Doghouse's WIPs

[batu]

Wow, it looks fantastic already! 

[Doghouse]

Batu: Thanks mate. 

 

Got a bit more done. Going for a functional pattern rather than trying to go tribal patterning. I want it to resemble vehicle hazard markings and the like but written in a Nordic influenced way. I will add more but am trying to strike a balance so I don't go overboard.

 

 

 

[Doghouse]

So getting back to the Imperial Fist idea I am trying a slightly different approach where instead of stippling I am wiping most of the paint off and rubbing the brush into the hull in a sort of forced dry brushing. It's working to a certain extent but I want two different looks for the 40k army and the 30k army. It still needs a lot of work and I need to apply washes to blend areas.

 

The direction I am taking is that 30k Landraiders wouldn't be seen as relics and as such the temperamental nature of this Raider's machine spirit is seen as a malfunction rather than a revered consciousness. This machine refused to leave the remnants of it's transported squad when they became pinned down despite the commander trying to follow orders to withdraw. As a result of the Heresy erupting rather than be decommissioned it is assigned to the veteran squad as their dedicated transport. It's still early days and very rough but slowly taking shape, I am finding this an interesting experiment a the yellow makes it harder to work with which is fun because I have to try and be more creative.

It also keeps the two tanks as very distinct projects rather than a cut and paste technique exercise.

 

I will be going for a more traditional metallics weathering rather than the ceramite approach of the wolf Raider.

 

  

 

 

 

  

[batu]

Great stuff! Are the Imperial Fits also part of the retinue or are they a different force? 

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate. 

 

The Fists are going to be a separate army, so they will be a HH 2.0 30k armoured company but for now I want to focus mostly on the 4th ed Space Wolves. This will be purely a veteran unit with the Landraider for now and more of a character driven project. These will be more of a last chancers/dirty dozen type thing.

[Doghouse]

Another quick upate.

 

I'm currently building Astartes for the Vlka Fenryka at the moment so that I can get started on the first two Grey Hunter packs but am still playing around with the Fists Raider. This is pretty much an experiment and a chance to push beyond traditional painting methods which I am really enjoying. I'm currently using glazes to go over the more patchy areas working my way out to the edges.  Focusing on the door for the time being and then working outwards. I have added the decal and will weather it up, you can see the scars beneath so I will either remove the decal in these areas or using highlighting and shading to imply it is a fresh paint job.

 

[Doghouse]

The withdrawal order came as the line collapsed.

 

Helion, commander of Unbroken Oath, listened in silence while the command vox filled with overlapping reports from across the refinery district. What had begun as a routine compliance action against the holdout rulers of Halcyon Gate had deteriorated into brutal urban warfare amongst the manufactorum districts surrounding the capital city. Enemy macro batteries hidden within the refinery quarter had crippled several advancing columns leaving Imperial Fists formations isolated beneath relentless artillery fire. Garbled vox reports also spoke of the defenders deploying battle automata of unknown pattern and designation, machine constructs unlike anything recorded within Expedition archives.

 

“Support Squad Kaedus remains cut off, they will have to fend for themselves.” came the vox transmission. “An armoured column is advancing on our flank, you are to immediately withdraw to the western ridge. Sector twelve must not fall”

 

Helion looked through the narrow vision slit toward the shattered relay station ahead. Between burning Rhino transports and collapsing gantries, he could still see them. Imperial Fists in scarred yellow plate firing from the ruins while incoming rounds shattered the ferrocrete around their position.

 

“Reverse us out,” Helion ordered.

 

Castren, newly assigned as driver to Unbroken Oath, entered the command.

 

The Land Raider did not obey.

 

The engine growled deeper beneath their feet as warning runes flared across the control panel. The transmission locked hard. No matter what inputs Castren entered, the vehicle refused to move.

 

“It rejects the input,” Castren said quietly.

 

Helion remained silent.

 

The machine spirit of Unbroken Oath had developed an unusual reputation amongst those assigned to it. There were occasional delays in command response, moments where helm corrections lagged by a fraction too long or instances where the Land Raider appeared to prioritise incoming distress signals ahead of ordered movement patterns. Techmarines had inspected the vehicle more than once, yet no fault was ever conclusively identified within its systems.

 

Most simply regarded it as a temperamental machine spirit, others would go as far as to dismiss it as stubborn.

 

Until now.

 

Outside an anti armour shell struck the avenue close enough to shower the hull in molten debris. Without warning the Land Raider lurched forwards, accelerating rapidly as it did so.

