New Project

Well, I mused, and I waffled, and I thought...
And then I thought some more...
Then I stuck my nose in rule books and old and new codices...

Then I though bugger it, MORE MARINES!

I wanted to veer away from the dark colours and bleak looking troops I usually tend to go for. As we know, the bad guys don't always wear black.
Plus I wanted to try out more challenging colour schemes and new troop types and rules for the force.

Thus was born the ANGELS OF ECSTASY renegade chapter.

I popped into the shop (GW) and bought a lord and some marines for the princely sum of £34.50, along with some paint. Then I had to dodge the "why don't you come along to our game nights, why don't you buy a white dwarf, what armies do you have, isn't the chaos codex great, I love apocalypse, I love spearhead" kind of crap that the droids working there spew at me each time I go in. Geesh, if I wanted it, I would buy it. And I don't talk about apocalypse of spearhead AT ALL. They're just gimmicks to sell lots of miniatures and tanks to the unsuspecting public. The thing is, it ain't difficult to think up simple rules to play these type of games WITHOUT GW help. I mean, we're not all 'tards, are we?
Even when I was 12 (that's TWELVE YEARS OLD) I was thinking up these things. It's all just about the money nowadays. GW used to be cool, now they're corporate.

Sigh.

Anyways, back to the project!

Step 1- Construction
Now, I wanted to try and keep to the models supplied, but I also wanted to add my own brand of weirdness to proceedings. So, I got my cutting and trimming stuff together and washed all components in slightly soapy water first once the mould lines were removed. then I got out the glue and went to work. This took shape as we can see from the pics that follow:

This is the rear view of the lord, and it shows off the daemon weapon I kitted him out with. I took the head off the force weapon in the kit and stuck on the power axe head. Thus was born the "Glaive of Eternal Bliss" or big hitty thing as I like to call it. Basically it follows the codex rules for a Slaaneshi Daemon weapon, or "Blissgiver."

Also not the bits I stuck on the base for extra detail.

Same guy, front view. Note also the combi weapon (melta) and face style head I gave him. I also cut some scarring onto the face with a craft knife (remember kids, stay the fook away from sharp stuff wot can stick you!!!).

Along with these things, and to complete the model I went for the simpler looking trophy racks. I was going for simple and striking here, rather than over complex and stoopid. At this point I had a colour scheme in mind, but it was how to get there WITHOUT following the advice of GW cloned goons.

Here's some of the squad after construction. Notice all the marines carry icons on their backpacks. My fault, just thought it looked nice. This pic features the two special weapons and the icon to slaanesh. I also went for the blank shoulder pad to go on the left instead of the right (which is usual practice). This army was going to be a weird sight in every way I could go without resorting to putty and craziness. Remember- simple and striking!

There's the champion and the rest of the squad. I really do like the new CSM squad kit, as it includes plenty of character and the list of weapon upgrades is sweet! I now have several spare bits for possible inclusion in later units I add. Sweet. The I got my pin vice and drilled out the gun barrels for all the bolter weaponry ( I NEVER DO THAT).

With the leader and unit constructed and the glue dried, it was time to step on to the next stage. UNDERCOATING.


Stage 2- Undercoating

First thing was to go for skull white spray. Again a MAJOR step away from the usual black spray. This would make the models lighter and mean I would need to be more precise when applying colours later, so as not to leave any white bits in corners and crevices!

As we can see from the pic above, I put the models on a piece of mdf and used masking tape to hold them still. I have been spraying using this method for EONS now and it ain't let me down yet!

The it was off outside to a WELL VENTILATED AREA (kids take note) to give em a good dusting with the spray.

Here's the Lord. As you can see I gave all the models a single coat of white. Some prefer several coats, but it's just not my way. I try to make my paints go as far as possible so as to save cash and maybe the environment a little too (honestly though, I dunno). A single thin coat goes a long way to ensuring that the colours you apply go on well without obscuring the details.

Here are the models after spraying. The black board is now white (duh!) and the models all got a good coat. I try to space them out as much as possible so that I can move the can all around them as I spray, hopefully this pic shows that. Notice the second mdf board behind the models that I used to protect other stuff from the dreaded over spray. With that all done it was time to get the models indoors and get the paints out!

Stage 3- Base coating

This took actually 2 stages of painting, with very careful brushwork, which is hopefully explained in the pics...

