Red Corsairs Master of the Maelstrom - Shark-tank reborn

[TrawlingCleaner]

I've been threatening to start a Red Corsairs for a good while now, three things have really kicked me into gear:

 

1) New Codex

 

2) My dad recently found a digitial camera, amonst other thought lost photos was a picture of my first 40k army from 2008:

 

Embarrassingly, this would have been my largest painted army, up until a few years ago (not bad for 11 year old me!), I think it moved on in some time around 2011.

 

3) A friend of mine gave me his 5th edition CSM Codex. It's filled with so much nostalgia and I spent many days as a young teenager looking at it. In the early parts of 2008 there was a Tale of 4 warlords run, in which one participant painted up a Corsairs force, basing it around the "Wolf Of Fenris" short story in the Codex which blew my mind when reading it.

 

 

Anyways, I've started witha test mini which turned out to be pretty quick to turn around with great results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As has become a classic move for me, I've built up and converted a character model before even finishing painting a Troop choice

 

This has been my first proper foray into GS and for the most part has been okay. I'm not happy with the chainmail on the loincloth but need to more practice for sure:

 

 

 

 

I need to finish my Vow for Anger and Arrogance and then I'll be plowing on with these guys, ready for the Codex!

Edited August 29 by TrawlingCleaner

[BadgersinHills]

Great painting, and the Huron conversion is really nice. I like the idea of using the Black Templars Castellan. Good work on the greenstuff, stuff like delicate trim is tricky. Look forward to seeing more.

[Prot]

That's a great combination with the Templar dude. That work around the armour trim is really good. Let's also remember how big you're blowing these pictures up. I mean I think I can see nose hairs in the Space Wolves Corsair!

[Halandaar]

Agreed, the trim looks fine. Nobody will be viewing it at 10x magnification in person! And good call using the Castellan as a base, it just has a great ancient look to it.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Great painting, and the Huron conversion is really nice. I like the idea of using the Black Templars Castellan. Good work on the greenstuff, stuff like delicate trim is tricky. Look forward to seeing more.

 

 

That's a great combination with the Templar dude. That work around the armour trim is really good. Let's also remember how big you're blowing these pictures up. I mean I think I can see nose hairs in the Space Wolves Corsair!

 

 

Agreed, the trim looks fine. Nobody will be viewing it at 10x magnification in person! And good call using the Castellan as a base, it just has a great ancient look to it.

Thank you all, it's a great point about magnification in person plus we always see the mistakes we make a long time before anyone else does

 

I had seen the jokes about the Castellan being very chunky on the torso but it wasn't until I had the mini in front of me to see how Wide this guy is

 

 

 

Just a quick WIP on another marine as we're in the grips of Beaky Fever, the idea for the force is to mix in a lot of loyalist weapons, marks of armour etc:

 

[Prot]

Oh yea, you gotta have the odd beaky in there! I like it... is he going to be Raven Guard? I read an old story where I think a Raven Guard was trying to infiltrate Huron's Corsairs. It was a good read, but I can't remember where I read it or if I was writing that story myself (yes I do this for some weird reason).

 

Any way, I like the pose, and he's armed great for the pose. The red you're using a nice base.What is it? And what is the primary wash?

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thanks Prot! I hadn't thought about which chapter or legion most of the marines came from before but I'll definitely think of this guy as coming from the Raven Guard. I'd imagine Renegades like the RC and BL would actively try to force squads/warbands to play nice with each other. More than likely, marines from the same Chapters/Legion will gravitate towards each other which would create divisions/sides.

In classrooms, you would attempt to break up friend groups to: 1) Get kids to socialise and learn how to talk to new people 2) Reduce the chances of kids acting out with friends. I'd imagine this is a similar scenario in CSM warbands. You're a Chaos Lord, you get an intake of about 20 new marines from 6 different chapters and they've all sworn fealty to you. If you split them up as evenly as you can and create new squads, they should form new bonds with their squadmates and not get any funny ideas about attempting a coup. After a while, it won't matter too much what chapter or legion they were from, they will likely have a new niche within their squad and your warband.

 

Thanks for (involuntarily) coming to my TedTalk

 

The Red is nice and easy:

Abaddon Black spray

Mephiston Red

Nuln oil pin wash

Evil Sun Scarlett highlight

Wild Rider red extreme highlight

 

The longest part of the process is layering Mephiston Red and waiting for the wash to dry

 

I finished off the Beaky and went with yellow lenses (thanks to Triszin for the suggestion):

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've also sorted out my lightbox properly too, the light is a lot softer and doesn't oversaturate the pictures. It defintiely makes the old-boy's face look way better!

 

 

 

Next up is another bolter guy, still very WIP with only the wash having gone down:

 

 

 

I also need to think about how to base them. My thought for the army was that they're allied with my Iron Warrior force but I'm not sure the basing scheme would work for the paint scheme I have:

 

 

I think the muddy brown would clash with the Mephiston, maybe? I think a dusty desert/sand base might work quite well

Any suggestions?

[Prot]

I actually think that your basing there would work very well. They are natural earth tones, and contrast with the figs, which I really like. 

 

Basically I've stumbled on a few schemes I use over and over now, and all I do is adjust the base colurs by tinting them when they are on the  base, but before drybrushing them. So for example let's say you wanted to shift the sand colour further to  a 'rusty' colour. I just add diluted Iyanden wash from GW, and let it dry, then dry brush over it.

