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Hello everyone. I'm trying to make up an army of space pirates and mercenaries. Right now I'm mostly working on the design and material gathering stage but I should be able to keep pictures coming sporadically until I have things in full swing. Right now I'm thinking the main body of the army list will be filled by veterans and a penal legion. Every squad will be transported by Valkyries. I wont have any footsloggers, because this army will not have the luxury of reinforcements from imperial tithes. So the only contracts that would be excepted have to be surgical in and out strikes. Otherwise they will make their money through slave trade, smuggling, transporting people who need to stay of the grid, and (my favorite) Attacking merchant vessels. I intend to have a large gaps in technology. The pirates who own the fleet will have first pick of the loot allowing then to afford things like plasma tech, armor, and bionics while at the other end of the scale you will have slaves, mutants and purchased penal legion solders with second hand las-rifles and military surplus shirts for armor. I welcome any advice on modeling and fluff. My goal is to flesh out the story line just as much as the models them selves. I want to get help deciding what sector to base these scurvy cut throats in, based off of all ready printed canon. I imagine them coming from a more technologically advanced region that is rife with civil war. I have some models on hand to start the ball rolling. For the first squad of veterans I have Elysian drop troops w\ grav shoots, shot guns, and respirators. The grav shoots will be converted by adding thrusters to represent that they are used in outer space for boarding missions. The shot guns will also have oxygen canisters added to explain how they can fire in the void or in space ships after using flamers to burn up the victims oxygen supply. I cant afford to make multiple squads with forge world models so after I make a master copy I'm going to try my hand at resin casting. I also have some Catachans that I will be converting into my penal legion and a Cadian command squad for custodians. I need some advise on how to make the explosive collars, because I don't think I will be able to maintain a consistent look with green stuff, but after I get that worked out I should be able to pump those poor souls out with ease. I have a picture that I’m not proud of because you cant see the blue grey highlights on the armor and I gave him a bolter pistol which isn’t an option for custodians but I like the free hand Jolly Roger, and I’m hoping this will peak interests, so here goes nothing.

My first attempt at posting a picture, so please be patient with the noob.

plasticard is your best bet if your shore your not going to do green stuff, i really like this idea, with the valks try and change them so there not just simple military valks but rag tag re put together ones, even xeno technology like tau/eldar grav engines and even if you want to take storm troopers (seeming there great for air born) instead of hotshot lasguns have pulse rifles or shuriken/splinter rifles and even necron stuff-this goes for infantry too! (comanders and leaders deserve best loot too!

you can really pull this off crazy if you incorporate the treasures of being a pirate of 40k, there is no high command that forbids any desire

this army is does not have to be ran by the imperium but a human pirate force, so go nuts with the alien/twist/looted but not ork looted style

im in love with this concept. i will be happy to throw some ideas as you progress through the army *conversion ideas for units *

EDIT jut noticed the pics, MOARR!

I'm very sorry about the lack of updates on this thread. I have a once in a life time chance to travel through Asia right now. My 2 month travel will end in 2 weeks and then I will jump right back into conversion and painting. I intend to continue working slowly on this army for years to come I don't want to just make and army and call it quits. I intend to make a home base for them and well as another table that will be a 4ft by 8ft space ship that would accompany the fleet so that I can play boarding missions. right now I'm in the collection faze. I have just picked up 80 Cadians to help me bulk out more of the army. I find my self confronted with a few design problems right now. The home world will have no atmosphere so every one in the army must have a respirator. I'm not sure if the penal legions will have them or not. On one hand, no respirator would ensure that they could not escape, but on the other hand if the home base was assaulted then the penal legion would have to stay in the base... this would pose a threat to security. They could not be used as first wave cannon fodder as they were intended and if the Pirates of the Eastern fringe (that’s the name that I have chosen) lost to many in an assault then they might have revolt on their hands. This is all just fluff but the mini design is born from the fluff, but more then anything I will decide on this myself. Now where I really need some help is that I intend to have a lot of models with higher tech then the average imperial servant. I need help finding androids and cyborgs to use for bits and inspiration. Right now I'm toying with the idea of having the ships piloted by androids instead of humans, or maybe a mix of 50/50. The other thing that I really want some help from the community with is that I don't want my command Valkyries to be standard construction. I have looked at a few models, but I haven't seen anything that both look high tech and doable. I was thinking of using the wing assemble of a Romulan Warbird kit bashed with a valk but I'm not so sure that I will be able to fit the transport section through the wings. I haven't given up on that idea but I could really use some suggestions and links. The idea is to find a kit that I can use to make a few valks look like thet have more sophisticated tech then the conventional pattern. So if you know of any good android minis or spaceship models that fit the Valkyries basic size and shape send them my way. I have been working on the fluff in my head, I will start to write some fluff up and send it out soon.


