Warning - Chaplain in Progress!!

Good day Cans of Win fans!!

As I said last week im now working on a forgeworld Chaplain Dreaddy.

Now, I want to use this guy with both my Imperial Fists and Fleshtearers, so ive had to be a little bit creative with load out, construction and painting.

The Vanilla Ironclad, which it will be in my fists, has one Powerfist and a Seismic Hammer, or if I want to use it as a Venerable then a heavy weapon. where as the Furioso or Death Company Dread have 2 Power Fists or Talons. How do we do this, Im sure you know the answer, MAGNETS!!! (I love em)

Now all the different dreads have the option to swap out the storm bolter for a heavy flamer, and i intend for this guy to spend a lot of time close to the enemy. Also all the dreads hve one Power Fist, so the weapon load out for the left arm was set. 

Right arm is where all the mods have been made. The Ironclad, and Fleshtearers all come with a melta gun, but the venerable wouldnt. Som the right arm needed to be magnetised and the fist also needed to be set to receive either a fist or Seismic hammer.

Some of the bits ive used, cadian flamer, meltagun, a random bit of kit and the already removed fist from the dread.

The heavy flamer, carefully butchered up and glued underneath. note the tube has been cut off and re positioned.

The magnets for the right hand fist, 2mm wide, 1mm depth, hand drilled with a 2mm drill bit.

And the same magnets used to secure the right arm to allow for a venerable option at a future time.

Oh my, whats this plague marine doing here on the dreddys base....

The big guy himself, lots of finishing touches to do but well on his way, hopefully ill have a finshed photo for you soon.

Note the lack of chapter specific icons etc, i need to make sure he doesnt look too bare so plenty of general imperial icons will be getting added soon.

Sternly Stubborn

Submitted for your approval!!

5 Sternguard finally finished.

Im quite chuffed with these considering I just threw them together from spare bits and rescued marine legs in a rush to have some stern guard for a game ages ago. As ive mentioned before, im quite tight and skint. Both these things are great motivators of creativity!!

The eagle eyed amongst you will spot parts from the deathwatch kit, crimson fist and imperial fist kits as well as the Black templar kit too.

All their Bolters are from the death watch kit as I wanted them to stand out abit.

Deathwatch veteran and friend.

Note the Templar helmet, looks awesome in white, wish i had more.

And of course you'll remember old sarg from before, now with added back pack!!

I cant quite decide how to paint his helmet, I quite like the old style red with the white stripe but the new codex says red laurels. Hmmmm.... 

The gang all together!

A note on painting white.

Its all about layers, although personally I think I went abit crazy!!

My technique for these was

1. Astronomican Grey

2. White with a lot of Astro Grey

3.Astro grey with a lot of white

4. 2 layers of watered down Skull white.

I think I could have done it with out the first 2 levels, definitely with out the first one. But it is so important to let the layers dry completely between coats.

Speaking of which, think the last layer on my Chaplain dread should be dry by now.........

STOP PRESS!!

Poor old Sternguard, whenever they make their way onto my painting table they always get bumped off for something cooler!!

I love the chaplain dread model and picked this guy up cheap on Ebay with my birthday money, THANKS NAN!!

Such a cool model, I want to make him a centre piece for both my Imperial Fists and my Flesh Tearers so Im gonna have to be a bit clever with the paint job and some little conversions. I have a cunning plan that is more cunning than a cunning skaven that should result in me being able to use him as an Ironclad, Death Company or Furioso. And potentially a venerable too but I never use them anyway cos the points is waaaaay too much!

But first, back to the Sternguard, I will finish them, I will!!

Love for the 2nd Time

2nd Edition, remembered fondly by many. Ah the good old days. When we had more hair and a disposable income worthy of note. Enough of that gooey stuff, Ive a bit of a collection of guys from around that time and find myself wanting to include them in the army, despite the differences in scale with marines form that time. Here is a glimpse at some of them, hopefully it will give you ideas how to use your old miniatures too!

Grey Knights Librarian. Painted this guy to sell him on Ebay. Quite proud of the work on his shoulder pad.

Deathwatch Apothecary, for when I use my Deathwatch as a command squad.

Centurius, awesome 100th Store opening figure, I bought this bad boy new myself. Now my Legion of the Damned Sergeant. I use his skull thing as a power weapon.

Wolf Scout Sergeant from my old old Space Wolves army, an awesome model. I use him as Sergeant Telion to do this old model some justice.

Old 2nd Ed scouts, think you can still buy these form GW.

Old solid metal Dreaddy with a few additions, donated by a friend. Stripped, re glued and repainted.

Ooo, first glimpse of my Fleshtearers, this is a mix from my two assault squads of all the old metal minis.

And a classic old Tactical Sergeant. I figured this distinguished mini needed a suitable role in my army so he will be my Sternguard Sergeant. Which leads me nicely on to my next post.

...Guys, its time we modified the van!

So, Land Raiders. We love em, right? Massive mobile fortresses rumbling across the battle field dishing out death from afar. Machine Spirit splitting lascannon fire and a squad of elites assaulting out from a 12" move. But ask your self this, when was the last time it paid for its own points cost? At 250pts its gotta do alot of damage, or at least aid attacks by other units and take some attention of your more squishy stuff.

I myself find my lascannon shots bouncing off stuff and my landy generally disappointing once its delivered its cargo. And 250 is an expensive delivery boy!!

So, I figured it was time to come up with a plan and in good old fashioned style - Modify the Van.

For just 10 points you can buy yourself a multimelta for your ride. 10points!! With a lascannon you still only have a 1 in 3 chance of glancing an enemy land raider, even if your standing next to the thing and its got its eyes closed!! Now with a multimelta, get within 12" and that's 2D6 pen, the average roll on 2d6 is 7, so your gonna penetrating on just an average roll!! Plus all the goodness of an AP1 weapon. Oh yeah.

Now being cheap, I needed to make do with the stuff I have. Im not going out and buying stuff if I dont need too!!

So, here's what I used.

 Cupola stuff left over from my Baal Pred, a body front from a tact squad that looked suitably Tech Marine like. A left over Apothecary head and a shoulder pad which I think is from the old death company kit. And a multimelta which normally sits on my land speeder, which ive magnetised up so it was no hassle at all to, er, borrow it from them!!

 The Land Raider with its original cupola delicately removed.

And the spanky newest weapon for the Imperial Fists!! I meant to take some pictures during construction and painting but got a bit carried away and forgot! 

The gun is magnetised to the hand grip so that it can be removed and put on to the Landspeeder again and the Cupola has also been magnetised onto the Raider itself so that it can be taken off but wont rattle around or fall off. Hell it doesn't even fall off when turned up side down!

I like to paint my Techs with their own personal heraldry on the armour, different plates painted red and yellow. My Thunderfire and rhino gunner both have different combinations to.

So there we have it, hopefully I'll be able to give it a run out soon. I love it when a plan comes together...