Death Strike

[Tzar Boris]

Having been collecting Space Marines for about fifteen years, and several attempts at full chapter strength, I've decided to make a start from scratch. Currently also flicking paintbrush and dice at Eldar (my nice paintjob army!), a combined Chaos Space Marine/Chaos Guard army (my fluffy army - lots of Guard, and a strike force of CSM), but about 250-odd Space Marines - including a full Soul Drinkers 1000pts (with a nice Sarpedon conversion and many a mutation) and my ongoing Inferno Angels chapter (with a lot of Scouts). Anyhoo, I dislike the purple colouring of the Soul Drinkers (and are way too well recognised!) and the Inferno Angels were intentioned to be a lovely army with sculptured Shoulderpads and a colour scheme based on the black to red of Archaons armour (way too time consuming to paint these days with actual responsibilities!) So, having always having a soft spot for Rogue Trader era art work (ala 2000AD stylee), the Death Strike colour scheme (Blue marines that aren't instantly recognisable) and having a vast repository of repaintable forces, this is what the Imperium shall gain, a good couple of companies worth of new shiny Astartes. Then, when I've finished painting and converting that lot, it'll be time to buy a Drop Pod or two. In 2012.

Anyways, heres my first mock up of the colour scheme, and some of my ideas for markings -

It's straight over a Soul Drinker model, so forgive the purple "undercoat" - it's not a design feature!

The purity seals and imperial iconography are under plan for the chop, or what I like to call the dremel. Being replaced with pre-imperium era lightning bolts and stuff. I'm gonna try and make them as un-gothic as possible. It may prove a challenge in the chapter masters and specialists, but we'll see. The company designation is indicated on the left knee pad with a coloured lightning bolt - this one is a 3rd Company Trooper. The right knee pad is reserved for company level markings and awards. The right sided shoulder pad is for unit identification, campaign badges and chapter level awards. The left shoulder pad is the for chapter markings and personal identification. The helmet stripe will remain as bright yellow - contrary to the codex astartes which may use this as company designation - however there will be variants on the stripe and it design for specific members. I have yet to decide how to designate my Sergeants and veterans save for the usual shoulder pad markings, perhaps the coloured helmet route.

I shall leave my treatise on the Death Strikes philosophy and background for a later post. I will update this as milestones are reached. Please feel free to add anything I may have missed. Or ask any questions. Suggestions are greatly encouraged.

[wokkers]

sweeeeeet ^_^

 

i always thought that the Deathstrike marines had a lot in common with Rogue Trooper - glad to see i wasn't the only one.

 

consider me *subscribed* :D

[Tzar Boris]

Okay, here it is. I finally got round to fishing out my Soul Drinkers and showing them off a little, so here they are, say goodbye chaps, cos they is getting killed! Except Sarpedon of course.

I now have to put them all away again so I can take some pics of whatever else I can find in power armour, decide what I'm keeping and then bung the rest in a WIP box.

Enjoy!

(There's more info in the image, just open it up and there it is!)

[Tzar Boris]

Okay, I've made a mistake. I opened up one of my Inferno Angels cases, and have been somewhat awed by my creations. I have a feeling that I'm having second thoughts on Death Strike...

On the plus it would mean not repainting a couple of hundred marines - on the negative, it's a bloody annoying colour scheme.

Thoughts?

[Tzar Boris]

Anyone?

[Captin Xavier]

Hey,

 

Im likng that inferno angels scheme, how many marines tare you down from completing a company?? as it would be nice to see those in their full glory...

 

And Great work so far, i cant believe that those soul drinkers where built and painted in shuch a short time ^_^

 

 

would be nice to see some more of your conversions

 

 

Cheer

Cpt X

[cathar the great]

When I compare the Deathstrike marine to the other ones, painting wise the Deathstrike wins.

 

Your conversions are nice though.

[Tzar Boris]

Thanks for the feedback guys. After some hard thought, and perhaps some of the old imperial faith - I reckon an Inferno Angels redux is in the offing. It also means I get to keep Ghal Maraz as my Thunderhammer! May work on the chapter badge, as I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of LOD models with the same motif, and have been wanting to get the Angel motif off the ground ever since I started them, but was too bone idle to do anything about.

 

Okay, so first off I need to see if I can lay my hands on as much Black and Red Ink as possible, then see if it's doable. And work on a handpaintable symbol. We'll see. I'll start a new thread if the Inferno Angels win the day.

