Silver Templars - Imperial Crusade

[Doghouse]

Hushrong: Thanks mate. The idea I'm toying around with is their presence in the Crusade feels a little necessary, like it's enough overkill to raise some suspicions amongst the other factions but none will question it. What I'm thinking is that there is something bad in the region where the Crusade is heading, something long since purposefully forgotten and they are there to see it stays that way. The idea being that the Imperium needs that region of space reclaimed but there is some ancient and forbidden tech somewhere out there that the Emperor long ago decreed not to be tampered with. Something bad enough that they will turn on the Crusade and extinguish it should the need arise.

 

jaxom: This is kind of what I started a long while back, I bought a ton of the plastic ratlings from Blackstone fortress really cheap ages when the game came out and played around with a few of them. When I get around to it these will be a fun little force to put together. As you can see here on these ones I started to mess around with it's mostly minor changes such as arm positions and head coverings for now. I love the idea of this Captain being put in charge of them and trying not to pull her hair out as she tries to lead them. I have about thirty I think in total.

 

 

 

Markus_: Thanks mate, yeah I hope once I have them all done they'll look cool. I may add some flagellents that follow them around seeing them as divine instruments of the Emperor as that was what I was considering using the Cawdor for. An Imperial cult that are basically hangers on maybe using the Guard conscripts rules or something.

 

 

Well I've mostly been cheating on 40k today painting up Clone Troopers for SWL but other than base coating gold I've been taking a look at the Enforcers. I wanted to do something a little different and make a female enforcer using a female AOE Sigmarite head and cutting the legs down a little to make it look like there is a woman under the bulk of the arnour. It's worked out quite well but I still need to read up on the rules.

 

 

[hushrong]

Oh, I like where the ideas are going for the custodes. Sinister but necessary. Be neat to see what could warrant such a need for their presence and vigilance...and knowing that they could execute their fellow crusaders if need be.

 

The ratlings look pretty fun and I feel for their officer. And thirty of them!?

 

I also like the female enforcer. I def want to copy tour lead on that whenever I pick some up. I keep watching dredd on repeat while hobbying and the thought of a helmet-less female judge is perfect.

[Doghouse]

Yeah I quite like the idea of the Custodes aiding the Crusade with the caveat that should they venture too close to a region of space that they will exterminate them without a second thought. The idea being there is a planet in the region they will be questing in that holds a dark and terrible secret that the Emperor wants no one to have knowledge of. It could be anything, rogue AI, unbanishable imprisoned entity, perhaps even a secret from the Emperor's own past.

 

I've been toying around with the Enforcer kit, chances are I'll never really get back into Necromunda again even as much as I would love to so I've decided to use the models in a different way. I'm not making these as a Loyalty 32 type of thing to squeeze out more command points but more of a way to include humanity in the army. The scale of these guys brings home just how tough and big the Astartes are so I want to include two company commanders and thirty infantry. I'm using the enforcers kit as the basis for this , I had toyed around with much more extensive conversions but to be honest I think this works better.

I'm not sure if to use the guy with the cap as one of the commanders or a squad sergeant at this point.

 

 

 

Tricky part is that you only really get four decent bolter arms which I attach the barrel from a Skitari gun barrel. So what I am thinking of doing is to make the most of the kit and maybe put together some shotgun vets and some special weapon team snipers. I quite like the look of these guys, in my head the Necromunda Enforcer armour is another STC pattern design that has found it's way into a Guard regiment. Maybe when founding the Regiment the armour was sourced from Necromunda.

[jaxom]

 

I'm not sure if to use the guy with the cap as one of the commanders or a squad sergeant at this point.

 

Maybe it's the face, but I see a commander.

 

 

 

Tricky part is that you only really get four decent bolter arms which I attach the barrel from a Skitari gun barrel. So what I am thinking of doing is to make the most of the kit and maybe put together some shotgun vets and some special weapon team snipers. 

it's something like 6 shotguns per box, so two boxes give you enough to make one normal squad (8 bolt-lasguns, special weapon, sergeant) and one veteran squad? Otherwise, maybe a Vanguard battalion and have just veteran squads (would the not decent bolter arms work as autoguns?) and special weapon squads?

