The Falsa Astartes Crusade

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I was thinking Telion actually. I think with a bit of work he's really fit the part

[DBadger]

Bah. 10 days after my order Wayland emailed me to say it'll be longer than their typical 3-9 days. You don't say. I've been spoilt by Amazon, used to things coming the next or same day as I'm not too far from Rugeley!

So while I wait I've ended up buying more books. 6ed Chaos Space Marines, 4th and 5th Space Marines, and the 2ed rulebook (Rulebook part).

So now I have rulebooks 2 through 8, and codex sm 3 through 7.

 

Dododo.

I went to Warhammer World to have a mooch around the shop. GW has got quite expensive. One figure for £22, are they having a laugh? The guy suggested Stormcast Eternals for tabards. Will see how the spellcrow ones look.

Bit of an update on my horsies:

 

 

Those are some new paints by the way. Not very good. Thought they'd be like GW but they're not at all.

[Kisada]

I think those Tamiya paints are mainly for airbrushing.

 

If you're looking for GW alternatives I'd check out Vallejo ... huge range of colors and you get like 50% more volume for less money.  Oh, also they come in nice dropper bottles which I like.

[DBadger]

I only picked them up because they were there to be honest, will stick to GW in future. Will pick up Vallejos if I ever see them. I tend to do all my shopping in bricks and mortar and only when I'm already near somewhere so it's normally a FLGS.

[DBadger]

I found four of my five tanks. Still missing my Land Raider.

 

These are a good decade old, and I was a kid back then (ish).

 

Nice thick paint on these guys.

 

Chimera - pretty standard.

 

 

Leman Russ - not sure when or why I added anti-roll wheels, but I did, so.

 

 

This... thing... is made out of cardboard, with some GW additions. It doesn't have a full set of treads.

 

I think it is meant to be a command chimera?

 

 

 

 

This thing is partly made of card, and the sides are from a Mk 1 Razorback that the previous owner had put together upside down.

 

 

Spot the base and sprue piece...

 

 

Regardless of whether they look nice or are any use, they'll all be painted up Templary and used for my Imperial Guard allies.

 

Edit:

 

Livery will be something like this.

 

[DBadger]

 

 

Unsure if the red is the flash or if I've missed some in repainting. Will have a look later. Probably missed some. Like I said, my eyesight ain't amazing.

 

Books - I've now got the 2ed boxed set books (Rulebook, Codex Imperialis, Wargear, Army Lists and Armageddon Scenario), Tau and Eldar 6th, WFB 5th.

 

I want to somehow create a box for the 2ed books, like how 7th edition comes. Not sure how to go about that. Might find another book that comes in a card sleeve and work from that.

[Marshal_von_Speer]

I know your feel: I just recently got myself a small guard army from a yard sale. Getting those models in to halfway decent looking shape is a pain! Good job on turning those wrecks in to something good looking! :tu:

[DBadger]

Wayland have finally shipped my termies.

 

So I have 5 Deathwing Knights, a Death Watch Sergeant in Termie Armour, six Templar shields, and a bunch of tabards coming in the post.

 

The tabards will spruce up my current guys. The termies though, need to decide a colour scheme. Thought about maybe inverting the BT theme - bone armour and dark tabards - but would that be too Dark Angels? Alternatively, normal BT colours but with red tabards, or do I just keep everything the same? I've seen various pics of either.

 

Edit:

 

Also ordered an AoBR dreadnought and five snap fit terminators. They were only cheap. My hope is to use the spare parts from the deathwing knights to make them more special. Maybe throw some tabards at them, file the DA emblems off the shields, weapon swaps, bit of reposing if possible.

 

So with my existing Termie, and my 2ed metal one if I can find it, I'll have 13 of the guys.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Leman Russ Demolisher looks great, but why is a non-Astartes commanding an Astra Militarum tank in Templar colors? Do Chapter serfs make up the tank crew? Do they serve in the PDF of a planet with a Chapter keep?

