exhorting his brothers to advance, perhaps? Regardless, I think they'll look fantastic as a unit (or two, depending on my needs), though that's probably more down to Maximus armour looking amazing than any of my input.

I also slapped together this little fellow out of spares...

… and some day he'll act as a colour test to see if I can apply the Angels Of Redemption colour scheme to power armour, which is a bit more complicated to halve than than Cataphractii Terminator plate that was my first experiment. 

What to do with my Betrayal At Calth models?

I bought the set in a moment of enthusiasm. I have pretty much zero interest in Horus Heresy as a game system. It had Maximus armour in, though, plastic Maximus armour! My issues with Forge World resin are well-documented (another reason the game doesn't appeal to me, too much FW resin) and Maximus armour is my favourite Space Marine armour mark. Hell, I committed to a Black Templars army back in the day just because the upgrade sprue came with a Maximus chest plate.

Aesthetic reasons are the best reasons to do things, shut up!

So, yeah, I didn't have anything to do with those models once I had them. The only reason I painted the Contemptor Dreadnought for my Flesh Tearers was because it was the first opportunity that presented itself. And, of course, the other dsay a sudden craze made me decide to paint the Legion Praetor as an Angel Of Redemption.

So what else have we got to work with?

Cataphractii Terminators

For a start, the Cataphractii Terminators are getting painted as Angels Of Redemption. I really like the way the Praetor came out and I want to have a whole squad like that. This also has a double benefit of giving me something to do with the Dark Angels from my Dark Vengeance set some time down the line (I bought it for the Chaos stuff).

Dark Apostle

He's getting a head swap. Loathe as I am to damage a perfectly good set of Maximus, he needs either a skull helm or a bare head to become a Flesh Tearers Chaplain. I love the plastic Death Company Chaplain but he has a jet pack and the Death Company I'm painting right now are on foot so this will make a good addition to the squad.

Tactical Squad #1

I have been hoarding pistols and melee weapons ever since I started my Flesh Tearers army and here is where I get to use them: a ten man Vanguard Squad with all sorts of cool poses. I have a bunch of pistols, chainswords and various power weapons from different kits so no two models should look the same. Plus, being armed for close combat they won't have boltguns obscuring their lovely armour.

Tactical Squad #2

Right, so this squad of ten models is going to contribute to twenty figures. Here's how its going to work...

For a start, the ten torsos and heads will be used to augment a Blood Angels Tactical Squad. This will leave me with ten spare Blood Angels torsos and plenty of heads to augment vanilla Space Marine kits later on.

Of the remaining parts, five sets of legs, backpacks and weapon arms will be used to build a unit of Alpha Legion Headhunter Kill Team for my Chaos forces.

The other five sets of legs and such will be hybridised with some MkIII torsos and heads I have left over from making some Forge World Plague Marines (never... again... I don't care how much I spent on those kits, they are tantamount to unbuildable and I will just wait for the plastics) and a Dark Angel Veterans box set to make a squad of ten Fallen.

Tactical Squad #3

And here I run out of ideas. There's not really anything else I want to do for my Flesh Tearers and I absolutely do not want to paint Maximus armour with its basically bare chestplate in the Angels Of Redemption's halved colour scheme. So, with nothing functional to do with them, I have a few possibilities for more decorative, challenge myself sort of projects.

I could build them as Black Templars. I have plenty of the upgrade parts sitting around. I could paint them as Alpha Legion if the Headhunters come out well. I've also always loved the Sons Of Horus colour scheme so I might try my hand at that, there being an excellent WarhammerTV tutorial on YouTube. 

Hobby Goal #16: What Matters Is The (Death) Company

First off, progress on using the Mephiston Red Spray...

Its coming out pretty well, if a little lighter than I intended. I shall try two layers of Nuln Oil on the next model I paint like this.

And my provisional army list based on what I have built and painted goes a little something like this:

HQ

Chaplain with crozius arcanum and plasma pistol. 105 points (WARLORD)

Librarian with force weapon and bolt pistol, Level 2 Mastery. 90 points

Elites

Death Company Dreadnought with blood talons. 135 points

5 man Death Company Squad with bolters. 100 points

Dreadnought with assault cannon. 120 points

Troops

5 man Scout Squad with boltguns, Veteran Sergeant with bolt pistol and close combat weapon. 65 points

10 man Tactical Squad, meltagun, heavy flamer and Veteran Sergeant with power weapon. 195 points

10 man Tactical Squad, plasma gun, heavy bolter and Veteran Sergeant with power fist. 200 points

Fast Attack

Land Speeder with multi-melta. 60 points

5 man Space Marine Bike Squad with plasma gun and Veteran Sergeant with power weapon. 145 points

Heavy Support

Baal Predator with flamestorm cannon and heavy flamers. 135 points

5 man Devastator Squad, 2 lascannons, missile launcher, plasma cannon and Veteran Sergeant. 150 points

1500 points on the dot. Its mainly just things I have built or can build quickly.