In keeping with my choicest deity of Slaanesh, I went for bright colours, but chaos ones just the same. I opted for a patterned finish with purple and white. There would be no detail work done on shoulder guards trims etc, just two bold colours. I wanted the troops to stand out on the battlefield and be appreciated for the colours, but not to the extent where you would need to look closely at the details. Like I said- SIMPLE and STRIKING.

Here are some of the marines with the base coat applied. Warlock purple one half and fortress grey the other half. Note that even the horns are in the colour scheme, not bone coloured. I knew at this point I had definitely picked the right colour scheme! After this initial stage I went further and base coated flesh and metals.

Here's the lord with the complete base coat applied. Black for the cloth and weapons, bestial brown for the flesh, and shadow grey on the stonework of his base, though this would be brownish later if all went to plan.

Likewise with the marines. Now in the books etc it says that you can game with models in this state, worth bearing in mind I suppose...

I like to paint models in groups of at least 10. This allows time for the first model to dry as you paint the others, so you can knock out loads of models in an afternoon of the same quality of paintwork. I does have the necessity for the painter to have that degree of concentration to not get bored by what he's doing. I find that tunes help, along with regular sips of water/ juice/ coffee/ tea and sometimes lager ( ALL HAIL BEER)- though not best in the morning, that last one!!!

I started this method of painting back when I played fantasy battle (50 orcs in an afternoon- easy).

I also found that this method honed my techniques with the brush, colours and shading. I am self taught when it comes to this kind of thing. To that end I don't take well to being told how to shade up to white by a GW clone half my frikkin age! (Basically I told him to get back in his box and stop giving advice to veterans when he's only a damn rookie- shit...)

Last up- more marines! Black for the weapons, human sized skulls and any cloth work/ pouches etc. The feel of the army was starting to come out now, and I was buzzing from it!

Stage 4- shading and highlights

Almost done. The general shape of the colour scheme was there, I just had to accentuate it now and add that vibe to the weapons etc. Break out the bolt gun metal and the inks!!!

I shaded the purple (liche purple or warlock purple- whichever is darker, I forget) with old style purple ink, the highlighted with liche/warlock purple and finally the lighter shade of purple on the top.

The grey got a dash of watered down armour wash, the highlighted up via grey to skull white. Next time I won't water down the ink, as the shading could have been a bit better on the white.

The blacks that weren't weapons got a good old bolt gun metal followed by armour wash then chainmail shade and highlight. For blades I went up another notch to mithril silver. This made the power sword of the champion really bright.

Then it was on to the reds for eyes and red dot laser sights and hey presto! We were there!!

There's the lord again! I went for purple ink to shade the blade for the daemon weapon. This gives it a "unholy hue" that I really like alot. The weapon stands out to, without overpowering the colour scheme. Nice!!! The flesh on this model (and the others too) was built up from bestial brown with chestnut ink through bronzed flesh, then elf flesh and finally bleached bone. I wanted the models in this army to have really pallid flesh. This seems to suit the Slaaneshi ideals of perfumes, excesses of beauty (though twisted) and pleasure etc.

Here's the first half of the squad. Note the "red dot" sightings on the bolters and the really shiny power weapon. The white an purple really do sit well here. I am so chuffed with the outcome. It really is a gigantic step away from the norm for me.

Second half of the squad, this time with the icon and the special weapons. Hopefully the troops look good here too. I kept the colours simple so that I could paint models quickly and raise an awesome spectacle for the battle field that will contrast well with likely opponents (greys, reds, greens and dark colours- you guys know who you are!!!).

This led to the final stage...

Stage 5- Basing, transfers and sealing.

The bases were covered first in bestial brown, then grey gravel, followed by my usual mix of green flock, tea leaves (from really cheap tea bags) and brown fine gravel. Once dried, this was then sealed in using watered down PVA painted over the whole base. My hope is that this will prevent flock dropping off and going everywhere (it really pisses the wife off when she nags me to hoover all the crap up).

I also applied the chapter badge to all the models. This is simply a Slaanesh symbol on the purple shoulder guard. The results were well impressive, though I had to do some crafty trimming with a model knife to get the symbols to sit properly on the shoulder guards. Once dried, this was also sealed using watery PVA glue. Again my hope here is to prevent the transfer sliding off. It does my head in when that happens...

