The Crimson Lancers - 4th Company Crimson Fists - viewasjack

[cretacianborn]

Greetings brothers!

 

So recently I've started to notice that I become a lot more motivated to paint when I have deadlines to meet or a goal in mind, so to that end, I've decided to start cataloguing my work on here as a sort of self-help method to clear my backlog and get my painting moving!

 

I'm currently working on an all-primaris version of the vaunted 4th Company of the Crimson Fists during the Indomitus Crusade. The Crimson Lancers, which was the old company of Captain Alessio Cortez before his disappearance. I have a lot purchased, but as mentioned, not much painted, so it's time to make a start. I love to convert and add a narrative and story to the models I paint so expect a little bit of fan-fiction if I post a model I'm particularly happy with.

 

First up is two five-man intercessor squads and a minor converted Lieutenant, who I have yet to name. I'm hoping to extend these to ten-man squads which will form the core of my battle line. Looking to get these finished in the next few days, Dorn willing. I'm trying to make these dudes as fluffy as possible, with the correct transfers and insignia too. The bare-headed sergeant was my first time sculpting hair with green stuff, as the head was originally shaven.

 

Anyway, would love to hear any thoughts on these, hope to be back with more updates soon.

 

"There is only the Emperor, he is our shield and protector!"

 

 

 

 

 

[Pearson73]

That's some nice, clean paintwork!

[Captain_Krash]

Wow beautiful job!

 

Krash

[cretacianborn]

Cheers guys! Still some work to go on them, mainly highlights and transfers!

[chosonofchaos]

Very nice so far. Nice and clean.

[cretacianborn]

Made some good progress tonight!

 

Nearly finished the lieutenant and made headway on one of the sergeants. Both still need some clean up, a little bit of weathering on the transfers and a coat of matt varnish, but these can all wait until i've finished both squads.

 

Hopefully more to come soon.

 

 

 

 

[Verux]

Beautiful paint job on these marines!

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Excellent painting they turned out really well!!

[MegaVolt87]

These are great, a full army like this will look amazing. Keep going! 

[cretacianborn]

Thanks so much to everyone who's commented so far. Finding this all super motivating. Managed to get a fair bit more done tonight.

 

Some more highlight work on the 3rd squad, just some minor clean up to do, quick matt varnish and then move onto 2nd squad. I managed to get all the transfers on both squads too.

 

The last image is under a lightbox I got given by a family friend and wanted to try out, but i'm not sure on how the picture came out to be honest. I prefer the pictures on my phone under my painting lights. Maybe I need to fix the lighting in it or add extra I don't know. Is that how light boxes are meant to look? I'm no photographer so any help there would be great.

 

Anyway! Hope you all enjoy these as much as i'm enjoying painting them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pork Chop Express]

Hey these look really great! What paint colors are you using. Also I like your transfers for the squad markings. Did you make those yourself or purchase them?

[cretacianborn]

Hey these look really great! What paint colors are you using. Also I like your transfers for the squad markings. Did you make those yourself or purchase them?

 

Cheers! My recipe for the power armour is this:

 

- Airbrush prime with Vallejo Black Primer.

- Arbrush with Rynns World Blue. (My own recipe. 2 parts VMC Deep Prussian Blue, 1 part GW Kantor Blue, and just a touch of VMA Signal Blue. I have this pre-mixed in a bottle already in ratios of 10mil, 5mil and 1ml respectively.)

- Recess shade of Army Painter Dark Tone mixed with Nuln Oil Gloss 1/1.

- Highlight with Altdorf Guard Blue then Alaitoc Blue, final dot highlight of Hoeth Blue which I haven't done on the models above yet. To be honest I might skip Altdorf Guard Blue going forward as it's kind of lost once I put the Alaitoc Blue on, they're very similar in tone.

 

The rest of the stuff is pretty simple GW recipes. Although on the metallics I use the Vallejo Metal Colour range as they're amazing and go on super thing but cover well.

 

The squad marking transfers are from this guy. Super nice dude, really helpful and really quick to ship stuff out! Can't recommend him enough to be honest. He even did me a free small sheet with various names and lettering on that I sent to him.

 

Hope that helps mate. Any other questions let me know!