[DBadger]

I probably won't end up even using them - they were just there. But I think loosely my fluff is that they are guard based on the same planet as my crusade - the templars requisition the tanks and realise the usefulness of the crews as cannon fodder so they just go along with it.

 

Anyway. To move away from tinkering with silly tanks, my kits arrived.

 

I am having a LOT of trouble with the Deathwing Knights. Nothing sticks at all. I might have to use super glue. GW plastic glue does nothing. In contrast, the Deathwatch Captain went together swiftly.

 

Unfortunately he has his sword in the wrong hand and it's moulded to his body, so he's ended up mirrored to the rest of my guys.

 

Impressed with the Spellcrow components. Remembered to wash them this time. Unfortunately very easy to break the brittle components - corner of this shield is missing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shields:

 

 

Whole squad:

 

 

 

In the end it turns out there are less arms than I wanted in the kit. Plenty of other bits, but arms are lacking. So I ended up using power fist arms and cutting off the fists, for the shields to fit on to. Unfortunately this means those arms are a little short!

 

I removed all the DA iconography I could, but while I tried with the shoulder pads in the end I gave up as they look terrible now. I removed the DA icons on two of them, the rest I am going to leave and come up with some fluff for why they have winged angels. At least that matches some of my other guys...

 

Next step will be to prime some tabards and retrofit them to some of my existing models and see if they look any zealier.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Me: "Why use Dark Angels models to represent the Emperor's TRUE CHAMPIONS?!"

 

DBadger: "Yoink!"

 

Me (shrugs): "Fine, you convinced me. The Emperor-damned perverts deserve to be screwed over- robbed of everything not bolted down on their Emperor-damned Rock- as payback for all the times they screwed over other loyalists."

[DBadger]

Very early days but here's a start. My terminators so far (the Revell kit is still in the post).

 

 

 

I am aware they need a LOT of work. Also I have made a fair few mistakes (such as the top being fully robed when it's just a tabard front).

 

 

In context a bit.

 

 

I was naive to think I could retrofit my army with tabards.

 

It works on the snap fits, ironically they now stand out for an entirely different reason!

 

But on dynamic pose marines they don't work at all. And they are clearly designed to be the bottom half of Spellcrow tabard tops, rather than used separately. Not an issue if you're modeling from scratch of course, and I'm sure they'd look great, but they don't work to convert existing marines unfortunately.

 

 

Briefly diverging back to my books for a second, I wanted to do something with all of the flimsy paper saddleback ones I've accrued. Some of them are really fragile.

 

So I created basically a shiny box to put them in that looks reasonably like a codex.

 

I call it "Codex: Compendium".

 

Basically took a poundshop QI annual, removed the pages (kept them, won't destroy books!), spray painted black, and applied stickers I created and printed.

 

Issues:

 

- it rained while the paint was drying. Only a little, but enough to ruin the cover. I had to go over with citadel paints, so it looks a bit dodgy

- slightly too narrow in both width and depth

- not sure if you can even spraypaint books

- sticker paper is a bit fragile, easy to knock ink off, so had to go back over with a black marker

 

Contents: (add Codex: Primaris Space Marines to this once I find it again!)

 

 

Cover:

 

 

Spine:

 

 

Context:

 

 

And my collection:

 

 

Edit:

 

Cleaned up a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's my second attempt at my book boxes. This one to hold the 2nd edition rulebook and make it as bulky as the others.

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're making good progress on the Terminators. The Codex Compendium is a good idea.

[DBadger]

Thanks. Unfortunately I am easily distracted (hence the compendium), thus I found myself scavenging for parts for when my dreadnought arrives in the post.

 

I'm turning it into a venerable dread, and I've used a terminator torso front, a death watch shoulder pad and a power armour head to create a sarcophagus.

 

 

On the right, I have shaved the wings off a dark angels shield, leaving me with this robed figure with a sword. It will either go on my dreadnought, if it fits, or if not then one of my other terminators will wear it (they are in the post) along with the shoulder pad there, which I have also shaved the wings off leaving a central sword emblem.

 

This is what's in the post:

 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I had a set of those terminators, if you put them together right they twist at the hip!

