***REDACTED***

[Doghouse]

Triszin: Thanks mate. Yeah it's pretty brutal to learn, I've been watching so many Youtube tutorials a lot but at the moment I'm still playing around and treating it as though it was green stuff. To be honest I think it is the way forward for the a lot of hobbiests, my dream would be making my own game but for now it's mostly playing around making it work for me. I'm getting there but still have a lot to learn.

 

deathspectersgt7: Yeah he's pretty big.   Same for me on the civilians, I'm going see what I can come up with and maybe chuck them on Shapeways without any profit so people can get them cheap if they want or maybe put the stl files for free somewhere.

 

Some bits arrived so it's back to the grind with the Novus Astartes. The first lot is the Death Guard helmets like the one I have used on the Lieutenant/Novus Prime. I wanted a crude prototype helmet that branches away from the rest of the established armour marks and this fits perfectly. If I were to guess I'd say it was intended to be a void helmet or environmentally hardened combat variant specific to the Death Guard.

 

 

Here are the first five I am working on, just slapped the heads on and will be production lining these over the next few days. I was toying with some bare head ideas but to be honest I don't think they would go into combat without their helmets. Maybe one removing a damaged helmet using the Death Guard head with the rebreather built into his face. Something shocking that shows these are not regular Astartes. The idea behind them is that they are barely human anymore, more akin to Frankenstein's monster beneath their masks. They're probably repurposed members of the two lost Legions mind-scrubbed and crudely enhanced in time of desperation.

The other thing I may do is add lots of servo skulls, I like the idea of these mapping areas and relaying tactical information to represent the Bolter Fusillades tactic.

 

 

One thing I want to do is add a unit of Alpha Legion in Mk6 armour to oversee the project, offer guidance and more importantly put them down should they run amok. These should offer some contrast to the cruder Novus Astartes look but I will be making them into a Firstborn Tactical squad or Sternguard so no Primaris gear.

 

 

[Doghouse]

Yet another eclectic update with it this time being what I have planned for my Gravis guys. I'm going for Covenant of Fire, partially because I like orange and partially because they are something new. I've dabbled with Salamanders over the years but never really sunk my teeth in. Back in third edition they lost a point of initiative because of being high grav worlders which always struck me as a hinderance at the time and I think that put me off them.

 

I couldn't find my Micro Sol and decided to meh it and try hand painting the icons. It needs a lot of clean up but I forgot how much I enjoyed painting them to be honest and as a result will do so for the rest of the force. It's weird how I ended up relying on decals in later years, even now I can quite easily paint the majority of the main chapters icons by hand purely because I did it time and time again as a kid. Funny how that kind of thing can happen.

 

I'm going to personalise the markings a bit. The two flames either side of his squad number indicate his two fallen battle brothers who he trained with as Aspirants.

 

 

I have eleven underway with a further twenty undercoated. The idea will be a Captain, maybe a Salamanders Lieutenant, two ten man squads with the assault bolters who's name escapes me, ten with the executioner rifles to sit and claim back field objectives, two five man Eradicator squads and then I have nine of the Flamer Aggressors and a couple of Dreadnoughts.

 

There isn't much to go on in terms of lore, my first thoughts were that they might be followers of Imperial Truth but they give off more of a Imperial Heralds vibe which is a shame as it feels a bit lazy making them pre-heresy Word Bearers. The original Blood Ravens being hinted at using traitor geneseed was interesting but these days it feels like everyone and his mate are implied to be using the traitor geneseed which just makes me eyeroll. 

[deathspectersgt7]

Like how he turned out . The Orange looks great.

[jaxom]

Looking great! The free-hand in yellow is a great color choice.

 

The Salamanders have a book call the Tome of Fire, written by their Primarch. Maybe the chapter icon could be a reference to that?

[Dosjetka]

The orange looks spot-on. :tu: Would you mind sharing your recipe, please?

[Doghouse]

Deathspectersgt7: Thanks mate :)

 

Jaxom: Thanks, yeah it could be. From the brief bit on them in the Codex they have fully embraced the promethium cult so it could be a nod to that.

