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Raptors Taskforce (WIP - Modeling/Kitbashing/Converting)


Seathal

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My first project after many years (since the 3rd edition) will be a Raptors Taskforce. My current goal is around 2000 points worth of options and maybe, when I complete it, scale it to Apocalypse standards (or maybe I'll just be busy with another project, who knows).

 

For now I completed modeling, kitbashing and converting a sizeable number of models and I'm ready for the painting. This is me just starting over after years of having forgotten the hobby.

 

I'm going for the spartan and practical look the Raptors are known for. I want them to resemble a plausible, "realistic" and "to the business" force but with certain personality. I'll probably be adding my own decals inspired on WWII nose-art on Rhinos and the Stormwing (which I'm currently drawing digitally myseld) and other squad insignias and other stuff to compensate for the lack of "gothic" ornaments typical of the Raven Guard chapter and their sucessors.

 

I've used Forgeworld, Anvil Industries, Blackdog, Tamiya and Games Workshop models and acessories and kit-bashed a lot from different kits and separate bits to try and achieve the look I'm aiming for. I also magnetized a sizeable portion of my Sternguard and special weapons and the vehicles.

 

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Lots of painting to do.

 

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Anvil Industries-based Sternguard. Can also act as veterans/sergeants with combi-bolters. This will be the "shock" Sternguard descending from a drop-pod or stormraven. Kinda like a Delta-Force team.

 

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As opposed to the previous one this Forgeworld-based Sternguard looks much more like an infiltration team (a la SEAL). This will be Lias' unit. I love the Recon squad kit. Add some Anvil, GW and FW accessories here and there and you got yourself a shooty/stealthy-looking sternguard without robes, crests and useless baroque ornaments. Much in line with the Raptors' philosophy.

 

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All combi-weapons and special weapons are magnetized with 2mm neodymium magnets. The Anvil carbine kit is a wonder to work with since it has 2mm pre-drilled holes on the bits, but it's also easy to magnetize things like the combi-bolter and special weapons on the new Tactical Squad GW kit.

 

 

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All rhino doors and hatches are magnetized as well. Turret with gunner is also magnetized but forgot to take it away for the pic. Sorry for blurry pics.

 

Some details of the Tactical Marines and Scouts with FW, Anvil and GW bits, mostly.

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Not 100% happy with Lias, might give it another try but I'll use this one for the moment being. It blends well enough with the rest of the models.

 

And here are the painting schemes I'm most happy with: a pale olive pallet of colours airbrushed on dark-greyish-green. I used Vallejo Olive Drab system as a base and tweaked it a bit. These two models are a test and don't have any detail and are not 100% finished.

 

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Next post will be about the Stormwing. Do you think I'm getting the Raptor's essence? Comments and critique encouraged!

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These guys couldn't be more Raptor-ey if they were in a Jurassic Park film. Absolutely loving the detail you have put into each model. Bravo Sir, bravo!

Rubs hands together in eagerness.

Looking forward to this.

You have nailed it mate in everyway you can.

Perfectio

Awesome Sauce !!! More Raptors cool.

I'm flattered you find them true to the Raptors smile.png I put much time in searching for bits, pieces, poses and painting schemes to make them look and feel like Raptors. I'm glad I succeeded in some degree! Many thanks for all the comments.

The Yak, this is in part thanks to you (and a couple more armies I saw around here and other forums) and your awesomely painted and presented Raptors. There's only a few samples of Raptors on the internet and yours is one of the armies that inspired me carry on with the Raptors theme.

I gave every single model its own specialized gear and packs, most of them have silencer and all have scopes (a combination of ACOG, Telescopic and Reflex). Threw in some Anvil gear and equipment as well as a bit of BlackDog and standard GW and FW stuff from Space Marines, Chaos and Imperial Guard kits, trying to make every one of them different. I spent way too long on this but I hope it's worth it in the end.

What are your thoughts on the scheme? I literally spent weeks trying painting schemes and this is the one I liked the most (after repainting the poor dreadnought and a squad of used Space Marines I used as test-dummies dozens of times), but I don't know if that'd be final. The color is more true on the picture showing the backpack of the painted Tactical. I spent so much effort on finding "that" green that 90% of my almost hundred Vallejo paint pots are shades of green, brown and olive so I could take any suggestions and try them before starting mass-painting.

Here are some more pics:

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Next time I upload pics I'll try to make 'em smaller first. Sorry for their size.