[DBadger]

Since the shield turned out alright I think they're all gonna have them now. Ven dread will get the blank shield above with some embellishments. (I have a DA accessory sprue somewhere, but again I am aware of looking too much like a DA successor)

Not sure what weapons I can scavenge for my dreads. Would shields look weird with big guns and storm bolters? I have a few of whatever the gatling gun arm is, some heavy plas/melta, and one power sword.

Ven dread is going to get the Deathwing knights banner on his back. Will also see what I can do about a base - going to a beach next week so hopefully something nice crops up.

Also found and primed my land speeder. But as it's piloted by neophytes, I find myself again wanting some in my army.

I have five tabards saved for my termies. I HATE Termie heads, so hopefully if they're not too well attached I will swap them out for hooded heads next time I do a spellcrow order. Oh and I hate backpack banners too so that will be going.

Finally I have two sets of deathwing knights legs left, will see how and where they fit in wrt reposing etc.

 

Edit: I should put this here too.

 

This is what I've managed to create using my bits box (mainly the remains of a Deathwing Command Squad box which has many spare bits).

 

Helpfully you can tell with the blue to grey which bits are from which, although some will be from other kits.

 

Here is what I did to my dreadnought:

 

 

To do this I hacked the sarcophagus off the front. I used a spare torso front from the Deathwing and a shoulder pad from Deathwatch sprue to create the new sarcophagus, and a spare head.

 

I placed this on plasticard and fixed to the space where the hole was.

 

Banner is from Deathwing, tabard is a power armour backpack banner (stole that idea from Grotsmasha).

 

Sergeant:

 

 

Bit of dynamic posing by virtue of some bits from the Deathwing. I replaced the front with yet another spare torso piece (you get five in the Deathwing). This allowed me to change his head.

 

Squaddie 1:

 

 

Unfortunately I didn't have enough power swords.

 

The shield here is from the deathwing. I shaved off the wings to leave just this robed figure. (I missed with my pin vice unfortunately while drilling the barrels)

 

Squaddie 2:

 

 

I don't know if the equipment I've given is legal. I likely won't play them anyway.

 

Squaddie 3:

 

 

Legs were spare from DA veterans. To fit the weapon I had to attach spacers between the arms and the torso which has left it looking at odds with the rest.

 

I am also missing a shoulder pad and didn't realise - will have to try and find it.

 

Squaddie 4:

 

 

The heavy weps from the Deathwing box look reasonably satisfying in my opinion and make them look less statically posed.

 

Full army:

 

 

It's going to take a lot of greenstuff to sort the gaps however.

 

Comparing to other things, I believe the plastic they are cast in is actually the plastic GW use for their black bases.

 

 

 

Edit:

 

Here's some better photos now that it's daylight. Hopefully you can see better the plastic quality.

 

I ended up doing a hatchet job to get a spare shoulder pad. Also found a better weapon for my sergeant, and a sprue of purity seals.

 

Not sure what's going on above his head, I'll sort that out.

 

 

 

 

 

Edit again:

 

Primed and scenic based.

 

 

In retrospect I should have primed it before assembly. I have smurf in places I can't reach.

[Brother Christopher]

There's so much going on in here. Firstly, there's amazing progress. The elite additions are great and flavourful. Ideally, I'd like to remove more of the DA iconography, but I myself got lazy and left some DA daggers on my Marshal based on Seraphicus and probably will eventually use DA maces as thunder hammers for some of my TH/SS Terminators.

 

I like what you did to the Dreadnought. The sarcophagus conversion is top-notch. And the winged skull (from an IG kit, right?) is a particularly nice touch - a creative use of the bit, with one wing removed. If I may, I'd recommend gluing tubes to extend the exhaust stacks. The base also appears to be interesting, though I can't see much in the last photo.

 

But what I really love is what you did with the storm shields. The idea to shave off the wings only is great and, if you don't mid, I'll "borrow" it for my shields from DA's Termy kit. This should suffice as a fix for excessive DA connotations.

