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CAV Unit Brief SyRaM Starhawk VI To kick off my first tactical unit run down, I’m going to focus on the Terran Starhawk VI. Each faction has a heavy CAV that I rate as the premium combatant of the force that combines the best speed to armor to firepower to threat value in a package that is truly a superiority CAV. The Starhawk VI is the Terran’s superiority attack CAV in all regards! Lets take a closer look at this unit. Nuts and Bolts I always start off by looking at a unit’s speed and armor. I feel that it gives a good picture as to what the unit should be doing and expected to do on the battlefield. The Starhawk VI has a respectable speed of seven and an armor value of seven. This tells me that it’s slightly quicker than other faction’s superiority CAV’s (say the Rach Dictatoror Ritterlich Cataphract) but sacrifices a little armor to do so. This ties into the over all arch-type that the Terran’s have as a more mobile force. This speed allows for more fluid battlefield control and great Assault movements (which we’ll get to in a second!) Secondly, the armor is also seven. In my mind and experience, seven is the minimum armor total that can survive for any length of time on the battlefield. If you are rocking a six armor, you tend to die just a little quicker. My six armor units tended to get snuffed out much easier than my seven armor units. This is also the point where I start classifying things between a superiority CAV and a cavalry CAV. I’ve made these rolls up in my head of course, but their roles are just a bit different. Most CAV’s with six armor are at least speed eight and while only an inch further, start to outdistance their speed seven brethren. They also have to be careful to not get blown up with relative ease. Finally, the Special Abilities and Attributes can really help a unit shine (or further reinforce it’s roll.) The Starhawk VI has several which will factor into it’s use. An Advanced Targeting Computer One and Wizzo (weapons officer) will grant you bonuses to your attack roll, while Ammo Bin One will save you once if you happen have a horrible roll and run out of ammo. Rugged allows you to always have a critical success, granting you two damage track repairs if you use your damage control systems which is handy if you have a moment on the battlefield to repair yourself. Finally, Assault Two helps to direct the Starhawk VI into it’s roll of attacker. The Hard SA directs your opponent as to which damage value to apply to your unit. Weapons Two Medium MRAC’s and two Medium Guided Missiles give the StarhawkVI very respectable range and damage potential. The MRAC is your standard direct fire, mess up someone else’s armor weapon. Point it at the enemy and pull the trigger. Simple as that. You must have a target lock or someone using TAG for you to fire your Guided Missiles, so keep that in mind when you are choosing your actions! We’ll cover the usage element next though and give some tips on combinations that help the StarhawkVI shine! Using The Thing You noticed I didn’t tell you what Assault Two did right? Good! One of the StarhawkVI’s best attributes is being able to Run ‘N Gun with less penalties. See, when you Run ‘N Gun, you subtract two from your movement value and then double it (so ten for those of you doing the math at home.) Then you fire your weapons. For each weapon you fire, you receive a negative modifier to the roll. So if you fired all four weapons, you’d be looking at a negative four to each roll. Every level of the Assault SA takes away that penalty, so you could Run ‘N Gun the StarhawkVI with a negative two instead of a four, or only fire two of your weapons for no negatives at all while benefiting from the three extra inchs of speed. This can help you dictate range or maneuver for later in the game. But what if you look up and you don’t need the extra movement but want to dump all of your weapons into the enemy? You have a few options. You can target lock and fire, using both of your actions to insure you get the guided missiles into the action. This is the most basic move you can make and it keeps you stationary. Use it when you need to or if you are standing in cover. I prefer to run a unit that uses the EST SA (which allows that unit to share target locks to it’s section) which essentially gives you a free target lock. You can then move and fire all of your weapons. Alternatively, a unit with TAG could paint your target and then all of the friendly guided missiles on the board could fire at it without a target lock while moving, but now you are missing out on your Advanced Targeting Computer bonus. In my mind CAV is about stacking as many bonuses as possible to insure you hit and insure you hit hard. Force Composition The Terrans use a force structure of five, so five CAV’s or vehicles make up a section. This can be difficult to use inside the current standard is 5000 Threat Value, but it’s doable. I like to take two Starhawk VI’s as the base of the list. From there, sprinkle to flavor. I’m a fan of EST and Active Phased Array, so a more points heavy list might include the following: Starhawk VI 590 (heavy firepower) Starhawk VI 590 (heavy firepower) Archer 683 (Active Phased Array 2 = +2 to all shots at enemy models within 30 inches, heavy short range firepower) Falcon 457 (cheap cavalry heavy with good firepower) Talon 274 (EST shares target locks with the rest of unit and also has ECM) This list gives you everything for 2594 threat value. That only leaves you with 2406 for the rest of your force, but you have choices. The other option would be to drop the Archer for another Falcon and field a tight, compact force for 2368 and have over half your points to play with for the other section of five! If you wanted to save even more points, grab one of the OPEN units like the Firedrake (231) or Dart (123) and sub out one of the Falcons. Using the Dart, your first section totals in at 2034. Then for a second section, you could build a “make it shady” fire-support section: Starhawk VI 590 (heavy firepower) Starhawk VI 590 (heavy firepower) Falcon 457 (cheap cavalry heavy with good firepower) Dart 123 (cheap throw away unit to get the Terran model of five into the section but also has some anti-infantry ability!) Talon 274 (EST shares target locks with the rest of unit and also has ECM) Raijin 854 (four batteries of heavy rocket launchers) Raijin 854 (four batteries of heavy rocket launchers) Regent 550 (medium weight fire support) Raptor 347 (light fire support and back up EST) Talon 274 (EST shares target locks with the rest of unit and also has ECM) What have your experiences been with or against the Starhawk VI? What did I get right? What did I miss? What would you like to see covered that maybe I didn't? Questions? Hopefully that gives you something to think about for one of the Terran’s best combat units! I hope this has been informative! Check back next time as we take a look at another unit in the CAV universe!