BTW. I can totally recommend Anvil (UK based) and Blackdog (Chez Republic) kits and bits. They are of the best quality and perfectly in line and compatible with GW and FW models as you see in these images (I swear I don't get any commission from them xD).

Next post: The Stormwing!

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The Stormwing:

The two Stormtalons suffered the same fate. I didn't like its stubbiness and wanted them to be more graceful. I figured that the lower tail fin could be used as an extension to the tail and reverse the tail itself. That way it looks longer (it is actually a "tail" longer). Some plastic putty covers the scars that this leaves on the top and bottom. I also "removed" the bulky turret structure and one of its two circular intersections (which I re-used later on the Stormraven). It gives the Stormtalons a more "balanced look" without so much visual weight on the front and makes it seem slightly more aerodynamic if that's an issue at all for the Space Marines.

The caveat of one of them is perfect to hide a couple of magnets to hold the assault cannon's attachment in place so you can rotate and/or remove it anytime. The remaining "joint" is left without glueing in-between the assault cannon and the hull though I may glue it to the assault cannon when I finish painting. The only reason I'm hesitant to glue it is the risk of the magnet becoming loose and having to crack it open again to fix it in place. I also used the spare ammo boxes that go in the heavy bolter casings to "hide" the sawing and the drilling on the assault cannon, giving it a nice encasement.

The rockets aren't fixed, the pegs work just fine if I ever want to switch them for the other variant. If I wanted to use the bolter or lascannon I might have to magnetize them as well. Not on this edition xD.

The little legs of the landing gear were made using the laser boxes, spare sniper rifle barrels, cut-offs from the Stormraven sprue and the landing gear itself, but re-arranged. The stormtalons now sit on the two rear landing gears and the "ski" under the assault cannon and not on the tail like the usual schematics.

The Raptors prefer this design for its increased speed and agility in dense environments and air-to-air performance even if it's harder to handle for novice pilots and more difficult to maintain (and considered a techno-heressy for the most puritan members of the Mechanicus).

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The Stormraven has many more "small" conversions. I removed the mass of the gunner cabin and replaced with a simple, elegant three-piece turret (whose structure I haven't photographed, derp). It's based in the same principle as the stormtalon chin turret but with an additional cover. The weapons are coupled together (the las cannons, assault cannons and plasma cannons) and there's a hole on each side containing a 4mm magnet to the turret structure (the one that "bolts" in the hull) and a 3mm one to the cover (which is the two different covers of the originally separated weapons glued together and complemented by the targeting system of a Rhino's Hunter Missile). The ring of a hatch of a Rhino covers the magnets on the bottom. Easy and dirty.

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The cover on the assault cannon detaches from the assault cannons and they detach from the structure below so I can put the cover on any other set of twin-linked weapons. I can make a pic with all the structure detached and showing the magnets if you want.


The air intake has been cut to a smaller size and put further back. The Hurricane Bolters are now mounted under the wings with magnets (hidden by the Stormtalon joints I didn't use before) and the doors are open (Black-Hawk-esque). I added the footplates of a LandSpeeder Storm cut in strategic places to fit tightly in place between the side thruster and the landing gear compartment. In the future I'll be adding Marines kneeling, peeking and shooting from the inside. If anyone complains about the doors being open whilst still having hurricane bolter I'll just cover them with the doors without fixing it. I prefer the look when they are open and showing the interior.

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The other conversion is the Dreadnought hook. I've made it using a LandSpeeder Storm's top structure and sawing half a Rhino missile launcher to hide the magnet (still not in place yet). Why the "tube"? Well I plan on having a magnetized Ironclad Dreadnought with missile launchers back there and the cilindrical tube allows me to fit it in perfect contact with the magnet that will be in the centre of the top part of the dread (Don't know if I made myself clear there). I used the cut-out elements of the original grappling hook and the other half of the missile launcher to hide imperfections or dull parts. Overall I think it looks nicer and more suitable to handle the weight of a Dreadnought (sorta like a mini Transport Thunderhawk from FW).

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Blurry but you can see both the magnets that hold the hurricane bolters (and the stormtalon joints that keep them hidden and the home-brewed grappling system (FYI the landspeeder storm top structure I used looks like it was made to hold a dreadnought. It's the exact same size and it looks like it was made to fit one within its "claws")

 

Nothing else besides the two additional antenna systems on the top. I found these to unify the storm raven with the stormtalons and make it look a bit less bulky and more agressive. Front weapons are yet to be magnetized since I want to paint the whole cockpit area first to see how I can do it.


I swear to take better pics next time...

