WIP Castellans army (LPC)

[darrkespur]

So I recently got back into the hobby after years away (my last army was an Imperial Guard mishmash in early 3rd edition), and with my mates getting into Tyranids, Guard and Orks respectively I thought I'd reward myself with the Space Marine army I'd never had the money for when I was younger. I had dabbled with marines at various points but they were always bits cobbled together from limited money and bought off other people, with horrible existing paintjobs and no knowledge of stripping...

 

So, armed with my three month PhD stipend, I decided to give my inner gamer the gift I'd never afforded before, and made a very large internet order! I wanted to get it all in one go so I had the most opportunities to kitbash, as making interesting models out of the plastic kits is far too much fun to limit myself!

 

So, I bought:

 

1 land raider

Megaforce box set (Dreadnought, two tactical squads, sniper scout squad, predator, rhino, assault squad)

Marine half of Black Reach (Dreadnought, terminator squad, commander, tactical squad)

Space wolf pack (for neat bits)

Dark angels veterans (ditto)

1 landspeeder on ebay that turned out to be missing weapons, hatches, spoiler and engines!

space marine commander boxset

terminator captain

techmarine

devastator squad

razorback

 

plus I had about ten marines, 5 bikes, an attack bike and 8 scouts of various origins that were salvagable via dettol to bolster my force. I figured this gave me the options to make most combinations of armies I'd like to have, with only a few possible additions ever needed (a whirlwhind, a vindicator, another land speeder and another razorback are about the only things I may need to buy later on in this army's lifetime.)

 

So, that veritable armada in tow, I began to design my army at the beginning of January, and here is the beginnings of it.

 

I wanted to do a Chapter of my own, but I also wanted to keep to the fluff, in particular that most of the Chapters are Ultramarine descended. With that in mind, I went into my local Games Workshop in Bristol, UK to try my hand at designing a marine colour scheme. The result is Mr Marine below (and I know there's mould lines, he's a free marine...)

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2786/4319657618_1235de697f_o.jpg

 

I was trying to recreate the look I'd done on some scouts back in the day, using Jade Green, which doesn't exist anymore (and my pot of it seems to have mysteriously vanished and/or dried up). To do this, I tried using adeptus battegrey on a black undercoat, followed by a wash of thraka green and then shadow grey highlights. I tried to keep to Ultramarines colour schemes in terms of where to colour, but using a Shining Gold on Calthan Brown for most of the major details.

 

My PhD is in diamonds, so I'd been playing around with a Chapter logo based on the carbon diamond lattice (how geeky can you get, huh!), which started life looking like this (I know the mould lines are terrible on this one!):

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4318926427_978290197b_o.jpg

 

I decided that my marines were going to be heavily experienced with Tyranids, to match my friend Kian's new Hive Fleet. I decided that the home planet of my guys would have been cut off for decades or centuries by a hive fleet, with all the space ships destroyed and only those within the Chapter's bunkers and fortresses surviving - matching the grey colour of my force. With that in mind, I decided to call the Castellans (Or possibly Redoubters, I'd appreciate opinions!)

 

My initial fluff and colour scheme decided, I started out on my first unit: a foot-slogging Vanguard squad to be placed inside the Land Raider with my chapter master, a counts-as Pedro Kantor. I decided this was going to be my big first unit, and aimed to get them done for the Golden Bolters. The six completed marines are below, made of parts from the space wolf sprue, assault sprue, commander and tactical sprue, with some parts from my friend's command squad sprue.

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2776/4318927283_76fdb2079d_o.jpg

 

This used the same colour scheme as the test marine, but with much more comprehensive highlights of adeptus battlegrey, then shadow grey and fortress grey. I also gave them white veteran helmets and kneepads using the same colours + skull white, but painting the colours onto the plates rather than just the edges. The bionic dude has a leg made from an eldar sword and bashed up shoulder pads and backpack, but I didn't include him in my GB entry for unit cohesion (plus the shot for the competitions is hopefully a little better composed than this quick one!)