I have always loved the power and the stats of the Thunderbird CAV, but I have never liked the split cockpit design... It always looked like a weird mech/Troll without a head. So, a while back I decided to perform a little surgery on my giant hunk of metal T-Bird. **I stole the cockpit off of an old plastic space fighter mini I had in a parts box. It fit perfectly between the existing cockpit bumps on the CAV, and then added two anti personnel MGs to hide the old canopies. I also want the gun arms to stand little farther out from the CAV, so it would look less compact and squeezed in, and more agile in its upper body and arm movements. So i added 2mm round spacers to the shoulder joints where the arms attach to the torso. Its not an entirely new CAV, but it sure looks like a different Bird now!**

Hey all, Finally back on the painting bench and trying to work through the rest of my Terran Force. I ended up working on these two guys by surprise because they are actually my least favorite models in the kickstarter. For a long time I did not know how to paint them in a way that was thematic with the rest of the force so I was procrastinating. Eventually I just decided to slap some paint on there and was actually surprised to have had a lot of fun while painting these two. I think they came out well, and are actually quite thematically linked with the rest of the force. The only thing that I am really unhappy about is the lights at the top of the missile pods, which I have tried 3 times to get right and still have failed. However, they are table ready so I am calling them done. Only 5 more CAVs to go before the Terran force is complete!

Hey all, Been a really really busy few months so not much painting has gotten done. Here is the next installment in my Terran force, the Simba. This is probably my favorite sculpt out of the original ks so I am glad to finally have him done. He is, like the rest, table top quality. C and c welcome! And a shot of the current force:

Hi all, I did it! I finally finished painting my CAV Terran Force, which means that all of the CAVs I own (and got from the 1st Kickstarter) now have some paint on! Woohoo !!!! Well that will last only until I receive the goodies from the 2nd KS. Simba: Ronin: Katana: The complete force group shot: And finally, I couldn't resist to stage and take a pic of an epic GDI Vs NOD (eh... i meant Terran Vs Rach) face-off. I thought it would be a nice way to wrap up this painting adventure.

Hi all, I found a bit more time to continue my quest of getting all my CAV Terran from the 1st Kickstarter painted. Here are the Talon, Nightshade and Tsuiseki painted to a speedpaint-tabletop-army standard. They may not be worthy of a Show-off, but posting here keeps me motivated in getting them done. Talon: Nightshade: Tsuiseki: And the incremental force group shot:

Hi all, I continued painting my Terran CAV force in my simple desert GDI-like scheme. I added the Big Guns Thunderbird, Fire Support Raijin (very nice sculpt) and the tanks Wolf. Raijin: Thunderbird: Wolf: Incremental Force Group Shot: To be Continued...

Hi all, With the new CAV2 Kickstarter ongoing, this motivated me to start painting my Terran force from the 1st Kickstarter. Paint job is my regular army "speed paint" quality, where I'm looking for the best look requiring the least amount of work. I decided to go with a more "desert" look to get these miniatures to look somewhat like GDI unit, so they will look nice when pitted against my Nod-like Rach force. (Rach Force: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/68610-cav-so-bones-rach-force-completed-reaper-voodoo-more). Falcon: Raptor: Vehicles: Incremental Group Shot: I still have a lot to paint, but I'm happy how they turned out so far. To be Continued...

