Dicebod's 9th Homebrew Primaris Chapter

[dicebod]

As with I'm sure many folks around here, the Indomitus box has really captured my imagination when it comes to Primaris marines.  I sat 8th out for the most part and have really devoted most of my hobbying efforts to 30k and Titanicus.  The new marine models are just too cool to pass up however and this seems like the perfect opportunity to do what I'm sure many frater have dreamed of doing - building up a new marine chapter from scratch.

 

My 30k armies are Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children, so for a color scheme I needed to come up with something decently far away from either of those.  After much fiddling around in the B&C chapter customizer I was able to come up with a khaki/gold/black/red scheme that I think will suit the Primaris models quite nicely:

 

 

Once I had the color scheme picked out, it was time to think about the second most important part of the marine's appearance - the chapter logo, and along with that a name.  I thought long and hard about what to call these guys.  I see so many chapters that are just "color + animal" or "adjective + noun" and I wanted to stay away from that.  I needed to go with one word.  But what?  Well a quick flip through the 30K rulebook and I found my inspiration:

 

The Sunderers

 

It just spoke to me.  So now that I had a name and a scheme, I needed heraldry.  I sketched out a bunch of ideas but then settled on the one below - a lightning bolt piercing (sundering perhaps??) an anvil.  It's simple, recognizable and gets the point across quite nicely I think.

 

After trueing up some of the curves and generally giving it a once over in photoshop, It was time to actually starting thinking about how to accomplish this scheme.  I knew I needed transfers, so I was able to find a vendor in the states to put together a transfer sheet mockup for me - since these decals will be white, it's not something I could accomplish on my consumer-grade inkjet.  The pricing he supplied and the final design are fantastic - if anyone is interested you can find him here: https://www.facebook.com/badmothertattoos/

 

 

Finally, after ordering my decals and collecting the paint I'd need to be ready when Indomitus drops, there was one more thing I needed that Chessex is always happy to provide...

 

 

After all that, I started to think about the story for this army.  I know I wanted them to be assault specialists, so White Scars instantly came to mind.  Based on what I know from 30k, I was able to come up with this:

 

The Sunderers - Ultima Founding

 

White Scars Successors - Chapter Traits: Whirlwind of Rage & Rapid Assault

 

Chapter type - Fleet-based

 

Chapter colors - Drab & sable armor, gold trim

 

Chapter symbol - lightning bolt piercing an anvil in white upon a sable field

 

Chapter war cry - "Now for death!"

 

Chapter disposition - Full-strength, full Primaris-type composition

 

Chapter flagship - Battle barge "Moonsilver"

 

Chapter Master - Ardeth Sein of the Red Waste

 

The Sunderers are a chapter descended of the Khan that eschews the fast assault doctrine of their gene-brothers in favor of an altogether darker aspect.  The Sunderers were formed of the greyshields born of the gene-seed of the Terran-born of the old V legion - warriors who never shared the Chogorian lineage of their gene-father and who integrated into the White Scars only begrudgingly.  Indeed in the annals of Imperial history there are mentions that this Terran contingent of the Khan's legion were of dubious loyalty in the dark days of Horus' great betrayal, and as such were reorganized by the Khan into the Sagyar Mazan - penal detachments that fought only to die in order to atone in the eyes of their father.

 

This grim history is not unknown to the warriors of the Sunderers chapter.  While Belisarius Cawl maintains that traitorous geneseed was not used in the creation of the new breed of Primaris Astartes, the Sunderers nonetheless recognize the shame of their lineage within the V legion.  They see the burden of atonement falling to them, as it once did their Terran ancestors.  Much like the Sagyar Mazan of Horus' rebellion, the Sunderers fight with little regard for their own safety, crashing into enemy lines with their fists as much as boltgun and chain blade.  Imperial observers have likened their conduct in battle more to Russ or Sanguinius' sons than those of the Khagan - after a charge of Sunderers, nothing is left in their wake but bloody ground and ruined corpses.

 

--

 

I'm very excited to get this project underway!  I'll be posting my progress here over the coming months - next up is a test model for the scheme!

 

**Edited for readability!**

Edited June 18, 2020 by dicebod

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The thunderstruck anvil symbol looks cool; the backstory is competently written.

 

Note: The website's Mobile Version (for smart phones and other mobile devices) uses a white background, meaning white text is invisible unless a smart phone user highlights it.

Edited June 18, 2020 by Bjorn Firewalker

[dicebod]

The thunderstruck anvil symbol looks cool; the backstory is competently written.

 

Note: The website's Mobile Version (for smart phones and other mobile devices) uses a white background, meaning white text is invisible unless a smart phone user highlights it.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the formatting!  I've made some edits and confirmed it's readable on mobile   

[Alcyon]

Subscribed, colour scheme looks great and I'm excited to follow as you build. I'm working on an RG Primaris successor and you really inspired me to get my own decals made.

[dicebod]

Subscribed, colour scheme looks great and I'm excited to follow as you build. I'm working on an RG Primaris successor and you really inspired me to get my own decals made.

