The Targothian Crusade

[Malios]

 

 

"With the shadow of Leviathan lifting, our astropathic choir has received a call for aid from the Targothian expanse. It is unknown how long their choir has screamed into the warp for aid, but this matters not: in our ten millennia of service, not once have the Angels Encarmine ever refused a call for aid from loyal citizens of the Imperium. Prepare yourselves my brothers, for with bolter and blood we will bring retribution with wings of fire!"- Meroth. Chaplain of the 5th Company, Angels Encarmine.

 

 

 

G'day denizens of the Bolter and Chainsword,

 

Welcome to my WIP log, the Targothian crusade which is to help motivate me into completing an army that I have wanted to do for a while now: an army of the Angels Encarmine. I'd put off building such an army for years due a busy working schedule mixed with a lack of confidence in the hobby aspect. But, after doing some hobby courses run by a few friends of mine, a change in circumstances resulting in more free time and the release of the Primaris Space Marine range, I'm finally willing to give it a go.

 

Initially, the blog will follow me building the first component of the Angels Encarmine army, a demi-company of Primaris Marines alongside the company leadership all the while infusing the narrative of the Targothian Crusade from their perspective as the protagonists. As time goes on (and depending on how well I go with the project), I will later feature the second planned army who will form the antagonists of the crusade and, just for a change, tell the crusade from their perspective!

 

Now, undoubtably there is going to be a few questions on why I picked the army that I've picked. Rather then boring people with a wall of text, I've placed those questions in spoiler tags for those who want to know the answers:

 

 

1) Why did you choose an Angels Encarmine Army as the protagonists?

 

I've always liked the Blood Angels and their successors due to their twin aspects of nobility and monstrousity: the delicate balance between their angelic aspect and the madness within really hits home with a sense of tragedy that can give alot of depth to the army and the characters within it. Having also had an on again / off again Alpha Legion hobby project for the Horus Heresy, red made a good contrast to blue from the hobby perspective so naturally the decision was set from the onset. Blue for the Horus Heresy minis, red for the 40k minis.

 

The big problem I had however, is that the Blood Angels colour scheme is.... nowadays rather bland: red from head to toe with a black aquilla just didn't do it for me, even with the coloured helmets. The Blood Angels chapter is also incredibly fleshed out from a lore perspective being GW's poster boys, leaving very little room for me to add my own creative flare to them. This naturally pushed me towards one of the Blood Angel's successor chapters. 

 

Initially I was keen on the Flesh Tearers, especially after reading Andy Smillie's Flesh Tearers anthology and other works that featured them. I really liked their colour scheme, I really liked their fluff and most of all, there was enough creative room for me to place my own twist on them. But, Flesh Tearers are a really popular army thanks to recent support for them in 7th edition and several people in my area collect Flesh Tearers as a result. Unfortunately for me, I was thwarted by the need to be different so flesh tearers, just like their primogenitors, were off the cards.

 

It was listening to the Stromark massacre that brought me to the Angels Encarmine. Here was a chapter that had a colour scheme that appealed to me (being very similar to the IX Legion colour scheme in 30k) with enough lore fleshed out to give them character but with plenty of wiggle room for me to "flesh it out" as I go. The alabaster white death company and sanguinary guard, for the sheer fact that it is so different to the rest, also appealed to me as both a hobby challenge as well as a contrasting centrepiece to the army. 

 

Thus the decision was made!

 

 

2) Why Primaris Marines?

 

There's a couple of reasons I chose Primaris Marines as the starting point I suppose.

 

The first reason is their scale: the moment I saw the Primaris Marines on Warhammer Community, I was like "you beaut! That's what Space Marines are supposed to be!" Their scale and appearance would make airbrushing them much easier then their normal marine counter-parts, and due to their armour appearance I could combine them with Forge World's Mk4 helmets and previous Blood Angels bitz to create a distinctive Blood Angels-esque marine.

 

The second reason was that it was an easy starting point lore-wise: I'm looking forward to the more fleshed out version in the upcoming Devastation of Baal (and will no doubt have to make small adjustments because of it) but from what we do know, Primaris Marines will no doubt be filling alot of holes in the Blood Angel's (successors included) battle lines. Considering that the Angels Encarmine were severely under strength BEFORE the Devastation of Baal, they will no doubt be one of the recipients of Primaris Marines. The impression with the army being from the 5th Company means that the demi-company of primaris marines can act as the "line infantry" of the company, to which I can incorporate more veteran, "old astartes" later.

 

From a rules-perspective, with the Blood Angels codex not being released yet, I'm also not concerned that Primaris Marines will change too much once the Blood Angels codex drops, giving me a safety net of expectation which I don't have at the moment for Blood Angels specific units. Once the Blood Angels codex drops and we see how the changes to Blood Angels specific units like Sanguinary Guard and Death Company go, I can incorporate those elements into the army at a later time.

 

 

 

Now, going forward with the army, I intend at first to build the following:

 

• 1 x Primaris Lieutenant
• 3 x 10 man Intercessor Squads
• 2 x 5 man Inceptor Squads
• 2 x 5 man Helblaster Squads

 

This adheres with a codex-compliant demi-company and is easy to collect, thanks to being in the starter sets. (My girlfriend also collects Death Guard for a double whammy!) The Company Captain, Chaplain, Sanguinary Priest, 2nd Lieutenant and Command Squad will come later: with 50 plebs to paint first, one would hope that I've had plenty of practice for the centre-pieces of the Company.

