Crusade!

I should probably have mentioned what theme I’m going for with the Blackmanes, and really it’s all about the original shortstory that was presented in White Dwarf, written by Bill King, that depicted Ragnar Blackmane leading a massed drop-pod assault of his Great Company on a Tyranid swarm, so the intent was for this force to deploy entirely via drop-pod and the only vehicles being Dreadnoughts in the FW pods. Now the changes to Deep Strike in the year since 8th released have somewhat put a kibosh on  that idea, but something still appeals about a footslogging force of Wolves (I mean it helps that you can get Blood Claws in packs up to 15….) with some units in pods coming down later.

Right, so this is the Blackmanes as I initially had them, after priming but before painting. A bit of rejigging has led to it consisting of 3 packs of Grey Hunters, 2 packs of Blood Claws, 1 pack of Long Fangs, 10 Wolf Guard Terminators, 10 Wolf Scouts, 7  Wolf Guard in power armour, Ragnar, Njiall Stormcaller, and the other company command.

A note on  the packs – some of these are purely built from the Space Wolf pack kit, but more are amalgamations of parts from several other Marine kits with a dash of Wolfy-ness for flavour. Some of these go back to the original 3rd Edition kits, then there are elements of the Chaos Space Marine and Khorne Berserker kits in there as that more rough & ready, archaic look works well for the Wolves, especially if your trying to do a squad with a bit of history behind it. And there is no greenstuff on any of these, at most there are some weapon swaps and on some of the more obviously Chaos-y pieces of detailing have either been filed down or covered over (plates from the Mordheim Middenheimer sprue were really good for that). Moral of this story? No bits ever go unused, and it’s surprising what you can find browsing parts sites and Ebay for spare lots…..

So this project is going to ramble a bit as we jump around to avoid getting burnt out painting the same colour schemes over & over again, but to start with let’s take a look at scions of Fenris, going back to basics as the Great Company of Ragnar Blackmane (note I did consider going back to my 3rd edition army which was a take on Erik Morkai’s Great Company, but A/ I wasn’t too fussed on the model I had converted up when contemplating returning to them and B/ I was digging the idea of returning to the first special character I ever brought but updating him).

First step was seeing what was already built from the last time I was bitten by the bug of the Canis Helix. In this case (apart from the aforementioned Wolf Lord conversion) there were a trio of metal characters (the Wolf Guard with Lightning Claws pictured on the right above), the old Gamesday Wolf Priest (why didn’t this ever get a wider release again?) and the Rune Priest with Force Axe, a pack of Wolf Guard Teminators (where sadly the Asssault Cannon-wielding member can no longer be split off to act as a Pack Leader for Grey Hunters 🙁 ), and a heavily kit-bashed pack of Wolf Scouts, constructed from the Scout kit with liberal application of parts from the Chaos Marauder Horsemen kit and various Space Wolf parts

Next up I wanted to see what I could come up with for Ragnar himself. now the standard model was great in it’s day. Sadly that day was 25 years ago and by todays standards is woefully lacking, even when looked at in comparison to the Astartes characters who remain from 2nd Edition 40k (your Dante’s, Abbadons, Biles and the like). Thankfully GW sseem to have anticipated this to some extent, as the current Space Wolf upgrade sprue includes exactly the Frostblade chainsword that is so characteristic of Ragnars design, and the wonderfully dynamic Krom Dragongaze model features a number of elements that echo his fellow Wolf Lord, so that converting a decent stand-in for Ragnar requires a fairly minimal amount of work – swap the Frost Axe for the Frostblade, a head from the Grey Hunter kit for the distinctive topknot (although not as impressive ass it is typically depicted) and a different back-pack (one note I did consider going for the distinctive twin standards but on bast form they have just been a pair of blank banner poles…).

Now there are some things that will be changed during the painting stage, but overall not a bad take I feel at this point.

But these need a solid core work around. Well the Wolves are fortunate to have two of the most effective and flavourful Troops options in the game – steadfast Grey Hunters and hot-headed Blood Claws, with fire support from Long Fangs. Now this is what I had from bits I had ben building over the years – 3 packs of Grey Hunters, Greigor Fellhand to act as a Wolf Guard Pack Leader for the Wolf Scouts, and what was a single pack of Blood Claws, but some changes to their weapon options mean the Power Axe and Power Fists will need splitting off

For now though this is how  they looked all primed up. In amongst here there are some additional Wolf Guard in power armour, both to serve as WGPL’s and as a unit in their own right, and at the back some primed up Grey Knights and Custodian Guards.

One thing I wanted to make use of in  this project  was coloured primers to try and save time on the painting side as i’d  found the Army Painter range a boon when I was painting up my Infinity forces. inthis case I’ve primed all ofthe Wolves – even the Wolf Priest – in Wolf Grey, the Grey Knights in GW Chaos Black, and the  Custodians with AP Leather Brown to give the gold of their armour a warmer base (but we’ll come back to that later…).

Ok, so these were my test models for the Space Wolves; 2 Blood Claws both painted exactly the same way the none hit with a wash of Nuln Oil and the other with a wash of Agrax Earthshade. Overall I felt that the Nuln came out much harsher whilst the Agrax better complemented the reds & yellows that form so much of the incidental spot colouring on the Wolves.

