Dreadnoughts

So I've actually had my venerable dreadnought, who I've decided to name Colmus - yes, after Colm Corbec, because I think if he'd been a space marine they would have put him in one... done for a while, though I don't know that much of my army will ever be completely done - I'll always find details I want to improve, and he's no exception.

Anywho... I definitely enjoy working on dreads... I think they're my favorite.  They're smaller than tanks, with a lot less blank space, but enough larger than normal marines that they're a little more fun to mod and paint.

So I found this super cheap one on Ebay, with some damage (broken claw - see below - lots of bad gluing and legs that were barely connected to their feet) and some really bad paint.  I wish I'd thought to take a before picture.  It's got what I believe to be a Forgeworld CCW, that was damaged - the bottom claw was snapped off, and it was badly glued to the body.  So, not having another arm like it, I decided a mod was in order.  I cut a claw off the claw-hand from my ven dread pack, and then cut the sword off an old metal terminator sgt arm and combined them.  Below is a pic, not great, but it gives the idea.

So far he looks pretty good in my opinion, especially after painting over the scorpion green his front plates had been covered in... I replaced his leg armor to some nicer stuff, and added a plate on his right side. I think he's getting some more to truly rep extra armor, but I don't know what I'm adding just yet.  Right now I've got the plasma cannon arm from the ven dread pack on him, but I still have an assault cannon arm and the twin linked lascannon arm he came with, and I'm leaving both of them so I can swap the non-melee arms out for whatever the next battle might need.

Bike Squad, AKA The Four Horsemen

So, after much debating I decided to start my bike squad.  Ultimately it will consist of sgt, 2 bikes and an attack bike, and will escort my version of the Master of the Ravenwing, but I only have the sgt and 2 bikes thus far.  I have put them together, with the sgt being very highly decorated and the others less so.  That sgt is going to be Conquest, his armor is gold, his bike white and trim done in reds, silvers and gold.  One other bike, currently deployed with a bare head and bionic eye, will be Death, and he will have a sickly pale green bike, dead black armor and the skin that is visible will be very pale - I intentionally avoided giving him a hood because I think I may eventually build a marine named Thanatos.  The last bike is going to be Famine, on a dead black bike - I haven't decided on his armor color yet, but I may actually make it bleached bone.  War I'm saving for the attack bike, and it will be a red bike with the riders in red and black armor.

I chose Conquest over the later Pestilence interpretation because I didn't want to go over towards Nurgle too much, and figured it fit the idea of my army better.  My idea actually came from my love of Albrecht Durer, so the change came later, largely after a conversation with Emily.

My Master of the Ravenwing will be done with large wings and be set up as the Angel who announced or accompanied the Horsemen to the Apocalypse.  His wings and bike will be white and silver I think, and his armor black, red and gold.

More pictures, and ideas for my IG survivors

So I managed to get a few more pictures today, but I need better lighting I think, with all the black armored marines I wind up getting only all the wrong details if any at all getting captured right now.  Do have a few to post though.  What I've got for now is one of my Inquisition survivors, a tactical marine with flamer, and a grey helmet -

a tactical marine, with black helmet, so a standard space marine, with a meltagun.  This is the color scheme for standard space marines.

And a company veteran with a stormbolter... and yes, he's meant to look like he's giving a benediction... he's actually one of the first figures I built and painted.

I've also figured out the color scheme for my IG survivors - right now represented by my assault marines.  The assault marines have red jump packs like you might expect, but their shoulders, helmet crests and left knee pads are all DA Green with light highlights, and they all got DA left shoulder pads.  Other details are red, and I'm still not entirely sure I love the color combo... but for now they'll do.

It's probably also worth noting that I have only barely begun figuring out how to flock my bases... so they're still looking pretty sloppy.

A beginner's thoughts on painting technique and tools

With a degree in art I at least have the background for the basics of painting, though when I paint on a canvas it tends to be very broad stroked and abstract.  The one thing I need  to work the most on is the very fine details on my models, and for that I think I'm going to need a couple of tools.  I definitely need some kind of magnifier on a stand, and I'm going to need to get some finer brushes and remember to only use them for details (I tend to be a multi-use kind of guy with most tools).  I'm also thinking that I need some kind of tool like what my grandfather (a silversmith/jeweler by hobby, a design engineer by trade) called a third arm so I can not be bending over whatever table I'm using, at least not so low, and so I can only have the movements of one hand to worry about, and not the one that's holding the figure.

