Sons of Nostramo #8 - Where Eagles (and Raptors) fear to tread

Good evening all.

It seems like a long time since I last posted about the glorious 8th. I've been busy with them since the Bunnies Xmas Bash - mainly building and priming, which hopefully will transpire into painting over the next couple of weeks.

I've been putting together two Fire Raptors and two Storm Eagles. The reasoning behind this is ideally I would like my Night Lords to use the Angel's Wrath Rite rather than the Terror Assault one. I love the idea of a terror strike entirely (as much as possible) consisting of flyers, closing on the enemy fast with marines deploying from the holds like vengeful spirits issuing forth from a maw of some terrifying creature.

I started by checking all the parts against the instructions, they were all present and correct but I did notice some warping and mould slip that I'd need to tackle at a later point in the build. I was wary of the kits as many people cite these two as the most problematic of Forge Worlds kits (more on this later).

I always wash my Forge World resin in Swarfega, it's a degreaser and has a slight tooth to it which allows for a greater removal of the release agent. I also use an old toothbrush to ensure a good scrub 

(Inevitably you do miss some areas which can lead to your primer flaking off but to combat this as a spot fix i clear away the detritus of the flaking primer, spray the area with Army Painter superglue accelerator, then re-prime on the top which seems to do the trick)

Once washed I cut the gates from the kits and dry fit the parts together - any parts that were obviously warped I put into boiling water (watch your fingers) and left for 30 seconds or so, took out the part (watch your fingers again) and bent to shape (or allowed gravity to do it's job) once in the desired shape I ran it under flowing cold water to fix the shape.

I used the Army Painter superglue and accelerator to stick the kit together, any parts which were still gappy I used a hair dryer to spot heat and bent into shape again (the accelerator really does make the bond instant and being an atomised spray it gets into gaps very well - which does mean the use of clamps etc isn't really needed).

I added some details from the Night Lords Rhino kit to the cockpit and I opted to build all the options on the Storm Eagle for swap outs (apart from the multi-melta in the forward position) and the Autocannons on the Raptors.

I've also added the Forge World Night Lords doors to the access points on the Storm Eagles to give them more legion flavour.

The kits were great to put together and they look impressive as an attack wing, I think if you were undecided about picking one up don't let naysayers put you off the kits were fine to build and I certainly would do another.

I'm very much looking forward to painting these now and I'll be using the artwork from the Forge World books as inspiration (and I'm sure the Night Lords transfer sheets will help no end).

I now need to make some bases for them to get them to tie in with the rest of the army, and they're big bases.

So I wish you all well as I unpack the brushes. I must admit I'm a little daunted by the amount of panel work but I have every faith that my simple scheme for infantry will translate to larger stuff - you never know I may be tempted to do a Thunderhawk one day.

KF - signing off...