Crusade!

Lovely kits to mess around with the new Cadians….

May have gone a bit nuts on the Reptillian Overlords/Wargames Atlantic SpaceNam….

Digging the new Kasrkin. Got a second box to build, and need to grab some spare bodies to use all the spare kit with….

So a bit of priming, a bit of assembly, and a bit of stripping old models brought off Ebay…..

Figured this weekend was a good opportunity to get caught up on some priming. Didn’t get as much done as I’d like as my dominant arm has been playing up (this post is brought to you by a lovely cocktail of painkillers….), but did make some progress:

• Sisters of Battle – got the remaining Sisters from this army primed, giving me a force of easily 100 very angry space nuns. My main force is primed in Army Painter Dragon Red, whilst the unique characters I hit with Grey Seer.
• Shadowsword – This one has been on the “to paint” pile for a while as I built it over 2 years ago. So far just primed with Army Painter Army Green.
• Death Korps Of Krieg – More Army Painter primer, this time the last of my Wolf Grey, which gets the greatcoats done easily.
• Silent Sisters – And finally some reinforcements for the Talons of The Emperor. I still have four more to prime but my Chaos Black ran out as I was finishing the main batch. This also included some repalcment bits for previosuly completed sisters damaged when my old shelf collapsed.

Started in on my big-ol’ load of resin minis, and figured an easy start would be this alternate version of Commissar Yarrick from Brother Vini. I will always have a soft spot for the 3rd Ed resculpt, but it is showing it’s age. This one is a bit more in keeping with Old Bale Eye’s reputation. And Alongside him is the inimitable Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt.

Something immensely satisfying about getting all the parts (we don’t talk about the pouches….) for my Gaunt’s Ghosts force clipped out and organised ready for building….

So it’s been a minute since I’ve updated this project and honestly? Not too much has happened. On the upside I have painted some miniatures, for the first time in nearly 3 years. Now admittedly these were for Battletech, but it was painting. And as first steps go it was a big confidence booster. I’m planning to paint some 40k over the next few weeks, but we will see.

Now, I have continued with the odd build & kitbash, so the ranks of my various Imperial armies have been growing:

And then today I had the house to myself for a bit so got into the kitchen to finally clean up a chunk of the resin minis I’d picked up over the last couple of years, most of it intended for use in building a force of the Tanith First and Only, better known as Gaunt’s Ghosts (the fact I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Necropolis is purely coincidental to making this decision 😉 ).

The process was fairly simple – one bowl of warm, soapy water to soak the parts in, some cheap toothbrushes to do the scrubbing, and a bowl of cold water to rinse them in once done. Then just crack on.

(and for completions sake, the models here are primarily from Victoria Miniatures, but also include a several from the likes of Trolls Under The Bridge,  TT Combat, Aus30k, Brother Vinni and Heresy Lab)

Right-o, so my copy of Indomitus arrived this week  (ahead of when Goblin Gaming had suggested for Wave 2 orders, so that was a nice surprise), and I think the contents of that set will become part of Pedro Kantor’s Crimson Fists. In the meantime though I want to round off the Primaris additions for the Space Woves….

Primaris Wolf Priest -Ironically I had begun work using bits from the Primaris Chaplain & Apothecary kits with a spare Lieutenant to make a Wolf Priest, but that Chaplain they revealed for Indomitus just pushed all the retro buttons, in a way that the coat-wearing version we got first just never did (don’t get me wrong, it’s a great model, it just doesn’t really match most previous Chaplain minis – Dark Angels sure, every one else? not so much).