For now though we’ll call this a wrap. When we return we’ll take a closer look at the Packs from this initial build, have a chat about kit bashing Wolves (and marines in general) and how a pack goes from primed to ready for the tabletop.

So, after looking at things the forces to build on fall into some broad categories:

Imperial Guard  (nope, never heard of those Astra Militarum chaps….)

• Jungle Fighters – my old all-plastic Catachan army, built back when there were no plastic heavy weapon kits or plastic special weapons so everything was a conversion or kitbash from Mordeheim & Necromunda bits. Has potential but the paint job shows its age and I’d like to redo it to incorporate Straken & Harker. That means a lot of paint-stripping in the future….
• Cadians – 2 flavours here as there is the old patrol platoon built using the metal Cadians, and the platoon built out of the plastic kits but only partly finished. Perhaps reassess the whether to carry on with the paint job as it stands? Again there may be some paint stripping in the future but there are also some 50 Cadians unbuilt lying around
• Stormtroopers – 40-odd of the old metal Kasrkin plus the FW tank commander. More than enough for a Militarum Tempustus detachment in their own right.
• Command – Kincaid obviously, but I’ve Yarrick and nork around here in metal, as well as a smattering of Commissars of various vintages plus Platoon Commanders and Regimental Advisors.

Space Marines

• Space Wolves – An army I’ve dabbled in going right back to their release at the tail end of Rogue Trader, up to several packs built for the 4th Ed Codex release but never painted, and a load of sprues picked up over the years. Combo-ing up with regular Marine kits will make the Wolfy bits go a lot further. I quite fancy taking another swing at the Blackmane Great Company, including their Titualr namesake himself, he of the oldest model still available for general purchase, Ragnar Blackmane, with a suitably heroic conversion.
• Crimson Fists – once upon a time I had it in mind to do a Rynn’s World Veterans force led by Pedro Kantor himself at the head of a force comprised of Sternguard & Vanguard vets with mainly Scouts. Given the fluff the Dark Imperium Primaris kits will thematically fit in neatly here, and will probably bash up a few regular squads of Marines as well.
• Raptors – parts of squads left over from another early 00’s tournament army. Still on 25mm bases and I think I could paint them better. Alternatively they would provide bodies to bulk out another force. Paint stripping again perhaps?
• Raven Guard – The last 40k minis I painted in 2008, intended to be Shrikes company (including the man himself) prior to his more recent promotion.
• Deathwatch – Lots of opportunity for kitbashing Marines from a variety of Chapters.
• Other Chapters? – There’s enough Chapter-specific bits for at least a patrol detachment of each for the Dark and Blood Angels, and I’ll  admit I dig the idea of fielding competing Space Wolf and Dark Angels detachments. I’ve also got it in mind to build a small detachment where each squad is drawn from a different Chapter, harking back to the lore where seeing massed Astartes on the field was rare, and Crusades were often lucky to get a full squad from any one Chapter except in the direst circumstances. If nothing else it would present a fun painting project….

Knight Houses

• That renegade box was too good value to turn down….

Adeptus  Mechanicus

• A Techpriest explorator and his Skitarii/Servitor bodyguard should make a fun diversion. Maybe some robots?

Talons of the Emperor

• Custodes – 2 boxes can make a HQ plus 3 troops. It’s a starting point.
• Sisters of Silence – 1 each of the three squad types should offer a decent choice for allies, at least until they get a HQ of their own….

Imperial Agents

• At least 4 inquisitors – 2 painted from the old armies and 2 of the more recent versions.
• Enough random Imperial dudes to make some interesting looking retinues.
• Assassins – Eversor, Vindicare, Callidus. Just need a Culexus (Although these are metal. Perhaps upgrade to the plastics?)

Woof. That’s a list and a half. Effectively here we are talking 10 (!!) distinct forces, potentially occupying more than one detachment each. This may be more involved than I thought,  and mean painting a LOT of power armour….

Something that always intrigued me about the 40k setting were the idea of massed Crusades assembled by the Imperium of Man and their composition. From The Great Crusade to The Indomitus Crusade, by way of The Scouring, The Machirus Crusade, The Sabbat Worlds and various other campaigns in between, huge amalgamations of manpower and resources gathered to wage singular war against the enemies of Man, organised at the behest of The High Lords of Terra and placed under the auspices of one leader, granted the title of Lord Commander or – more rarely – Warmaster.

So as a justification for finally getting through some of my backlog of 40k miniatures collected over the last 25 years, and updating some older pieces to a more modern style, I figure putting them under the auspices of a crusade within the Dark Imperium gives plenty of fluff justification for the varied forces that are getting mustered.

So that’s a pretty varied cross-section right there, with a fair old bit not pictured; Imperial Guard, Space Marinesof varying stripes, Inquisitors and Ecclesiarchy. Wouldn’t take much to add in some Mechanicus, Knights, and Custodes for flavour.

But every Crusade needs a leader, so let’s go with this chap:

I always liked the Creed model but when I was building my own force using the Cadian range I wanted to make him stand out in some way, and a bit of greenstuff to add a big old bushy mustache did the trick nicely to create Brigadier-General MacKenzie Duggan, “The Brig” to his troops, the 97th Askarian Rangers.

As the mortal face of this force  he should more than suffice  (for now)

But what forces are at his disposal?

That needs a little more thought….