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oh one more thing. I realized that the custodians for the penal legion don't have a bolt pistol option, so I have painted a las pistol hand and placed it on the model. I'll post pictures when I get back to the states. I will also post pix of the bits that I have so that people can give suggestions and I might give links to the armies that I intend to sell to make money available for a project of this scale. I have some noise marines and an ork army that I'm willing to sacrifice to the machine gods.

I have decided that the main pirates will be fielded as veterans with carapace armor, but I'm not sure what model I could use to kits bash for the this purpose. I would really appreciate some suggestion. Suggestions with links would make me smile. I'm also thinking about camo-cloaks, but I don't want them to actually have cloaks on. I'm thinking something along the lines of active camouflage from ghost in the shell. I had not intended to paint this army in a camouflage scheme but just a few troop choices would be alright if i cant think of a creative way to represent some kind of holo-projector for the camo-cloak. Any suggestions? Another thing that is bothering me is that I do not see a bionics option… on top of that what happened to kasrkins? I’ve been flipping through the 5th ed codex over and over and I don’t see them… I intended to use them as mercenaries hired by the Pirates of the eastern fringe. I would appreciate any help with these questions, and I expect to throw out many more your way. With in the next few days I will put up a possible army list and the first bits of fluff. Both of which I would love to see c&c on.

I've started writing down some fluff. I have a lot more figured out in my mind but not so much on paper. The Pirates of the Eastern Fringe will be lead by a few character miniatures that have been gestating in my head for a few months, but for now I think I will tell the story from the view of the head of one third of the fleet. A pirate named Jeren. After I have discussed the backgrounds of the characters I will be open to suggestions as to what stats I should use to represent them. Any way here's what I hacked out so far.
Jeren Grew up on a old exodite planet named Sheol, on the edge of the eastern fringe born to a noble family. After thousands of year separated from the rest of humanity most of the human population in the solar system gladly welcomed the Imperium of man. Jeren’s father was a general and Night pilot during the merger of the local military, and the Imperial guard, which for the most part went rather smoothly considering that much of the militaries technologies were considered inappropriate for human use, because the mass majority was no longer STC technologies. Technologies however were the least of their compatibility issues. In their solar system was a planet called Prometheus. The culture on Prometheus considered Psychic abilities to be a gifted talent. They celebrated when ever a citizen was discovered to posses these abilities and had formed many universities to train these phsycers, and held a philosophy of teaching phsycers to cleanse spiritual energies, through meditation and monastic living. As the Imperium introduced it self and told the people what it had to offer them for peacefully rejoining humanity it became very clear the people of Prometheus that they were going to have to take much of their practices into hiding. The Government of Sheol stretched open arms to the Emperium and sent an ambassador to meet with the nearest Emperium settlement. At the time nearly no one in their solar system knew what the Emperium would do to their culture, but more importantly no one new what lay growing in the belly of their own government. For hundreds of years Genestealers had been slowly securing a powerful foot hold in the their societies. Nearly every branch of office felt the touch of this cult manipulations, but they still lay in wait. The military in their solar system had been forced through necessity due to constant Ork invasions, to grow and advance through their long separation from man kind. Military practices were general education and considered to be a noble professional pursuit for both men and women. So the cult schemed waiting for the hive fleets to get close enough before they would hatch their plan. Before the hive fleet was close enough for human detection they would plunge this solar system into civil war, hoping to leave the populations divided as the first tendrils began to penetrate into the new galaxy.

Despite the silence I have been working on this project. I have collectnted a lot of random minis and bits to try to represent the the mismatched equipment and they are a collective of different paramilitary forces now working together. I have decided to not field penal legions but more of a savlars chem dogs style to act as the disposable troops. Most of the chem dogs will be made up of Catachens with pig iron heads with a mix match of cadian bits. The biggest obstacles have been finding female troops to cont as vets and finding cheep auto guns and space ship alternatives. I have recently converted and empty cadian helmet to fit a gas-mask from pig iron. I have left off the flamer to make room for painting.


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[url]http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/227393-.html?m=2
This is my first attempt at the female vets.

THREAD NECRONMANCY.

Brother Azul wrote:THREAD NECRONMANCY.

It's his thread and he added new content to it which was related to the original.

Believe it or not I'm back. I was serious when I said this project would take me about five years, but I'm finally at a point where I have almost all of the materials that I'll need to make this happen. For Christmas I received 3 Valkyries! I have enough infantry to fill them and I have a lot of ideas. What I would like from the community are some links to modified Valkyries and armored legs and arms that would fit onto the torsos for the enforcers for the forgeworld renegades. I will make "vets" from the enforcers and I want them to have the best equipment, but I can't find any IG that have armored legs and arms.

THREAD NECROMANCY.


Just kidding, this sounds interesting. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.