Mantis Warriors Huge Update - Oath Complete!

Earlier this month I had oathed three Mantis Warrior land speeders at Something Awful. We're sponsoring a prize for a person who does a good job with their oaths.

Before paint

Why land speeders? I think land speeders are one of the coolest vehicles in the SM armory. The Ultramarines movie portrayed them very well - flying around, scouting out territory, super loud and fast. They're also well-armed and versatile - they can deep strike, start on the board and shoot missiles, or fly on from reserve really quickly. With the typhoon missile launchers they're a bit expensive but I like the look.

Work in progress. Lots of coats of Iyanden Yellow went into this project.

I should say I really like the Army Painter color primers. They make painting Space Marines so much easier. For vehicles this is amplified x100 for me. I hate base coating vehicles with a brush, it just never comes out looking good for me.

I really like how they can be brought in a squad if necessary; having two in a squad is alright on points and it leaves you space for more fast attack options.

Side shot - each one is numbered. Getting decals on the shoulderpads was toughhhh.

Each speeder was painted with yellow on the 'bumper' to stand out a bit more. I've seen a ton of photos of land speeders painted with basically one color and shade. I didn't really want that with these.

I added scorch effect to each one's engine thrusters. I really like the look of this. Geneguard showed me how to do that with the titan gun I painted. Each one was also based with jungle flock and then some debris you'd find in a jungle.

Each speeder was given a Maelstrom Warders logo on the right side. I think these would be very dinged up after their penitent crusade plus the Badab War, so you can barely see them.

The Mantis Warriors are on a penitent crusade for what they did during the Badab War, so I wanted these things to look super banged up. I love painting armies on campaign as opposed to parade ground.

When I play with these models they're bullet magnets (super fast, in your face, bolters can hurt them) so I figured they'd be knocked around quite a bit.

These models are just part of a batch that has been finished recently. I commissioned Geneguard to paint my Rhino chassis vehicles in trade for some WHFB models I had. He has returned to me three rhinos and three predators looking AMAZING. I added on some decals and they're set to go. He used methods to make them look very weathered like they're on campaign. Love it.