[Doghouse]

Yeah I think you are right there about the face, I may have to include an Ogryn bodyguard in similar style scaled up armour.

 

It looks like six shotguns and six bolters per box then you have two sniper rifles. I may have to go the Vanguard route but I'm not totally sure yet. I think I'll have to look at points costs but the one of advantage of going with Vets is the better BS skill and more varied weapon loadout. Looks like straight from the codex without looking at the latest points changes it's only 2 points more per model.

 

Although you get six bolters and shotguns only four are used in both hands. The other two are one handed leaving me having to source something for a right hand. So from each box I could get 4 bolters for converting to autogun/lasgun, 4 shotguns and 2 snipers.

 

I think I worked it out as 8 boxes giving me 32 infantry models with autogun/lasguns, 16 sniper models and 32 shotgun vets with very little converting needed.

[hushrong]

Having the custodes around can definitely spruce up some intrigue in the narrative.

 

The idea of using the enforcers in the army is pretty sweet too. The venerable guard plastic is good but it'll be nice seeing these guys in their place. The thought of their arms and armor being STC definitely works.

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate, yeah they should look really nice when stood alongside the Astartes.

 

Just a quick update, while rummaging through my vast store of bits I came across something a bit special. Something like 20 years ago my first ever models I posted online was the White Scorpions army I made and my first ever post here on Bolter and Chainsword. There is a complete army of them somewhere hidden away in the attic.

I think I was a bit ahead of my time with the first Invictor warsuit. The idea was that he was a dreadnought HQ which at the time I think I was using the newly released 3rd edition Space Wolves codex.

 

 

The marines were quite a simple conversion using the relativley new mutlipart models at the time combines with catachan arms and heads complete with sculpted berets and a Kroot shoulder pad. These ended up being the basis for many people's plastic scout conversions for quite a while.

 

 

But back to the present I've been playing around with the second company commander model and a test sniper. Turns out the beret heads from the Scions kits work really well with these with a little chopping and they scale really nicely. I want the snipers to be covered in gear to give the impression they move into enemy territory days ahead of the battle to set up. What I'll probably do is give the snipers and veterans the berets so the commander with the cap is commanding the regualrs while the commander with the beret will command the special forces. The two of them give off a monty and patton vibe stood next to each other.

 

 

Lastly dug out an old Ogryn that I want to rebase and rescupt to be used as a bodyguard and a small group shot.

 

 

[Doghouse]

I think the back story is slowly coming together now for the theme of the Crusade. Creating a bit of a backstory to your army can prove to be a fun way to tie all the elements of the army together and this is where I will start mine. It doesn't have to be worthy of the Black Library or even have dialogue between characters but it does help sometimes to have a theme in your mind and helps with conversion ideas and special characters.

 

 

And so it would begin with a whisper, a half heard truth spoken in one of many of the drinking houses of Precipice of the promise of lost and ancient technology to be found that would draw fortune seekers from all over the galaxy. The drunken boasts of ownership of a data slab holdng such great wealth in this instance would see the promising career of said young adventurer cut brutally short as he met his grisley end in a dark back alley while drunkenly making his way back to his ship. Lacking the knowledge to decipher the tricket's secrets the data slab would be sold on as a curiosity, passing through the hands of several traders and adventurers over the years. Eventually ending up hung apon a chain around the neck of a pirate captain, a chain  no less that was said to have been attached to a plug that had been in a wash basin that had once been used by Sebastian Thor. Who had despite her best efforts to cheat promptly lost it in a game of chance to a rather smug Rogue Trader on his way to explore the depths of the Black Stone Fortress. Unfortunately the Rogue Trader's abundant charm would be of little use and his luck was proven shortly lived. His party eventually blundering into the nest of an adult Ambull as once again the trinket would lie in the darkness amongst their remains lost for decades more to come.  

 

Few within the Adeptus Mechanicus believed in the ability of Tech-Priest Manipulator Iktinos despite his insistance that his data and methods were of the most flawless credibility. Even after his augmentation, with the removal of parts of weak flesh, he would still remain a timid man. His emotions haunted him and even though with each elevation through the order and operation to replace bone and sinew with pistons and gears part of him clung to his humanity like a frightened drowning man clinging to a broken raft. He had begun to doubt his calling and his resulting behaviour had been openly percieved as weakness by many of his superiors.