This is a shot of the champion from the rear. Hopefully this illustrates the colour scheme to its fullest, as well as showing a hint of the badge and the detail on the base from using different flocks and gravels.

Same guy with the icon bearer seen from the front. again it shows how truly striking the simplest of colour schemes can be.

Marines with trusty bolters. The guy at the frontreally does show how cool the Slaaneshi symbol looks. The PVA was still wet when I took this one. Talk about seizing the moment!

These are the two special weapons models in the squad. I went for the flamer to clear out infantry from buildings and cover, and the melta gun for armour and armoured troops. Hopefully this makes the squad a bit versatile in combat, coupled with the benefits of the icon to the god Slaanesh, well nice!

This is the rear view of the Lord, showing the degree of shading I applied to the cloak, as well as highlighting the base detail. The cloak even had a coat of purpler ink applied in the hope it would go a bit "2 tone" the pic doesn't do it justice, and the effect is really very slight. Worth a punt though...

The front view of my lord. I haven't decided what to call him just yet. But it will be something weird and wonderful. Again that striking colour scheme with the symbol of the patron god really makes the model jump out at you.

Well, I hope you liked the case study of how the new army took shape in terms of colour and theme. I am really happy with the bold contrasting colours and that the simplest combination really has proven itself to be very effective.

Now I just have to do it again- for the entire army!!!
Next up for the army will most likely be a rhino and some noise marines or something. I am still musing over various combinations of units and vehicles. The Rhino will be very striking, keeping that two colour scheme, but I need to put a Slaansehi symbol or two on it somewhere, which I have several thoughts on... (heheheh). I am looking to really strech myself there, and if it doesn't work out, then I can simply go back to simple striking colour schemes.

I am also thinking about raptors, but not as we know them, and chosen too. Again kit bashing may feature heavily, and I'll be sure to keep you all posted!

Stick on your thoughts and verdicts below!

By the way, I will be deleting the space marines and imperial guard posts in the next week or so. Make the most of them while you can!!

WHATEVER WILL I DO NEXT???

I have already said that I think I have gone as far as I can with the guard now, so I am looking to the next project.

Chaos still features, as I think they have the best looking models and the widest scope for conversion, colour and diversity withing each force.

To this end I started musing on the armies I already have.
I have thought about the daemons some more, but I just dont like painting them. The models are ok I suppose, and I can paint them up to look ok. The thing is that they just do not seem to appeal to me. Too much beaming in and out. I am not a fan of too much unpredictability, as it makes for playing games with no clear battle plan which invariable means that the only options available to the general are get close and assault. Fair enoiugh if you can get close, but with the right wargear and character options, an opponent will make goo out of you before you get too close. And I dont like painting the models...

I have just finished building the guard, so I am not keen to repeat it just yet. They are good looking troops and easy enough to paint, but I want something that would be a bit smaller and pack a much more flexible punch.

Which leads us back to the chaos marines. Now, I already have a massive black legion and death guard contingency. Both armies look impressive and have tactical flexibility, a mix of different troops and abilities and an array of shooty kit as well as up close choppy killy stuff.

To that end I am thinking along the lines of a new chaos warband. I want something that moves me, like all my marines do, but in a new way. This means looking to the codex for inspiration. I want to move away from the blacks and reds too, as I have done too much of that in all my work. (black legion, traitor guard, Ulthwe Eldar).

I also want to think about both a theme and flexibility of the troops, coupled with some real clout on the battle field.

This means some serious planning. I want to steer clear ofusing the "usual stuff" too and go for something unique. This has led to thoughts of monstrous kit bashing between loyalist chapters (thats right PLURAL) and chaos marines. I have already seen remarkable results by combining the space wolves with the marines, and I may well go back to that sort of philosophy.
In the codex they mention "SKYRAR'S DARK WOLVES" who use symbology similar to the sons of Russ, but of course, are chaos marines.

I like that idea, but don't want to step in that direction and end up with "CHAOS SPACE WOLVES"

That leads onto the dark angels' history, and "the fallen." I love the marines in robes sort of style, but I want to combine it with the individuality and flexibility of the chaos marines. To field the fallen in the "spirit of the story" as it were, woul dmean fielding lots of small units, with limited equipment. Not very me, that.