 

Dosjetka: What I tend to do is go over a black basecoat with thin coats of Troll Slayer orange until I have a solid consistent orange. Then I highlight a little with Fire Dragon orange and then then rather than building the highlight up further I go the other way and try to darken it. So first off Aggrax Earthshade in all the joints and panels then I start applying thin coats of Aggrax to the areas that would be in shadow. Once you have the solid orange though putting Aggrax alone into the panels lines and things really does bring out the orange, trick is getting that solid basecoat. 

 

[Doghouse]

So still working hard at the Alpha Legion guys but I want to get them all built before I start the airbrushing as I want to do a one and done so they are all consistent. I have fifteen Raptors mostly built, most of the first twenty man squad near completed bar some GS work and just got a couple of more boxes of Intercessors to do the second twenty man squad.

 

While building these I've had the urge to do other armour marks here and there in practice for putting together another tutorial vid. While I like the Primaris they don't even come close to the Firstborn to me and so I want to make a little force of Firstborn marines that I can chuck into a soup crusade army.

 

So today I am working on a Pre-Cicatrix Maledictum force comprising of a single Crusader squad of mixed armour Firstborn mounted in the only vehicle a Black Templar should go to war in:

 

 

I've started the first few members of the squad with the Sword Brother wearing almost complete MK6, he has a Mk 7 and Mk4 backpack purely because I want a hotch potch feel to as many as possible. My personal take on Firstborn armour has always been start with a freshly minted Mk 7 then as the years pass swap parts out with older more revered armour parts.

 

I've also started on an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor to go with them as I'm toying around with ten Initiates, three Neophytes, a Marshal, a Chaplain and the Inquisitor. I've gone with the Witch Hunter from Cursed City as a starting point but to be honest I find the models a bit too big in terms of scale. This guy I am going to let pass as he is slightly leaner and shorter than some of the other models as the noble who I thought would be perfect for a Rogue Trader is about the same size as a Primaris.

 

 

 

For the Neophytes I am playing around with some ideas mixing Scouts with phobos armour parts. This is still early days as I roughly map out the build but it's the back half of a scout torso blended into the front of an Intercessor while mounted on Phobos legs.

 

 

Moving against the grain of the mini-project I am seriously tempted to turn my three Lieutenant Amulius models I have into Primaris Blade Guard. I'm not a massive fan of how the Primaris were handled although I do understand the logic behind the choices made with their introduction. On one hand I can see the practical side of advancing the timeline so they have been around for a couple of hundred years and are the norm now but the idea of resistance to their introduction is just so much more interesting to me as a concept.

The beauty of this particular model is that they made him a bit big, it's not just the fact that he is stood more upright this guy is genuinely big even by their standards.

Now this presents and interesting opportunity in that by shaving down the detailing on the Primaris armour and using the older smaller heads of the Firstborn models you give the impression that in his unmodified state he stands a head higher than the Truescale Firstborn. If you carefully slice off the raised base he is stood on you can leave it so that the soles of his boots are ever so slightly thicker. What this means is you get a Truescale Primaris with next to no work saving a ton of time and creating an addition contrast in size between the models.

 

If I do go down this route I'm thinking of keeping them bland and pre-Indomitus with no relics. So standard Mk X armour with no frills.

 

 

Beyond that I'd love to do a proper Imperial Crusade soup army, I'd love to include a Missionary leading Archoflagellents, Sisters Repentia and Penitent engines along with Knight Armigers and some elements of the Ad Mech like the Dune Crawlers thrown in for good measure. Full on gothic religious zealot force! 

 

I was doing a brief stock take earlier of bits and I have enough models for complete army of each for Guard, Custodes and Ad Mech.

 

I'm going to see how much progress I can make on this unit today then probably turn my attention back to the Alphas and Novus Astartes. I have some ideas for the latter but it's a bit insane...

 

[jaxom]

"Only the insane can truly prosper in this dark millennium."

[Doghouse]

I'd do well then. :D

[deathspectersgt7]

Insane is cool . Like your list there. Decided to do an Inquisitor and a retinue picked up Draxus from my local shop . Now thinking who will be with him .

[Doghouse]

Sounds good. I'm hoping they do an Inquisition update at some point, but after more Xenos get some attention.

 

Got this done today. Pain to make because of all the mould lines and flash was pretty bad, still have to go back and gap fill but hope to start painting tomorrow.

 

 

[Monstra Sumus]

Always nice to see a Doghouse project.

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate.

