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Strike Force Baptiste (Mortifactors)


Koyote

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I am almost done painting Captain Artemis. I still have to paint the base, paint the text on the placards and purity seals, and most importantly, paint the Fifth Company heraldry on Captain Artemis' back banner.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/WIPArtemis5.jpg

 

As the Mortifactors are a Codex Chapter, I've used the Ultramarines as a template. As per the Ultra Fifth's heraldric coloring, I've painted the trim on my army's shoulder pads black. And while the honorific titles of company captains sometimes vary from chapter to chapter, I gave Captain Artemis the traditional Fifth Company title "Master of the Marches" Moreover, I stuck with the Ultra Fifth's symbol, the eagle, as Artemis' badge of office and and Company symbol.

 

My choice of Company symbol influenced my modeling (and painting). I chose, in part, the Master of Recruits model as the base for my Artemis conversion because of the large eagle on its leg greave. Likewise, my choice of eagle headed backpack for Artemis was also inspired by his badge of office. If you look at my the Sergeants of my Mortifactors squads, you will notice that I added an eagle symbol to their backpacks.

 

The kit bashing was the easy part. Now it's time to put my painting skills to the test and paint the eagle heraldry onto Artemis' back banner. The smart thing to do would have been to paint the heraldry on the banner before I painted the rest of the banner. That way, if I screwed it up, I could strip the banner and not lose much in the way of time and effort. But I didn't do the smart thing. So, to improve my odds of pulling this off, I am going to first practice painting the eagle on the primered piece of styrene in the photo. Wish me luck.

I've made 9 attempts to hand paint an Imperial Eagle on my test palette. The eagle will be colored red to match the eagle I added to Sergeant Roman's backpack. This presents some problems. To fit onto the back banner the eagle has to be very small, which adds to the difficulty of task. Moreover, because I have chosen for my Mortifactors' accents a fairly dark red (Scab Red), the contrast between dark red of the eagle's feathers and the dark lines that define the shape of the eagle and it's features is rather poor.

 

I began by using Scorched Brown for these lines but then switched to Abaddon Black to improve the contrast. I then added highlights to the feathers using a brighter red, but it still no luck. I'm bumping up against the limit of my painting skills and I just don't have the patience required to put in the time to improve these skills. I want to get on to painting the rest of my army.

 

With this in mind I did some searching online to see how others have approached painting their back banners. Early into my search I stumbled upon something wonderful. The plastic Space Marine Captain from the Black Reach box set has a molded back banner that depicts almost exactly what I want for Artemis' back banner!

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/blackreach.jpg

 

Problem solved. I bought the captain dirt cheap on eBay. I plan to clip the banner from the backpack, replace the skull at the top, add some bits to it, paint it, and add it to the eagle backpack I have already painted for Artemis.

 

When I paint it I will still have the same problem with the contrasting colors, but the larger eagle and the raised areas defining the eagle's features should help with this.

Amazing :cuss The Captain is very impressive!

Thanks.

 

Here's the latest WIP pic of Captain Artemis.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/WIPArtemis6.jpg

 

Once the good captain is properly kitted out with his new back banner, I will take better photos of him.

 

In the meantime, I'm moving on to Tactical Squad Benedict.

 

Also, I am going to try to make some time this Friday for a game. I have only played one game with the new list and I'm eager to see how it fares against different opponents. If I get a game I will let you know how it goes.

While waiting for Artemis' new back banner to arrive, I finished the first two marines from Tactical Squad Benedict. The squad's sergeant and melta gunner are currently in the works.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/WIPMorts3.jpg

Very Very Very Nice!

 

Great bone and black combo. Good choice making them 5th company as I always thought combining another colour would not work with the Mortifactors. Apart that is from your damn sexy red you have got going on with them here.

 

Here is to the start of a great army sir! Cheers!

The banner arrived. Small problem. It's difficult to see this in most of the photos of the Blackreach Captain, but the lower left corner of the banner is significantly elongated and bent forward. The purpose is to make the banner look like it is blowing forward in a strong wind. And while this effect looks pretty good on the Blackreach Captain, it doesn't look nearly as good on my Captain Artemis model.

 

The image below is angled such that it gives you some idea of how the corner of the banner is tapered, but it's still hard to see how far the corner is bent forward.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/blackreachcaptains.jpg

 

To fix this I held the corner of the banner in some boiling water and then bent the corner back until it was no longer pointing forward. This deformed the iconography only slightly, but it did move the half circle below the scroll work noticeably off-center. My solution was simply to carve off the half circle.

 

After bending the corner back some, I still wasn't satisfied. The bottom left corner was still too tapered, so I carved the corner down some. This destroyed a portion of the raised border, so I repaired it with some greenstuff.