The we move onto the black tempars and their "crusader" idealogy. Again, awesome, but the matter of how to combine it with my chaos ideals of flexibility and aggressive punch.
And so on we go to other chapters, leaving the same problm each time. Every chapter has something that appeals to me, but I cna't seem to think of ways to combine it with chaos troops without returning to where I've already been in terms of troops, tactical options etc.

So what's left that I haven't tried yet?
Well, in terms of chaos troops, quite a bit. I haven't included thousand sons or noise marines yet- or raptors. I've not fielded a daemon prince or a lord in terminator armour that wasn't a special character. I haven't used vindicators before, or possessed marines, or even a defiler. That pretty much covers 1 hq, 2 troops, an elites, a fast attack and a couple of heavy support choices.... weeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrd.

Perhaps this is the new plan then?
But what to do with it?
I have mused on sonic weaponry before, and it still appeals to me.

Perhaps I have some sort of new direction here after all:
Chaos marines mixed with loyalist vanilla marines (kitbash) along with sonic weaponry. Watch this space, I need to think on this some more...

This leaves me a bit stuck in all as to which direction to take the next chaos warband in.

Riding Rough

I figured it was about time I showed off a bit with the rough riders squad for the traitor guard army.
Hopefully the pictures aren't too fuzzy on the details, as all the models are now undercoated and ready for the paint job.

My initial plan was to include some rough riders in the army just as something a little different for my opponent to worry about, but looking at their capabilities in the codex and rule books I changed my thoughts on them and consider them to be a kick ass fast assault unit. And it means I dont have to field nothing but lasguns and tanks!

By using the parts from the heavy weapons, guard squad and command squad sprues, I was able to create what you see in this post. I'll try and be as descriptive as I can in terms of what I did, but my memory aint what it once was!


Remember this pic from the old post? I figured I should resurrect it here to show what I started out with. They were all constructed and undercoated Empire knights for fantasy battle. I took off the bodies and heads with clippers, and cut off the lance arms carefully, because I needed them to represent my hunting lances. Also removed were laurel wreaths and sigils from the horses' barding.
Some tricky cutting involved here, and I certainly nicked my thumb and fingers a bit.

WARNING TO ALL- BE CAREFUL AS FECK WITH SHARP STUFF.

The next step was a trip to town with some dosh and I bought the command squad, a heavy weapons squad and an infantry squad. One thought...KITBASH!!!



This is a view of the completely constructed squad. All undercoated up and ready for painting. Each model has had the body of a catachan added, along with a head, back pack, laspistol etc. You get the idea anyway. I basically combined the bits from the kits (as it were) and this ios what came out the other side!
I don't do well at planning these things too much, I tend to just break open the kit and go with my feelings and gut instinct. Of course, I knew what I wanted to achieve in general terms and to have a "vision" of the target is always helpful when it comes to going a bit "bashy."
Any ways, on to the individuals...


Here's the sergeant, on a suitably pompous horse and carrying a power weapon. the officer's cap was added, but only after I had removed the imperial (spits) eagle from it. I stuck the backpack onto the horse'sback end, as I figured that horses can have saddle bags, right? The model certainly has an authority about it (even though he is only a lowly sergeant).


Icon bearer carrying Slaaneshi icon. The codex doesn't feature this at all for rough riders, but I did muse over it whilst gazing at the icon in my bits box. It gives the squad identity, and I can use it as an icon if in can be bothered to include daemons and if my opponent agrees. Again the pompous looking nag, with a shovel stuck onto the barding at the rear. Pretty much all of the models have had additions from the guard kits put on, like ammo pouches, grenades, shovels etc.

Special weapon rider, carrying a flamer hooked onto the back of the horse. Again that them of back packs, cag stuck onto the armour features throughot the squad. Coupled with the speed of cavalry, this guy can get up close and gout flame over his foes, ideal for enemies in cover.

Apologies- crap picture! This fella packs a melta gun which comes in handy against heavy stuff and bunkers, and gives the squad a clearer purpose on the battle field. I'll muse on that later.
Again the back pack and gubbinz.

The remaining riders, keeping in with the theme of the squad. The look and feel is of a group of men that are self sufficient from the main force. They carry their own kit from place to place and rely on noone else. The shovels feature too, for digging in when in advance of the main column.

The squad has a "scouting unit" sort of feel because of this, which I really like.

The armoured legs look kinda weird, but for some reason seem to fit well. I decided to keep the armoured arms holding the lances too, because I figured that whilst you're on the charge, holding the lance toward your target with hails of shells coming at you, the armour would help to protect your lance arm and help to ensure you struck the target.

