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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Just read this bit. I'll donate what I can in two weeks, no way we're letting that happen.

I'm not keen on the finish with these and expect like a lot of people for them to be expensive. If it is UV printing (ultraviolet cured ink) it's going to be a bit rough for painting over I'd imagine. Probably better to just dry brush grey over a black spray coat.

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.

To make sure the decals match in height I have taken a strip of masking tape and then folded it so that it is just below the icon and the base meets the very bottom of the door. I can then transfer this to the other door and have a good idea of where to place the decal to match. I can also use pencil markings to match up the placing of the icon if needed. I an do this by marking the tape top to bottom then flipping it upside down for the other side of the tank so the placing matches extremely closely. My main concern is the height at the moment.

Brother Christopher: Thanks mate, I'm really enjoying it so far and appreciate your support. MortySchism: Thanks mate. I'm having a lot of fun with the damage and trying to replicate how Ceramite may react under damage. Sometimes the simplest conversions are the best. Decals arrived! So as I am going with Harald Deathwolf's company I am adding red at the first accent colour. A lot of the transfers are fairly cartoonish for my liking but date back to 2nd edition. I have laid down the base of wazdakka red and started to apply washes to fill in the center areas a bit smoother. Harald is a bit obsessed with wolfs and hunts with packs of Fenrisian wolves and Thunderwolves but I am not a fan of Thunderwolves and 3rd/4th ed Space Wolves couldn't take either thankfully. You can add a couple of Fenrisian Wolves to the characters though. The Great Company icon is the Ravening Maw which symbolises the Wolf Time made famous way back in 1st edition Chapter Approved. I've applied the first decal and will do the other side next. then look at adding more all over the hull before continuing the weathering.

Still waiting on the decals before I can crack on more with the Space Wolves Raider but in the meantime a bit of progress on the other tanks. Not masses of progress on the Russ but I am still mapping out the white areas at the moment. I will be going for regular metallic tracks when the time comes. This is the next from the tank stables that I want to use for a Heresy Imperial Fists armoured company. I currently have a boat load of tanks sat in their boxes and I really want to get a Glaive so I think I will enjoy making these. Currently going by second edition rules so maybe a Sicarian command tank? I have four Predators that I would LOVE to do as a squadron. So far I have based it brown and used a make up sponge to dab lighter shades of brown over the top with some orange. I am currently applying the first light coat of Averland Sunset which I will build up in a similar way to the other Raider. Very WIP at the moment. Unlike the other Raider I will probably go for more traditional metallic looking tracks. This will be the home for the veteran squad who I am sort of picturing as a particularly unpleasant group who in peace times would probably have been punished for war crimes, but in the desperate times of the Heresy they are pushed into hazardous frontline actions instead. Unfortunately I built this tank when they first came out and glued the sponsons in place as I got tired of them falling off.

Yeah, I think it needs something accented. Maybe the hull weapons, when I get the transfers I will have a play around. I do have a seriously cool idea for the Wolf Guard to enable me to get even more 40k concepts into the army which I am itching to get started on. I also want to do a Proteus Landraider in this style but in Imperial Fists colours. I have absolutely tons of Heresy vehicles that I want to make into a Heresy armoured company. I think a Landraider with a unit of Veterans armed with Nemesis bolters might be fun. I love Imperial pattern armour so leapt at the chance to make what I hope to be a ten man squad using the Rapier crew models, I am thinking maybe the pointing guy as the Praetor and his squad in the command Proteus as advanced recon. I am using MK6 bits with the torso and phobos pattern bolters which are my favorite to give a very early Jes Goodwin style. I seriously want to take my time on these and make them really stand out as a historical level model albeit a fictonal setting. I see this guy as a Sharp type of character that has received numerous battlefield promotions but still mucks in with his recon team. And lastly bit more done on the Space Wolves Raider for 4th ed. I am working on the tracks at the moment and need to tone down the copper colour I used on the lascannons. The treads of the track are ceramite like the hull so I want to avoid metallics or rust but the lascannon I could see being replacements and would be made from regular materials, I think once I start applying decals then it should come together more.

More painting today, made a fair bit of progress but still need to add shading and some more weathering. I'm really enjoying this. I'm going for a Ceramite look hence the chips and lack of rust which I may apply to just the exhaust. I was planning on adding Heresy decals but annoyingly I can find every Legion sheet I have except the wolves... You can't really tell from the picture but I am starting to stipple the tracks with Skavenblight Grey which is a darker more muted grey over the Mechanicus grey I am using as the base for the hull which is a warmer blueish grey. It feels like it needs some yellow.

I think that could well be part of the plan long term, IP licensing could well be the future for GW.