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Some readers may remember that awhile back I was trying to get ideas for a Post-Apocalyptic/Wild West-style Crimson Fist army (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/266945.page). I built the army, got colors on most of it, played it in our local 'Ard Boyz Prelims and won with it, and aside from having the Librarian painted up, the rest of the army has sat languishing as my venerable spray can of Ultramarines blue ran out. After trying to find comparable colors in Tamiya and ArmyPainter (both FAIL), I finally broke down and bought the Citadel sprayer to finish basecoating the rest of the army. This, combined with some interest in the army from an old friend from high school has motivated me to get to work on it.

Below are some pre-priming pics of my three Rifleman Dreadnoughts. All are now basecoated, but I wanted to post these up to show some examples of how I wound up converting the Riflemen.









Next is the army's HQ - Brother Librarian Santos. I converted him from a Sicarius model, giving him a Commander Y-pattern Psychic Hood, a force sword from an older Librarian, and an Ork slugga taken as a trophy.



This is a Stelek-style Maximum Firepower Razorback spam list, running six Razorbacks, each with 5-man Tactical squads - thus, none of them have any special or heavy weapons. In the pictures, you can see that I've given some feathers (taken from Lizardmen plastic kits), some wolftails (from SW plastics), a variety of knives (mostly from SW plastics), lots of grenades and a few with some hillbilly armor plating (taken from Kroot kits), each to try to individualize the model and make them distinct. The goal was to make each marine look like he's been fighting for long enough out in the field that he's had time to start personalizing his equipment away from the scrutiny of the Chaplains and had to start scavenging for some of his equipment. It's also a nod to my old skool, Rogue Trader roots and some of the Space Marine sketches I drew during that period (the mohawked sergeants, in particular).













Originally, I wanted banners on all my Sergeants, on at least one of my Dreadnoughts, and one of my Predators. I'd planned on them being battleworn, torn, and dirty, but there. As I've been thinking about it, though, I'm thinking about how that doesn't really fit in with the rest of the army theme - at least the Sergeants' back banners. So, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to clip those suckers off and paint over them. I plan on adding a little static grass to the bases, but otherwise, I may be done with my troops. I say "may" because I'm tempted to try some of the armor chipping and weathering techniques that Grey Death and the Painting Corps have demonstrated, but I'm a little nervous about it, because - as you can see in the pictures, my painting skills aren't particularly spectacular and I don't know if I can pull off that level of detail without it looking crappy.

I'm waiting on a couple bottles of Badab Black wash to do more work on my vehicles. My method for painting Crimson Fists, rather than starting with Regal Blue and highlighting up to Ultramarines Blue has been to basecoat Ultramarine Blue, give it two washes of Badab Black to darken it and then highlight Ultramarines Blue. Consequently, I need enough Badab Black to coat my six Razorbacks, three Predators, three Dreadnoughts, and nine Land Speeders. (Yet another reason I bought the Citadel sprayer...)

I still want to try to add some post-Apocalyptic/Mad Max/Wild West elements to the army. There's not been much I could do with the troops, and I talked about some ideas I had for the vehicles, but I realized that the place that I can really showcase this theme is on the bases for all my Land Speeders - so, post your ideas for what I should have on the Speeder bases. I've got some ideas, but I want to hear what others have to say.

Anyway, comments and criticism are welcome.

Looking good. I like the mohawks, they are a nice tie to the past. I think you should try th e chipping as it would make more fitting to the apocalypse theme and on vehicles it would look especially nice.

I love rifle dreadnoughts, looks very menacing.

Your Crimson Fists are nicely done, especially the slight edge of ramshackle they have via the bits box additions, I'm impressed with the basing as well.

Thanks, guys! I've been wanting to start the weathering and battle-damage on these guys, but as I was finishing them up, the point of my detail brush started to split and no amount of work on my part could get it back into a point (I could get it into 4 points or 2 - but not one). But over the weekend, I was able to pick up some new brushes, so I think I'm going to try Grey Death/Painting Corps' method in the next couple days.

Putting more colors on my vehicles is having to wait, though, as my order for more Badab Black at the (F)LGS got lost. I have a real love/hate relationship with my FLGS. The owner tries, but since he fired our GW guy back in June, they just haven't been very reliable.

Anyway, I'll post more as I get the work done.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, I attempted to use Grey Death's sponged battle damage technique on a squad of 5 guys. I think it looks okay - I did a better job on some than on others. I feel like I could take it or leave it. I'm mainly afraid that I'm going to spend a ton of time doing this on 30 marines and it's not going to noticeably improve how they look. In fact, I'm afraid that it'll take me 30 marines to get the technique looking decent - so that by the end, I'll have a few that look good and a bunch that just look messy.



Any thoughts or opinions? Does it really add to the look or feel of the models? Should I keep going with the technique? Or should I just save face with my mediocre painting skills and call these guys table-top ready?

I like the battle damage technique your using there and would advise you continue, if your force developes and you want to add more unconventional models the blood angle graphic novel had some nice images toward the end of what two space marines might look like after many years of reapiring/scavenging armour and equiptment.

You know, mullet_steve, it's funny you mention Bloodquest - that would actually be a really great place to look for inspiration. Jes Goodwin did some great sketches of the characters in his book "The Gothic and the Eldritch" and the one of Cloten hefting an Ork power axe in his power fist always stood out to me. I may have to see if there's a compilation of the graphic novels.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also - I went ahead and added weathering and battle damage to my remaining 25 marines. I found a couple things that very quickly helped improve my technique:

1) Use a decent surface area of sponge - originally, I just used a tiny piece and was pretty disappointed with the regularity of the splotches I was getting. Today, I tore off a larger piece and was getting a much better pattern of weathering.

2) Make sure that the color you use for unpainted armor (like, what's supposed to be underneath the armor's paint) is sufficiently light enough and contrasting enough from your top coat to make the splotches easily identifiable. This makes them easier to outline and looks less like an uneven wash.

3) I found that outlining the whole splotch also made it look more deliberate and less like weird, out-of-place highlights. It can also make it look more like camoflage-gone-wrong, but I'm considering going over the splotches one more time with an even lighter gray or boltgun to highlight the unpainted armor.

I'm pretty pleased with the result now. And as I'd predicted, it definitely did get easier and better towards the end as I got the hang of it. I'd also been meaning to add an old skool, Rogue Trader slogan to the armor of one of my Sergeants and finally got around to painting "KIL KIL KIL" on his shoulderpad.

Pics tomorrow.