 

It had been a day of mixed blessings when he had been sent to Precipice. His lust for knowledge and information tugged at him, pulling him closer to the promise of such wonders to be found but this was tempered by the fear that lay inside of the terrible things that called the Black Fortress home. His divining and consultation of the augers and data steams of probabilities were not promising and did little to reassure him that a postive outcome lay before him. This doubts would take root and grow as not long after his arrival he had lost most of his entourage to spindle legged nightmares and howling beasts within a matter of days forcing him to concede that the odds of success were rapidly dwindling. Failure hanging over him like a smog cloud he decided to hire local mercenaries, while utterly beneath a man of his standing he mae his way into one of the less reputable disticts.

 

Accompanied by the remaining hulking battle scarred Kastelan and two Sicarian Infiltrators that clung to the shadows out of sight he came across what he presumed was a guild house or inn. It was here that he had become somewhat distracted from his cause. His one true vice, his secret weakness that he had masterfully shielded from the bio-augers of the Adepts of his order. He had maintained enough of his internal organs, specifically his digestive system so that he might still secretly enjoy the pleasures of fermented liquids. While discovery would no doubt mean punishment, perhaps even expulsion as a heretic it was a risk he gladly took and had even augmented his body to process even the most exotic and alien beverages.

 
After a rather long session of drinking and listening to the stories of those that would stand at the bar and drink with him (given that he was buying few would refuse) that his ocullar implant deteched something small yet strangly familiar amongst a small pile of broken parts behind the bar. Something that anyone else would dismiss, somethng small and insignificant attached to what looked like a chain from a wash basin. Yet this registered as archeotech as he subconciously performed a molecular carbon dating scan. Oh but this was old, impossiblly old, perhaps even dating back from before the time of the Great Crusade itself. Datastreams flashed before his eyes as he struggled comprehend what he was seeing in his alcoholic stupor. Through a drunken haze subroutines finally began to activate, triggered by data conflicts. Filtration systems whirled into life quickly removing the pleasant intoxicating haze that had clouded his mind and judgement triggering malfunctions in his cognitive processors that would leave a rather troublesome headache in their wake.
 

The roar of the crowd startled him briefly as he abruptly came to his senses with all the finesse of a bull Grox falling through the ice of a frozen sump lake. With the barkeep distracted by an altercation on the other side of the establishment between an Ork Freebooter and a rather large Tarellian mercenary Iktinos saw his chance. A long slender snakelike mechanite claw crept from beneath a compartment beneath his robe darting across the bar grabbing the data slab causing the pile of clutter that had partially covered it to come crashing down. Drowned out by the clamour of cheering patrons as the brawl began to spread throughout the bar the appenditure withdrew sharply bringing the slab with it in the blink of an eye.
Iktinos not able to believe his own luck at his potential discovery wasted little time in making his way back to his ship to set course for Mars.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Doghouse

[jaxom]

Looking at the old and new side-by-side, it really makes one appreciate the improvements to scale and all the efforts people (like yourself) went through to work out ways to make the older kits look better.

[hushrong]

Cool to see some old minis! Nothing like a bit of nostalgia!

 

I also never cared for the beret heads from the scion box. It just didn’t look right to myself. However they work a lot better and look real good with the enforcers bodies.

 

And love the fluff. Definitely adds more to the character of an army and brings it more to life. Keep it coming!

[Doghouse]

Thanks guys

 

jaxom: Scale is really important to me personally because it grounds the models a little more in reality. Some of the newer kits are really nicely proportioned which I think is great for detail nuts like me.

 

hushrong: Yeah I was the same to be honest with the Scion heads. On regular Scion bodies I think they suffer because they were part of the tail end of the heroic scale that GW used to prominantly use. They looked like bobble heads to me but with the taller more well defined enforcer bodies it feels a lot more credible.