 

The bases are a mix of some medium grade model railway sand + slate from the GW base set, painted in calthan brown with a devlan mud wash, with desert yellow and bleached bone highlights and a black rim. I figure their world's been all-but eaten by the Tyranids, so all that's left outside the bunkers is dead desert! I will probably add some dead Static Grass to this, but it didn't arrive in time to put it on for the Golden Bolters.

 

This is their ride:

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4318926785_e8190bd822_o.jpg

 

the land raider was painted in the same way, with gold on the cowlings of the guns and white on the tips of the lasguns. This land raider was savlaged off ebay and although the previous paint job was luckily a thin coat of black for a Black Templars army, the marines themselves were more heavily painted and so the head of the driver in particular doesn't look that great.

 

Whilst finishing up the Vanguard, the chapter badge has evolved into this:

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4319658452_d7b3d9299a.jpg

 

which is a lot less blocky and more aesthetically pleasing than the old one. The idea is to keep the four white legs representing the carbon bonds to the adjacent atoms, but with two diamonds of red and white in the centre. In fluff terms I thought it might represent their planet, cutoff from the warp but we'll see how that evoves.

 

So, to the Librarium Painting Challenge. With my Golden Bolter entry out of the way, I wanted to do this challenge. It wasn't hard to imagine what I needed - so far my army consisted of 6 Vanguard in a Land Raider and a tactical marine with mould lines - not exactly a game-legal army!

 

So, in addition to the Pedro-Kantor count-as I wanted to lead my army, I decided to try and paint 500 pts of legal army by the 31st of March. This may evolve as time goes by, but at the moment I'm thinking this will entail a 10 man tactical squad and a 6 man sniper scout squad, led by a librarian. The remainder of the points will be made up of whichever unti I feel like painting most out of the Predator, Land Speeder or one of the Dreadnoughts. If I manage all that(!) It's inevitable my next non-essential choice will be 5 Sternguard in a razorback.

 

So I've barely started this challenge, but I can show you the undercoated Pedro and Librarian figures I've converted:

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4319658296_202b2d9cf6_o.jpg

 

The librarian is almost entirely Dark Angels veteran, with a book from Mordheim on his hip with a little rope/chain of green stuff. He'll be my first HQ for smaller games. I quite like the pose but a couple of the dark angels symbols remain - not sure what to do about that.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4318926899_e660272d96_o.jpg

 

Pedro is a scratchbuild I am very very happy with. I used the space marine commander torso with the legs of a space wolf with fur, with the more ornate symbols carved off. I want this chapter to have a little bit of wolfy feral nature too them, but no viking mythology. So the pelts and beards can stay, but the runes have got to go! I used a space wolf head, with the hair and sideburns trimmed down so he looked like grizzled leader rather than outrageous mutton chops! I did originally do something similar for the Vanguard with wolf claws but couldn't get the hair painted right. The backpack, front tabard and iron halo are from the commander, the power fist from the space wolf set and the other arm originally held a chainsword. I trimmed that down to just the handle and added the storm bolter from the space marine dreadnought (as I had a DCCW with storm bolter to swap on magnetically from Black Reach), with a bit from an old old stormtrooper backpack to link the ammo feed to the backpack. I added greenstuff to the backpack, gap between hand and gun and around the waist as rope to hide the join. I used some bits from the GW basing set on his base, plus one of the servo skulls from the Devastator box to really get that John Blanche feel going.

 

So that is the Castellans so far! I'd like to know what people think. Next job for the challenge is modelling up a tactical squad, and beginning to paint the two characters. I may also begin building my vehicles and decide later which to paint. I'll let you all know how it gets on!

 

Thanks for reading!

[Ole]

It's a really good colour scheme you have going there, it has a certain iconic look.

Your highlighting is pretty effective!

I have to say that some blacklining would look very good on your marines... I personally like rather prominent blacklining for a more comic-book like look.

 

Anyway, keep it up, your army is going to look great.

[darrkespur]

It's a really good colour scheme you have going there, it has a certain iconic look.

Your highlighting is pretty effective!

I have to say that some blacklining would look very good on your marines... I personally like rather prominent blacklining for a more comic-book like look.

 

Anyway, keep it up, your army is going to look great.

 

 

Thanks, I hope so! Where would you put the blacklining in?