Beware the horsemen of chaos, for they bring only death and the promise of only more suffering that is certain to follow them!

Any ways, that's it for the unit thus far. Hopefully you agree with my thoughts that they look absolutely nuts. Next step is the paint job, which will be in with the rest of the army, featuring blacks and reds. If I can remember I'll put up pics of the painted stuff when its done to show it off a little.

And to think the hoon in games workshop said that it wouldn't look right, and that I had to use chaos marauder horsemen bits. What a fucktard...

Traitor guard update pics - "work in progress"

WELL, TOLD YOU I HAD BEEN BUSY, DIDN'T I?

Here are the pictures I have been promising for the latest additions to the guard force. I am going to nee to start copying my main man's M.O. and sticking something up each week at this rate!

I haven't included the tanks here, I want to wait until they're painted up. No sign of the rough riders either, because I am showcasing them (so far) in the next post.




Penal legion squad

Quite simply a matter of removing the arms from empire militiamen, rebasing them on larger bases and adding catachan lasgun arms and weapons. Haven't figured out their colour scheme yet, but will most likely aim for black and red so they fit in with the rest of the army.







Missile launcher teams

Mainly just plonked onto bases to join them together as one is supposed to do nowadays. There's the classic metal models there on the far right, with kit bashed models for the rest. Mainly made with spare troopers and spare parts from the heavy weapon squad kit. The heavy weapons teams all need to be sprayed up in black, but the other stuff just needs touching up with the right flesh tones and bolt gun metal now.






Lascannon teams

As per the kit really. I like the idea of kitting out heavy weapon squads to have a purpose, so 3 lascannon have a clear objective in game terms - tanks, bunkers and heavy hard men all marked for destruction!


By applying the right orders from the command squads squads like this can really hamper your opponent's day!






Commissars

Don't they look cool? Made using parts from the Empire militia kits combined with heads, weapons and arms from the imperial guard kit I have managed to come up with a bunch of nasty fellas for the chaos guard with the trademark trench coat and some cheesy weaponry. Note the commissar in the background running and screaming orders. Nice!






Psyker battle squad with "minder"

Made by simply sticking empire militia onto larger bases, with a kit bashed guardsman as their overseer. The will be painted up in drab colours with really pale flesh tones. Bless 'em, they're not well...




Command squad

Finally! I have added the comm link, the heavy flamer and the medic to the squad, as well as a weapon swap for the commanding officer. The standard bearer wears his trophy of the ultramarine shoulder guard.


Just to the left are the advisers, but more on them in a bit.







Speak of the devil! The advisers. From left to right we have the astropath (slash primaris psyker), the master of ordnance, 2 bodyguards and finally the wimpy pilot.


Priests

One pinched from the loyalists to make up the maximum 5. Difficult to kill and handy in assaults.



Stormtroopers
Yes, I know they are beastmen! But I intend to use them as a stormtrooper squad as they add tremendous chaos character to the infantry.




Chaos ogryn

Nuff said...





Well, that's about it for the infantry now. I have decided that the army is big enough, with plenty of scope for mixed and versatile force tactics. I can mix and match squads and officers around to create dozens of original force organisations to create armies that may well suit individual scenarios. Along with the 6 (SIX!!!) tanks available to me as well I can provide a withering hail of deadly firepower to accompany the vast numbers of scoring troops units.





I am now considering the next army project, and am once more leaning towards the chaos marines in my twisted machinations...


I'll muse on that separately... (muahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!)

Problems solved, but progression has been painful...

Well, just a quick one before I flit off again. AGAIN no pics yet (please be patient they will follow soon)

The traitor force now stands at 3000 points all thrown in (HOLY CRAP!!!)
THIS IS HOW I GOT THERE:

1. I stole a priest from the loyalists.
2. I have solved the dilemma with commissars (the pics of the finished articles will help to explain that) for now lets just use the wordS "trench coats" as a clue to tease you with.
3. I have added a full compliment of advisors to the command squad (again, the pics will help when they're done)
4. The army now boasts 3 leman russ battle tanks, a hellhound a sentinel and 2 chimeras (raided the loyalists didn't I!)
5. I managed to kit bash a psyker battle squad and a penal (hehehehe- PENAL) squad too from fantasy battle stuff.
6. The rough riders are built and tooled up, but the squad isn't complete yet.

