Contemptor Kevin's Combat Patrol Issue 36 Review

Combat Patrol Issue #36 follows on last week's issue by letting us finish our squad of Havocs. We have a bunch of fun Chaos Space Marine information, and a new battle scenario that lets us use our new squad of Havocs in a game mode that I think looks pretty fun! Unfortunately, I managed to lose my tape measure and thus cannot play 40K until I get a replacement. So let's look at what we can do: build, paint, and read! As always, thank you to Goonhammer and Hachette for the opportunity to review these models, magazines, and materials.

Narrative Materials

One of the more criminally-underserved areas in the Warhammer 40K model range in my opinion is the subject of this magazine: Chaos Daemon Engines! We get a picture of Chaos' various monster range being led by Vashtorr the Arkifane. The article does not name the Soul Forge King, sadly. We get a description of the Engines of the Damned: "Deep in the soul forges in the Immaterium, they use profane rituals to bind screaming daemons and force them into the great rune-marked hulls of these infernal machines" and "so agnoising is the torment of the spirits within that they gladly turn their fury on anyone in their path, channeling their malevolence into acts of the utmost brutality!"

Vashtorr the Arkifane Credit: Kevin Stillman

The article then showcases the bespoke Daemon Engines of the Chaos Space Marines: First, we get the Warpsmith, the Chaos Space Marine Techmarine equivalent. The model bears more than a passing resemblance to the Primaris Techmarine sculpt. We are given a discussion of the model's loadout and what mechatendrils do. I assume these are the same thing as mechadendrites, except that they're all the Doc Ock Tentacles from Spider Man 2.

Doctor Octopus for Marvel Crisis Protocol MCP painted by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The Forgefiend and Maulerfiend are next, the former being the ranged version and the latter being the melee variant. The Forgefiend is all metallic teeth and ectoplasma cannons, while Maulerfiends lash everything to death with their own tendrils.

Goading them on is a Lord Discordant atop a Helstalker, the bane of 8th Edition.

Lord Discordant. Credit: Rockfish

I very much enjoyed the writeup on the Venomcrawler, which is "a repulsive machine that takes the form of a giant scuttling arachnid. It hungers for the dead, whose bodies it rips to pieces, feasting on their souls." I have to admit, despite being aware of these guys since their release and even owning one that's been primed and zenithal highlighted, that these weird little daemon engines on the Obliterator sprue were also vampires.

The last daemon engines are the Defilers, "huge, arcane machines of death" that don't have bases and with a very silly helmeted head atop, while Heldrakes are mechanical dragons that need no crew and no directions, just attacking."

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Daemon Engines are some of my favorite things about the Chaos Space Marine army and one of my hopes for 11th Edition is that they get a Tyrannosaur Rex Daemon Engine.

The next two pages feature an article about Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, the Chaos God of Change. We actually get apicture of Tzeentch, who looks like some sort of Lovercraftian horror god with a bunch of faces. "None can truly fathom his plans nor understand his purpose, save that he delights in manipulating the dates and toying with creation to further his arcane designs.". We get to see some pictures of cool Tzeentch Chaos Daemon models, including Lords of Change, Screamers of Tzeentch, Mutalith Vortex Beasts, and Heralds of Tzeentch. Nothing about Tzaangors, though.

Tzaangors. Credit: Mike Bettle-Shaffer

The last narrative portion of this issue is Bonds of Honour, Part 9. It's the day before the Silver Templar initiates begin having Space Marine organs put into themselves. The narrator explicitly says the entire "Bonds of Honour" story is a bedtime story. The narrator assures the Initiates (and us) that the Silver Templars really do not like Chaos Space Marines for a whole bunch of different reasons, including incorporating all the reasons the Ultramarines hate them by reference. The Space Marines are in space fighting void war against the Chaos Space Marines, and duke it out with a Heretic gunship. Their first passes miss, the second hit. Both the Space Marine gunship and Chaos Space Marine gunship enter atmosphere, which the Marine gunship can handle but the Chaos Space Marine gunship disintegrates during reentry. The Silver Templars then crash.

Hobby Materials

This issue we get the second half of the Havocs sprue, and their base. This lets us build all five Havocs with any choice of weapons. I went with the Combat Patrol loadout for these guys. We also get a painting guide on how to paint Black Legion Havocs in their basecoats. One of the interesting things about this specific painting guide is that the guide explains what the material we are basecoating is: So certain tubes are explained to be "fleshy tubes", with a recommendation we paint them with flesh. The magazine also suggests the "teeth" that emerge from Chaos Space Marine trim are actual teeth, instead of being metallic decorations. But it's up to you as to how you want to paint yours, obviously.