 

The biggest issue is that my chapter traits gave me true grit, which I modelled quite a bit using lots o chainswords. It's kinda weird. I like things to be fairly WYSIWYG. I'll start a new thread if I make a final decision on staying with the Angels. I also over complicated my thinking on Death Strike, and was making them into something untenable. I'll have a rethink on the background again, and have an educated look after all that.

 

It's not the hardest philosophical journey I've ever taken, but it's quite a task to paint these guys, and if I get three squads in and want to change, then I'll kick myself. So, analyse it is.

 

P.S. Fully painted I have twenty-two (?) Scouts, a Landspeeder, Five-man Deathwatch Kill-Team (All Infernos), Five Devastators - they were regularly fielded with Stormtroopers and an Inquisitor - including an Arbites Squad in Converted Rhino as an Ordos Xenos force (using Witchhunters I believe) - as well as an Exorcist and Penitent Engine (neither officially classed as SOB - woot!)

Half painted I have twenty tactical Marines, the other half of the Devastator Squad, and another fifteen or so Scouts.

Unpainted or in the process of conversion models is about fortyish - some veterans, command Squad, Chaplain, Librarian, Couple of Captains, more Scouts, and a couple of Devastator and Tactical Squads.

Don't start me on what's not been even put together. I've got so much boxed plastic at home I could cry. Or laugh.

[Terminatorinhell]

go for inferno angels as they look sweet! what founding are they from and their primarch?

[Tzar Boris]

Death Strike have won. I'm gonna put away the heavily converted Inferno Angels, and enough to make a good 1,500-2,000 points, which I've almost got enough fully painted for, and re-use the rest. I've shaved, retooled, and resprayed a Tactical Squad, five Assault Marines and five Scouts and have started repainting. The base colour is Fenris Grey, with "Death Strike Blue" over the top - not decided if they need a top highlight - "Death Strike Blue" is a mix of Regal, Ultra, Fortress, Scaly, a little Khaki, and a touch of Fenris. Images to follow when half a Tactical is done - almost there!

 

Thanks all.

 

P.S. How hard is it to remove purity seals off ankles? I want old Marines with no purity seals anywhere!

[cathar the great]

P.S. How hard is it to remove purity seals off ankles? I want old Marines with no purity seals anywhere!

 

You can do it with careful clipping and filing, it's next to invisible after painting. At least in my experience.

 

Good thing you go with Deathstrike, there are thousands of DiY's out there, but I haven't ever seen a fully painted army of Deathstrikes!

[manwithmachete]

I like your Death Strike idea! But backing up the paint train a bit... how the crap did you get your Soul Drinkers done in a week??

[Tzar Boris]

I like your Death Strike idea! But backing up the paint train a bit... how the crap did you get your Soul Drinkers done in a week??

 

Answer is simple -

 

1. Large Flat Drybrush

2. No more than two colours per "colour"

3. Backpacks and bolters separately

4. Don't worry about inconsequential bone coloured trims...

5. A week is seven days, that's a lot of time, and I didn't have anything else going on that week. Or sleep.

6. Sarpedon was outwith the timeframe.

7. Oh yeah. Foundation paint. The topcoat was Liche and Hormagaunt Purple mixed - it went on first coat lovely.

 

Other wee tricks I've learnt over the years include -

"the devil's in the details" - don't fuss to much over the whole model, if it's the colour you want, and it looks neat, as long as your sergeant looks nice, no-one'll notice the rest.

"For me?" - Give yourself a present - don't paint endless power armour without a single character or break - at each checkpoint I made myself, I let myself paint one of the sergeants features, or the banner, or something like that.

"Work for GW" - especially on the road to Games Day - you'll get stupidly large painting tasks in a ridiculously short timeframe - like painting a company of fully converted Crimson Fists, or thirty odd luminous green Infardi tanks, or converting the Riders of the Dead (that didn't exist at the time) etc. You get good really quick. You get quick really quick. I never wanted to be known for shoddy work!

[Tzar Boris]

One more thing - the Soul Drinkers were the only thing I painted that week. Unlike the Inferno Angels which were constantly put on the back burner for Combat Patrol A, or Chaos Guard, or Fantasy Chaos Army, or Eldar tanks, or LOTR Dwarfs, or etc. The Soul Drinkers were THE focus of attention (I painted the Baneblades the week after - hadn't finished one till a couple of weeks ago...)

 

I think it's a bit of Orkiness in me, I like shiny new stuff, it's just hard sometimes to paint as much as you buy - I have a loft full of unopened boxes and bitz orders just crying out for attention, or space. (Hmm, I got that Skaven army a while back... Metal Rat Ogres, tasty!)

 

Dis someone say Drop-pod?