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Like the Rhino and the Anvil Bitz.Never heard of Blackdog will have to check out.

 

http://www.blackdog.cz/ There you go. They have awesome stuff for 1/48 and 1/32 tanks and vehicles. I used their 1/48 range. Some of the bagpacks you see on some of their backs are from Blackdog. If you look at the images below the clearer bits are from them too. They sell both "generic" rolls, rags, boxes and bags (mostly what I use) to kits tailor-made for certain historical models (but you can use them as you see fit but some of them come with distinctive german/british/american items such as helmets, weapons, bottles, equipment and even crates full of groceries you wouldn't see in the grim dark future of the 41st millenium, heh).

 

Although they are nice I use a healthy mix of random GW stuff too like Ravenwing packs, Razorback, Whirlwind and Predator ammo boxes and standard Space Marine equipment from Tactical and Scout kits. The yellow sandbag and the green canister on the front are from Tamiya kits.

 

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So much plastic/awesomeness. Good use of Anvil bits.

Many thanks, reckoning! Anvil is an awesome kit and model maker by itself and their range complement GW perfectly. I was amused to see how their Reflex and telescopic sights fit perfectly on the bolter "top rack" and their silencers fit a bolter barrel like a glove. Same with all their heads/legs/bodies/shoulderpads. Much attention to detail. I ordered from them twice and would do again. I don't recommend things like tripods though or extremely small bits like the small armour plates or the hand-grips. They are very hard to handle and glue, specially if you're working with many types of plastics, resins and glues.

By the way. The lack of uncovered heads is accidentally on purpose. Raptors wear helmets. Not wearing one has no tactical or practical advantage and can get you killed. Plus these guys operated years isolated from everyone in a toxic, lethal jungle, so they know to trust their respirators and helmet systems. Plus I suck at painting flesh sweat.gif

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I'm now jealous I did not put this much effort into any of my models, haha.

 

Lovely stuff here dude, very excited to see more. 

 

You're kidding right? Your Sons of Medusa and all your dioramas are ace from what I've seen. Besides my model painting skills are dodgy, you'll see in due time.

 

I'm glad more people support Badab War and Forgeworld chapters. They do bring more colour and diversity to the Space Marines.

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These are insanely sick, man. I freaking love them. What 3rd party rucksack is that on the Combi-Melta guy in post 5?

 

Glad you like them, Marshal :)

 

IIRC, US Modern Equipment 4 from these guys: http://www.blackdog.cz/t48.html

 

I actually bought this kit for covering the vehicles with them, but when I opened I realized they were too small (GW and their silly scale), but were perfect for covering the lower zone of the power packs along with other pieces.

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Your raptors are so operator it scares me.  Seriously great job so far on this army.

 

In terms of modelling Lias, perhaps you can make a redux of the character once/if forgeworld releases a model for Exodus of the Alpha Legion.  If he looks anything like his artwork in HH Book 3 (unique bionic eye on a artificed mk 4 helmet and has stealth based equipment like a sniper bolter) he'd fit in perfectly with your army with some converting work; well, at least moreso than that ponce sicarius as a base anyway.

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Wow!

 

I am doing Raptors too but yours blow mine out of the water big time!

 

I wish I had the time, imagination and $ to spend on my Raptors and have them look 1/10th as good as yours!

 

Wow! Wow wow!

 

Can't wait to see them polished up and ready for revenge!

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Your raptors are so operator it scares me. Seriously great job so far on this army.

In terms of modelling Lias, perhaps you can make a redux of the character once/if forgeworld releases a model for Exodus of the Alpha Legion. If he looks anything like his artwork in HH Book 3 (unique bionic eye on a artificed mk 4 helmet and has stealth based equipment like a sniper bolter) he'd fit in perfectly with your army with some converting work; well, at least moreso than that ponce sicarius as a base anyway.

Glad you find them operator-ish! About Lias, I'll porbably just be doing an-even-highlier-detailed version of a stormguard but with a custom weapon made of lots of bits based on either the bolter or a sniper rifle (got some anvil rifles that are very cool) and a camo cloak, but I'll customized it even more so it stands just a bit out from the FW and Anvil converted models. I've also seen some Fantasy assassin cloaks that would suit him well. I'll see about that in due time. For now I'll stick with the Sicarius figure until I finish the main body of the army. An Exodus resin miniature would be the perfect base too but we'll have to wait for FW to release it (maybe they'll decide to make a Lias miniature, who knows...)

Wow!

I am doing Raptors too but yours blow mine out of the water big time!