 

Well today I have been working on the Templars a bit more, ideally I'd like to get the Initiates built today as I want to try and get the Neophytes done tomorrow.

 

The method I have for making the Neophytes works quite well. I take a Scout torso, carefully remove the hosing around the neck, cut the front off the torso leaving the distinct back intact then cut an Intercessor front torso I have going spare from the Alphas and fit the two together. I still have to do the fabric work but I quite like it so far.

 

 

I've also been doing some deep bits box delving, given there is about 30 odd years worth of bits in my attic in hundreds of small boxes this is no mean feat. I've lost two of the expedition to something that resembled I minotaur carrying a heavy bolt and has lasguns for horns that was lurking in the north east corner and the sound of second ed Orks chanting is starting to worry the others. We've set up base camp somewhere around where the first edition parts meet the second edition bits, no one dares go near the boxes of custom sculpts.

 

So I found this little chap and may use him for the Inquisitor Acolytes. For those that may not know some of the very first GW books were written by a guy called Ian Watson. Although a lot of people look down their noses at the earliest attempts at 40k literature I genuinely love them and they were probably one of the most important books ever written for 40k because they got the ball rolling for Black Library unlike Warhammer Records...

 

The Inquisitor series followed the adventures of the outcast Inquisitor Draco and his little band of Acolytes. Apart from Captain Lexandro d'Arquebus and the Assassin Meh'lindi the other most memorable character for me was Grimm the squat technician. For some reason I gave this guy an old second edition Stormtrooper hotshot lasgun at some point in the ancient past so I'm going to clean him up a little and see what I can do with him.

 

 

I also found this little dusty gem, one of the first ever space marines I painted the day the RTB01 marines were released, proud veteran of battle for the farm and battle at jadeberry hill where he and his  T3 4+ save compatriots fought valiantly against the green skins.

 

 

Going to do some more bits delving today but hope to get started on the Soul Drinker Captain. I'm doing a lot of research into the chapter because I'm not massively familiar with them and want to get it to look right.

 

[Doghouse]

Forgot to post this for those that might find it interesting seeing as I was talking about Ian Watson.

 

2021 modern Black Library Author Interview, nice little chat with a cup of tea over discord or skype to discuss their latest work.

 

2003 Ian Watson interview, meets a couple of strangers in person under a dodgy looking railway bridge in Hungary...

 

 

God I miss the Rogue Trader mentality! :D

[Doghouse]

As the bits hunt continues I found something that people may find interesting, turning into a bit of a nostalgia trip today.

 

This is how we used to go tank hunting in second edition. You'd get a card for each vehicle with stats and hit locations, you place the plastic targeting template over the top and roll to hit and scatter. Where the targeting mark ends up is what you hit and you roll on the damage table. The novelty soon wore off.

 

 

Right, back to the attic to find more bits for the Inquisitor and retinue.

 

[deathspectersgt7]

Memories. Loved the earliest days of my 40k journey. Lost all my books on the Soul Drinkers. And a majority of all my 40k books.

[Doghouse]

Yeah I'm a sucker for rose tinted glasses! :D

 

Not to worry mate, I've got plenty of material to get through on them, just trying to decide whether to make a truescale one from the old chapter or a primaris from their new incarnation. Is it just for display purposes or do you want me to focus on it being a gaming piece?

[deathspectersgt7]

Gaming . Want him leading the Son's of Dorn faction.

[Doghouse]

Ok cool, I can do him as any of combination of wargear your want.

 

In the meantime I've been playing around with what I want to do as a Crusade style army. Obviously I'm not going for a mega competitive list but more of an immersion list.

 

The general theme I am thinking of is that it is a puritan force sworn to defend a Gaol for Perpetuals on the world of Solstace in Segmentum Tempestus. Uriah Jacobus had previously purged the feudal world of a Genestealer cult and it was here that in secret the Gaol was created by the Ordo Hereticus for holding and interrogation of an order of Perpetuals known as the Illuminated Ones. 

Legend amongst those few that know of it's existence tell of a single tear of the Emperor suspended in a vial of pure Fulgurite that dampens the abilities of the prisoners making them more vulnerable to the persuasions of the Ordo.

