Knights of the Lion WIP Blog

[Marius Perdo]

A New Year, a new project... A Dark Angels successor Chapter, which will be mostly counts as Ravenwing and Deathwing, to use up lots of older kits I have knocking about. This should also allow me to kitbash to my hearts content. Also it'll use an actual 6th edition codex for the 6th edition rules I should probably read the new(ish) rules first though I guess.

Colours will be primarily Tallarn Sand or Zamesi Desert, but I have been looking at pictures of actual lions for ideas for inspiration, with something lighter for the shoulder insets (possibly Karak Stone or Kislev Flesh). Chest eagles will be something pale, such as Administratum Grey worked up to White Scar. Gun casings will be Abaddon Black. Metallic ornamentation will be Warplock Bronze worked up to Auric Armour Gold. Surplices and tabards will be Rhinox Hide, and cloaks will probably be Wazdakka Red. I'll be using the hairspray technique for battle damage and powders for weathering. I'm not used to the newer paints as yet so I'll start on an old Battle of Macragge miniature as a tester to familiarise myself with the new palettes.

As for miniature style they'll be monastic(ish) knights, sort of like the original art for the Dark Angels Legion. A Black Templars/Fire Angels meets Dark Angels fusion, with lots of surplices and cloaks (and lion pelts), purity seals and litanies, knightly shields (particulalrly FW BT termie storm shields) and Grey Knight helms etc. For the lion theme I got some White Lions of Chrace parts and some Scibor bitz. A friend has been sorting out some graphics for a chapter symbol for me to print on decal paper. This was inspired by putting "eagle winged lion" in Google and getting the white eagle winged lion of Saint Mark image coming back, with a halo, holding a sword. A sign from the Emperor and the Lion, surely? Early days yet but some initial concepts...

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/lion-knight-2_zps22bf47be.jpg

I am quite taken with A at the moment.

As for parts I bought a few new Dark Angel kits, such as a Nephilim, a Venegance, and RW/DW command squad box(es), and I swapped some chaos stuff for some Dark Venegance odds and sods (3 boxes worth). And my usual bitz collection of FW armour marks will always help

Obligatory shot of a mound of plastic (and resin and metal)...

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/MoundofPlastic_zps5e9603a9.jpg

Basically enough for 90+ termies, 5 land raiders, 9 Land Speeders, 50 odd bikes (including a half dozen attack bikes), a few dreadnoughts with FW drop pods, so more than enough to eventually do a complete DW army and a complete RW army seperately. For those that know me FW parts will abound which should come as no surprise.

I am doing this army to actually play with so I should be a bit more focused. I am going top down so I'll do HQs and 2 troops of each type initially. The Scimitar arrived from FW yesterday (along with more BT FW shields for Deathwing Knights and Cataphractii storm/combi bolters for Deathwing) so I'll be fiddling with that this afternoon and converting it into a counts as Sammael on Corvex. A rough blu-taced mess should follow soon.

When a 6th edition SM Codex appears I will go back to my Doom Fists, and I also have a load of Khornate stuff to do a berseker army, so if I get bored I'll flit between projects.

Be warned though, my eyes aren't fully healed yet so there is still a little bit of blurring so I will be building and converting mostly until a mass base airbrushing occurs later on this month. So asking for paint on them will be futile for a while

[Peredyne]

Kudos for having a plan to get things complete!

If I were going to do something along these lines, I would also consider these helmets from Scibor: http://sciborminiatures.com/en_,shop.php?art=870#i/conversion_parts/big/sf_lion_heads.jpg

[Battle Brother Kevin]

I agree with you, option A is quite striking.

I cannot wait to see where you go with these.

[Marshal Traben]

Option A looks good. A while ago i also thought of a DA successor chapter that, had the same color scheme and name.

[Anaraion]

I like them all.

 

With no ties to any chapter I like B as it seems more symmetrical.  But you stated you are a successor chapter... so A is the best bet :).

[Llagos_Tyrant]

I don't even want to begin to think of what you spent on all that.

 

Regardless, I'm sure it will be an incredible collection all the same.

[Marius Perdo]

@Peredyne: I did consider the Scibor helms whilst i was buying all the other lion Scibor stuff (with which I am well pleased) but I wanted a knightish look (whilst still clearly being GW marines) which Grey Knight helms on termies worked well with and I wanted to use a lot of Forge World stuff (as in other armour marks) as I have it lying about. I think Mk II and Mk III helms will look good on bikers, as well as some of the BT ones. We'll see, I may get a few just to see what they look like dry fitted :) I do know the company champion helm from the command box with the eagle wings from the DA veteran sprue looks great.

