Wardens (Ravenwing) Bike Continued and Preparing for the Next AWC Tournament

Angels of Absolution Warden (Ravenwing) Biker

For those who have just discovered this blog, I am not really a tournament player. I've been working on my Angels of Absolution for 18 years now and my success at tournaments dwindles with each passing year as the culture of competitive play escalates and my painting speed stagnates.

There was some discussion on various forums about how bikes have improved in 6th Edition and it inspired me to drag out a partially completed squad of bikes and start tinkering with them. What makes bikes better in 6th? Well, they can move 12" in the Movement Phase, they have Jink, Relentless, Hammer of Wrath, Armoured Steed (T5), and can Turbo Boost. Yeah, they had all of these things effectively in 5th except for Jink and Hammer of Wrath, but the Armoured Steed rule gives them a flat Toughness 5 making them more resilient against S8 and S9 attacks. Additionally, in the DA 6th Edition FAQ, Apothecaries can give the entire squad Feel No Pain. Of course, in order to have an Apothecary I need to have a Master of the Ravenwing so that I can give a Ravenwing Squad command upgrades. But thinking about it, taking a full Ravenwing Squad of 6 with an Apothecary and then adding a Chaplain on Bike to the Squad could make them a serious threat to someone's flank. Add in the Ravenwing Attack Bike, Ravenwing Landspeeder, and the Master of the Ravenwing. Maybe I might be a threat to someone? Nah, I'll probably end up fighting all Tyranid opponents or something. Regardless, it seems like a cool unit so I'm going to strive to eventually build it. But for now, I just want 3 Bikes and an Attack Bike for the upcoming tournament.

Here's some pics of my first completed bike. This model was a hassle because it was assembled and started at a time before I started painting models piecemeal. One of the biggest issues was that I had broken off the arms and when I went to glue them back on they didn't line up the same and wouldn't attach properly because of the shoulder pad placement. I had to pry the arms out of their shoulder pads with increasingly larger tools because my first attempts to break up the old glue with an hobby knife resulted in me breaking the tip 3 times. Luckily I hadn't replaced the blade after each break or I would have been pissed. Even though its a plastic model it has several pins holding it together to make sure things did what I wanted them to. The arms are both pinned on, the bike is pinned to the base, and even the backpack had to be pinned on because the paint and old glue were interfering with gluing and the old nub on the back of the torso had broken off in his original backpack when I tore it off. I had some really frustrating moments with this model but he's considered "Done" - for now at least. He'll eventually get more squad markings and some weathering when his squad starts to come together more.

The banner pole on the back of the bike will eventually have something more unique a nd distinctive added, once I think of what to add. Possibly a sword and shield icon or a wing trailing off the skull tying it to the Angels of Absolution chapter icon.

He looks sort of plain from this angle without all the squad markings and weathering.

The wheels haven't been highlighted either. They will eventually get the faintest grey highlight and then get weathered over.

I wanted to come up with a symbol for the Wardens that tied in with the Ravenwing and Dark Angels so I put a white sword on black shield.

Thanks for reading.
-Nick