So great is the threat of these prisoners that an alliance was sworn between the Black Templars, Ordo Hereticus, Adeptus Mechanicus and the Adeptus Sororitas. Each of these factions, to ensure the loyalty of those that would later come to replace them offered up a single sacred artefact which would be placed in the reliquary at the heart of the Gaol presided over by a council consisting of a representative of each faction known as the Quaternion of Solstace. Every fifteen years command of the prison is rotated between the members of the Quaternion representing the fifteen knights that fought beside Uriah during the purge of the stealer cult.

 

Black Templars Patrol 

 

Protectors of the Sacrificium, the skeletal hand of a fallen brother scrimshawed with the names of Imperial Fists that died in defence of the Imperial Palace encased in Amber.

 

Marshal, Emperor's Champion, Crusader Squad of 10 Initiates and 10 Neopythes, Land Raider Crusader, 4 Company Veterans.

 

Sisters of Battle Patrol.

 

Protectors of the bones of Saint Glenustine, fallen protector of Dalcoren Sanctuary.

 

Canoness, 5 Sisters of Battle, Rhino, Immolator, 2 Mortifiers, 5 Repentia.

 

Imperial Knight

 

Protector of the Artificialis Cor, the supposed power core of the first Knight of their order.

 

Warden Titan

 

Ordo Hereticus

 

Protectors of the Liber Damnati Animas, a manuscript containing the true names of members of their Ordo who have failed in their duties.

 

Inquisitor, 5 Acolytes with power swords.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Doghouse

[deathspectersgt7]

Cool list. Will leave his gear to you. Let the creator create.

[Doghouse]

Ok no problem, I'll see what I can do. :)

 

In the meantime I have started a thread over tin the Black Templars forums to go into the lore of the army in far greater detail.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/370122-solstice-keep/?p=5694517

[Doghouse]

I've been working on the Crusader squad which I hope to have pictures up of tomorrow but in the meantime I have this rather insane model I am working on as a proxy Crusader Knight.

 

 

 

 

Long story short I wanted a Warmaster titan but am unlikely every to be in a position to play Adeptus Titanicus so I am chucking a lot of Knight bits I have left from failed conversions and doing my best to mask the scale by adding scaled stuff like the pilot hatch on the top.

 

I am working the premise that the titan was commissioned way back at the time of the Heresy by a slightly unbalanced Knight King but his Household lacked the funds and knowledge to construct such a beast. Instead the artisans came to a compromise convincing the mad king that the Titan he had seen was not in the distance as he first thought but was actually the size of a Knight. Various explanations were concocted about heat haze and angles of the light to explain away their deception and much to their relief the King fell for the ruse.

 

As the milllenia passed the Household fell on hard times and improvised repairs began reshape it's form into something resembling more of a wandering guard tower with serfs clinging to the hull conducting minor repairs as the titan wages war. Due to the first imprint of the titan being the mad king it has a reputation for being quite unstable and more than a little erratic. 

The Adeptus Mechanicus not being overly interested in the Gaol but duty bound to their oath they have stationed the troublesome Canis Castrum and it's pilot the aged D'ono Quixoto on the planet.

 

The plan is now the titan is mostly built to construct a tower to put on it's back complete with serfs and rigging.

 

 

 

 

[deathspectersgt7]

Cool idea would not have thought about it.

[Ryltar Thamior]

that is a better 'compromise' than a Spinal Tap style mess-up between metric and er .. imperial systems

...and then I hit the D'ono Quixoto bit. 

Very cool concept all round :D 

[Doghouse]

deathspectresgt7: It's a really nice model and far more detailed than the regular Knights. I want to go full on gothic and either add a huge bell or a tower on top, I'm looking at sticking the Warhammer Volley gun on a platform on top for the missile launcher.

 

Ryltar Thamlor: Completely forgot about that scene but yeah that is pretty much it. I think people often forget the humour in 40k which is a real shame, it doesn't have to be full on slap stick but the beauty of the setting is you can add things that are so absurd that they transcend humour and you tilt your head and think "actually that is plausible in 40k...". I love the idea of some poor artisan packing his bags after being asked to do the impossible and a Baldrick-esq type character steps in and says "my lord...I have a cunning plan..." and the Knight King being mad enough to accept it.

 

If I had my way 40k would be a cross between Terry Gilliam and Guillermo del Toro with some Jim Henson and Clive Barker thrown in..