 

Castren removed his hands from the controls entirely as the sudden unexpected action caught him completely off guard.

 

Unbroken Oath pushed directly into the kill zone its tracks grinding over burning wreckage while enemy fire hammered against its thick frontal armour. One impact scarred the left track assembly black. Another detonated across the glacis with enough force to shake dust from the interior plating. Still the Imperial Fists war machine continued forward, engine note rising beneath the thunder of battle.

 

When the Land Raider reached the relay station the assault ramp dropped before the vehicle had fully halted. The surviving Imperial Fists ran through smoke and fire dragging wounded with them as the sponson-mounted lascannons carved burning lines through the enemy advance.

 

Sergeant Kaedes boarded last. He struck the interior bulkhead once with a clenched fist as the ramp sealed shut behind him.

 

Only then did Unbroken Oath allow itself to withdraw.

 

Much later when Helion was questioned over the incident he offered no defence and no apology.

 

“It received the order,” he said.

 

His gaze rested briefly upon the scarred yellow hull of the Land Raider sitting silent within the embarkation bay.

 

“It refused to leave them behind.”

[Doghouse]

Bit more done, still just playing around with bit and need to carry on with glazes to blend the colour together a bit more. I've started weathering the decal but needs more work yet. Still a very muted tone overall but may add some lighter yellow once the base coat is in place. I'm not really going for award winning and aiming more for I am going to have fun painting this.

 

 

[derLumpi]

Those tanks look already awesome. Will follow this closely. 

Also liked the story about the not obeying Land Raider. Cool idea very on character for not yielding fists. 

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate.  Speaking as a fan of your Ultramarines and conversions I take that as a compliment. 

 

Yeah I think it helps with the process of creating things if you can come up with a back story in your mind when shaping the models.

 

I have a rather fun idea where as I am using second edition I am thinking of including a Legion Techmarine Covenant of two Techmarines which will be in the Land Raider who will represent Helion and Castran as the crew of the tank. They will take up two transport slots but means I can have the crew leave the transport on foot, conduct repairs and be really cool mini character models.

 

Taking armoured spearhead the HQ will be a Sicarian, I have four Predators for a full squadron and the pointing guy in the Imperial Armour can then be a Vigilator leading a five man veteran squad which fits nicely in the Proteus with the two Techmarines.

[derLumpi]

You're very welcome. I reread some of your WIP posts on both raiders. You used sponges and stippling to achieve those awesome results?

I'm still thinking on how to do my vehicles and using sponges was already in the table. Seeing your raiders I might have to give it a try.

[The Pounder]

Amazing work @Doghouse! 
 

The speed at which you achieve such great results is impressive.

[Rusted Boltgun]

I've been enjoying the painting up of your vehicles over the last few posts and really enjoyed the background to the Unbroken Oath. I find a little backstory deepens the connection to the models you invest time in painting, even suggesting details to add or twists on a scheme. 

 

Your true scale guides introduced me to the B&C forum so I am forever grateful.

[Doghouse]

derLumpi: Yeah, the Space Wolves raider was painted brown over a black undercoat then painted completely dark brown. I then went over with a lighter brown with the make up sponge and then stippled the grey on progressively. The Fists raider is another version of the technic but I am using a sort of rubbing dry brush and then going over the model with watered down Averland sunset to try and blend it together. The yellow is much harder to work with but I am enjoying it a lot.

 

The Pounder: Thanks mate.  I'm enjoying it a lot and really like your stuff that you post on here at the B&C.

 

Rusted Boltgun: Thanks mate.  That's awesome, I am really glad that I played a part in such a great hobbyist like you finding the site. Yeah the little back stories is another way of getting the image across, I'm no AD-B but enjoy creating the little snippets to help enhance the projects I work on. 

 

Got some more done, added the second icon to the door but still building up the glazes and shading. Still enjoying it. 

 

[Doghouse]

Getting back to the Space Wolves I have a fun idea to create some sort of contrast to the armour of the wolves. In the 3rd edition codex you can take up to 20 Wolf Guard, these are either used as a body guard for the wolf lord or assigned as single models to lead space wolves unit. 

 

To allow me to add even more aspects of 40k to the army I am making this guy into a member of the Mentor Chapter. The idea in rogue trader was that rather than deploy as an army individual squads or members would be assigned to other Imperial forces. These guys were given experimental tech like time distortion weapons and would work alongside others.

