Heretic Astartes Killteam - Astral Claw pirates

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Decided to share this here rather than my regular thread, as they aren't Emperor's Children.

 

In the Works in Progress forum, there is  thread for people to create killteams based on the Badab War (http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/361428-back-to-badab-a-badab-war-community-log-kill-team-edition/?p=5466243) - that's when there was a multi-chapter war centered around the Astral Claws, who later fled to the Maelstrom and became the Red Corsairs.  I decided to do a kill team of pirates using the Heretic Astartes rules - their story is that in the latter part of the war, what's left of a squad of Astral Claws get rescued off of a crippled imperial warship that they had boarded by pirates from the  Emperor's Bounty and join them them in pirating.

 

Here's the space marine portion of the killteam - they are all specialists, from left to right: combat, leader, heavy, sniper.

 

 

I wanted to depict them as late war pirates, already operating out of and being supplied from the maelstrom - so, as kind of proto-red corsairs.  I've tried to depict this by mixing imperial and chaos marine parts, putting battle damage on the imperial parts, and doing the chaos parts red with black trim to show what they are to become.

 

I wasn't sure what squad markings to give them, so just gave them standard codex (so, ultramarine) markings.  I'm happy how they turned out - previously, my attempts at painting the "tactical squad arrow" were less than successful, but I thought they turned out pretty well here with their tiny "III"s.

 

 

 

Here's a picture of the whole team, including the cultists who represent the original pirates.  Don't know when/if I'll ever get a chance to play them as a killteam, but they were fun to paint.  Even if I don't the pirates will be appearing as cultists in my Emperor's Children army.

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

The squad looks great! I see Mohawk guy couldn't be bothered to scratch out his Imperial Aquila. :)

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Yeah, none of them have removed any of their imperial symbols.

 

From what I've read, some of the Badab rebels believed that they were the ones on the side of the Emperor.  So, for my kill team they desperately try to believe they still fight for the Emperor against the "true rebels" because if they don't all they have done becomes evil... and that every step they take away from his light is caused by the enemies they fight, not their own corruption.

 

That and they pass themselves off as loyalists when that aids their raiding.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Dr_Ruminahui

[WarriorFish]

Great stuff, nice colours and use of bits gives them a lot of character :tu: I think the freehand came out well too hopefully you can get some games in with them soon :)

[zero88]

This is awesome, and very coincidental.. I've been thinking very hard lately about doing an army in this fashion.

 

I want to do Astral Claws to count as Red Corsairs (For all game purposes) and model them in this same time period of just starting to go rogue. Convert Obliterators with Centurions, Melee Hellbrutes with Ironclads, some sort of Primaris for Possessed, and do an Invictor warsuit into a Daemon Prince :D

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for the compliments TC, WF & Zero - glad you like them.

 

Zero, that sounds awesome - go for it!  And share pictures!

 

Oh, and if you want to mix chaos and imperial bitz, if you want the chaos parts to look newer than the imperial, the old chaos marine kit is better than the new one, as the new one has lots of nicks and cracks modeled into the pieces, which the old one (for the most part) does not.

 

I still had a moment where I was filling in with greenstuff the nicks in power axe guy's left shoulder pad (which is from the old CSM kit) at the same time as I was putting nicks and holes his imperial parts... it felt a bit counter productive, somehow.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Special Officer Doofy]

As always, diggin' the green on the axe!