I had a productive night! I primed these a few days ago, and just got down to a nice solid 6 hours of painting tonight. Coffee + podcats + painting = my little slice of heaven! Alas, I can't keep my eyes open any longer, so I'm calling it a night. I still have some highlighting do to on the metallics, and I still have to base them, but I think they're close enough to showtime to show off. Also, yes, it is Junebug season here in Michigan, and my current paint setup is in the garage. Little buggers were all over the place!

Hey all, So this has been a bad month for painting (too much other stuff going on). I had a real crappy day where I could do nothing right so decided to end the night with something positive. Here is my current progress on the newest member of the Terran cav forces: Simba. This is my favorite sculpt out of the entire kick-starter so I wanted to take my time. My hands are a bit shaky in the highlighting but I can fix that later. Enjoy!

Hey everyone! Finally got around to finishing up the final details on my terran wolf tanks. This is my third real attempt at using OSL on these guys and I think I could have done a better job. I just can't seem to make the light reflections "pop" on these models like I could do on the other ones. OSL gurus, any tips for making mine look better? Maybe having more of a gradient? Tried for awhile to get it to look right but I am missing something. The only thing I struggled with was where to put the star. All the stars are going on red sections and are centered on the models, but the wolf didn't really have a good place to do that. I originally went with stars on the back hatches, but I would have had to do 2 to get them to look right. I am happy with having them on the main gun as you see here. Overall, I am happy with these guys, who now get added to my budding terran force: I think it's coming together pretty nicely, but I'm drowning the CAVs in treads now... Simba is next!!!

Hey all, Lost some sleep last night to finish up these Tsukai for my Terran legion. I wasnt sure how to approach them at first but I really happy with how they came out. They fit in well with the rest of the force. I had particular fun jeweling the cockpit. Take a look, and as always C&C welcome!

Hey guys, Here are some more kickstarter goodies from my budding CAV Terran force. These were actually the first models I painted from the CAV kickstarter and were the color prototypes for the terran color scheme I went with. They aren't completely done (the central panel will be re-painted red with the white star I have been giving the others). But I am happy with them! I also really like how CAV has an assortment of vehicles and walkers which makes a force dynamic looking. Here's what is painted (both finished and WIP) so far: C & C welcome!

Hey guys, So after getting the kickstarter box, the Talon was the first CAV I painted. I wanted to get something big as the baseline for my color scheme instead of a tank or APC. Of course, being the first CAV there were a few issues. The original red I chose was an awful contrast to the yellow and had to be painted over. The highlight layer for this cav eventually got tossed for a different combination, so this big fella looks a bitt different than most of the other force. I have been painting for 15+ years (and terribly for most of that), but in the past year I have tried to expand my skill base. I decided I wanted to UTF CAVs to be highlighted 3 ways: Drybrushing (yellows), edging (reds), and layering (windows). I am happy with how these came out and cannot wait to get better. In the past I have really used Drybrushing as a major crutch, though I must admit it works (and quickly, too). Check it out: I also really wanted to try OSL after seeing Skrill's awesome examples with his Rach force. Since the base color is yellow I really didn't have much of an option but white, so I went with a blueish-white for the few lights I could find. I just started doing this today so there is much to be learned, but as a first attempt I am happy with how it came out: I also particularly like how the windows turned out. Here is the raptor, with a slightly more successful implementation of OSL: C & C welcome! More to come later. P.S. Has anyone else noticed that almost all the folks who have painted terran forces and have put them up here went with a desert theme? That seems interesting to me.

Hey everyone! Newbie here. I got the CAV kickstarter box a few weeks ago and have been really itching to paint something with hard lines for once (old 40k tyranid player). I decided to start with the terrans because I bought planes, tanks, and CAVs from them so it would give me a nice wide range to get comfy with. I decided on a theme similar to that of the imperial fists from Warhammer 40k- yellow with red accents. As I went on, however, the scheme changed more and more until it became a much more rugged desert theme. Take a look: I didn't choose a very time-efficient painting method (will change that when I paint the Rach), but it does look nice. I only use regular old craft paint, except for the inks which are GW. The steps for those interested: Yellow: 1) Mix a 3:2 mix of butternut and nutmeg brown to create the base color, which I call "UTF khaki". 2) After cleaning with soap and water, airbrush everything in a white undercoat (old habits). 3) Airbrush with UTF khaki. The badger intro airgun is worth it's weight in gold for the priming alone. 4) Ink everything up with GW's Reikland fleshshade. It's a nice red color and give the yellow some depth. 5) drybrush with UTF khaki to get the midtones back 6) drybrush with 1:1 UTF khaki : white to get the highlights Red: 1) Paint sections with burgundy. I realized too late that this burgundy was a "cool red" and didn't sit well on its own with the khaki so I had to change up the highlighting. 2) Highlight by edging with a 1 : 1 : 1 mix of burgundy, white, and burnt orange. This makes things a bit warmer and sits better with the khaki. 3) Paint the star freehand. This is the 52nd terran legion and I decided to make their symbol a simple white star. Grey: 1) Start dark, drybrush lighter. Lights: This is my first attempt at object source lighting (OSL). I was inspired by the NOD-like Rach force paint scheme of Skrill. Take a look at his awesome work: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/68610-cav-so-bones-rach-force-completed-reaper-voodoo-more/ So I decided to go for a bright white light which actually comes off as a light blue. Multiple light watered down coats. It is not perfect but it is close enough for tabletop quality and I am excited to get better at it. C & C welcome! Lots more will be coming in the weeks going ahead.