Right now I'm mostly using 4 brushes - 2 from AC Moore, one of which is good for broader work, the other of which is pretty much shot and I only use for the occasional spot of dry brushing, 1 GW/Citadel detailing brush, which is mostly shot and I'm using for smaller broad work, and a newer Citadel brush which I just love.  It's keeping its point really nicely and bends just enough in use to give me the fine strokes I want, despite being bigger than two of the three other brushes.  I think I'll be looking at the Citadel brushes again when I go to find a really fine point brush... but that will wait until after I have some of the other tools.

Still trying to get some more pictures today... I'm finding that having most of the body black in combination with the dynamic poses I've been building my minis in is giving my camera some trouble in focusing.  We'll see if I can progress a little with that between relaxing and working on my assault marines today.

Two figures... Israf'l and Mik'l

Israf'l is pretty much a straight forward Terminator Librarian, right out of the package.  I don't think I added more than a couple small pieces of DA paraphernalia to him.  Mik'l is pretty heavily modified from a White Dwarf release terminator, with the Dark Angels terminator power sword and other paraphernalia attached.  The white thing on his right shoulder is the edge of a robed angel's wing.  I'll get a profile shot later.

These are the shots that came out well from the ones I worked on this evening... sadly they're both color patterns - neither one represents the coloration of the army as a whole.  Hopefully will get some more of those soon.

Painting and story progress...

So... my Inquisition survivors, those that are represented in my currently painted army are:

Tactical Squad  1 - 10 man squad, 2 upgrades - Vet Sgt has a plasma pistol and one trooper has a melta gun.  In this case I envision the sgt not as being more experienced than his men, necessarily, but the one who was the natural leader of a group that started and lived through some extremely hairy stuff together.\

Elements of my 5 man devastator squad - one trooper with a missile launcher, one with a lascannon (though the lascannon trooper's painting isn't complete.

My unique librarian, here named Ra'zel (based on the DA Grandmaster of Librarians, stat-wise), is also a survivor of that core group.  He was the one on the road to becoming an Inquisitor, but the Interrogator Chaplain with the group of GotC noted the psyker mutation in him and arranged to have him trained and indoctrinated as a librarian.  His psychic hood is the same grey as the helmets of the normal troopers of this group.

My Company Veteran's squad is, story wise, elements of that same group who found the Inquisition/IG cadet survivors.  They received laurels painted on their helmets tonight, in DA Green, Goblin Green and Burnished Gold.

On the note of paint colors... most are Citadel, but I have some left over Vallejo paints from a DnD mini project that I've been using.

Citadel Colors:
Scab Red
Red Gore
Blood Red
Chaos Black
Boltgun Metal
Chainmail
Mithril Silver
Skull White
Bleached Bone
DA Green
Goblin Green
Burnished Gold
Badab Black (wash)
Devlan Mud (wash)

Vallejo Colors:
Light Grey (this is the color of the Inquisition survivor helmets and other markings)
Polished Silver

I'm still trying to decide how I want to denote my IG survivors... they are really most of the rest of the troopers of the army, outside the veterans squad, but I'd like to give them some kind of unique marking as well.  Have to think about that... along the lines of a previous suggestion, I'll use the marking or color of their intended IG unit... once I figure out what that is.  Oooh... I had considered modeling that unit after the Blue Bloods (from the Gaunt's Ghosts books)... maybe I'll use a blue... something to think about...

Hopefully will set up a table, my tripod and camera on macro to do pictures tomorrow... keep finding new details to add even to the figures I'm proud of... have to stop eventually though.  I do have the army up to 2500 - 2750 points now though... and really having played only 2 partial games that almost feels silly, but I'm enjoying the process of building and painting at least as much, so I guess it's ok.

