Upgrading a few flyer bases for my Legions Imperialis aerial assault formation.
In my last post I laid out my broad plans for adding two new White Scars formations to my growing ‘Siege of Terra’ loyalist collection. An aerial assault and a sky-hunter phalanx. With so many flyer units in the list I don’t want to end up painting multiple cookie-cutter flyer bases for them and I really don’t want to just use the hex bases they came with originally. Nothing wrong with the Aeronautica bases, I’d just like to use the legions version for consistency.
Solution? Mix things up with a little extra terrain so I can vary the height a bit. As well as add some visual interest to the bases.
Most of the parts I added come from either the Civitas ruins kit, there are some amazing debris piles and features like munitorum shipping containers. But also from the Civitas Spires and regular buildings sets. Oh yes, and of course the Manufactorum kit, how could I forget that one. I think I may need to get at least one more of those to create something with all the silos and cranes. But I’m going off-topic.
I considered replacing the supplied clear flight stand with some bespoke perspex rod to give them even more height, but to be honest it just adds a transport headache for me. One of the reasons I magnetise all the bases is to fit the entire force into a magna-rack figure case for transporting to and from events. So I am trying to stay within the height limit of the case. I’m also clumsy so higher flying models are just asking to be shot down by one of my elbows! Click on the palette expander below if you want the paints list for the bases to date. This is just the base colours as I will be adding further effects and textures to these when the rest of the scenery is painted. I’ve added the list though in case curious.
I’m going to use most of these bases for the aerial assault formation. In total that’s two Thunderhawks; one for a core tactical and the other for a core support assault detachment. The remaining core tactical goes into a Storm Eagle along with the HQ. I’ve another Storm Eagle on stand-by should I need to take it. The optional support detachments are then filled with a pair of Fire Raptors and wing of Xiphons. Ten bases in total.
The Sky-hunter Phalanx is pretty straight forward. I just took all the jetbikes and all the Javelins I could and filled out the four core vanguard slots. I reckon they will look amazing all together on the tabletop. Will I fill out the support slots in the future? Not sure yet as I like the idea of adding some Land Speeders as well, or splitting up some of the Xiphons to give me extra activations in the formation. We shall see after a few games with the White Scars if I need to shake up the list any.
Ok, that’s enough hobby babbling for now. There’s some Mechanicum going up on pre-order shortly so after getting my Castellax order in I shall be getting back to finishing off these bases and grinding through all those jetbikes this weekend.
So much to do and such little time before the Warmaster arrives!
Happy painting.
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