This is one I’ve been waiting to post for a while. The White Scars are done!
In fact, not just ready for games, but already have the first couple of battles under their belts. One was great, the other, well a little more one-sided unfortunately. Not in a good way for the White Scars sadly, but more on that later.
Let’s cover off what’s new. I talked about re-basing all the flyers painted to date, to replace the Aeronautica ones with the newer round Legions Imperialis version. Given I needed to paint several, I took the opportunity to also add some additional terrain to each of the bases so I could create some height variation. This was the progress I showed last post.
The White Scars Thunderhawks got the highest ones as befitting their stature. Something I later regretted during the first game as I kept knocking one over. Game two; learned to be more careful. Problem solved.
Other than the bases, the troops are new. A full detachment of assault marines for one Thunderhawk and a reinforced tactical detachment for the second. At this stage, I have no plans to add a third as I’d like to get a few more games with the aerial assault formation before making any reinforcement decisions. If I need a third, there’s a Blood Angels one with some IXth company assault detachments I can call upon. All good to go.
Whilst I’m talking about transports, I also gave the Storm Eagles some shiny new bases. As I did the Fire Raptors. One of the Storm Eagles has been filled with precious ‘Ordu’ cargo and the second I’ll paint up a support detachment, or something so I can make use of it in the formation. Absolutely loving both these flyers, but the Fire Raptors especially have been doing some great work clearing objectives of infantry before the skyhunters swoop in!
Finally, rounding out the formation and ‘operation re-base’ are the Xiphons.
Sky Hunters
The second formation was the biggie for me narratively. Born in the saddle, there’s no way I could have added White Scars formations to my Siege list without them being a Sky Hunter Phalanx. I have reinforced all four core choices the max it allows, with two detachments of jetbikes, each nine bases, and two detachments of Javelins. Six tank hunters and six anti-infantry.
This was the formation I spent most time on, just because of the sheer number of models. But also the amount of gold trim. So much gold trim it put most Titans to shame.
Skimmers
Changing the base stems on all the skimmers to clear acrylic was the part that could have gone terribly wrong! Luckily for me, it didn’t and I was very pleased with the finished effect. I tested the idea first on a piece of spare sprue frame to ensure the poly cement would melt just enough of the model and base to bond with the clear acrylic cleanly. It did, which was a huge result as it meant I did not have to revert to using super glue, getting sufficient grip from just the model and base side of the bond. It actually bonded better than I could have guessed to be fair.
That meant carefully clipping off and drilling out forty-eight models and bases for the new stems. Not to mention making the new scenery bases for most of the units. Not going to lie, when all four detachments were finished I was chuffed to bits with the end result. All the bases are magnetised and if you follow my facebook page, you will have seen I managed to get the whole force, plus one banner bearing Warlord into a single case on two magnetic trays.
Happy days!
How did they play?
It’s fair to say I had mixed results, and that was 100% down to me not really exploiting their abilities well enough. I’ll learn the more I use them so it’s fairly normal for me to have a bad first outing with a new formation (or two). When they outflank they are amazing. But deciding when not to outflank is equally critical. In the second game I really should have deployed them turn one directly and used cover plus their pop-up attack as skimmers to harass Tom’s Solar Auxilia. Unfortunately I made a bad decision (may the great Khan forgive me!) leaving too little on the table first turn which allowed Tom’s pioneers to infiltrate and lock the Imperial Fists demi-company down in one corner. A situation I never recovered from and by the time the White Scars phalanx arrived they were picked off immediately and simply deleted without even an answering volley. I hard but valuable lesson. Next time I won’t make the same error.
As miniatures, they are incredible. The Javelins in particular I love the look of. A lot of the units and flyers feature decals from the Heresy sheets that worked well, but I won’t lie were fiddly as heck to apply. Especially over the jetbike front cowling.
The end?
Between the Blood Angels, Imperial Fists and now the White Scars, I have completed what I declared I wanted to achieve. A ‘Siege of Terra’ themed loyalist army for Legions Imperialis. I estimated around 6000 points can be fielded without legio or mechanicum support, and a much larger number if I let all of the Solaria and Gryphonnicus engines I’ve painted the past few years loose.
I’ve reached the end of my Legions Imperialis hobbying, mission accomplished.
The end of the ‘start’ that is. There are so many more projects I want to tackle in the coming years. Starting right now with the Emperor’s Children and Legio Fureans. Those two are an iconic alliance in the original game and I am keen to put my own spin on the classic scheme. Purple, black and yellow. What’s not to be excited about!
The Emperor’s Children here are at palette test stage, but I think I’m happy with them enough to finish the detailing and scale up to a formation. These will be a different style again of force, all about the visual impact of the purple and metal. No idea yet what formation I’ll do, probably a demi-company to start. But already loving the Termites!
Hope you like them. Until next hobby update, have a fantastic week.
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