A bit of Ebay-fu in the wake of Indomitus scored me a pair of Chaplains beyond the one that came in my box set, so I began to look at the bits I had and what would need removing from the base model. Surprisngly, not too much. I kept the tabard (as you may have noticed I’m not really one for scultping fur), but removed the original Rosarius (replaced by an icon from the Wolf Guard kit) and the reliquary hanging from his belt (this  was swapped for a wolf-tail talisman). Some vials from the Apothecary kit on the thigh armour nod to his role as a healer (in my mind Primaris Wolf Priests are an odd mix of those older marines who have crossed the Rubicon, plus Apothecaries & Chaplains of the Primaris founding who find themselves having to learn new skills – I did have to resist adding some of the manipulator arms from the Apothacry kit to the backpack…) whilst a necklace from the Thunder Wolf kit finished off the main torso.
The shoulder required building a new shoulder piece to mount the sculpted pad onto – thankfully there were plenty of spare arms in the bits box for donations – the Crozius Arcanum I could have left and simply hollowed out the space inside the wings to take a wolf skull, but sadly I only thought of that after  the fact. As is a quick snip removed that piece and I replaced it with one of the back pack icons from the Wolf Guard kit. The backpack is courtesy of the Wulfen, whilst the head is another donation from the Wolf Guard, but to add some variety the sculpted mohawk has been  trimmed then fled down,  to leave a Wlf Priest with some rather fine mutton chops,extolling his brothers to war…

The Eliminators were  nice and simple – new heads and then each had something added on their lower torso

When it came to the Infiltrators from  the Shadowspear/Vanguard Getting Started set I decided to go with two 5-man packs.That meant one of the duplicate sculpts (3 of them are doubled up) would get some modification to make him stand out as a Sergeant. Handily there were plenty of bits left over from the Infiltrator/Incursor kit, plus I had the bolter arm from the Vanguard Lt spare (more on why that was spare in a mo…).add in a new head and a couple of Wolfygubbins and lo, one Sergeant ready for battle. The rest of the Infiltrators are pretty much following the instructions, but with the odd extra icon or knife added alongside a suitably Space Wolf head.  Oh, and the Helix-Adept got one of the Wolf Skull-helms I nabbed from Puppets War. I thought that worked for a Wolf Priest in training….

And lastly  for this batch the Lieutenant in Phobos Armour. Again I wanted  to give him some Space Wolf flavour – as he  is supposed to be a Wolf Guard battle Leader – whilst still keeping the more spec-ops feel of  the Vanguard. So the head was one of the more sensible from the Wolf Guard kit, the knives from the right hip were swapped out for ones from the Space Wolf Pack kit, and I added a third to the left hip along with swapping out the Bolter arm for one from the ETB Reiver kit, with a knife hand from the Tactical Squad box. a look that I works nicely to emphasize the knife-fighter aspect.

As a bit of an addendum I had a play around with Battle Scribe to see what I could come up with. Interestingly if I build a pack each of Inceptors and Supressors (which I do have lying around), and use a lone Fenrisian Wolf to stand in for a Cyber-Wolf, then I can build  the following Brigade for 1999 points:

• Ragnar Blackmane
• Wolf Guard Battle Leader in Phobos Armour
• Rune Priest in Phobos Armour
• Wolf Priest
• Primaris Ancient
• 3x Blade Guard
• 5x Reivers
• 10x Intercessors
• 5x Intercessors
• 5x Assault Intercessors
• 5x Incursors
• 5x Infiltrators
• 5x Infiltrators
• 1x Cyber-wolf
• 3x Inceptors
• 3x Supressors
• 3x Eliminators
• 3x Aggressors
• 3x Eradicators

Lots of infantry, but sorely lacking in any armour support. Could be fun to throw at someone though 😀 Certainly some shenanigans to be had with stratagems,  and scope to bulk out to higher points in the same detachment..

(and scarily this means I now have over 5k of Space Wolves)

The Rune Priest in Phobos Armour was a fun little build – I had the base mini sitting around for a while and had been toying with using the Force Staff arms from the standard Librarian kit for an interesting pose but sadly I couldn’t get the fit right – a combination of the broader torso’s of all Primaris kits and more specifically the odd shoulder joint of the Phobos Librarian. Luckily though I also had a couple of the standard Primaris Librarian knocking around, so a bit of carefully cutting and we get model  that is still clearly in Phobos Armour, but more distinctly Space Wolf. Odd trinkets around the belt & neck helped to reinforce that idea. after that the hardest part was trimming the head to fit, shaving off the braids and trimming down the beard.