 

Got the first part of the Predator done today. I'm going to magnetise the sponsons (although probably not the turret) so I can switch between heavy bolters and lascannons and between sponsons and rhino doors. I'll post pictures of that and my heavily converted salvaged land speeder next time I have the camera nearby. I used washers and green stuff to make the missing engine of the land speeder, which makes it look nice and turbo-charged compared to the original!

 

Also begun work on a chaplain with a magnetised jetpack/backpack swap but he's just going to be for tinkering with until the first Troops choice is finished.

[Ole]

Thanks, I hope so! Where would you put the blacklining in?

Where armour plates meet! You know, as in all the little crevices around your figure. It adds a lot of depth.

(My newest topic contains a pic of a marine with a rather bold blacklining job, if you want an example. I'd rather not post pics in your topic.)

[darrkespur]

So, after a few weeks of not updating this post, I do have some progress on my Castellans Space Marine force. If you remember, I set out to get a useable 500pt force, as well as painting up my counts-as Pedro Kantor conversion. After some converting/building and some playing round on Army Builder, I concluded on the following force to begin with:

 

Rifleman dreadnought with two twin linked autocannons

Librarian with force weapon and bolt pistol

Tactical squad with a choice of missile launcher or lascannon, meltagun or flamer, depending on points

5 scout snipers, one with a missile launcher.

 

 

I also have begun to plan out my next 250 points, which after some playtesting with the new Kill Team rules, I decided had to be given to the awesome sternguard, in a razorback, with points left over for a rhino for the tacticals and some other bits. They aren't the priority right now, but if I finish my LPC charges early, I'll do the sternguard too.

 

So in the last couple of weeks I've built all the models, and fully painted the librarian, at least for now. He may get some detail on the cloak/banner/force maul at a later date.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4400405343_f9de2bc93e.jpg

 

I'm finding the photographs pick out the mistakes I've made! He's a decent tabletop quality but advice on taking him that next step are welcome.

 

The dreadnought and scouts have been heavily modified using the Aegis defence line kit, which is a great way to spend £12. Not only did the autocannons make my arm-less ebay dreadnought body into a rifleman, the Defence Line walls look great cut up onto the scout bases. I also replaced the sarcophagus front plate of the dread with one of the servo-skull esque targeter things from the Aegis, and added a rhino radar dish for any anti-aircraft activity. I like the effect the servo skull has, but i'm not sure whether it sticks out too much - advice again is much appreciated.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4401172220_64c49e5bdc_b.jpg

 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2673/4400407413_0f663d965d_b.jpg

 

A couple of the scouts have imp guard heads, which have added greenstuff comm units. The wire mesh comes from the 40k basing set.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4401173576_f05c3540a6_b.jpg

 

We also have 14 tactical squad members in various stages. I wanted to paint enough to have the option of Ml or LC, and MG or Flamer.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4401172632_5904fc867b_b.jpg

 

I've tried several ways of painting the tacs and came to the conclusion that to match the nice lighting effect the veteran's white helmets had on the model as a whole, I'd use Astronomicon Grey for the helmets instead of adeptus battlegrey, for the tacticals.

 

Finally we have the half-finished sternguard and razorback, using Rhino storm bolters to convert their special bolters.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4401174658_a1518cb651.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4054/4401171572_9a442168e9.jpg

 

So well underway with my attempt at the LPC. Next target is to greenstuff the dreadnought to work the changes in more, and to finish painting the tacticals. I'm saving Pedro til last - I want my eye in for him!

 

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any comments.

[Comabat Apothecary]

Any updates on the Castellans? I'm really looking forward to seeing your scratch built counts-as Kantor being painted up as I'm just starting on my own :P

 

I'm more or less using the Commander box set, but not using the pack part (with the cloak), and instead using a tac marine back, and going to green stuff a half cloak like the metal mini. Using the commander Storm Bolter, but cut down to fit his arm, then using the Heavy Bolter ammo link from Devastator to run from the SB to his back pack (I think I'll have to salt dip or more GS to get it to work, I've not bought the set yet to test fit.) Using the closed fist from the command squad's banner bearer for his bolter arm. PF will be from the command squad also.