I've yet to come up with a Captain conversion I like so I'm taking the two other character classes but, hell, the Flesh Tearers are undermanned so I don't feel too bad taking a Chaplain as my Warlord. The Elites are just an expression of my love for Dreadnoughts and the fact that you just have to have Death Company. Troops are a solid block of boltguns, a nice anvil for the enemy to run up against. I gleefully admit to stealing a Dark Angels tactic with the Bikes and Land Speeder tag team in my Fast Attack slots. Then there's a big block of high strength weaponry in my Devastator Squad to make up for the fact that I just can't say no to the idea of a flanethrower tank.

Right now I have both Dreadnoughts, the Librarian and one Tactical Squad painted and everything but the Predator, one Tactical Squad and Bikers built. Still, 8^th edition doesn't seem to be imminent so there's plenty time.

Hobby Goal #16

Paint some Death Company

Its a simple fact that a Blood Angels army is not complete without Death Company, especially as I already have a Death Company Dreadnought built and painted. So my goal for the week is to add some black to the army, maybe even paint up the Chaplain to accompany them since they'll be using basically the same palette. 

Hobby Goals #14 and #15: Pay and Spray

Let's jump straight into Flesh Tearers Month with some... okay, to be honest, housekeeping exercises to set an agenda whilst I spend my hobby time filling in details on the Sylvaneth I've spent the last month finishing all the boring bits on.

Hobby Goal #14

Write a 1,500 points army list

One of the reasons I decided to build this army in the first place was because I had a bunch of Space Marine kits lying around and I wanted to do something with them. As a result, I reckon I probably have a decent sized army if I just got around to organising it. So, I should write an army list to decide what to paint first and also work out just what I have and how much its worth points wise.

Hobby Goal #15

Test out Mephiston Red spray

I've recently discovered how useful sprays that aren't Chaos Black can be. Whilst the main colour of Flesh Tearers is the good and noble Khorne Red, I have found that it comes out rather patchy over black when painting large areas. My chosen guinea pig for this experiment will be the plastic Blood Angels Terminator Captain. He came with the Start Collecting set and, nice as he is, I don't think I would have bought him otherwise. Nothing against the model but he is a bit glorious to be a Flesh Tearer and I view him more as a stop gap option until I can convert myself a nice, bespoke Captain of my own. 

April is Flesh Tearers Month!

With 8^th edition just around the corner, I should probably knuckle down on getting an army ready for it. That is originally why I started cobbling together a Flesh Tearers army from random Space Marine kits I had lying around.

Flesh Tearers are a personal favourite of mine, though I'd be lying if I said half the appeal wasn't their very simple, very easy to paint colour scheme. There's also the fact that they're Blood Angels and thus have access to so many different Dreadnoughts. I love Dreadnoughts, they are one of my favourite things in the whole of 40k.

I'm also a fantastically biased player in that I love me my assault phase. I like red. I really like red but I don't like how Khorne armies play.

I also really, really like the background the Flesh Tearers have had for the last couple of editions. The idea that, faced with certain knowledge of their coming extinction, they have just decided that by the time they're gone the Imperium isn't going to have any enemies left. They now range ahead of Imperial armies and by the time the army arrives at their destination the enemy are dead, the local animals are dead, everything is dead and a small note is pinned to the skull of the enemy commander reading:

“We won. Yours, Gabriel Seth.”

I'm not overly fond of the Black Library fiction for the army but I can pretty much just ignore it since its almost exclusively about Seth and his immediate circle.

So, the current state of the army: I have a single Tactical Squad, a Librarian, a Death Company Dreadnought and a Contemptor Dreadnought painted. I have a bunch of other models built, mainly infantry. First job, the, will be to see what I actually have and how to cobble it together into something approaching a useable 1,500 points army. Second job is to come up with some characters and a mission for them to be pursuing.

All in all, I'm rather looking forward to returning to the grim, dark future where there is only war.