The final addition (for now) was a Pack of Eradicators – I’m still waiting for my copy of Indomitus until at least late August, but picked up a set of Eradicators for a decent price off Ebay in the pre-release scrum. They arrived last week and I promptly set to Woofing them up. Heads are all from the Wolf Guard kit, then each has gotten a knife of somesort followed by replacing some of the purity seals. A chunk of blasted Rubric Marine just felt right as well 😉
Overall they’ve come out looking like a trio of hardcases ready to get up close and personal with their Melta-rifles….

So, that’s where things stand for now. Additions? Well I picked up the Primaris Vanguard box last weekend that I’m planning to suitably Wolfyfi, and managed ot score  a couple of the new Primaris Chaplain for decent prices. One of those will be getting the Wolf Priest treatment. I’ve got some bits from the Apothecary & Death Wing Command kits I want to use to add a bit of flavour given how Wolf Priests are both Chaplain & Apothecary for the Space Wolves.

More importantly though, I really hope these two posts have been useful  to show what you can do with just the contents of a bitz box…

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this project, and sad to say I’ve not gotten any more painting done – a combination of working right through this pandemic we have been dealing with (yaay for working in logistics…) and just not being physically up to moving the stuff blocking my painting table.

What I have been able to crack on with however is building & kitbashing more stuff. Specifically the new Ragnar Blackmane (such a good  update) and an assortment of Primaris Space Marines to accompany him. Which of  course meant digging inot the bitz box to make them a little less… Codex Compliant 😉

First up was a basic Pack of Intercessors to stand in as Grey Hunters, built out the Dark Imperium/Conquest kits. Most were standard builds with heads from the various Space Wolf kits, the exception being the Pack Leader who started as the Primaris Ancient, with a Thunder Hammer from the Vanguard Veterans kit and an Intercessor Bolt Pistol arm.

*not pictured – a Hellblaster Pack built at the same time who all have the wolf-head helmets from the SW Pack kit and the SW Upgrade kit*

Fairly simple but came out looking pretty nicely I think. Didn’t want to go overboard on the Wolfiness (I lean more Viking than Furry thank you)

Next up, whilst I do really like the minis from Indomitus they don’t really look terribly Space Wolf, and the amount of overt crusader-style iconography, especially on the Blade Guard, did not make me terribly enthused to attempt Wolfing them up (thankfully though they should be right at home in either my Raptors or Crimson Fists). Instead I opted to dig into the bitz box and see what I could rustle up.

So, the Blade Guard. I was going to use Primaris Lt’s (I may have brought a few too many issues of Conquest for the sprue with the Lt’s, Ancient & Intercessors), but they didn’t really “click” for me. Instead I had some spare bodies from the multi-part Hellblaster kit, which handily have the extra thigh armour. Perfect for bodyguards. So, the weapons are the Frostblade & Frost Axe from the SW Upgrade sprue, whilst Mr Dual-Wield got the Powersword arm from the base SW Pack kit, and Greigor Fellhand’s knife-arm. The Storm Shields are from the Wolf Guard Terminator kit,and the rest are a mixture of bitz from across the Primaris & Space Wolf kits.

The Assault Intercessors are simply standard Intercessor bodies from the multi-part kit, with chainswords liberated from various kits and donated Heavy Bolt Pistols from the Easy To Build Reiver kit. These are going to get painted up as Blood Claw stand-ins (and yes, I know a Thunder Hammer is not currently an option for the Assault Intercessor Sgt, but I fully expect it to be an option down the road). I have since swapped out a couple of the heads, and do need to go back and give them some equipment around their belts. Even if it’s just empty holsters….

