Wrath's Flesh Tearers

[The Hillock]

Ahoy. How are you? You look nice today.

I play Chaos Space Marines, and so when the new codex came out I was excited, hoping against hope that the gods of GW would produce a great codex full of win (but not so full of win that it's terminally broken *ahem grey knights ahem*). When it came out, they clearly had done that - despite some complaints on the power of the Heldrake it's a balanced codex with good and bad points. Mossy covers this far better than I ever can, but suffice to say I agree with pretty much everything he says in his tactica articles.

However, it did present a problem. I played CSM because I wanted to play evil space marines - not daemons. The codex focused on the gribbly aspect - daemon engines, mutations etc etc - and for someone who plays according to the self-created fluff in their head this wasn't good - I wanted a renegade army, not a daemon army, and whilst I could still play that I would get absolutely tonked every time due to my refusal to use any of the new, shiny units in the codex. I mean seriously, if I wanted a dragon I'd go and play WHF - I want a flippin' fighter bomber, how hard is that?

(Note to self - stay on topic, whinge about the CSM codex another time)

Thankfully, a solution has presented itself. When I started playing again a couple of years ago after over a decade away from the hobby, two friends also started - one playing 'nids, and the other playing Blood Angels. Very quickly, the BA playing friend got bored and jacked it in, and since then his (small, mostly unpainted) army has sat in a drawer doing nothing... until now.

A few months ago (when the CSM codex came out) I obtained ownership of these Blood Angels, and immediately realised that bright red, good-guy space vampires is all a little bit too Twilight for my tastes. However in the codex there are several successor chapters... ooh, hold on. Dwindling numbers? Inquisition problems? MASSACRES OF THE INNOCENT? This sounds more and more like my kind of chapter, and so I have resolved to sate my need for evil, spiky space marines by going all loyalist and repainting them as Flesh Tearers. For the Emperor!

---

So, what have I got? Well I inherited a 5 man assault squad, a 10 man tac squad, a razorback with t/l heavy bolters and a jump pack chaplain, plus an unassembled 5 man death company, a captain and a baal predator. This fits the fluff for the Tearers quite well - they're meant to be infantry heavy with a massive assault bias, to have a larger than average Death Company and to not have much armour save for a Baal, a couple of Whirlwinds and transports. The plan is to stick to that ethos, so my army will be mostly troops (Devastators will form the majority of my Heavy Support choices) and with a large jump-equipped Death Company leading a charge of jump-equipped assault marine squads with maybe the one tac squad at the back to do objective holding and the like. Conveniently the fluff doesn't say they lack dreadnoughts, so there are already a couple and might be one or two more by the time I'm done. I'm also trying to have signiature weapons - at the moment this means two rules: 'anything that can mount an assault cannon does mount an assault cannon regardless of what the other weapon choices are', and 'if in doubt, give it a plasma gun'.

I'm going to start putting up images shortly, but for now a question - do any of you guys and gals play with the power armoured cullen family* or their successors?

Anyway, more soon. Peace out yo.

*embarassing Twilight knowledge for a man turning 30 in a couple of months

[Mossy Toes]

Hmm, I never did finish posting that tactica over here, did I...

Well, will be sorry to lose you from Chaos, but look forward to seeing what you do with the coolest of the Space Vampire chapters (followed by the Lamenters). I assume the addition of Gabriel Seth will be a given?

[The Hillock]

Seth's already painted up dude, ready to rock - although the fact all my assault troops have jump packs makes his utility tricky as he tends to footslog on his own all the way across the map and get shot to death. Still, good bullet soak to save the jump troops some firepower.

[The Hillock]

Also, where's the rest of the tactica? Is it up elsewhere?

[Mossy Toes]

Ah, yes. I will copy it over immediately.

[The Hillock]

Cheers pal!

*Edit - having said thanks, i then went and looked and although I found the thread it hasn't changed! Sadface

[Mossy Toes]

Aaarg

[The Hillock]

Aaarg

Yeah, I get that a lot

[Mossy Toes]

From your Flesh Tearers, I imagine.