 

I'm using a Mk 6 marine and added the Mk IV holstered bolter from the Rapier crew kit. Very simple build to be honest but one I want to hopefully start painting today.

 

[Doghouse]

Just another build for today. Under the Inquisition rules you can take an Acolyte in the retinue, basically this guy takes the first wound for the Inquisitor. As these are proxies I decided that I would add a Squat to the army giving allied detachment more character.

 

Brokk Veyr.

 

Before entering the service of Procurator Varrox the Squat known as Brokk Veyr had spent more than a century travelling the unstable trade arteries surrounding the Forge Worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus. Officially he operated as a chartered void trader transporting rare minerals, archaeotech fragments, plasma regulators and salvaged machine components between isolated manufactorums and frontier stations beyond reliable Imperial control.

 

Unofficially Brokk possessed a reputation for finding things that were not meant to be found.

 

His vessel the Void Ledger moved through forgotten mining systems, dead colonies and abandoned void docks left untouched since the Age of Strife. Brokk understood ancient machinery in a way many Tech Priests found deeply unsettling. He lacked formal Mechanicus doctrine yet could often identify the function of corrupted or incomplete technology simply through instinct and experience earned over decades amongst lost systems and broken stations.

 

It was during an expedition near the Ghoul Stars that Brokk first crossed paths with Elys Varrox.

 

A Mechanicus recovery fleet investigating reports of a derelict manufactorum ark had vanished almost entirely after boarding the vessel. Distress fragments spoke of corrupted scrapcode with autonomous machine systems operating without command authority and entire sections of the ark rearranging themselves internally without explanation. By the time Varrox arrived with a Collegiate Extremis detachment only one surviving locator beacon remained active within the drifting hulk.

 

That beacon belonged to Brokk Veyr.

 

Against all expectation the Squat had not only survived aboard the ark for nearly three weeks but had successfully sealed portions of the vessel against the spreading machine corruption using improvised void shield relays and mining grade logic dampeners. Varrox later discovered that Brokk had also mapped large sections of the ark that the Mechanicus itself had failed to penetrate.

 

More remarkably still he had done so without once succumbing to the scrapcode infection spreading through the vessel.

Many within the Mechanicus argued Brokk should be executed immediately for exposure alone but Varrox disagreed.

The Procurator instead concluded that anyone capable of surviving such an encounter possessed skills too valuable to waste. Brokk’s experience navigating forgotten systems, identifying xenotech contamination and locating hidden manufactorums soon proved invaluable to the Collegiate Extremis. Over time, the Squat became a permanent attaché to Varrox’s investigations serving as pathfinder, salvager, prospector and occasionally intermediary with the more independent void cultures operating beyond direct Mechanicus authority.

Though never formally inducted into the Mechanicus Brokk earned an unusual degree of tolerance within Varrox’s retinue. Some Tech Priests quietly resent his presence viewing him as an undisciplined relic hunter little better than a sanctioned scavenger.

 

Varrox himself simply refers to him as useful.

 

Brokk for his part claims he stays because travelling with the Procurator is “profitable” though those who have served beside the pair for long enough suspect the truth is rather more complicated.

 

 

 

[Doghouse]

Actually thinking about it...

 

What might be really stupidly awesome would be to make the rest of the Retinue Brokk's Squat crew of the Void Ledger.  

 

So you then have this whole Gandalf and the Dwarves dynamic, I could even maybe work in a Ratling. 

[Heraclite]

That would be so sweet!

[Doghouse]

Heraclite:  Thanks mate.  Yeah, I think it would be fun! 

 

Bit more building but this time back to the 30k force.

 

Cadre Kheled

 

Cadre Kheled did not officially exist within the order of battle of the Imperial Fists.

 

No company records listed them permanently, there was no standing deployment doctrine accounted for their methods. Their designation appeared only intermittently within compliance archives and usually attached to campaigns where enemy command structures had collapsed with suspicious speed shortly before a Legion assault began.

 

The truth was far less formal.

 

The six Legionaries had first fought together during the closing years of the Unification Wars beneath the command of a Terran officer named Kheled Var. Before Rogal Dorn had been found and before the VII Legion had become the disciplined empire-builders later celebrated across the Imperium, they had been siege-breakers and executioners tasked with fighting amongst the poison cities and gene-wrought tyrant states of Old Earth.

 

Most of Kheled Var’s command died during the assault on the Panpacific fortress lines. The survivors became increasingly difficult for the Legion to place afterward.