Late night thought

If/when I start working on bikes for Chorus Lucia I'm going to make the Chapter Master of that unit particularly anonymous as if he has no face and simply call him War... I may build a three man bike squad around him and keep them just as anonymous... my own little nod to the 4 hoursemen... we'll see

maybe pictures of the current army tomorrow night... my Master of Librarians is coming along quite nicely...

for now, to bed

Independent Character names

So, because the Chorus Lucia isn't the Dark Angels, and because they're probably going to wind up, story wise, an additional founding even off of the GotC, I decided to do new names for my HQ units and independent characters, based on bastardized Hebrew and Latin angelic names.

Unique Characters
Grand Master of the Chapter:  Ra'shnu
Master of the Death Wing:  Mik'l
Master of Librarians:  Raz'el
Interrogator Chaplain:  Israf'l

Other names:
Apothecary:  Shroa'sha
Company Champion:  Zaap'el
Venerable Dreadnought:  Tahar'el

Thanks to Emily for the help with the angelic names :)

expanded backstory

Chorus Lucia
Space Marines Chapter founded from the Guardians of the Covenant.

Colors – Black, Red and Silver – The Chorus Lucia uses most of the symbolism of the
GotC and the Dark Angels, but wears fully black armor with red and some silver details,
and often wear deep or blood red robes over their armor.

Unusually, the Chorus was founded on two groups – a company of GotC and the remains
of a combined IG/Inquisition training base on a Hive world that was nearly taken by
Chaos Space Marines led by one of the Fallen. The CSM bombarded and invaded
Aelinus, which was, at the time, an IG stronghold with an intense Inquisition presence.
The IG garrisons on Aelinus didn’t have a chance when they were somehow pinpoint
bombarded in their barracks. A group of IG cadets in a special Inquisition training
program, whose unit name is now known only at the highest ranks of the Imperium, the
Inquisition and within the Chorus its self, had been sent out on manuevers to plains near
a minor city on the southern most (barely) habitable continent and were spared the initial
bombards.

When the Thousand Sons landed on that continent it took virtually no time at all for
them to wipe out most of the remaining IG units who were being led ineffectually
by a planetary governor after their general and comissars were killed in the initial
bombardaments – the general’s head, in fact, had become a trophy of the Fallen who
was leading the Thousand Sons in this particular invasion. The remnants of the IG and
Inquisition infantries received orders to .fall back within the walls. The cadets and their
Inquisition trainers didn’t receive these orders and were still a mile outside the city when
the gates were sealed, and when the drop pods of the Thousand Sons started landing on
the outskirts.

Initially, the cadets went to ground, hiding in forests and swamps that were common on
that largely unproductive continent, managing to kill any scout parties sent into areas they
inhabited, but after a month of hiding they received word through a refugee that the city
was falling. On receiving that word their goals and tactics changed from simple survival
to picking off the supply lines of the enemy.

By sheer surprise that there were still forces of the Imperium outside the walls and dome
of the Hive city, the cadets enjoyed significant early successes, in fact capturing a CSM
vox caster that one of their technicians was able to retrofit to Imperial signals. Their
guerilla resistance went on for over two years, but their numbers dwindled – in every raid
there were at least a few injuries and a couple deaths – until by the time they heard over
their scavanged vox caster that the Guardians of the Covenant were coming, there were
only a hundred or so left, a mere third of their original number.

to be continued

Originally posted to FB in January, first story idea for Chorus Lucia

So, I was trying to think of background story for my idea for my 40k army and thought of this...

Some time ago, maybe a few hundred or a thousand years ago, a world on the edge of the space protected by the Guardians of the Covenant was attacked by Chaos Marines and Chaos Daemons led by one of the Fallen.  The IG and Inquisition forces that were on the planet were all but wiped out, and those that remained joined forces and retreated to a single city with a large number of their young cadets.  The GotC received a call for help and arrived shortly before that city fell, and fought to destroy the armies of Chaos.  Ultimately they fought their way through, captured the Fallen in leadership and retook the city... finding a remnant force of IG and Inquisition cadets, lacking any leadership outside that of their own ranks, fighting a guerilla war in the narrow back alleys.  Impressed with their ability to survive when even their superiors and instructors had fallen - and even more so with the affluent praises they gave to the Emperor when the Space Marines arrived, the Chapter Master offered them the chance to be turned into Space Marines (they were all very young yet) and join the Guardians as part of the new special task group Chorus Lucia