[cretacianborn]

Finally managed to get battleline squads II, III and the lieutenant finished over the christmas period, had to wait on some matte varnish to arrive before I could call them finished. Haven't been completely unproductive though, managed to make a start on five more marines for each squad, to round out both to ten. Should hopefully have these done soon. In hindsight I wish I had given the squad leaders melee weapons, as I'm building this army with the intention of playing tabletop for the first time since the early 2000's. However you live and you learn, I guess it's a few points I can spend elsewhere!

 

Trying my hand at some minor lore for the squads below...

 

 

 

Battleline Squad III. Designation: Torres. Led by the newly promoted Sergeant Ceval Torres, after the death of the squads previous commander to the vile forces of Chaos during the short-lived campaign on Endimion VI. The newly acquired burden of command lies heavily on the comparatively young marines shoulders. However, he is eager to prove his worth to company and chapter, noted for leading the remnants of his squad in multiple daring frontal assaults during the campaign where they lost their previous sergeant, auto-bolt rifles spitting out unrelenting fury upon the forces of the Arch-Enemy.

 

 

 

Battleline Squad II. Designation: Savales. Squad Savales is commanded by the ever-dependable Juno Savales, a true scion of Dorn. Consitantly able to hold the line against the most furious of assaults by enemy forces, whilst keeping up a withering pace of fire and giving cover to the companies advancing battle-brothers. Many a battle plan composed by Captain Isidore Haleous has been formed around the linchpin of Squad Savales holding a barricade or strongpoint and providing an anvil upon which to smash any opposition.

 

 

 

2nd Lieutenant Antorus Alvor was counted amongst the first shipment of Primaris recruits to the Chapter from Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman, fighting alongside his "Unnumbered Sons" for many years before being presented to Chapter Master Kantor upon the Indomitus Crusades arrival to Rynn's World.

 

A veteran commander, much loved by his fellow marines. Many a member of the 4th Company has quietly joked (although certainly never to his face) that there was some kind of Adminstratum error and he was destined for the Imperial Fists upon his release from Guilliman's Greyshields, his dour nature being much more fitting to their cousins in that most severe of Chapters. However, despite how quiet and taciturn he may be, Alvor remains an exemplary member of company command, being a brother Captain Haleous can depend upon in the most trying of engagements. 

 

 

 

I was going to move onto a ten man squad of stalker equipped intercessors after the reinforcements for those squads, so I had a squad for every variant of bolt rifle, but I think I'll need a break from intercessors for a minute, so I've decided to semi-true-scale a five man sternguard squad out of the deathwatch kill-team and a box of sternguard veterans. As much as I like the scale of primaris, I still hold a special place in my heart for the older marines, and hopefully the Deathwatch legs won't look tiny compared to their taller brothers.

 

Also, I love the idea of a squad of veterans seconded to the various companies in order to aid and educate the newer generation of Astartes in the chapters culture and the proper arts of war, fitting to the sons of Dorn. Maybe each squad leader could be assigned to one of the veterans as a sort of tutor? I don't know, just playing with lore ideas at the moment. Hopefully it works out, might have to bust out some green stuff and shave off some of the Deathwatch symbols, we'll see.

 

 

Anyway, hope everyone here had a great Christmas and is looking forward to an even better new year. See you all in 2020! Cheers!

[cretacianborn]

 

 

 

Making progress on the reinforcements for Squads II & III. Hopefully have these guys finished in the next few days.

 

I was trying to think of what to add to a couple of the marines to mark them out as a squad leader if I decide to combat squad them in a game. My sergeants get a gold skull on their helmet and a skull on a black field on their kneepads, so something along those lines maybe, any ideas?

 

I've also scrapped the idea of true-scaling some sternguard with the deathwatch kit. I tried it briefly and the kits still look so small next to the primaris, and it would take a lot of greenstuff work to get them looking good. In their place I'm going to work on a veteran intercessor squad using the sternguard boltguns as "counts as" auto bolt rifles to give them a bit of extra pop. Maybe some nice shoulder-pads and some cool MKIV helmets sprinkled in.

 

Hopefully be back soon with some more progress!

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Those turned out really nice!!

[Fajita Fan]

Those are excellent, really clean and well done.

[Doghouse]

Fantastic work on these guys, speaking as a long time Crimson Fists fan you have really done them justice. :tu:

[ranulf the revenant]

Ouuh, they're really clean, nice job Edited January 13, 2020 by ranulf the revenant

[cretacianborn]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

 

Just got the bolters to highlight now and then a varnish and they're done. Hopefully have some more updates soon.