 

Finally, you have a great collection of books. Definitely something to be proud of. I wonder, how does your bookcase deal with the weight of all that legacy?

[DBadger]

Thanks.

 

The dread base is some more IG stuff hacked up.

 

The old battleforce came with two cities of death ruins. I used the floors as based for my dread and my Marshall, and I hacked bits off the walls which I have added to my dreadnought and other bases for a consistent theme.

 

I found some greenstuff in a local DIY store - last box but only £2.50... I've used it to coat two bases which I have engraved tiles into to again match the dread and Marshall, and added some more of the ruins I mentioned. These are on heavy weapons team bases.

 

It's still the rule that you can go bigger with bases but not smaller, right? Regardless I have given my two Termie squad leaders these bases, which let me then give some of my old style termies the more modern Termie base size.

 

I am going on holiday for a week - last time I did that I took some figs and forced myself to complete them. This time I am taking my dread and all my termies and will aim to have them all "complete".

 

I'll take some better pics of my bases later.

[Brother Christopher]

When you paint them, I'm sure everything will get fleshed out nicely and will look amazing. Good luck with your holiday!

 

Regarding bases, in the past GW used to say that the bases you got with the kit are always "legal". So I suppose it's still okay to run old-school Terminators on 25 mm bases. The same applies to power armoured infantry which got shifted to 32 mm.

[DBadger]

See what you think of these. Black Templar-y enough? Or too Dark Angel?

 

First here is my venerable dreadnought, from a £17 set.

 

 

A look at the scenic base. Still some way to go and needs actual basing materials etc.

 

 

 

The banner isn't finished, I'm not sure how to do it to be honest. Painted back over bits black.

 

 

So this guy is the "sergeant" of the squad. I know that sword brothers won't have a leader. I'll work that out later.

 

 

 

I need to file and then paint the base edges.

 

These lot are:

 

- my five terminators from the aforementioned £17 kit

- a terminator that came free with White Dwarf a while ago

- an early metal terminator

 

 

They need new bases.

 

Here's how a DA shield looks with the wings removed:

 

 

Have not settled on a colour design for those shields yet.

 

My other sergeant:

 

 

 

 

So the base design kind of follows through with my other minis.

 

Here's my marshal for comparison.

 

 

Here's my dark angels Deathwing Knights then.

 

 

 

How a mixed squad would look:

 

 

The whole lot:

 

 

And, finally, in context.

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

A good start.

[DBadger]

I have made some bases out of poker chips (turns out two sandwiched together is identical in size to a terminator base) so I can rebase the termies.

 

 

They look more like a coherent squad now.

 

I also gave them tabards although I had a lot of trouble getting them to stick. Their positioning isn't great, but for the life of me I cannot do any better, already have superglue everywhere. Superglue doesn't appear to stick to resin very well at all?

 

They'll all be getting capes next time I do an Anvil order, and some will get purity seals wherever the pure white/black needs breaking up.

 

Edit:

 

Have ordered: 5 cloaks for my terminators, some armour played for their waists to bulk them out like their modern friends, some melee arms (will see where I can improve my minis with them), and a load of 32mm bases to rebase my early marines.

 

Also snapped up WFB 8th (the big one) for a tenner; will see what condition it comes in but it usually goes for about £50!

[DBadger]

This is just a prototype but I'd like to share it so I can decide where to go with it.

 

This is either (depending on how it goes down):

 

- my version of a Neophyte

- an Imperial Guard ally

 

But with some changes.

 

Probably swap for greatcoat legs:

 

http://anvilindustry.co.uk/image/cache/catalog/Regiments/legs/longer-greatcoat-legs-sprue-a-400x400.jpg

 

And different heads.

 

http://anvilindustry.co.uk/image/cache/catalog/Regiments/Heads/pmc/long-hair-heads-400x400.jpg

 

 

 

Comparison:

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job.

[DBadger]

"Squad" of five.

 

 

 

How they'd look in a mixed squad, if they're Neophytes.

 

 

Heads will be changing.

 

My termies are done for now:

 

 

 

Tinkering with my Emperor's Champion again.