 

@Battle Brother Kevin/Brother Khairon/Anarion: Yeah, defenitely A given they are successors of the Dark Angels. As for the same colours and name all I can say is great minds think alike :) I settled on it whilst messing about in the customiser in Space Marine (as in the computer game). It was actually Desert Yelllow and Dheneb Stone in that which I then used the conversion chart to work out what they would be now. No point using old paints as I'll need a fair few and the airbrush eats them up for fun :)

 

@GrimApostle: I have spent about £250 but that got me the Scibor stuff, new kits, the codex and some bitz (Okay, a lot of bitz). I had most of the other stuff lying about or I swapped stuff that was lying about for it. For example, when the WH40K 3rd edition box set game out it had a tactical squad and landspeeder in it and I got about a half-dozen speeders right there from mates who got the box to play dark eldar (as well as getting the rules). Some of the sprues are near a score in years old. Finally they will see some use :)

 

Update:

 

The scimitar is lovely and looks like it will dual-pin together nicely and not need gluing until the end so I can dry fit it and still have it stay togther (and paint it as separate components). The downside is the release agent is being a git to wash off, even with soap and an electric toothbrush. Either that or it is still sweating and wasn't cooked properly...which will be a bugger :( I'd hoped to have some pictures with a White Lion of Chrace chariot head blu-taced badly to the front with the plasma cannon coming out ot it's maw but that will have to wait. Sorry guys.

 

As for the symbols my mate "knocked" these together and is apparently going to do A much better, with a silly file size and huge dpi. This should make the ink dense enough that it won't look grey over the pale shoulders and thus hopefully no over painting. He'll be doing various sizes and I'll mirror the completed image sheet and print them facing both ways so they look sensible on the sides of vehicles, particulalrly bikes and speeders.

 

Also the entire chapter will be the same colour scheme. Having looked through all the Dark Angel codices I noted the Knights of Caliban termie and power armour marines had the same scheme and heraldry so I'll do the same with this lot, rather than trying to do my own version of a Deathwing and Ravenwing heraldry and paint scheme. Lazy but they should look unified at least.

[Biohazard]

Looking forward to your work on this force mate, your Doom Fists are inspirational to say the least so I can imagine these guys to be just as good.

 

A is definitely the best option for the symbol as well imho.

[Bryan Blaire]

This looks very cool! Will be interesting to see what you come up with. On the decals/symbols, I wouldn't use B or D anyway, because they look like the sword has been struck through the lion, instead of being part of the symbol.

[Rizara]

All the unforgiven successors pretty much don't have separate color schemes for their ravenwing and death wing. Only the dark angels themselves have different colors and originally the two special companies kept the legion colors, while the death wing only recently changing their colors to bone to honor the loss of death wing brethren. So you aren't being lazy by keeping them the same color. I look forward to seeing your army come along. Best of luck

[Marius Perdo]

@Biohazard: I hope I don't disappoint then mate Ooh, the pressure.

@Bryan Blaire: True on the decals now that you say it. Hoepfully the pics below are cool enough for you.

@Midnight Angel: Huzzah, I'm not being lazy For we know a moment of laxity spawns a lifetime of heresy brother. The Interrogator-Chaplains would have to have words with me otherwise, pointed words probably. Stabby ones too no doubt. And pinchy ones.

Evidence of non-laziness follows.

Okay, this is very rough and I still have many, many ideas to experiment with as yet. More on those after the pictures. My Master of Knights of the Second Company (counts as Sammael on Corvex). Tentative name Leonatus.

Left side

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0001_zps462e74df.jpg

Front Facing

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0002_zps2a4413b4.jpg

Right Side

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0003_zpsddd96391.jpg

I'll let folks guess where the bits come from as some seem to enjoy doing that

I'll be adding a winged lion holding a sword to the top of the curved thruster cowling at the back, reducing the size of the plastic card rear wings (and seriously tidy themup as I threw these together with scissors and went large so reduction would be easy), adding holes with barrels (Phobos style) for the twin-linked bolters near the 3 small vents on the front cowling on each side, plastic shields, purity seals, litanies, flowing lion pelts, brass etch Imperial eagles & plastic eagle wings (aquilas) on the "wings", Grandt Line rivets to give it a more 40K "lost archaeotec" feel as opposed to 30K fresh out of the factory look.

There is a lot of model to do it on but I want to keep it looking sleek, so it will be a balancing act (no pun intended) and trying hard not to get carried away. Very early days but a good start I think, which conveys the basic gist of what is in my head.

It is quite a bit longer than Sammael's mini so I forsee it being easily targeted and shot to bits the first time I field it but sod it...I love it already

*vroomwhoosh*

PS I am away until late Thursday working on Project Spartan where I will get to play with my spear and magic helmet, so there won't be any updates until the weekend probably.

[jeremy1391]

I like it, a hefty jet bike is a better mount for Sam.

[Oceangrave]

I was gonna do the same Sammael conversion, looks real good :D

[Captain Semper]

Wow! Very nice Sammel there Marius - i see you added some fins in the back section of the jetbike... They really tie in with the rest of the model - good thinking!

 

I must say this project sure looks very promising!

[Wraithwing]

Amazing stuff. 

 

Love the proposed chapter symbol. I'm leaning toward A or C for the symbol, as the others look like the lion has been slain by the sword. Probably C is the better one really. 

 

The Sammael counts as is lovely. Great way to make a counts as mini while still being very unique.

 

Thread followed, keep it up!

