Saturday 30 January 2016

From GregB - The Raven Guard Arrive (50 points)

Raven Guard tactical squad for 30k
Here we have a squad of ten Space Marines for GW's Horus Heresy setting.  These Marines are from the XIX Legion, known as the "Raven Guard".  The models are 28mm, new multi-part plastics from GW's "Betrayal at Calth" box set, but the embossed logo shoulder pads are from Forge World. The Marines are wearing Mark IV power armour.




To date I have been painting the followers of Horus in 28mm - believers in "Horus for Hope" :) These are the first "good guys" I have painted for this setting and this scale.  Dallas has been carrying the Loyalist side in our gaming group, with a beautiful collection of Marines from the Blood Angels.  And, of course, the setting is very malleable, so you can even have the Sons of Horus or World Eaters fighting amongst themselves, representing the early stages of the fighting as Horus and his followers removed the loyalists from their own ranks on the world of Istvaan III.


Trooper and comms trooper
Another view - I like the comms unit a lot - nice accessory


I'm a certified 30k nut, and I thought it would be fun to do some Loyalist troops as well. The Raven Guard were loyalists in the Horus Heresy wars,  but they get kind of a raw deal in the story - their Legion (along with the Salamanders, who Jamie has been doing an incredible job painting, and another Legion, the Iron Hands) get caught in a battle known as the "drop site massacre", slaughtered in a trap set by Horus and his followers on the world of Istvaan V.


Vexillary


Legion Sergeant - I love the comb on these figures...kinda whacky...
At first, this kind of deterred me.  After all, "Who wants to play drop site massacre? That should be fun!"  But as I read into their background, they seemed kind of neat, or at least, not a pack of tools like the Ultramarines.  They have a cool symbol (Ravens - scary!). The roman numeral - XIX - has a nice look. And while the Legion took huge losses in the drop site incident, several thousand troops survived. I can imagine they would be pretty pissed about what happened, and keen to keep on fighting, making for some good potential scenarios.  One final bonus, the name "Raven Guard" opens the possibility of Edgar Allan Poe references - cool!


Ready for deployment to Istvaan...what could go wrong?


While most references have the Raven Guard in black armour, I thought I would do them in a very dark grey instead, with a black shoulder plate and a stark, white Legion symbol.  I got this idea from the Forge World guys - they painted up one of the Raven Guard dreadnoughts on their web site in this way. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I like it a whole lot more than trying to paint so much black!


The plastics from the Betrayal at Calth box set are well done, providing the basis for a solid starting force of these fellows.  I hope to add quite a few more before this Painting Challenge is concluded.  Ten 28mm troops will get me 50 points for my sci-fi and Horus Heresy side duels...not enough, but starting to catch up! 

These are completely awesome Greg. I love the minimalist slate grey aesthetic you've gone with on these guys and those embossed Forge World shoulder pads really make them pop. I'm a big fan of the whole '30K Betrayal/Heresy' lore as well and have to admit that I'm a little jealous that I've missed the boat on this surge of building/painting. But who knows, maybe I can catch up later with an ancillary force. In the meantime, I will vicariously enjoy excellent figureslike these here. Well done Greg!

17 comments:

  1. Nice work Greg! I like the slightly greenish tinge to the black and the FW shoulder pads are sweet. I avoid decals for shoulder pads at every opportunity as I think the embossed versions add a much more polish and look less like plastic model kits.

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  2. I am enjoying the 30k resurgence/renaissance of GW figures do not stop now we need Evermore (Groan)

    On a side note I am now looking on eBay for some as I feel inspired by your painting.

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  3. I like the palette as well-nice and subdued. I think it makes them look more deadly than when painted in bright reds.

    Great entry!

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  4. Wow, fantastic stuff! I rejected the Raven guard whilst choosing a legion as I had no idea how to paint black, but you've nailed it here by not using black. The slate grey works really well. Good to see I'm not the only one who wanted "one legion from each side" and there is plenty of scope for using the diminished legions for games as you say, despite the drop site massacre.

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  5. Very good Greg, this is how one makes Space Marines believable: grimy and battle-hardened without the overly glossy sheen to them. Thanks for sharing indeed!

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  6. The dark grey works well Greg - nice painting :)

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  7. Wow, they're a menacing bunch of guys, Greg! Well done, Sir!

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  8. Nice figures. With both modern and sci-fi postings this week, it's like that, one uzi in each hand, you are firing volleys for all of your duels.

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  9. Stunning! Really love your work on the dark grey power suits. So, here you have it.... after several years of 40k abstinence, I now had to get me some of those 30k Marines from my brothers set. Just to try out how they paint of course.

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    1. It all starts with a few "samples"...borrowing from your brother sounds like a great plan :)

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  10. These look great, much better than going the black route as well

    Ian

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  11. Great looking figures Greg. The armour is really effective.

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  12. Great job, Greg! My favorite original chapter too. I may dive in 30k at some point, the Istavven V dropship massacre survivors will be my theme. I read the novels and the survivors were indeed looking for some payback! ;)

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  13. Some fine looking Marines Greg!

    Christopher

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