 

Just another quick update. I've come to the realisation that the Enforcers can be made only with either 4 shotguns or 4 bolters not both which is a bit of a bummer as it complicates things a bit. I do really like these models though and really want to get started on painting. Here is the progress so far on the Guard aspect of the Crusade which is looking to be 2 Commanders, 3 Infantry squads, 1 Ogryn Bodyguard and a Sniper special weapons team. I have started a meltagun conversion using parts and GS that if it works will allow me to get the most from the kits.

The Ogryn is just made up with left over parts I scavenged then cleaned up with GS, I'd rather have the Bullgryn variant but it'll do in a pinch.

 

 

This next shot is the reason I want a Crusade army and that is because the different scales and shows off the potential eclectic mix that true Imperial armies. Obviously the Custodes are not present in this shot but I am in the middle of painting them right now. How I ended up with 9 jetbikes for them is beyond me...

 

 

Then lastly for now I am playiing around with a few other bits for the army as potential plug ins. I'm still in two minds as to whether or not I should include the lady in red here as an Inquisitor, Rogue Trader or the Commander of the ratling platoon. I replaced the head with an AOS female head which I felt looked a bit better.

For the assassin I am making I have removed the column that she was stood on and am trying to make it look as though she is landing adding a sense of motion with the pony tail and the skull on the chain at her waist. I didn't want a regular faceless look to her and instead used one of the Celestine bodyguard heads. I have the other three assassins somewhere and may paint them up so I have a complete kill team if needed. I kind of like the idea that these guys are in the fleet but no one knows they are there or why. Maybe they are there to keep an eye on the Custodes.

 

 

 

[Doghouse]

Just another quick update as I'm enjoying working on these guys so I am just rolling with it.

 

Nearly got the first squad built, just need to finish up the guns, add pouches and do some minor GS work. The limitation on obtaining certain parts for obvious reasons right now is meaning I have had to think on my feet and do some deep bits box delving. The other frustrating part is that kits these days (I don't feel are as flexible as they used to be, I'd kill for a bare hands sprue) as it feels like too much hand holding to me when it comes to building them which just results in duplicate models in a squad.

 

I'm going to paint these in Cadian colours, so tan uniform and green armour, to give it a more standard issue feel.

I'm toying with the idea that because of the time distortions that the regiment will be fighting fifty or sixty years before they are born.

 

 

[hushrong]

Yeah, the enforcers are working out really nicely here! Love the scale shot too! Makes me happy that some units are getting to be properly big but makes me a little sad looking at my squad HH plastic and resin era marines. I’ll live though haha.

 

For the lady in red I vote for rogue trader, if it’s up for voting. Maybe her personal fleet called to arms for the crusade to scout ahead of the main force. Which is something I think they did during the great crusade.

 

Excited to see the Custodes and Tripp’s getting paint. Wild to think the force is fighting even before it was actually created. Need to catch up on some current fluff.

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate

 

Yeah she'd work well as a RT, I think I may have to use her rules wise as a company commander when I do. The lore these days is interesting in terms of crazy stuff going on. Technically a person could be alive and dead in two different sectors at the same time, weird times.

 

Been playing around with the bits I have while finishing the build on the infantry squad. I think these work well and I will do three five man teams of the Scions as I go because it's quite a simple conversion with a little bit of GS work at the waist to fill the gap which someone could probably cover with pouches to be honest. Guy on the left is a regular one for scale.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention it's just the top half of a Scion on the spare legs of an Enforcer. Nice and easy.

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Doghouse

[Doghouse]

Another quick update.

 

Parts I would like to use are a bit hard to come by at the moment. Despite sending Explorator teams into my attic to hunt through my decades of archeotech few have returned and one of the servitors just sits in the corner rocking back and forth muttering about all the horrors he witnessed up there.

 

I've got a bit of work done on the officers and sergeants. I've opted for just using laspistols on the officers but may change this. The beret guys are the sergeants but I'd much rather have used the catachan commander heads. I'm holding off painting for a bit till the others arrive in the post.

 

 

I've also started a little bit on some Necromunda Bounty Hunters as a change of pace, recovering a couple of models I started ages ago. The lady on the left is made from one of the chaos cultists from Black Fortress, the middle guy is an ash waste scavenger I made from a Genestealer cultist and finally we have the giant on the right. No explanations as to how or why he is in the Underhive or why he has knowledge of the great crusade era, could be alien tech or even a perpetual or maybe displaced when his homeworld was destroyed who knows? Whatever the reason he's hiding out from Imperial Forces, especially those with the with the thing for black armour and robes.