[cretacianborn]

 

Reinforcements nearly complete!

 

These ten marines will fill out my two previous squads to ten men each. Some final highlights and a varnish and they're finished. I repurposed a bunch of marines from the Dark Imperium box set for these, to try and get some variation in the poses from the standard intercessor kit. Pretty happy with how they turned out. However it does require quite a fair bit of cutting to get the attached shoulder pads off.

 

I really want to get a unit of stalker bolt rifles done too, so I had a squad to cover each variant of bolt rifle but I think i'm going to tackle my first redemptor dreadnought next, and build my 5-man veteran intercessors alongside. The 'dread will be painted up first though. I need a little break from edge highlighting power armour haha!

 

I've also come up with a neat little conversion idea for my other lieutenant of 4th Company. He appeared in one of my favourite Black Library novels about the Crimson Fists, called "Legacy of Dorn". Check it out if you haven't already!

 

The parts I need are in the mail, hopefully they'll arrive soon and I can get started. Thanks again for all the feedback everyone.

 

Cheers!

 

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

They turned out really great, nice work!

[PowerHungryMonkey]

These guys are just beautiful. So crisp and neat. That group shot is really something

[cretacianborn]

So after a hobby block of about 4 months that happened to coincide with moving house, I finally managed to get this guy finished up. Biggest model I've tackled so far but I'm happy with how he came out. He's not perfect, there's some texture on some armour panels and no matter how much Micro-Sol I used on the text transfer it just wouldn't settle down so you can still see the outline of it.

 

Very glad I pushed through the hobby block and got him completed though. Real sense of accomplishment on this one.

 

I'll include some home-brew lore for him below.

 

 

 

4th Company Dreadnought Ancient Iamad Argentus. Iamad was a former comrade of Alessio Cortez, and member of his honour guard. He fell covering a squads retreat against ork kommandos in the tunnels to the Cassar on Rynn’s World. His spine severed by an enemy grenade, propped against a bulkhead with his Bolter and sidearm, he slew 17 of the vile xenos before they could get their axes upon him. He was found weeks later during a supply run, his face and body a ruin of flesh and blood, even his superhuman healing abilities unable to repair the damage done by the orks. Upon the arrival of the Indomitus Fleet to Rynn’s World, Kantor deemed the mortally wounded hero should be interred into the sarcophagus of a mighty Redemptor Dreadnought, so he may still yet purge the aliens who cut him down. In the moments of his awakening for war he has formed a close bond with 4th Company Captain Isidore Haleous, lending him his wealth of experience and knowledge.

 

 

Up next are some Aggressors I've managed to get a head start on. Did some minor conversion on the hoods/helmets on these. Excited to get them finished up. These will bring me to a total of 20 Intercessors, a Lieutenant, Redemptor and 3 Aggressors finished. Super excited to start on my Veteran Intercessors after I finish these guys. Have some heavy conversion ideas planned.

 

They're going to form an honour guard for a certain recently promoted Lieutenant.

 

Anyone who's read the BL novel Legacy of Dorn may know the character

Edited June 29, 2020 by viewasjack

[WAR]

Very Nice!

[cretacianborn]

So, I finally finished off my Aggressors yesterday. What a pain in the ass they are to paint. So many edges to highlight. I really had to push through near the end and ended up rushing to be honest, but I'm glad they're out of the way.

 

I've also managed to get some mock ups done of the Veteran Intercessor squad. Still a bunch of gap filling and clean up to do, and barrels to drill, but I can't wait to get started on these guys. Will be a pleasure to paint after the marathon of the Aggressors. Still debating on head ideas, which is why you see some swaps between the images. Loaded them up with extra grenades and equipment pouches, helmets on belts etc. Some bionics sprinkled throughout. I really wanted them to have the look of true veteran marines.

 

These dudes are led by a survivor of Rynn's World who recently crossed over the Rubicon Primaris, Toma Corredo. I wanted them to have minor little Ork trophies on them, not too much as I didn't want to overdo it, just the odd tooth here and there, probably ripped from a Nob or Warboss they've slain. Sort of like the younger Primaris are emulating the old veteran survivor of Rynn's World. 

 

I stole the idea from a Marine in ADB's short story "One Hate". Fantastic read, even if you're not a Fists fan. Hopefully I'll be back with more updates soon. Thanks for checking my stuff out!