 

The other decision I've made is to mount the entire demi-company on 40mm bases, with the Inceptors on 50mm bases. To me the 32mm bases for Primaris just look slightly too small and I've come under the Age of Sigmar sway that "bigger is better" in the basing department. Considering that I'm going more for the hobby aspect rather then the gaming aspect, upgrading to 40mm wasn't a deal breaker (I'll also jump that hurdle when I have to play against players where this is a big deal) and gives me more creative opportunities  hobby-wise to work with.

 

Now... colour testing:

 

Having read the Horus Heresy master-class book by Forge World, I was keen to try the pre-shade method with airbrushing that they used on the Questoris Knight. I trialed different colour methods on plastic spoons and the results are below:

 

 

 

 

The spoon on the left featured gold pre-shades with clear blue to form an additional shadow in the darkest points and clear red over the top to form the colour. The spoon on the right used silver pre-shades with clear blue again in the darkest areas and clear red over the top. As much as I like the silver pre-shade colour because its a more insidious crimson (the silver pre-shades tend to stand out more as well, wheras the gold pre-shades tend to blend in with one another once the red is applied due to being very similar on the colour wheel) it would suit the Flesh Tearers army better and felt a tad too crimson for the Angels Encarmine. The gold on the other hand made a nice terracotta red colour which was perfect for what I needed.

 

Now, the bases:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I chose the urban-rubble / Necromunda style base as a contrasting colour to the red marines. These were the first bases I did as a quick test and I'm happy with using cork going forward. A friend of mine gave some advice that they needed slightly more rubble and effects to pull off an urban rubble look rather then a rocky look so going forward I'm going to incorporate more. For a bit of contrasting colour, I also added in some orange weathering powders to add a little bit of spot colour to the dirt to further tie it in with the miniature.

 

Anyways, that's a good start to the blog I think. Miniatures I promise will not be far off.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Malios.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Malios

[abraxus]

AS someone who has had an airbrush for over a year, is terrified to use it, and loves the metallic red type color schemes... do you have a step by step of each color you used on those spoons?  I really like both shades, and may use one on each of two knights.  I have 7 knights I need to put to paint and I need to buckle down and do it.

[Malios]

AS someone who has had an airbrush for over a year, is terrified to use it, and loves the metallic red type color schemes... do you have a step by step of each color you used on those spoons?  I really like both shades, and may use one on each of two knights.  I have 7 knights I need to put to paint and I need to buckle down and do it.

 

Hey mate,

 

Fully understand how you feel about the airbrush: it was scary to use at first for me too. Two bits of advice I can pass on that will help is if you get the opportunity to attend a beginner's airbrush course, I strongly recommend it. Even if its just to learn how to properly clean your airbrush, fault correct it when something goes wrong like a dry needle and how to thin your paints properly, you won't regret doing it. The other piece of advice I've got is start off with a cheap, dual action airbrush rather then an expensive one: the larger needles are a little more forgiving if you don't mix your paints properly and as they say, most people break their first airbrush. Better that its a cheap airbrush that you break then an expensive one.

 

As for the colours, unfortunately I don't have any photos or step by step guides at the moment. For the silver pre-shades, if you manage to get a chance to read the Horus Heresy masterclass book by Forge World, it has a good step-by-step guide which I pretty much followed word for word. Otherwise, I can try and do one up for you in the near future?

[Malios]

Unfortunately, the test squad was an absolute disaster.

 

The pre-shades went on well, the tamiya clear red coat went on brilliantly. Then I sprayed the gloss varnish on in preparation for the enamel oil wash.... 

 

....and the clear red got stripped away!!

 

I'm not 100% sure what happened as there's lots of variables. The gloss varnish in the rattle can could have been too close to the miniature or too thick and ate away the paint. The clear red paint could have been pre-thinned previously by myself before adding more thinners again this time. The humid weather could have messed with stuff. Either way, the result was a disaster with the red paint being stripped away into a blotchy mess.

 

But, considering that the Gloss varnish is enamel based and its too much work with too little gain to strip off, I simply made the decision to write off the squad as a test squad to try new things and invest in a new squad of primaris marines later (with the Death Guard getting a good codex, it won't be too hard to find them second hand I don't think).

 

Despite the set backs, I'd learnt a bit from this squad in do's and don't do's for next time. Huge shout out to Brother Dracul for the Angels Encarmine decals designs: I'm glad how the decals turned out.

 

Don't be fooled by the pictures as the light box is doing most of the work (next time I'll borrow the wider lens rather then the narrow lense in order to show the whole model in focus rather then specific points of the model):

 

[The Squad]

 

[Primaris Intercessor]

 

[Primaris Intercessor]

 

[The Squad with different camera settings and surface]

 

Regards,

 

Malios

Edited October 23, 2017 by Malios

[Tyrannicide]

Sucks to hear about the troubles, but I still think they look great! I thought I had written off metallics for my Blood Angels, but you’re making me rethink that.

[Sagentus]

These look great! Really like the gold armor, its hard to get gold armor to show character and youve managed it

[Malios]

Its been a busy couple of weeks.

 

With the second squad almost completed, I decided to stand one of the primaris next to one of my older 30k Alpha Legionnaires. Its amazing how a larger base really emphasises the scale of the Primaris compared to the older marines on the old 25mm bases.

 

I must apologise now, the photos were taken from my Samsung Galaxy S5 so they're not the best quality.

 

Regardless, enjoy!

 

[A new breed of hero alright.]

 

[edit] And a few more happy snaps with different lighting to highlight the red and the blue slightly differently.

 

[Front View]

 

[side View]

 

[Rear View]

Edited December 7, 2017 by Malios

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your models look good, like polished bronze.

[Malios]

The next squad is complete.

 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Malios

[Doghouse]

Very nice stuff, I actually really like that first squad it has a very john blanche feel to it.