 

 

[hushrong]

Looking good and digging the bounty hunters. Nice tweaks and conversion to make them much more characterful.

 

And an odd like of work for that big guy. Something tells me he takes down a lot of posters with a look-alike imposters face on them hah.

[Markus_]

Great progress.
I love those bounty hunters and the mystery crusader! Great mix of bits. Are those Blood Warrior legs?

[Doghouse]

Hushrong: Thanks mate

 

Markus_: Yeah, it was one of the AOS chaos guys.

 

Well 9th ed has kind of thrown my plans out for now as I really do not know what to expect just yet and it sounds like soup may be high in CP cost so what with all the rumours I'm going to hold on for now before getting too far in.

 

Fancied a bash at some sculpting so started this Primaris Captain Uriel Ventris model which I have done some chest work and legs but need to do the detailing on the sword and weapon and bits yet.

 

 

[Marius Perdo]

Ventris looks very good, nicely finessed green stuff embellishments.

 

Lovely jubbly.

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate :) Been a while since I dabbled with GS and I am enjoying it.

 

Bit of another random update, untill we can find out how army building works in 9th I don't want to commit too hard to any concept just yet. So in the meantime I've been dabbling with some conversions. The idea behing this style of Mk X armour is to incorporate elements of the Mk II suit so it's not supposed to be a truescale marine just a variant.

 

 

I may make this guy into one of the new shield and sword Captains.

 

[hushrong]

Ventris looks great. He's oddly one of my favorite characters. After reading Storm of Iron and needing more Iron Warriors fluff I wanted to read Dead Sky, Black Sun. As it was about a certain Ultramarine and it was his series I started from the beginning and enjoyed it quite a bit. So it is always nice to see someone give him form and yours looks great.

 

I also like the dabbling with mk3 armor on the primaris bodies. I tried this before where I wanted some SoH kill team members. I took the front mk3 chest piece, filed it down, and stuck it on a filed down primaris torso. I like it but looking back it is bulky and I've been wanting to put that look on slimfast. I am looking at yours a loving it, especially that last pic. I think I need copy you and remove the collar of the primaris to make it work.

[Doghouse]

Yeah what i did was remove the front collar then used a one of these that I got a while back  which is fantastic for filing things down with the sanding drum attachments that come with it.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cordless-Tacklife-Polishing-Engraving-Accessories/dp/B074X92L5D/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=TACKLIFE+Cordless+Rotary+Tool&qid=1591016391&s=diy&sr=1-5

 

They seem to have gone up in price quite a bit, I got mine for £13 a few months back.

 

I had to file the front of the Mk X armour down to fit but it came out really well. You could if you wanted pass this off as true scale firstborn marines if you really wanted to. But basically it looks like a void fighting armour to me with the additionaly plates.

 

One slightly curious thing I never realised though when it comes to bolt weapons, the small cylinder abover the barrel is actually a camera that links to the helmet HUD.

[hushrong]

I need to pick one of those tools up. Definitely would help speed up the process of using various little blades and files to remove plastic. Plus, it would be a heck of a lot cleaner finish. I've done that a bit with my alpha legion and necron-marines and the reason I was moving at a snails pace with them was dreading the strain of all that work haha.

 

With my Alpha Legion kill team I've been using converted primaris as truescale. Never thought about their armor being void warfare ready. Saving that nugget of knowledge for their fluff.

[Doghouse]

They are really good, this one is fairly low powered which is good because it'll stop if it snags. It does melt the plastic after a while so best to do in bursts. This is the attachment I use:

 

 

Little bit of playing around on this guy but may not be the final head, it's just there for proportions. I'm adding elements of the new blade guys as I really am a fan of the plate on the chest. The idea being this is a form of void armour that slots over the head to cover the chest and collar. Still need to clean up the GS work but just having fun with it till we get some solid 9th stuff.

 

 

[BadgersinHills]

Ventris looks awesome and the custom Primaris armour is great. They have lots of conversion potential. :)

Edited June 3, 2020 by BadgersinHills