More of a "kicking myself" moment, really. But as you've seen, it's now up.

[The Hillock]

And really rather good it is too. Do you have plans to finish it off in the future?

(also liking the fact that we're keeping a thread bumped at the top of the list by chatting irrelevant nonsense. It appeals to my ego)

[The Hillock]

Holy cow I've taken some pictures. Not many, and not very good, but I've taken them and that's what matters.

Here's Ancient Timor, a Furioso Dreadnought with twin Blood Claws (that's a big powerfist to you and me) and a magna-grapple (EDIT I've just realised this was taken before I fitted the grapple. He has one now). Mavellous. He was already painted up as Blood Angels when I got him so I didn't get any choice of posing, but I think the repaint is reasonable. You certainly can't tell he used to be a big girls blouse.



Another, closer shot of him. His basic job is to provide walking cover for the DC dread (which will be below) as he has better front armour, then he gets out of the way and lets the walking mentalist have at it.



Timor again, but in company with a Razorback with t/l assault cannons and a Baal Predator. The razzy is fully glued up - I'm sick of losing loose bits in transit - but the Baal's turret weapon is just wedged in so I can swap it out. Actually I never use the flamestorm cannon, for the assault cannon based reasons mentioned in an earlier post (it looks like the forum is shaving the edge off the photo, not sure why but ho hum, we'll live)



This is Rasczak, the scourge of traitors. He's a Death Company dreadnought, in case it wasn't obvious. In his right hand is a traitor currently being scourged (well, most of him - the rest is on the floor leaking entrails made of blu-tac). In all the games I've played so far he's got by far the most kills - whole squads of Space Wolves and Necrons have died in a single turn and he even duffed over a Daemon Prince solo after it had munched through ancient Timor without taking a scratch.

Also, that's my thumb.



Gabriel Seth. Always angry, ALL THE TIME! (blatant theft from /tg/ there)

i suck at painting faces, so that's just Bleached bone with a red wash and a brown wash. Lazy.



Lastly, here's a random mid game photo. If I remember rightly, I won this by a single VP. Bloomin' Land Raiders#



That's it for now. Adios!

[The Hillock]

Wotcha

One more shot. This is my current Razorback fleet, although I do intend to have a third one in my finished army. The one with the dozer blade is the newer one but they will both have blades on the front when I'm finished, as I really like this style of blade (which comes from an old kit a friend had, and I believe is no longer available). Anyway, I've tried to make each of them slightly different whilst recognising that this is still a codex chapter and there should be a high level of uniformity throughout. I'm also not a big fan of kitbashing so I've tried to use only GW Space Marine tank bits to do it.



I really need an actual camera if I'm going to keep posting images, rather than just using my phone. Oh well.

[Mossy Toes]

Razorspam, eh? Wunderbar. And death company dreads--I can't wait until the BA codex is rereleased and never-ending chain attacks are cut out (wishful thinking much?)...

You don't seem to have much in the way of meltas, which might aid cracking such dastardly land raiders. Well, that or a las/plas razorback carrying half a tac squad with a lascannon, perhaps.

[The Hillock]

Ah, you speak the true, I don't have much melta. Honestly, so far the twin-linked assault cannon spam has done wonders for anti-armour - even needing sixes (to rend) and then a 3 on a D3, I throw out so many shots (and hit with most thanks to T/L) that I've taken down almost everything that has been thrown at me. The Raider only survived because his long fangs dealt with both Razorbacks IN ONE TURN (stupid split fire nonsense). However your point is taken, and to that end...

Firstly, a new devastator squad. I may have mentioned earlier that as the fluff states the Tearers lack armour (1 baal, 2 whirlwinds) I can't really get away with a Pred Annihilator (a better buy than a Raider if what you want is a battletank not a transport), so I've gone the 'follow the fluff' route and gone infantry heavy. Nice thought the plasma cannons are, they don't cut it against the big stuff. Therefore...