 

Cheers, 

 

WW

[Marius Perdo]

@jeremy1391: Yep, it is a big beast of a bike, Looks a bit like a locomotive engine to me which suggests speed, mass, and power. Very fitting for marines I think.

@Oceangrave: Glad you like it. To be honest I was surprised not to see one done as yet as it seemed inevitable to me. Just like the inevitable fate for all Fallen is to die screaming...erm, that was a little bit dark, even for me

@Captain Semper: Ta mate. The fins are there to balance out the back end and tie in with the front, but I also thought they'd link to other skimmers visually, like the landspeeder and the vengeance. They obviously still need a lot of work though. but the angle will mirror the front fins.

@Wraithwing: Thanks brother. Looks like everyone feels some love for A. Luckily that is my favourite one, so the A symbol defenitely has it.

Been away to Scotland and got back a day late. Spent most of today messing about designing and making a buffalo hide scabbard for my LARP kopis/falcata. However, I did find a few minutes to try out the winged lion statue/relic for the rear cowling.

Left Side

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0005_zps2a7e6a30.jpg

Rear

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0006_zps38351867.jpg

Right Side

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0007_zps1c59d274.jpgNot

Note as practically nothing is glued I am aware of slight misalignments from moving it about, due to things sliding partway off pins or blu-tac starting to give way.

I will be trawling through bits and sprues to identify what parts I will be adding, such as plastic eagle wings to come back from the lions head on the prow and one to the rear/left side of the Scibor lion shoulder pad (as well as a sword for the down right siide of said pad).

Probably a little more tomorrow, as in later today when there isn't a 0 at the start of the time in GMT

[Nomus Sardauk]

That is one beastly Samael stand-in, I love what you've done with him. I was wondering how it'd be till I started seeing conversions of FW jetbikes. :)

Now this could just be my personal preferences talking but I think one of PA Grey Knight heads might look better than the Company Champion head you have, it just seems more knightly. :p

[deathspectersgt7]

MY JAW DROPPED WHEN ISEEN YOUR GRANDMASTER GREAT WORK. I JUST COMPLETED   FOUR ANGEL OF  VENGEANCE TACTICAL SQUADS.

[Marius Perdo]

@SanguiniusReborn: Ta mate :) I hadn't thought of using normal PA GK helms (I had for GK termie heads for termies, specifically counts as Deathwing Knights). Nice idea. Very, very nice idea. So I have knicked it off you and robbed some off of my Doom Fist Honour Guard WIPs. See below. You are right. Very knighty :) Now I just have to keep watching bitz shops for more GK PA helms and DA veteran helm wings :)

 

@deathspectresgt7: Thanks. Given how slowly I work I reckon you'll finish several companies of Angels of Vengeance before I have even done an HQ and two Troops :)

 

Grey Knight Helm with Wings

 

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0001_zps3680b4a0.jpg

 

Well, I may have a few hours free in the afternoon between yoga and eBaying, before I go circuit training at the gym in the evening, so I'll try and get more done on him and move away from the horror that is blu-tac. I'll be adding some White Lions of Chrace lion pelts to his back and possibly draped over his seat and streaming/flowing behind. Oh, and that big Black Templar scabbarded sword modified and lengthened on the right side of his hip/rear engine cowling.

 

And eagles, lots of eagles, and lions...no tigers though, oh my ;)

[Nomus Sardauk]

@SanguiniusReborn: Ta mate :) I hadn't thought of using normal PA GK helms (I had for GK termie heads for termies, specifically counts as Deathwing Knights). Nice idea. Very, very nice idea. So I have knicked it off you and robbed some off of my Doom Fist Honour Guard WIPs. See below. You are right. Very knighty :) Now I just have to keep watching bitz shops for more GK PA helms and DA veteran helm wings :)

 

@deathspectresgt7: Thanks. Given how slowly I work I reckon you'll finish several companies of Angels of Vengeance before I have even done an HQ and two Troops :)

 

Grey Knight Helm with Wings

 

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/Craig_Shannon/DSCF0001_zps3680b4a0.jpg

 

 

Glad to be of service brother, that new helm looks mighty fine. :)

[sugar-free]

liking this so far. i might have missed it but what are the colors going to be?

[deathspectersgt7]

I've  been  switching  from  five different chapters.I have to much time on my hands but have't had the patience to do any conversion work.

[Marius Perdo]

@sugar-free: Post one, first full paragraph Basically the dun colours of actual lions. Although my counts as Belial, the Achillion mentioned in my signature, will most likely be a metallic gold.

@deathspectresgt7: 5?! And I thought I was mad I always convert, even basic marines. However this is the first miniature I have worked on since my eyesight was restored so I am pulling out all the stops on this fella.

Now, to yoga, to be in a room surrounded by supremely fit women in tight clothes that can bend into unusual shapes. And I am the olnly male there. Makes me feel a bit like a lion really

*shakes mane and roars*

Hmmm...I'll get my cloak.

[Lachdannan]

Looking forward to this. Definately a good start. Is the front of the jetbike going to have decals or freehand or both?

[deathspectersgt7]

How well do the scibor shoulder pads fit.