 

Thanks!  And yeah, custom decals might seem like a big hurdle, but honestly 45 minutes of YouTube photoshop tutorials later I was ready to go.  

 

I got my first test model painted!  There was a lot of fiddling around with primer coats and weathering options but I think I came up with something that looks nice and (equally important) is reasonably scaleable up to army-painting:

 

 

 

 

And of course it had to be a Primaris Lieutenant 

 

[Alcyon]

Scheme is definitely darker than I expected but thats probably mostly down to all the weathering. I've always loved really eye-catching 'Eavy Metal style marines. Glad you're happy with it and it definitely looks more realistic than any scheme I've painted.

[dicebod]

Scheme is definitely darker than I expected but thats probably mostly down to all the weathering. I've always loved really eye-catching 'Eavy Metal style marines. Glad you're happy with it and it definitely looks more realistic than any scheme I've painted.

 

Completely agree!  This started as Vallejo Cork Brown, which is a pretty traditional khaki.  After a couple sponge weathering passes and an oil wash it came down quite a bit in color, but I think the grunginess suits it.

[dicebod]

A couple more quick updates...

 

The first set of decals came in!  And I must say, seeing the idea in my head translated into something useable for this army is definitely cool & incredibly satisfying: 

 

 

There's a good mix of images on here in various sizes that should be usable for a number of different kits.  In fact, I just got a Repulsor ready for the painting table - I'm very excited to see how these decals perform, and I figure that large flat surfaces are a good place to test their mettle.

 

 

Pew pew indeed.

[Pearson73]

Big fan of the colour scheme!

[dicebod]

I spent the last couple of weeks working on some 30k projects before coming back to the Sunderers to knock out this repulsor.

 

First up was the initial airbrushing pass - this was executed the same as on my infantry test model, with a primer coat of Badger Red Brown and then a thinned highlight of Vallejo Cork Brown:

 

 

After that, I blocked in all the other airbrushed colors - blacks and greys, red for the weapons, silver for the grav plates (I have yet to decide which is more of a chore to clean and paint - these plates or the tracks on traditional marine vehicles!) and olive green for the stowage and ammo boxes.  I painstakingly masked off the black armor panels in the front and got a good result, but honestly it may be faster by hand for my next vehicle:

 

 

I've been playing around a lot with oil washes so I wanted to take this model as an experiment - could I do everything but the shade (so all basecoats, highlights, weathering & decals) and then gloss coat the model and do the wash?  The fewer steps in this process the better (plus it saves dollars on clear coats, especially on a model of this size!).  Once I had blocked in all the colors I did my traditional sponge weathering pass with dark brown -> light brown -> silver, with a little bit of airbrush weathering as well to tie everything together.  This was also my first chance to bust out my custom decals, and I think they work perfectly, though there was a bit of a learning curve - they are much more fragile than GW decals and obviously not pre-cut.  Still, it was rewarding (if fiddly) to see what had once just been a quick sketch translated through to a model:

 

 

Once gloss coated, the pin wash with black was a pretty quick process.  From there, it was just cleanup, airbrushing on a little dust buildup and then spraying the whole thing down with matte varnish.  About two weeks of on-and-off painting and my repulsor is ready for 9th edition!

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by dicebod

[dicebod]

Got back on the hobby bandwagon with my first units out of Indomitus - the Chaplain, Judiciar and Bladeguard:

 

 

 

 

Everybody got a headswap - I think the Reiver heads really elevate the Chaplain and Judiciar, and I'm quite happy with how the FW White Scars heads worked out for the Bladeguard. I'm really chuffed with the quality I ended up with here vs. the time spent.

[Alcyon]

Those Reiver heads do look great. I love the grimdarkness, weathering and the alien plants. The Judiciar's sword also looks shockingly realistic. Is that some special metallic paint?

[noigrim]

A.bit too small

[dicebod]

Those Reiver heads do look great. I love the grimdarkness, weathering and the alien plants. The Judiciar's sword also looks shockingly realistic. Is that some special metallic paint?

 

Thank you!  The Judiciar's sword was painted with Vallejo Metal Color Chainmail & Dark Aluminum paints.  I went for a true metallic metals transition effect by darkening down some sections of the blade with contrast Space Wolves Grey.

 

A.bit too small

 

The photos?  Yeah I uploaded them to my B&C gallery but when I place them in these posts they are quite small.  Does anybody know how to get the photos larger?  In the mean time clicking on them should give you a full-size view.

Edited August 18, 2020 by dicebod

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent works.

[dicebod]

Still powering through the Indomitus box...I wanted to tackle the bikes next, so I decided to take one completely from start to finish just to see how they came out:

 

 

These are really nice models and I was pleasantly surprised at how hefty they are - they definitely have a substantial presence on the table.  While I did not have as much trouble with the seam running across the top of the bike cowling as some folks, I decided to cover up what little obvious join there was with a stripe & decal - I think this also had the added benefit of breaking up what is otherwise a very brown model.

 

Once the bikes are done I just have to knock out 10 intercessors for my first 50 PL to be ready.  A friend and I are planning on kicking off a Crusade campaign and I am very excited to get the Sunderers on the tabletop!