 

They were experienced beyond measure but they carried habits the newer Legion no longer encouraged. They ignored ceremonial hierarchy, questioned inefficient orders openly and preferred operating independently far beyond designated engagement boundaries. Their methods achieved results but rarely in ways commanders found comfortable.

When Rogal Dorn assumed command of the VII Legion many expected the veterans to be broken apart and reassigned.

Instead, Dorn left them largely untouched.

 

Whether out of respect for their service or simple practicality none could say.

 

By the time of the Great Crusade the six warriors had become something unusual within the Imperial Fists. Not a formal specialist unit, nor a punishment detail but a tolerated anomaly. Veterans too valuable to discard and too set in their ways to reform. Their leader Vigilator Serkan Vale embodied the problem perfectly.

Vale possessed an almost pathological distrust of large frontal assaults despite serving within a Legion famous for them. He believed wars were won long before the first breach charge detonated through the removal of commanders, logisticians, vox relays, and artillery observers. His five veterans operated accordingly carrying heavily modified Nemesis bolters maintained since the earliest years of the Crusade.

 

Entire enemy defence grids had collapsed after a single night with Vale’s cadre operating beyond the perimeter yet complaints followed them constantly.

 

Other Imperial Fists considered them morbid and detached. Too willing to operate alone for weeks at a time. Younger Legionaries whispered that Vale and his veterans behaved more like hunters than line soldiers but perhaps most unusual of all was their attachment to the Land Raider Proteus Unbroken Oath. 

The assignment had originally been temporary following heavy casualties during the Ghast Reaches compliance. Somehow the arrangement persisted and over time the veterans came to trust the Proteus completely, while the vehicle itself developed an unsettling tendency to prioritise the extraction and recovery of Vale’s cadre above all other embarked units.

After Halcyon Gate, where Unbroken Oath openly refused a withdrawal command rather than abandon the trapped veterans, the pairing became difficult to ignore. No official explanation was ever recorded as the Imperial Fists simply continued deploying them together.

 

So a bit more progress on what are now known as the Cadre. This will be a veteran unit with nemesis bolters. The bolters at the moment are regular bolter with the teleport antennae from the Grey Knight squad stuck on the end to extend the barrel. I'm working on the middle guy at the moment and will be doing the GS work on the waist.

I like the idea that these guys are basically outcasts, a bit like the dirty dozen, some will be painted differently such as Howling Gyre campaign vets but honestly I am tempted to paint them grey with the one yellow arm like the original Terran Legion.

 

 

 

 

[Doghouse]

One last update for today, coming alone nicely at the moment. I may be in danger of actually finishing it at this rate. 

 

I still need to apply some more glazes, most noticeably on the back of the model. 

 

[Doghouse]

Not much done but started on the next layer building up the yellow a little lighter adding Dorn Yellow to a spare pot of Averland Sunset.

 

The first picture is the base layer, the second picture is where I am starting to layer up the lighter colour. Once this lighter shade is in place I will add a further smaller highlighting effect to the tank then start on the tracks and work more on weathering and damage.

 

All very experimental and I am making it up as I go but having fun still.

 

[sitnam]

That's coming out at a very nice, more grimdark yellow. I know your gonna add highlights, but it's still a far different take then the bright lemon yellow we often see with fists.

[Doghouse]

sitnam: Thanks mate.  I really quite like the gritty grimdark style and this style of painting seems to suit it well. I like the idea that it's soot covered and battle damaged so the colour has taken on a darker tone rather than being more sun bleached. It's all just experimentation but lots of fun.

 

Very brief update, trial Astartes for the Vlkr Fenryka Astartes. Really simple approach so far, rather than stippling I applied the brown undercoat like the tanks but instead of stippling the admech grey I am dry brushing. It's not the greatest picture but works really well in person and ties in well with the tank.

It gives the armour a very old worn feel, I think I may paint the backs of the legs where the armour is segmented in Iron Warriors Metal to make the plates pop a bit more. The shoulder pads will be red which will tie it to the raider but I quite like the idea of making the bolter weapons on both yellow to tie them together further.

 

[Doghouse]

Still very early days but I am playing around with the decal fitting first, bit glossy because it's still a bit wet. I think these will look good when finished. Still needs a ton of work just yet though. My immediate goal is the Wolf Lord and two squads along with the raider.

 

[batu]

I love to use Micro Sol and Set for decals. Have you tried those before?