I wish I had the time, imagination and $ to spend on my Raptors and have them look 1/10th as good as yours!

Wow! Wow wow!

Can't wait to see them polished up and ready for revenge!

Thanks mate! Regardless, it would be awesome to check them out also. I'm not a talented modeller/painter at all, it's just about patience and knowing your bits (okay, that sounds strange). It takes longer to think about the bits and kits to mix and buy them than to actually assemble and paint them. Specially if you're doing it "en masse".

I can't wait to have them finished and on the battlefield either smile.png This hobby is sometimes daunting and time consuming.

PS: I've seen your Raptors post and your painting blows mine out of the water bigger time. Can't wait to see a finished unit and army. It will look spectacular.

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I am glad that my little plog helped to inspire you to progress with your army. I have not been as active lately due to university but It's ETL III time so the Raptors will be getting some intense lovin for the next three months! Anyway your force far out does mine with all the little attention to detail conversions you have spent the time creating. You will have a completely unique and characterful army and It will be well worth the effort you are putting in smile.png

As for your shade of Raptor green I think it is spot on. What I would say is that your best is finding a shade that you are happy painting. I know this may sound obvious but when it comes to painting a full army, having a scheme that you can reproduce time and time again over 60+ models is crucial. So if you found that your scheme is easily repeatable then go for it!

Here is some more B&C Raptor projects that can help inspire....

Inquisitor Eisenhorn

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/288344-eisenhorns-raptors/

PaintMyBits

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/289815-completed-raptors/

ScootyPuffJunior

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/286822-raptors-devastator-centurion/

Onkel T

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/285091-raptors/

Sadistic Imp

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/286540-new-player-first-army-raptor-chapter-wip/

Rednekkboss

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/227080-raptors-strike-force-ickarius-20/

As you will see I think everysingle one of us uses a different scheme! But hey that's us Raptors we're an independent bunch.

Good luck mate.

PS: Nice work with the Stormwing, think I may be pinching a few ideas biggrin.png

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Ooooooh why do raptors call to me to lol

 

Really liking the whole recon thing you're rocking for these brother

 

Thank you, glad you like them :). Raptors are quite alluring ain't they?

 

They are already basecoated. Working on the base colors now. See if I can put up some painted or WIP pics these following days.

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I am glad that my little plog helped to inspire you to progress with your army. I have not been as active lately due to university but It's ETL III time so the Raptors will be getting some intense lovin for the next three months! Anyway your force far out does mine with all the little attention to detail conversions you have spent the time creating. You will have a completely unique and characterful army and It will be well worth the effort you are putting in smile.png

As for your shade of Raptor green I think it is spot on. What I would say is that your best is finding a shade that you are happy painting. I know this may sound obvious but when it comes to painting a full army, having a scheme that you can reproduce time and time again over 60+ models is crucial. So if you found that your scheme is easily repeatable then go for it!

Here is some more B&C Raptor projects that can help inspire....

Inquisitor Eisenhorn

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/288344-eisenhorns-raptors/

PaintMyBits

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/289815-completed-raptors/

ScootyPuffJunior

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/286822-raptors-devastator-centurion/

Onkel T

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/285091-raptors/

Sadistic Imp

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/286540-new-player-first-army-raptor-chapter-wip/

Rednekkboss

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/227080-raptors-strike-force-ickarius-20/

As you will see I think everysingle one of us uses a different scheme! But hey that's us Raptors we're an independent bunch.

Good luck mate.

PS: Nice work with the Stormwing, think I may be pinching a few ideas biggrin.png

I've seen some of these and they are awesome as well. I was almost tempted into making them with snow or desert-pattern camo but decided on a more classic approach in the end. You are right in saying you can paint them whatever way you like. They are an awesome and fun chapter to make, with a fun and interesting fluff and a bit of deviation from your 100% codex-abiding gothic archetypical Space Marines.

Im abroad atm, but will surely get into the Raptors project again for the challenge you mentioned in the PM. I'm hoping to represent them as good as I can along with all these amazing projects you mentioned.

PS: Feel free to pinch any ideas you want! Some of these I took from other armies and people, some of them were inspired indirectly and some of them were legitimate occurrences, in any case I posted them and would be flattered if anyone find them interesting enough for their projects.

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Great work on amazing minis. Look forward to seeing those with paint on.

 

Thanks, forte. I plan on getting back to it this week, just got back from Brussels yesterday and want to paint at least 50% of the force by the end of July. We'll see if I'm able.

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