Replicating Reavers

I have a small confession to make. Although the Warmaster I showed last update was a passion project rather than part of a specific event army, it does belong to a project in a sense. Let me elaborate.

This picture from Titanicus and Space Marine era White Dwarf features some of those iconic Metallica engines I mentioned in the last post, as well as a Knight banner of House Krast and the studio's Blood Angels. So, I'm thinking wouldn't it be cool to re-imagine this force using the amazing plastic kits now available in Legions Imperialis? 

Feels like a project I could really get behind.

Some of the detachments I've already painted now I think about it, much of the Blood Angels for example. There are a few units I would still need to add, such as the Proteus pattern Speeders and whatever the heck is behind them (still trying to figure out what infantry unit that is from the photo). There is no Imperator unfortunately, but I think the Heavy Warmaster 'Interfector Trium' can stand in nicely given the size of it.

That leaves the three Reavers to do, plus the Knight's of House Krast.

   I have my mission. This is going to be so much nostalgia!

Legio Metallica Reaver maniple

My thinking is to tackle the Reavers individually, starting with the easiest; the centre one. I'd like to match the loadout as closely as possible, so their lineage is consistent. For the centre Reaver that's a pair of Laser Blasters and carapace Apocalypse launcher.

That should be straightforward given both of those weapon options are in the new kit(s) as standard. The slightly more tricky choice is the Barrage Missile launcher, which there isn't really an equivalent in the new edition for a Reaver, especially carapace mounted. The right-most Reaver has a Warp Missile, which luckily there is a version of, even if it looks different to the original. So that's going to be easy to do along with Gatling and Las. I've some thoughts on the Barrage launcher, but need to fish about in the bits box first to see what I can find. Worse case scenario, I give it a different carapace weapon.

House Krast

For the Knights, obvious choice is one or two banners of Questoris, as these are the closest match to the 'Paladins' shown above. The palette is well defined in the books and I can take some detail cues from the originals, especially for the heraldry. 

There's a decent amount of Knights in the photo however. More than I would probably do using just Questoris for Legions Imperialis. So I think I'll aim to do the ten Knights shown, but possibly mix in some Cerastus and Acastus to keep things interesting.

I also plan to user a mix of the older and newer ‘Titan Wars’ bases from Unreal Wargaming Terrain to see how they stack up.

Alternative head design

The other tiny wrinkle is two of the Metallica Reavers have the alternative head design; the muzzled one. This was my favourite head design in first edition, absolutely loved the look it gave the Reaver. I've nothing against the standard pattern, in fact really like how they came up with different styles of it in the plastic kits and use them a lot. But I really want to try to stay as true as possible to the spirit of the originals, so I need that alternative design. 

The Games Workshop kit sadly doesn't include any (at time of writing), so I've had to look online for a custom version that I could print myself. Found a perfect set of designs which came out fantastic on the Mono X, so I think I'm ready to make a start on assembly.

Going to go with the classic head for the first Reaver, but as I had plenty free space on the build plate, it made sense to print some of the other cool variants as spares for future engines. Was pleasantly surprised it was still working to be honest, as not needed to use it for past 18 months and it is not a fan of the cold UK climate. Bit like me really!

Despite a miserably wet and windy weekend, got the assembly done for the legs and weapons. The head is cleaned and ready for priming and base is magnetised for transportation.

Now to paint it. Let's go!