Next purchase for me will be a Catachan battle force, and I'll be looking to expand the infantry platoon and start on the second platoon/ veteran squads too. Oh and some black spray paint too... lots of black spray...

I will try and get some pics done, but may need a wide angle lens or something to do it...
Only 2000 points away from the target too!
That will be spent up with the second platoon and some ordnance and tanks, as well as maxing out the squads where I can, such as the psykers, ogryns etc. I also still want to get a tech priest with 5 servitors.

ON THE REVOLUTION!!!!

Then its just a matter of painting it all up and figuring out how the hell I ship it from A to B!

A degree of Clarity

I figured that, given my last few posts, I needed to clarify how the traitor guard are shaping up. With the rough riders built, and some new guys added to the army,It's only right I let you lot in on what I have and what plans I have for the future of the army.

The idea really is to build up a massive force with all sorts of different troops and vehicles/ weapons. The army at first was quite restrictive, and sat at a mere 1500 points.

1500pts? I hear you cry! That's about right for a game!

However, the 1500 points was restrictive. By having a massive army at my disposal, I can better pick and choose depending upon my opponent and the scenario plus, if I EVER decided to play a stoopid apocalypse game again I could field pretty much a guard regiment!

The army currently sits at just under 1900 points, no mere paltry force either!
The troops I have also carry a variety of special and heavy weaponry, as well as a few junior and senior officers with nice kit.

Here's a quick lowdown:

HQ
Command squad with advisors (namely ordnance guy and pilot guy with a couple of bodyguards)
Priests (coutns as HQ, but does not take up a slot in the organisation chart)
Psyker

Elites
Ogryn
Beastmen (stormtroopers)

Troops
Infantry platoon - command squad, 3 infantry squads with heavy and special weapons, heavy weapons squad, conscripts
Veterans- grenadiers with multiple special weapons, chimera

Fast Attack
Rough Riders

Heavy Support
Leman Russ

As you can see, in terms of manpower the army is vast, but cheap on points ( oh the pitiful value of human life!)


The MASTER PLAN
Well, I have been musing about it for a while now, and the army needs more of everything!
The ultimate plan is to include the following options and squads to "complete" the army:

HQ
Techpriest enginseer
Astropath for command squad and chimera
Commissar Lord (chaos equivalent)

Elites
Psyker battle squad
Complete ogryn squad up to 10 models

Troops
Max out infantry platoon with: 2 infantry squads, 4 heavy weapon squads, 3special weapon squads and 6 chaos equivalent commisars
3 more veteran squads in chimeras
penal legion (chaos equivalent) squad

Fast attack
Max out rough riders
Sentinel squadron
Hellhound squadron

Heavy support
2 more leman russ
3 ordnance battery tanks
hydra flak tank battery
(with this last one, the plan is to have maybe one of eac or something to start with, and build it up later)

Of course, in terms of time and expense, this army will take about a decade and a remortgage to build(!), but I have been thinking about "short cuts" along the way to help save me dosh. Here's a couple of em...

1. Rob the loyalists!- that's right, steal the tanks and vehicles, plus whatever else I can use from the necromundan guard. Very sad day for them, but the chaos legions require more for the cauldron of war! I do wat to do soething with the tallarn models though, so they may well find themselves chaosed up too- I haven't decided yet. I figure that if I dont use them anyway, I may as well focus everything on one guard army!
2. Raid the warhammer boxes again- raiding the boxes I may find models suitable for use as chaos commissars,or penal legion troopers, plus that elusive psyker battle squad. I have already had a bit of success there with the rough riders, so I figure anothe raid may prove fruitful!
3. Minimise on metal models- kit bash the effing hell out if it. I am finding that converting via plastic kits is quite easy and inexpensive if it goes "the way of the pear."
4. Know when to stop!! This is probably the most critical thing. I got caught out when I was but a young whipper snapper playing warhammer, and collected somewhere in the region of a 15000 point orc and goblin army in the space of 8 weeks! All that beer money gone! If the army looks like it is stretching into the realms of silliness, then I will stop and focus on scenery instead. Remind me of this if I get carried away again later! That said, my orc army is the envy of everyone that sees the 8 boxes its stored in...