The Incursors were a really simple build – built stock with no real signs of being Space Wolves beyond some very hirstute heads,courtesy of the Thunderwolf Cavalry kit. Slightly awkward as those heads have flattened-off necks, but a bit of liquid greenstuff & superglue got them to fit in nicely. Fluff-wise I dig the idea that Incursors, Infiltrators & Eliminators fit right in amongst the Wolf Scouts in a way Reivers do not, so wanted them to look a bit more “tacticool”…

Ok, I need to get back into the saddle of painting, and REALLY  want to take a swing at the Sisters of Battle as I’ve been building them like no business since the first of the new plastics hit in the Army Box at the end of November.

Thankfully looking through the Codex reveals that one of the Orders covers largely the same area as has been given charge to Pedro Kantor of the Crimson Fists to fortify, the Order of the Bloody Rose, and I have a spare can of Army Painter Dragon Red…

To be fair, the new SoB kits are super versatile. Sure the bodies are pretty much monopose, but you can get a LOT of variety by mixing up the various arms, weapons & heads,

So, we’re going to go for speed and a decent tabletop standard using an Army Painter spray primer to get the armour down, then block in the details and hit them with a wash.
One thing to point out is that I’ve opted to paint the Seraphim & Zephyrim with the flying stands attached. The transparent stems have been giving a coating of Humbrol liquid Maskol, which should peel away once I’ve gotten  the minis and bases to the standard I want. We’ll see how that works out…

One spraying stick full of Sisters.  Have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the tape held up. Not bad for a £2.50 roll of Asda own-brand (and there’s still 3/4 of the roll left). Couple of models fell off, but I suspect that was more down to how I affixed the tape than the tape itself…

And that’s an intimidating tide of red-armoured Nuns with Guns right there.

So this project has not seen a lot of activity over the last year, partly as I was still playing catchup with what I had gotten completed/in the build queue, partly as some surgeries on my spine in June & July (don’t worry – it’s nowhere near as drastic as it sounds, even factoring in the reason for the initial surgery being to remove a benign tumor) have meant I just don’t have the capability at present to move the stuff blocking in my painting area.

So where do things stand for this force of crusading Imperials?

Well for starters the Custodian Guard were reinforced by a Shield-Captain and 4 Custodes bearing Sentinel Blades & Storm Shields. Combined with the 5 with Guardian Spears that lets me build 3 minimum sized squads at least.

The Space Wolves received a converted Ragnar Blackman (now sadly superseded by the  stunning Primaris version), built off of Krom Dragongaze with bits from  the various other Space Wolf kits, as well as a shoulderpad from Puppets War, as well as a Contemptor Dreadnaught (love the SW lore that they consider these chassis cursed), Njal Stormcaller, Great Company Ancient, Wolf Guard Terminators, as well as finally getting a pack of Grey Hunters painted with a somewhat darker countenance to them (these were started life as White Scars Veterans before the 13th Black Crusade campaign saw them earmarked to become Grey Slayers. Coming back to them I figured it might be fun to make them a pack who had rejected Ragnar’s assencion to replace Berek at head of the Great Company after his death, and had simply left Fenris to serve The Imperium as they saw fit, yet had now returned to aid their kin in  the wake of the devastation wrecked by Magnus’ plots). And then a bit of kit bashing saved a dreadnaught brought off Ebay that was in a right state, and saw construction of a Wolf Priest Terminator.
Lets put a pin in things there though as there will be more to come back to for the sons of Fenris…

Insert obligatory NO ONE EXPECTS joke here 😛

Oh, and a contingent of Knights from House Mortan. Gods I want to give that Preceptor a run – giving +1 to hit rolls for Knight Armigers and what amounts to a laser-shotgun? Yes please…

And some assorted model builds; Grey Knight Librarian & Chaplain, Crimson Fists Captain, assorted Astartes, Big Bobby G, and what’s becoming the core of a Sisters of Battle force…