Thursday, November 11, 2010

Stormraven Unveiled!!!

Sorry for the stagnancy with my blog. My Game Art degree at Full Sail University has been keeping me extremely busy and I haven't been able to keep up with the hobby at all.

I did get a chance to attend the last Baltimore Games Day and I took a ton of pictures. My classes start to wind down a bit around the holidays, so I'll try and post more then.

I wanted to share this picture of the Blood Angels Stormraven that was leaked on Games Workshop's website.


The picture was accompanied with the following article:

Over the next few pages, we will be taking a look at how to paint the Blood Angels Stormraven Gunship, including how to weather the vehicle and paint the interior detail. A great addition and centrepiece model for any Blood Angels army, this will be an invaluable guide to help you get the most from this fantastic kit.

Death from Above
The Stormraven Gunship is an incredibly versatile craft, able to fulfill the roll of orbital dropship, armoured transport and strike aircraft in a way that few, or indeed any, ships could hope to match. The Stormraven ensures that the Blood Angels remain undisputed masters of the skies, as dominant in the air as their troops are on the ground. Smaller and nimbler than the more cumbersome Thunderhawk Gunships, the Stormraven's compact hull and vectored thrusters enable it to operate at maximum efficiency in all but the densest terrain. A Stormraven can often be seen hurtling straight into the heart of the enemy forces, unleashing its considerable arsenal in a terrifying display of firepower, before disgorging a squad, Dreadnought, or even both, into the thick of the fighting.

On the tabletop
With its potent firepower, speed and transport capacity, the uses of a Stormraven on the battlefield are myriad, but its role of choice is as an unparalleled assault vehicle. With a huge variety of weapon options, and no less than four tank-busting Bloodstrike Missiles, both enemy infantry and vehicles alike fear drawing the attention of its guns. A transport capacity of 12 combined with the ability to safely carry a Dreadnought to battle as well certainly proves the Stormraven to be a transport vehicle of the very finest quality. This unique combination of speed, firepower and transport capacity means that a Stormraven can support any tactical preference, so there is always a place for it in any Blood Angels army.

Nick: A Stormraven will be the focal point of your army, so it's well worth giving it a lot of attention when painting it. These techniques can effectively be applied to any other vehicles in your Blood Angels army too, so keep this in mind and you will have a great looking fleet of vehicles in no time. I painted this Stormraven to match the battleforce that I painted for the Blood Angels army workshop in February 2011's White Dwarf; it's part of the 3rd Company, in keeping with the rest of the models. As a personal touch, I've weathered the model to appear heavily battle worn, but if you wish to keep your vehicle in pristine condition, skip page 6 and you'll have an immaculate vehicle, fresh as if at the beginning of a campaign.

I have to say, I'm not really blown away by it. It looks a bit too... chunky for my tastes. I'll reserve final judgement until I see it on the table top and I'll definitely be picking up at least one. I just thought it would be a sleeker design.

The other item of note is the Dreadnaught in the background. This looks like a new plastic kit. Both of these kits would make for a sweet Blood Angels second wave. Let's hope they are released soon.

Till next time, Enim Sanguinius!
–The Harrower



8 comments:

  1. it looks ridiculous. a landraider with wings

    ReplyDelete
  2. But isn't that the thing with space marines, great big chunky armaments, there is nothing subtle about being a space marine. If you want sleek, take an eldar army.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I expected sleeker. I'm not talking the extremes of Eldar or Tau, but I just thought it would be more streamlined. I'm reserving judging until I see more pics. I really like the 3d renders in my other post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This definetely isnt the final draft. you can see rhino parts, whirlwind parts land raider parts and i think maybe land speeder parts. this isnt the final draft. we have hope! I say it is an ok model. I agree with the harrower though, it needs to look more sleeker. the main body is too small, even with GW strange model-transport scaling, that is way too small for 12 marines, essentially even terminators. Lengthen the body,angle the cockpit angel lowerer and this is a decent model. I love the turret on the model, i think its a cool idea!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have a question; is this vehicle any good? whenever I use it it is blown up on the first turn by shameful guns. first time it was a krak missile before its jets could even start up (painful, very painful) 2nd time: (nothing, I left before it cold be blown up by the three melta cannons staring at it intently...) and third time (railgun, i did get to fire guns but, sadly nothing effective. I still managed to pluck a draw from the jaws of defeat! yay.) so, seeing how many times it hasnt made up for its points costs, what should I do? keep it or leave it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is what happens when Gw experiments with the gate of infinity psychic power. an article on the internet gets flashed 2-3 months backwards. Lets hope they learn from this. (they probably wont)

    ReplyDelete
  7. But seriously. Gw probably posted this for the sole reason of gettinfg the word out that the stormraven was coming. I mean, why would they create an article 2 months before its technical exsistence, not to mention mentioning an unexsistant magazine. (they write the new white dwarfs only a monthe before hand I think.)
    Its just propaganda!

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Anonymous Haven't had a chance to use one yet, but it's certainly good on paper. My plans for it are to use from extreme long range and use the blood strike missiles to take out enemy armor. In later turns of the game (like 3 or 4), I would swoop it in close to bring its troops to the front lines.

    You have to figure that the Storm Raven is going to draw a stupid amount of enemy fire. You'd have to either try and screen it with other units or have something else pose a greater threat. I would think any black vehicle with a red "x" on it should do the job. ;-)

    @Tainted demon I'm pretty sure it was a controlled leak. With White Dwarf though, the content is published will in advance. I had a tour of the GW Studio in Nottingham back in 2001, and they were working on pictures from the Lord of the Rings range 4-5 months ahead of final published issue. As to the model in the picture being just a draft, I don't think so. I bet you we'll see the same picture in White Dwarf the month that it's released.

    ReplyDelete