Crimson Fists

This week GW have released some cool detailing kits for the Crimson Fists chapter, an unexpected boon for me since I only decided to do Crimson Fists a few weeks ago myself! The first ever 'official' space marine chapter to be described by GW was unarguably the Crimson Fists, adorning the cover of the Rogue Trader manual all those years ago. The 'battle at the farm' scenario inside the book also introduced one of 40k's first ever special characters- Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, named jokingly after Pete Cantor who was one of the original developers.

Back then, although I admired the cool colour scheme of the 'Fists I wanted to do something a bit different and opted to paint my marines in Blood Angels colours, and carried on collecting as the Blood Angels evolved into the blood sucking close assault nutters they are today. All that time though the seed has been there and upon getting the Black Reach boxed set i decided it was time to daub blue and crimson on these 'marines.

My aim is to get a small army up and running pretty quickly, while my Knights of Atreus are a longer term project i want to get the Crimson Fists up and running asap. It also gives me a break from putting three levels of highlights on RTB01 plastics and lets me paint something from this millenium.

The paint scheme is a quick and simplified version of the one currently up on the GW website. Starting with a black undercoat the armour is painted in Regal Blue, followed by a Badab Black wash, then when completely dry drybrush the mini with Enchanted Blue. This provides enough depth for a simple gaming standard but I then added a single line highlight of 50:50 Enchanted Blue/Spacewolf Grey. The red bits... Mechrite red, wash Devlan Mud, Blood Red, Blazing Orange highlight. The metals are simply Bolt Gun Metal washed Badab Black then a minor highlight with Boltgun Metal again.

That sergeant looks a bit peeved, must be because someone nuked his fortress monastery.

Once the rest, and Pedro are painted I'll be doing a mini campaign detailing the escape and subsequent reinforcement of New Rynn city following the destruction of the fortress monastery. Of course that will have to include the 'battle at the farm' from the RT book....

Land Raider renovation

I have had this MK1 Landraider sitting around for some time, and as the Knights are coming together (2 RTB01 tac squads fully painted, devastators on the way and Assault squad with jump packs awaiting paint) I'll be needing a ride for the Command Squad or Terminators pretty soon. The problem is, this Landy has several coats of paint and glue splodges, generally it's looking shoddy and it's totally the wrong colour!

A full recondition is in order, firstly I have removed the sponsons as they were totally clogged with glue after decades of repairs (the old Land Raiders almost always lost their las-cannons at some point) these will be reattached using brass wire so that they articulate they way they're meant to.

As for removing the paint- early experiments with oven cleaner (Mr Muscle) on the heavy bolter are promising, leaving pristine 1980's plastic underneath. The oven cleaner needed 2 days to munch through the thick paint but has the benefit of not attacking the plastic. A word of warning to anyone who wishes to use this method- use gloves and a mask!! And clean up thoroughly afterwards, the concentrated Sodium Hydroxide in these products is very nasty. This method has the virtue of washing down the sink with warm water, other stripping methods can be more polluting. Always try your stripping chemicals on a test area like i have with the Heavy Bolter before commiting to the full model, especially if it's an antique.

Once the Land Raider is stripped I'll post up pictures.

Progenoids, please.

I managed to knock up this Rogue Trader marine medic yesterday evening and I now remember what a tricky colour white is to paint!! I started with a black undercoat (yes that may well seem stupid for this mini but I always prime in black for the shadows it creates), followed by codex grey, space wolf grey then pure skull white.

I'm fairly pleased overall, it's about my standard of painting nowadays and I would probably use this method for white armour in the future (not too stark and decent shadows). The back pack is the same green as the other marines- catachan highlighted to camo green then a heavy thraka green wash. The shoulder pad is warlock purple with purple wash.

I'm looking to paint the rest of the command squad up soon, although a few decision remain on which minis to use (i want some veteran metals for a vanguard vets squad). My recent purchase of Assault on Black Reach means I'm finally getting up to date on 5th ed, but it also means the nice new minis are distracting me from my RT Marines, oh no i see a major abstraction coming- Crimson Fists anyone?

Warhammer World

The missus tootled off to Kent to see some girl mates this weekend, so rather than brood over the ease with which my better half abandoned me I decided to visit Warhammer World in Nottingham, well it was that or whittle away at the pile of minis to be painted...

After a minor diversion around Notts city centre while I orientated myself (ok I got lost but my tech level 4 road wheeler doesn't have auto-nav, and the only previous time i visited Nottingham I was very very drunk, I digress) I found the nerve centre of GW and spent a good few hours meandering around the gaming hall, exhibition, shop and Bugmans Bar. The staff are very friendly and managed to persuade me to get a copy of Black reach, for the rulebook you understand... I still use 1st or 4th ed if i ever get the chance to play which is rarely.

Anyways, the highlight for me was the exhibition upstairs where thousands of GW's archetypal minis (ie the ones you see in the codexes and White Dwarf etc) are on show, as well as showcases of our fave 'eavy metal painters and most especially John Blanche. For me ol' Blanchistu is the heart of GW's universes and he is in many ways responsible the inherent darkness and broodiness, yes his art is dismissed as messy and uncouth by some but that's missing the point, as the Warhammer universes are messy and uncouth places!

It was nice to see some of the famous dioramas on show too, and seeing the Horus diorama by Mike Mcvey was cool after spending so many hours staring at the pictures of it in White Dwarf.

Downstairs in the gaming hall some of John Blanches miniatures from the last 3 decades are on view, and MAN can this guy paint minis, as well as knocking out the odd canvas, y'know, as you do. The photos really don't do them justice, every one is a micro masterpiece and now i'm home feeling inspired!
Two things that caught my eye were these solid Landraider and Whirlwind, I'n not sure but i think these are the masters for the Epic plastics? They are massive and looked about 20% bigger than the 40k scale equivalent. If anyone could elaborate that would rock.


So all in all a very inspiring and pretty nostalgic trip to GWHQ, cheers guys ;o)