My two Devastator squads are now:

1 Sergeant + 5 marines
4 x Plasma Cannon
1 x Boltgun
Sgt has Storm Bolter

1 sergeant + 5 marines
3 x Missile Launcher
1 x Lascannon
1 x Boltgun
Sgt has Boltgun

So both squads have a one-man meatshield (wouldn't want that job) and I can deal with both heavy armour and TEQ units in the same turn. Marvellous. The storm bolter is just for funsies, in my head the sarge on that squad is an ex-assault marine who is too slow these days (dodgy knees) but refuses to let go so has an assault weapon. Plus I keep charging them into combat

The second new addition is an expanded death company, now up to ten men. I'll be honest, this is at least partially so that I can take another DC Dread, but also the five of them were getting slaughtered by ranged fire before they got close enough leaving the Reclusiarch unsupported. The squad now has:
4 x power sword
3 x chainsword
2 x power fist
1 x thunder hammer
2 x infernus pistol (on two of the power sword guys)

Together, these new additions should put the willies right up anyone who tries to run a Land Raider at my line. 'Av it!

[The Hillock]

Bonjour y'all. I have further pictoral updates for your seeing balls.

This is the new Devastator squad I mentioned in my last post. Still need to Tearer them up with some lovely transfers and a bit of damage, plus I could do with a smidge of green stuff in the armpits of a couple of them, but apart from that they're done.



The expanded Death Company. Terrible, terrible photo but the horrible flash glare does at least let you see how I've chosen to paint up my powerswords. Back in the day I'd just paint them light blue and have done with it, but that always looked crap so this is a step forward. Needs a coat of shiny to complete the look.



And this is the next step in Tearing Flesh - based (almost) solely on the input of the right honourable Mr Mossy Toes, I decided I didn't have enough melta. Combine that with the opportunity to take three (well, two - the missile launcher was too tempting) more assault cannons and there really wasn't a choice. ZOOOOOM!!



That'll do. If anyone has any tips for how to photograph models better, I'm all for hearing them. Currently trying to figure out what to use to make a white base / background for photographing on.

[The Hillock]

Quick update - due to work I'm not able to finish the speeders as fast as I'd like, but I've managed to paint the lower halves and almost the bases. The tops have been base coated but that's it.

(again, sorry for the horrible photo with tremendous flash glare - it's rubbish)

[Mossy Toes]

Photo-taking tips:

- If you don't want to have to use the flash, take photos in a better-lit area. Get lamps and stick them on multiple sides of the desk or some such, or wait for a sunny day and take the photos around noon (to minimize sharp shadows).
- hold the camera very steady--brace your arms against a chair or the table edge or something, if need be.
- try to minimize the activity in the background so there aren't things to focus on back there--for the camera or for observers. I've seen people use sheets of paper to provide a white background to smaller mini photos.
- if your camera has it, use the "macro" setting when taking photos--it often looks like a flower (compared to a mountain for the "micro" setting), as it tells the camera to focus on things that are close and in the foreground, essentially.

[The Hillock]

Photo-taking tips:

- If you don't want to have to use the flash, take photos in a better-lit area. Get lamps and stick them on multiple sides of the desk or some such, or wait for a sunny day and take the photos around noon (to minimize sharp shadows).
- hold the camera very steady--brace your arms against a chair or the table edge or something, if need be.
- try to minimize the activity in the background so there aren't things to focus on back there--for the camera or for observers. I've seen people use sheets of paper to provide a white background to smaller mini photos.
- if your camera has it, use the "macro" setting when taking photos--it often looks like a flower (compared to a mountain for the "micro" setting), as it tells the camera to focus on things that are close and in the foreground, essentially.

Cheers brah. Doesn't help that I'm using a camera phone, not an actual camera. D'oh!

[revelation]

Nice army man. I like the vehicles and dreadnought especially.

[The Hillock]

Nice army man. I like the vehicles and dreadnought especially.

Cheers buddy, much appreciated