Astral Claws warband

[Ironwrought Huw]

After building and painting my version of Armanneus Valthex last week, I decided I wanted to try and make a little force based around him - I really enjoyed paiting him, so thought I'd try and give him some friends.

My planned force is set around the middle of the Badab War. Valthex has split off from Huron, taken as much of the armoury's shine stuff as possible (hence older marks of armour and weaponry), and managed to convince some battle-brothers, a captain and a dreadnought to help him continue his heretical studies.

In my mind, Valthex sees that he is furthering humanity and technology - he isn't a heretic, he's a genius, a visionary - but like so many great scientists before him, he's being persecuted by a closed-minded and blind religious hierarchy.

So my force is alienated and cut-off. The Imperium is hunting them and looking for blood, the Mechanicus is sending its agents out to shut-down Valthex and Huron doesn't want them - no friends or allies, they're on their own.

 

With that in mind, I'm trying to build and paint my force to look weathered, battered and well-worn. They've been fighting and hiding so much they haven't had a proper chance to maintain (or at least clean) their wargear. They're also going to have a ruined industrial complex style base - pipes and cables sticking out of the floor and so on.

 

Ok, onto the main leader. Valthex has had a bit of an update since I posted him - I've given his right hand a controller unit, painted his colar red, and reposed the C-Beamer to make it look like he's aiming it.

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011594-4.jpg

 

The un-named Captain - very WIP at the moment

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011598-1.jpg

 

Veterans

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011600.jpg

 

Dreadnought (again, very WIP. He's just balancing, not glued together yet)

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011604-2.jpg

 

And finally, the first WIP combat squad.

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011605.jpg

 

Also to come, 3 more combat squads, and possibly a devastator squad.

What do you think? About my interpretation of the fluff, and my painting and building?

All questions, comments and criticism are welcome ;)

 

Cheers

[Evil eyeball]

A neat tip i have for dreadnaughts, I glued a round piece of sprue to the top of my Dreadnaughts legs, and drilled a hole in the sarcophagus, then i could put the sprue bit into the hole and leave him un glued . He can come apart for transport, and he can pivot which is kinda cool.

[Loken86]

neat idea brother whats the part list for your captain if you dont mind sharing

[Ironwrought Huw]

A neat tip i have for dreadnaughts, I glued a round piece of sprue to the top of my Dreadnaughts legs, and drilled a hole in the sarcophagus, then i could put the sprue bit into the hole and leave him un glued . He can come apart for transport, and he can pivot which is kinda cool.

 

You sir, are an absolute genius! I mean that with complete and total seriousness. Here, have the blessing of the Machine God. Or a cookie, whatever works best :lol:

 

neat idea brother whats the part list for your captain if you dont mind sharing

Thanks.

No problem, happy to- the body is the FW MK III 'Iron' armour with the running legs. His right arm is the normal right arm for MK3s, but cut and glued to be pointing a plasma pistol, rather than carrying a bolter. The head is from Srgt Chronos. The sword arm is from the Black Templars upgrade sprue, with the obvious BT stuff removed. Oh, and plenty of purity seals to cover up the parts that my GS-skills aren't too great on! ;)

[Ironwrought Huw]

Sorry for double post, but I have an update-

 

Thanks to Evil eyeball, my dreadnought can now pivot.

Still have a lot of painting to do on him though.

 

"What seems to be the problem brother?"

"It's my legs! I can't stand up..."

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011607-1.jpg

 

This shows the plastic tube I used as the pivot/mounting point. Yes, it is upside down to show just that there is some movement.

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011598-2.jpg

 

The next 2 photos show the basic painting stage of the first members of the tactical squad - I've blocked the colours in, and am currently adding the weathering. After that I go over any messy paint (such as the exhausts on the backpack), and add details like eyes, joints and purity seals and finally highlights. Like I said, these are at the first stage.

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011604-3.jpg

 

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011603.jpg

I know it doesn't look like it, but I have actually drilled out the barrels.

 

Any criticism/questions/comments?

Cheers :huh:

[Ironwrought Huw]

Nothing? Either I'm doing well, or this is a boring blog :P

 

Anyway. On with the show :P . I've gotten some work done on some new units, after talking with Matt from GW Glasgow (nice store and staff). Picked up IA9 and a venerable dread.

 

May I present to you the WIP of Ancient Kleitor (my interpretation of the FW art). I'm still in the early phases of painting him up. Just to make him that little (and boy do I mean little) bit different, I gave him a FW MK3 helmet.

I'm contemplating making a banner for him (ala the FW painting) - but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011615-1.jpg

 

I finished the skin and face of my captain (under FW rules he's going to be a legion centurion) but still WIP on the body

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011619-1.jpg

 

And finally, I finished one of my veterans and my devastator squad (minus basing until the parts arrive)

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011626.jpg

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l545/Huberticus66/P1011628.jpg

 

Aside from finishing my captain and venerabel dreadnought, I have 2 tactical squads, a corpse-taker and a few odds and ends left to finish.

 

All question, comments and criticism welcome.

Cheers ;)