On top of all this though, there is still the hanging question about including daemons in the army. I reckon that as long as the other player agrees, I'll simply include from the appropriate codex and chuck them in!

Well, that's it for now. I was gonna throw in pics, but couldn't be arsed. I will chuck in the odd one or two once I have painted some more units up ans showcase the guard as they stand. I may even set them up on a battlefield and let you all gawp at it that way....

Be cool y'all, and check out the last couple of posts to make sure you at least have some vague idea about what I am wittering on about...

Traitor Guard Work- Update

The Opening Gambit part...

Well, I know I've been musing alot about the traitor guard regiment I am building lately. Last weekend I took a great big stride forward and added to units. I've got pics (the models are unpainted at present) to show too, so you guys can see how they have been made and the simple conversion work that I have done to really make them part of the them!


Elitist

Well, I did actually buy two units. A heavy weapons squad and a regiment of warhammer ogre kingdoms leadbelchers. I obviously planned to used them as ogryn, and being plastic kits, I figured I could convert and kitbash a little to get the reults I wanted.
Using the warhammer kit also sparked off another idea, but I'll get back to that in a minute or two...



This pic shows the finished unit of 4 ogryn, complete with an icon and ripper guns. I am well chuffed with the results here, and can't wait to paint them up!
I did of course make up a complete heavy weapons squad for the infantry company, along with a couple of additional heavy weapons teams for the platoon squads.
I will feature them later, but this is all about the why's and wherefors of the ogryns!


This is the bone 'ead (unit leader) and a close look at his ripper gun. All the rippers were made from autocannons, cut down and pieced back together. As he was the boss, his ripper has a gargoyle head and some spikiness. Note on his back the beer barrel, the pony tail and the large stone mallet, all from the 'belchers kit. This guy also has a spare ammo drum on his belt. Simple, yet well cool!



Unit Icon bearer, carrying the spare Khorne bloodletters' banner. Note the chopped down autocannon for a ripper gun. The plan is simply to use him as an ogryn, and include the rules for icons if the other player agrees and I can be bothered to field daemons.


Another closer look at my version of the ripper gun. DAKKA!!!!


And finally...

WTF?
Well, as the above heading suggests, I thought about what stuff I have stashed away that can be cut up revamped and used for the twisted purposes of 40k as a chaos player with a guard army.
The force currently has no fast attack options. Any fool can field tanks (and I will, rest assured), but the one thing that I notice always seems to be missing from guard armies is horse riding grunts!

A work in progress, I think you will agree there! Imagine if you will catachan bodies and heads, armed with lances and assault weapons. Guns strapped to the barding of the horses. Getting there yet? A sergeant with a cheesey weapon to top them off and we have CHAOS ROUGH RIDERS!!!!

I noticed that the main reason noone has any is because they only seem to be for sale on line and the shops only ever sell the Mongolian looking Attillans, which dont fit in with the feel of Cadian or Catachan armies. Why? Its only plastic kits people! Sort it!

The image in my head is of such awesome looking soliders that I may dispense with fast attack tanks altogether and just buy more imperial cavalry and catachans!
There's a mighty fine image for you: big game, 30 horsemen armed with hunting lances and assault weapons charging the lines! (movement phase takes two hours, just for the guard!)
The hunting lance is a fine piece of instrumentation too, counting as I5 S5 in assault, AND counting as a power weapon. STICKY!
So why don't more guard armies feature them?

And why wouldn't a Commissar ride to war with the men? (oooh! Summary execution on horseback...)

Come to think of it, why not have a preacher on horseback too?

Saliva glands overload at that!!!!!
Steady though, back to the plan...

Finally

I also thought about the commissariat option some more, and I do have ideas forming about their chaos equivalents. It's just finding the right models to use. Perhaps using warhammer chaos warriors or something...
Additional thoughts for expansion besides the downright crazy are mainly about adding more troops units to the infantry platoon, and the possible inclusion of a chaos techpriest with daemonic servitors (heheheheheheh), oh and tanks- LOTS of tanks...(at least 2 or 3 more)

I figure that my time as a chaos space marine player is over, though I will doubtlessly field them from time to time. I have entered a new phase as a guard player. But this will be on my terms as a traitor, so screw the emperor and pass the ammo!

Well that's that! I'm off to find my medication and straightjacket now. Hope you liked the post, comments please! FEED ME YOUR THOUGHTS MORTALS!