The 454 guards other captains and vice-captains

[chapter master 454]

Well I recently kit-bashed together the remaining 3 captains and 3 vice-captains of the 454 guard (my DIY chapter). Just so every knows: my chapter has 4 grand companies instead of the normal ten companies and each can fight on their own thus would only have 4 captains however I decided to add vice-captains (an inspiration from bleach and if anyone has seen Vice-captain andrews of the 1st company then yous would of seen a clear reference) to increase the leader count to 8 (9 if you include the chapter master). The second is that if anyone has read my homegrown rules madness these models have no bearings on those bits of fluff nor any weapon semblence, however I have gone with counts-as glore, 6 out of 8 of them are counts-as (in decending order from 1st company (Captain then Vice-captain) to 3rd company) are Darnath Lysander, Cato Sicarius, Pedro Kantor, Kayvaan Shrike, Kor'sarro Khan and Vulkan He'stan. The remaining two are fluffy armed captain and Vice captain (fluff being 4th company got hit pretty hard so field promotion was needed during the fighting. Currently the captains aren't exactly glamorously armed, no more than 140 points on ether of them).

Going left to right we first have Vice-captain Corbie Benitor, Captain Grigor Donald, Captain Hecthor Ectasy, Vice-captain Dovin Hel, Captain Greg Havok and Vice-captain Cairn Domatho. Order of company from left to right: 2nd, 4th, 3rd

Close up of Corbie Benitor (Kayvaan) and Grigor Donald (Kantor)

Close up of Cairn Domatho (He'Stan) and Greg havok (Khan)

Close up of Hecthor Ectasy (left) and Dovin hel (right)

What do yous think of them? Yea heavy on the counts-as but it helps make the 2+ save more 'reserved' for the better guys (except for Vulkan counts-as, he was a rather adept modifer of armour and his equipment so hence better save) as if I remember correct majority of special characters have a default of 3+ save (Khan, Shrike, Kantor, Calgar, Cassius, Tigerius). Also makes for fun mix and matching of characters a bit easier (yea ok lists can't exactly be one hundred percent fluffy til I at least get another 9 tactical squads, 3 for each captain to have get their company symbols on them) however I feel the my last two are rather effective models, one is trying to regains the companys honour, major honour hit since the banner was nicked by orks, by facing the most monsterous of creatures with his thunder hammer and hellfire rounds while the other trys to just adjust to the sudden change of rank (lets put it this was, it was a Vanguard veteran and a tactical squad Sarge that got the places. Yes the company was hit very hard by the orks there. Only won because 3rd company intervened in time). Anyway before I carry on with any more fluff like I normally do (is there anywhere I can put this sort of stuff to get it out of my system?) I've now leave you guys (and gals in pseudo-power armour :rolleyes: ) to C&C. cheers!

[WelshMullet]

That base coat looks a little thick to me.. :)

But it could just be the lighting and camera.

[Rune Priest]

mmm, seconded. from the shine, it does look hand applied. Was it? If so, many kudos!

[cathar the great]

The counts-as are fine, except for the He'Stan. Where is his flame-thrower stuff and spear? He just looks too regular.

 

You base-coat is waaaaay too thick. If you apply the black basecoat with a brush, you need to thin it down just like with any other paint and apply several coats.

 

Also, for the future, if you plan to post WiP pics, you should take them before you basecoat, as it is easier to see details on the grey plastics, even if picture quality is (like yours) not so good.

[chapter master 454]

First off, this is my camera phone taking these photos so I am pretty impressed with quality of the pics. Second it is hand applied and is only the lighting (In scottish winter we know not of such a thing as a yellow orb you may call the sun) and not-so-good photo quality, in actual fact my chaos black is already fully watered down (In other words I have added extra water to the pot itself and made it my undercoat black as well as main black. A very nice finish it gives) so the layer is actually very thin, in some parts it does have some show through of grey but a quick second layer that hardly adds any thickness gets that.

 

As for the He'Stan counts as, The axe is the 'spear' (And why does his spear count as a relic blade? I do believe blade would imply a sword however if he gets a 'relic spear' I get a 'relic axe' which actually makes more sence in the Strength idea). The axe is also going to be very compact, look at a space wolves two-handed axe weapon and look at the wolf design on the back end of the blade, you see that wolf head with exhaust-esqe holes. Thats the flamer! As another note: I don't believe in uber fancy models, tends to be the more flashy you have the more the eye sees the extra than the model itself (Wow I like how you did that lightning effect on the sword. That steals the models appearance because the eyes don't focus or think about the other paintwork). I have only one or two flashy models (Chater master and possibly my Golden bolter WIP which is currently suffering from LoPs (lack of paints)). These guys will also be another thing for my Golden bolter entry, Experiments. These guys just need to be table-top quality however each will have their own testing on them (be it drybrushing, NMM, highlighting, shading, free-hands or fur) so expect to see this thread have a good few pictures of what I experiment with and try out. Currently I am very pleased with the models. Shock and horror at not mounting Khan :mellow:

[Dan The Deamon]

Two things I noticed would bring He'stan into compliance. If you used the commander back torso or the wolves back torso with the cape or wolf pelt. It would help show the mantle.

 

If you moved the Wolf head flamer from the back of the two handed axe and stuck it on the top of the axe, pointed up, it could look like he just lowers his axe and his flamer is ready to rock. you could stick a piece of plastic tubing or guitar wire on there and it would finish off the flamer look.

 

As of right now most of your models can pass for their counterparts, but there are some stretches. Your imagination in fitting these models with their counterparts is great, you just need to flesh the model out more to distinguish what the wargear actually is. A lot of people have serious problems with counts as by itself. Once you start throwing in standard GW bits without conversion they are going to have even more problems.