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 “PER ADURA AD VICTORIA” Righteous Raven Chapter Master - “Big Bird” Napoleon  Lore: On the Raven’s Homeworld of Umbra, gryphons roam in the wildlands on the world of long nights. Gryphons are known to be hot-tempered and territorial, and taming a wild one is neigh impossible for the regular folk. Napoleon ain’t no regular folk. Napoleon was an expert hunter on Umbra before the chapter took him under their wings, well known for his marksmanship. He lived a subsistent life as a social outcast for the better part of his unaltered human life, when the Crusade at the Veiled Region began. It was said, though now redacted, that the original chapter master of the Ravens was incinerated by the Necrons, and the first founder’s Raven Guard chapter master Kayvaan Shrike had secretly took command of the Ravens amidst the power vacuum to keep the show going. The spirits amongst the ranks of the Ravens were low without a representative leader. Napoleon entered as an Eliminator of the Righteous Raven, though he would be seen taking the chapter’s outrider bikes on assault, or joyrides, mostly alone. He enjoyed the small squad size of the Eliminators - with few to talk with, his long years of solitude was never disturbed, and he did his duty as a marksman. During the defense of Umbra against a tyranid hive fleet, Napoleon was cut off in the dark from the rest of the strike force. Upon encountering a swarm of genestealers, a wild gryphon burst out of the woods, and with her nocturne eyes and sharp beak she tore through the swarm, unknowingly saving Napoleon. Napoleon could tell there is something special about the gryphon, as she acted uncharacteristically calm when he approached her. She let him ride on her back, as she galloped towards the light and bringing Napoleon back to the chapter, while Napoleon fired from the gryphon’s back to fend off whatever bugs stood in their way The chapter was speechless upon seeing the lone sniper ride a gryphon, returning from certain death, and many gathered to listen to his tale. The gryphon stuck around with Napoleon, and with his new found acceptance amongst his brothers, he would join in on larger units, moving up the ranks as an exemplar of bravery and valiance. His tale of a gryphon jockey would boost morale during the darkest hour in the crusade, charging enemy lines to relief surrounded troops. Napoleon found himself climbing up the chapter’s ranks with unprecedented haste, as a lieutenant, and soon a captain as the crusade went on. At last, he was elected to be the new Chapter Master of the Righteous Ravens, and upon the transition of command from Shrike onto him, Shrike had given Napoleon a chapter relic - The Ex Tenebris, a master-crafted bolt rifle with impeccable precision, fit for a marksman such as him. (This is a very abridged summary of his back story. A full fan fiction some time in the future, perhaps?) Painter’s Notes: I was first inspired by a similar kitbash project a fellow hobbyist sent me. I really liked the AOS Stormcast gryphons, and I decided to make one of my own. I liked the colour scheme of the Tzeentch Lord of Change, which is what I based the colour scheme of the gryphon off of. The backstory came after the model - I had been diving in the bits box and sticking on whatever looks like it belongs. The parts are as follow, iirc: AOS Stormcast Eternals Lord-Aquilor on Gryphon Free Intercessor Raven Guard Upgrade kit (long scope, feather on bolt rifle, helmet, pauldron) Reivers (Right arm, Grav-wings) Bladeguard (Power pack) Eliminators (Suppressor) Librarian + Devastator (Banner pole + flag) Sector Imperialis (Oil drum) It was also my first personal project that involves organic models - to try out painting feathers and fur, testing out blending colours.

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“THROUGH THE FIRE AND THE FLAMES” Salamanders Primaris Invictor Tactical Warsuit Lore: The Salamanders are well-known and revered by xenos and chaos alike with their pyromania, as fire has been one of the most effective weapons throughout human history, disintegrating the body and cooking the soul. Salamanders also have close ties with Raven Guard, and by extension its successors. The Righteous Ravens delivered. The Warsuit had proved useful in ambush and blitzkrieg-type lighting strikes against enemy lines. As a token of friendship and collaboration, the Ravens have gifted the Salamanders a specially painted Warsuit after the Crusade on the Veiled Region as they went their separate ways. While the Inquisition kept breathing down the necks of the smaller chapters like the Righteous Ravens for their borderline heretic use of unconventional colours within the chapter, never had they dared to make a move on the first founders like Salamanders. Painter’s Notes: This piece is a Christmas present for a good friend of mine, and he played Salamanders, so this is a good model to add to his roster. Since he is in Canada and I’m in Hong Kong, I wanted to make this model special, as well as easily transportable. This is the first time I took a more “diorama” approach to designing than everything I had previously built and painted. I found a spare intercessor as well as a power sword, so I decided to include it in the model, an approach that I will integrate more in my later models. I tried to showcase how the pilot is walking volcanic rocks, hopped out of the suit to melee fight whoever’s ahead. This is a model of many “first times” in terms of techniques and designs: Spraying contrast paint over a metallic base coat to make an anodized aluminum finish. Kneading volcanic rocks with greeen stuff, which looked better with a coat of paint than its bare green look. Free hand icons, such as the rainbow flag, maple leaf etc. Blending colours to create lava and flame texture. Magnetizing the torso and the legs. While I had magnetized marine arms to change weapons before, I usually glue everything together since I never take my models anywhere apart from my LGS. This one magnet made transporting and shipping the model so much safer and easier.