Iron Warriors Havocs. Credit: Contemptor Kevin Stillman

I found these guys somewhat frustrating to build, especially the Reaper Chaincannon Havoc. The connection points are not as obvious as on a more modern kit. and getting the arms and ammunition belt together was a bit of a challenge. The instructions did contain helpful warnings about making sure the ammo was facing in the right direction, but it was still difficult.

Another issue I faced was that the Lascannon and the Missile Launcher had molded shoulder pads, which meant I could not paint them separately from the model. Conversely, they were also the only blank right shoulder pads the kit contained. The rest had various molded Chaos gribbles, which were not welcome while trying to paint Iron Warriors.

Painting them, my goal was to get these guys done in time for publication of this article, but also while I was doing metallics for some additional project. This, naturally, cut into the time available to paint so speed painting was the way to go.

Contemptor Kevin's Iron Warriors Recipe

For the power armor:

Prime Black
Airbrush Coat or Brush with a transparent brown paint, a la Snakebite Leather or ProAcryl Transparent Brown. Snakebite goes easier through the airbrush.
Heavy drybrush with Balthazar Gold
Medium drybrush with Runelord Brass
Light drybrush with ProAcryl Silver

This gets you almost 75% of the figure painted to a good looking standard. I then went after the oodles of trim on these guys: I initially tried Warplock Bronze, but soon switched to Runelord Brass. After finishing the trim, I painted any demonic faces and Chaos greebles with Balthazar Gold. I then tinted them with Snakebite Leather, to deepen the warmth and set off from the colder base metallics.

For the Black Paldrons and weapon casing, I used ProAcryl Satin Black. This offered good coverage, but just enough translucency to let some of the metallic brightness show through.

For the Hazard Markings, I first:

Basecoated the Area with ProAcryl Dark Hot Pink
Paint over the Dark Hot Pink with ProAcryl Pale Yellow
Spot Highlights with ProAcryl Bright Ivory
Paint the entire thing over with ProAcryl Golden Yellow. This gets you a nice, vibrant, and shaded yellow
Use the ProAcryl Satin Black and your sharpest-tipped brush to paint hazard chevrons.

The molded shoulder pads on the Lascannon and Missile Launcher offered some challenges here, as it was a smidge difficult to tell where the best point for the apex of the chevron is located. If I happened to make the line a bit too fat, I was able to simply reapply the hot pink to white to yellow recipe so that the yellow wouldn't look green.

Credit: Contemptor Kevin Stillman

Eyes were a red-to-yellow glow highlight, Plasma gun was a Blue to White transition. I then applied decals, and boom, that's a unit of completed Havocs.

Gaming Materials

First, we get more pages from the Core Rulebook. Unfortunately for readers of this magazine, it's Core Pages 37 and 38, which explain how datasheets are used. While necessary for having a complete set of the rules, the inclusion of them here when the attentive reader has learned how datasheets work and used them in games of 40K feels somewhat out of place.

Luckily, we also get a new gaming adventure: Scenario 23: Big Guns Never Tire, which pits the Havocs against the Tyranid Combat Patrol. The Havocs are spread out along one part of the battlefield, while the Tyranids are on the other side of the battlefield. The havocs, Winged Tyranid Prime, and 5 Termagants start off on the field. Every turn, the Tyranids get to spawn in one additional unit, determined by a d6. These are either: 5 Termagants, 2 Barbgants, or 1 Von Ryan's Leaper. The Havocs are trying to kill the Tyranids, and get one VP for every Tyranid unit destroyed. The Tyranids are trying to get past the Havocs, and get 1 VP for every unit that makes it to the exit point. The Tyranids score this at the end of their movement phase, and any unit in the Exit Point area is removed. Tyranids go first.

ComPat Scenario 23: Big Guns Never Tire starting board. Credit: Contemptor Kevin Stillman

The Final Verdict

Like I said last week, this issue set is a fantastic deal for what is currently a low tier Chaos Space Marine unit. However, you get two of each heavy weapon (aside from the Chaincannon, the most miserable weapon to build), and you get them for a discounted price. If you love the aesthetic of 40K Chaos Space Marines and want to display a well-rounded army, this issue cannot be beat. That being said, if I was starting a Chaos Space Marine army I'd probably use cheaper Mk II or Mk VI Marine bodies from the Horus Heresy, with the occasional Chaos bit in there. Especially for the Iron Warriors, I'd rather lose the baroque detailing and instead have more grimy industrial vibes.

Until next time Combat Patrolers!

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Tags: 40k | chaos space marines | Warhammer 40k | combat patrol