XV8 Battlesuits are finished

Preface

I really like Battlesuits from a tactical point. They're versatile (especially now) and can be loaded out to deal with anything. I believe that if I could take an army of XV8 battlesuits, with scoring battlesuits to boot. (Stealth teams, but don't tell a soul), I'd have a cost-effective army that would put the hurt on any foe, while being suitably. Eh. A kid can dream, can't he?

Right now, I've painted 960 points. I'm in the process of painting my 240 point riptide. After this, I have a commander, 12 fire warriors, 7 pathfinders, 26 kroot with 2 extra hounds and 2 tanks left to paint. 51 wounds and 6 hull points crammed into 800 points? yay! 

The models: Plasma Nomads

Battlesuits are cool. I'm sorry, but of all the aesthetics of 40k, battlesuits have to be the best in my opinion. The idea of 3 highly trained veterans with extensive gear crashing into a battle with a specific mission in mind is the stuff of good games. 

the fact that they do it with 6 gun drones swarming around them is in no way a less exciting prospect. 

Anyway, I'll stop gushing about green and red aliens who have blue skin and slits for noses. I sound like a fangirl. 

I decided I'd go with a pattern on the "Heads" and the ATS parts of the model. The first thing you'll notice about these battlesuits is that they each seem to have 2 support systems and 2 plasma guns. I decided that it would look better if the ATS was a dual-support system, something linked specifically to each gun. I considered swapping the ATS positions with the plasma guns, so that the hands could direct the fire of the plasma guns, but I hated the look of the gun slung over the back. 

You'll also notice I opted out of the comms aerial that's usually put on the helmets, well, I did it with all my models. I just don't like those aerials. 

Finally, the Shas'vre in this case has an extra bright orange stripe over his head pattern. Normal members simply have a red and yellow pattern. As I'll show you later on, all the models were also given squad markings, denoting their ranks.

The Models: The Final Fusion Blaster

Yes, with the finishing of one squad of XV8s I found the finishing of the other too. 

You'll notice imediately this guy isn't finished, simply in bits. I didn't think I'd finish him by the time I'd taken the photos, but as luck would have it I shoved him out. Possibly the most unimaginative of my designs, I had a vision of him focusing both his fusion blasters into the centre of his target. 

 Edits: Squad Markings

In the end, I painted everything I had, so I decided to paint up some Squad markings. After doing this, I went full out and gave squad markings to every member of my army. Here's some takes of the Plasma team's markings:

This one's markings are on his shoulder because he has a bit in the place the rest of them have it on.

 That's where the battlesuits are meant to have it. All of them do otherwise. Fire warriors have it on their shoulder plate and models without a suitably large flat surface simply have it on their base (all models have it on their base.)

I didn't bother giving drones markings. It'd take far too long.

 The Shas'vre has earned his stripes. Hah. He has an extra stripe to show that he's more seniorerer than the rest of his team.