 

So the end result is a base style/colour that is very similar to what I have existing in my other armies, but what the ink/wash does is shift to a tone you think would work better with your base colour set. For example with my Eldar the brighter sand finish was too light for a light scheme, so I actually took diluted purple wash, and red wash and put those on the bases. Then dry brush with whatever you like to finish.

 

That's just what I do anyway.

 

(nice iron warriors by the way!)

Edited May 12, 2022 by Prot

[gaurdian31]

Loving your Red Corsairs! Can't wait to see what the codex brings for them. Really like your Huron, will he be getting paint soon?

[Tallarn Commander]

Trawling Cleaner, I agree with Prot. Your Iron Warriors basing is is sufficiently neutral. Such a scheme would work well with your Red Corsairs.

[Chronotonic]

super well done Corsairs...

 

I was torn between Word Bearers and Corsairs...I guess the bad guys like red...*eye shift to Blood Angels*

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thank you all brothers, I will definitely give the Iron Warrior bases a go, likely with less rubble but the same colour

 

 

 Can't wait to see what the codex brings for them. Really like your Huron, will he be getting paint soon?

I'm very much looking forward to them too! From what we've seen from the leaks, it looks like we'll want to be leveraging the Advance and Charge trait, so Bikes, Raptors and Venomcrawlers are all on the cards for me!  

I'd like to break my own habit of jumping straight to characters before getting the meat of an army done so I'd like to get at least 2 squads of marines done before touching Huron, although we'll see how well I can hold that off

[gaurdian31]

I understand that, I've only been working on my HQs for my own Red Corsairs and really have been letting my squads languish. They're all built but starting at me accusingly with their unpainted lenses. 

[nusphigor]

very cool army
it kinda makes me lean into the red corsairs idea for my csm because of what you guys say about the advance and charge stuff.

op: how do you work around the seemingly random placement od the red and black areas on the minis?
do you have a proper systemon how to paint each part or just pick whatever colour you feel like at that moment? 

[TrawlingCleaner]

I understand that, I've only been working on my HQs for my own Red Corsairs and really have been letting my squads languish. They're all built but starting at me accusingly with their unpainted lenses. 

 

I feel that! I'm trying to kick my habit with the old saying: "Boys before Toys" or paint the meat of the force before getting to the juicy stuff. I'm three models in and the temptation to paint a character is real

 

very cool army

it kinda makes me lean into the red corsairs idea for my csm because of what you guys say about the advance and charge stuff.

 

op: how do you work around the seemingly random placement od the red and black areas on the minis?

do you have a proper systemon how to paint each part or just pick whatever colour you feel like at that moment? 

 

Thanks nusphigor!

 

For the red placement, it's all random and I don't really put to much thought into it

In my opinion, the nice thing about this force is that I can just mix and match armour panel colours, armour marks, weapons, loyalists and traitor bits for what is a total hodge-podge but still comes together under the army colours as a cohesive force. In theory anyways, we'll see as the army gets larger if that works in practice

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

The 3rd marine of the squad is done, I'm getting the scheme down pretty quickly now which is cool too. I think it's a level of painting that lets me spend more time on each model but still have the scheme down in a pretty quick time. Next up is an Autocannon guy

 

 

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

Was in a bit more of building mood last night so I decided to build up a squad of 5 terminators and started on the CSM kill team. Unintentionally the terminators came out almost Saturinine pattern looking. The Killteam will be heavily kitbashed with Space wolf parts as their theme will be a Wolf pack that Huron keeps close by from the Wolf of Fenris. I suppose Wolves are more loyal but how about Wolves that have broken oathes

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

The Killteam is built, although there are some changes I want to make. I don't really like how the Champion has come out, the face and head and the sword look good, the arms look quite odd so I'll be changing that around:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TrawlingCleaner]

Work continues on the Autocannon guy; tidy up, highlights then extreme highlights are up next!

 

 

[gaurdian31]

These are coming along great and I am really excited to see you leaning into the traitor wolves.

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thank you gaurdian! The Wolves are next on my to-do list, I undercoated them and the Terminators yesterday but dropped the Melta gunner with the gun promptly pinging off so will need to find another bit in my box

 

The Autocannon guy is done:

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're really starting to come together now:

 

 

 

And I've also started on the Champion too, still need to highlight the black and do some other details too:

 

 

 

Although I keep calling the first 5 guys a squad, they likely won't be when I get actual list building as the hodge podge of bolters, chainswords and heavy weapons won't work that well in game so they'll be shifted around as I need them

[TrawlingCleaner]

I got the Champion finished last night so the first 5 guys are done. They'll be split up and put in squads that suit their weapons a bit more as it's a bit of hodgepodge at the moment. They're really coming out great so far so I'm looking forward to carrying the project on. I've got to paint up a couple of bits of Bolt Action terrain for a friends brithday and then I'm fully back on the Corsairs with the Wolf killteam :D

 

 

[gaurdian31]

These guys are coming out so good! 

[TrawlingCleaner]

Thank you gaurdian! They're off to a good start and will form a good basis to get the rest of the army done. I'd like to get as much done as I can before the Horus Heresy box drops though as I think a lot of my attention might go that way

[TrawlingCleaner]

Not much progress yesterday as it was my birthday but I did get a Sorcerer built up out of an ebay rescue and a mix of bits. I might add a cape to give him a bit more shape