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“PRIMO VICTORIA” Righteous Raven x Sabaton Repulsor Executioner - Vic (Victoria)

Lore: The chapter of Righteous Raven, like their cousin chapter the Raptors, sees extensive use of camouflaged vehicles in battle to stay hidden in the battlefield, gaining tactical advantage by surprise attacks and reducing visibility to the enemies. Vic was built and painted for fighting in snowy / urban environments. The accent war paints are a tribute to a war band, found in the archives of Terra, circa 2nd millennium. It is said that sometimes, counter-intuitively, that the machine spirit will decide to blast Metal music in a firefight to boost morale of the chapter at the expense of being detected by the enemy.

Not that it matters when that is the last thing they hear before getting shredded by storm bolters or deleted from existence by her Heavy Laser Destroyer main gun. Painter’s Notes: If it wasn’t obvious already, I’m a big fan of Sabaton and their music. I took ownership of 2 Raptor Repulsor Executioners from a fellow wargamer that mained Raptors, one of which I have decided to convert to this paint scheme. This is the 2nd vehicle I’ve painted in camouflage, and for only my second attempt I was really satisfied with how it turned out, and I am extra glad since r/Warhammer seemed to agree as well, making my very first top post on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/o2gaqs/sabatonthemed_repulsor_executioner_complete_with/ The design is based in a World of Tanks skin, which is showcased in their Primo Victoria MV. The Sabaton logo was freehanded on with an outliner pen, giving me more control than a brush. I also loved putting in LEDs in my war machines to give them the extra shine on display or tabletop. This is probably one of the cleanest job I’ve done in wiring lights in models so far. It took me a total of 27 hours (not counting stripping paint and re-priming) to paint and wire the lights. I have recorded the process and once I finally get around to edit it I’ll post it on YouTube.

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(Welcome to my first entry in this blog. Consider this post an experimental one to test out the formats, as well as an introduction to what I have to offer here.) ”VICTORUS AUT MORTIS!” Chapter Master of Raven Guard - Kayvaan Shrike. Backstory: A prestigious chapter master of the first founding chapter of Raven Guard. It is uncertain how or why he appeared within the ranks of his chapter’s successor - Righteous Ravens, though he is seldom seen in operations of the successor chapter. Many in the chapter respects his presence regardless of his role, since no one actually declared whether he possessed any commanding authority within the Righteous Ravens, but it is widely understood that he is a supreme commander and all will follow his order should he give any. Though seldom outside the top brass of the Righteous Ravens have as much as heard his voice. He’s probably more busy taking care of the first founding Raven Guard anyways. Painter’s Notes: Shrike is the first ever character I painted as I started the hobby, after 12 intercessors and a Repulsor Executioner the first month in. As such, the first appearance is very crude - haven’t settled on a colour scheme as well as the lack of skill. You can see the imperfections and lack of colour diversity of his first rendition. I used Shrike a lot when I was still learning the game and using the first founding chapter rules, which is quite contradictory to their actual play style. As such, he had taken a back seat as I learnt about “Successor / Homebrew Chapters”. He had also taken some battle-damage, though I suspect due to rough handling by a fellow wargamer who borrowed it for photos - losing his Raven’s Claw on his left hand. I also think his pose is very awkward: standing on a barricade as if to compensate for his height, with his signature sniper pistol pointing at the sky for some reason. As such, I decided to breath some new life into this guy after long, with a touch of Hong Kong action movie twist (Chau Yun Fat baby): Grafting an assault intercessor heavy bolt pistol to his left arm; readjusting his right arm to point his pistol forward; taking scopes from bolt rifles to put on his akimbo pistols; repainting the whole model with the skill and paint collection after a year; kneading a muddy base with green stuff, that is magnetized for him to hop between the vanilla base and the custom one. Yes he may have been declawed, but he will do John Woo proud.