Hey everyone. Got the CAV bones kickstarter a few weeks ago and have really been itching to paint some BIG STOMPY ROBOTS. I decided to go with a yellow and red theme for the terran vehicles and CAVs. The original inspiration was the Imperial Fists of 40k lore, but it has evolved into a much more worn looking desert theme. Right now I am working on some Wolf tanks and Tsukai APCs: There are quite a few steps to them: 1) Airbrush white, then airbrush with a basecoat of 3:2 butternut yellow : nutmeg brown, AKA UTF khaki 2) Airbrush with UTF Khaki 3) Ink wash with GW's Reikland flesh shade, a nice reddish shade to get the shadows. 4) Drybrush with UTF khaki to get the mid tones back 5) Lighter drybrush with 1:1 UTF Khaki : white Now the yellow is done and I can START on the other colors :) The red is a craft paint burgundy, actually, with the exception of the inks, they are all cheap craft store paint. I will edge the red bits with a 1:1:1 mix of white, burgundy and burnt orange. I realized too late that the burgundy is a "cool red" and clashes with the warm yellows so some orange had to be added to the highlights. The gray bits will be drybrushed with some lighter versions later on. The red needs to be edged and the windows and lights painted still, but the yellow bits are finished. Finally, every unit gets a white star which is the symbol of my company. C & C are welcome! Would love to hear what others think.

FInished this Raijin in my Terran Desert Wasteland Scheme. There are SOOOO many missiles to paint. It matches the Starhakw VI I painted. I'm starting to achieve a cohesive looking force.

Finished of both of my Ashigaru in my terran desert wasteland scheme. I airbrushed the basecoat on these. I spent about 2 hours yesterday basecoating all my terran forces with the airbrush (about 20 models).

Hi, Here are the Terran wheeled transport vehicle "Tsukai" in Bones for CAV. I wanted to keep them looking "military" with one major colour, and try to give contrast with shade and highlights to make them pop a bit. This was a very quick paint and I'm pretty pleased with the result. I may be re-using this recipe for more units. C&C appreciated.

Here is the second bones model of the evening as selected by my kids. This is the Terran Tsuiseki. The model is not bad for the plastic although a firmer mix would have prevented such warping. The model was boiled and dropped in cold water but I doubt it will improve much past this. Anyway, as instructed I had to paint this with a green colour scheme so this was once again a nice simple base coat, mid coat and highlight followed by a green ink wash and then a repeat of the process. I kept the scheme nice and simple to aid with the painting of the remaining Terran models. As always thanks for looking and comments welcome.

Hi, Here is my take on the Terran Naginata in Bones from CAV SO I'm finding myself struggling in getting a somewhat realistic army paint job (homogeneous with few colours) while keeping the model interesting to look at with contrast... I still haven't figured out a good recipe. But here is what I came up with.

So this is the first CAV miniature I've finished in, uh, well, like fourteen or fifteen years! I noticed it's "no longer used in CAV and being rescaled" so I can only hope my spur of the moment purchase over at Reaper wasn't in vain! At any rate, it's sporting the scheme I'm going to use for the unit I've decided to try and paint for, the 25th Legion. While I'm going to work at having a decal done for the unit, the hand painted Terran insignia will have to do for now. I liked the idea of going with a U.S. military desert tan, but tossing in the sci-fi element with the teal/turquoise. Turret turns with the help of a paper clip and drilled holes.

I'm going to try to have completed Dingo pictures tonight if I can, but the Starhawk needs some more highlighting and basing. Tsuiseki has some more work ahead of it... ignore the battletech tanks in the background! :) Scheme is my "custom" scheme for the 25th Legion, the Steel Magpies