 

The bottom of the banner rests directly on Blackreach Captain's backpack. To raise it up some, I cut the bottom off of a plastic banner pole from my bits box and attached it to the bottom of the banner. A short length of wire holds the banner to the new banner base and will extend into Artemis' eagle headed backpack.

 

Finally, I added a two bits from the Grey Knights kit to fancy it up some.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/WIPbackbanner.jpg

 

Once the GS has cured, it will be ready for paint.

Brother Captain Artemis, Master of the Marches

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/Artemis1.jpg

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/Artemis2.jpg

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New2/Artemis3.jpg

Brothers of the index astares!

 

I come before you seeking redress for ancient wrong! An ancient relic, more valuble than any archeotech in the vaults of Mars, has been discovered amongst this ancient data complier... the creative and image enhanced battle report! Lo and behold the wonders within! Long has the empire of man struggled aginst the dour, wall of text that so blights our scolls of honor so often. Ought not there to be a more fulminent vision of our world! There is and i say, it is here! But what is this? A damp chill wind buffets these empty halls. The report seems to have a place of less radiance than deserved by such a work! Such a thing should be displayed for all to see, for the Emperor in his decaying radiance has seen fit to grant our souls the ability to die in his honor, and surely such histories must be known to spread his glory amongst heretics and those who would deny him! I beesech you, brother koyote, share your vision of a world where it may be looked on by more than those whose knowledge of the honorable Mortifactors chapter is daily bread. The rarefied halls of the liber victorum await! For the emperor!

 

*cough* um... what happened? i kinda zoned out there for a minute. Oh uh cool thread. Nice models. I like your batrep. Why not put it in the batrep forum? Tough to know to look in this thread... ya know?

I like your batrep. Why not put it in the batrep forum? Tough to know to look in this thread... ya know?

Thanks. I am glad you enjoyed the batrep. I had fun making it.

 

I don't know about reposting it in another section. Of the loyalist chapter forums, the Index Astartes forum is one of B&C's redheaded stepchild forums, so I kind of like the idea of having something special hidden away within it. Something reserved for those relatively few members willing to give the forum a read from time to time. :cuss

I like your batrep. Why not put it in the batrep forum? Tough to know to look in this thread... ya know?

Thanks. I am glad you enjoyed the batrep. I had fun making it.

I agree with that, the batrep was indeed a real treat to read :P Any more coming up soon, or are you waiting to paint the force before you do another?

 

The new additions look smashing :)

 

Cheers,

 

Ludovic

I agree with that, the batrep was indeed a real treat to read :) Any more coming up soon, or are you waiting to paint the force before you do another?

I've been focusing on painting rather than playing. Nevertheless, each week I tell myself that I am going to head over to the Battle Bunker on Friday in order to get in a game, but then when Friday afternoon/evening comes around, I get home from work and I'm tired and all I want to do is relax with a drink and either spend time with the wife or, if she's made plans, get in a few more hours of painting. And of course, I work on Saturday, so that gaming window of opportunity is closed. Oh well. Maybe next Friday? :)

Awesome.

 

I've never actually liked the Mortifactors colour scheme...until now :lol: It's always seemed quite drab and uninteresting, but your models are so incredibly crisp and sharp (and you're right, the red bolter casings work much better than black). Looking forward to seeing the rest of the army painted :lol:

 

I also really like the army list and the theme behind it, and the battle reports are some of the best I've read online.

 

All in all, excellent work!

Sorry, I know its prob obvs, but where did you get the helmet on far right in tac squad above? the cut down beakie one. Really tempted to try and create some blood angels with them as a theme if they are easy to come by.

 

Such crisp work, cant wait for the enxt bat rep

Sorry, I know its prob obvs, but where did you get the helmet on far right in tac squad above? the cut down beakie one. Really tempted to try and create some blood angels with them as a theme if they are easy to come by.

The helmet you are interested in, along with many of the other unusual helmeted heads in the army come from the Black Templar Chapter Upgrade sprue.

 

Many, many years ago, this army was first assembled as a Black Templar army. Then I tore it down and reassembled it as Crimson Fists and later, because I wanted a more striking color scheme, as Imperial Fists. Then that idea got scraped because painting yellow is a nightmare, so the army became a Mortifactors (counts-as Dark Angels) army. And now, finally, it's a straight up Mortifactors army.

 

 

Since we are going down memory lane...

 

Here's a photo of some of the models in their earlier Black Templar incarnation and a photo of the Templar's allied Inquisitor and his retinue.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/crusaders3.jpg

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/retinue.jpg

 

 

Here's a photo of a conversion I did using the round icon from the metal Imperial Fists Upgrade sprue. This as when the army was led by Lysander and included two squads of Terminators.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/shoulderpads.jpg

 

 

And here's an earlier Incarnation of Captain Artemis as a counts-as Dark Angels Master Sammael.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New/artemis1.jpg

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New/artemis2.jpg

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/New/artemis3.jpg

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