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I just got a new job and I'm going to have a very regimented schedule over the next several months. Every night I'm going to have several hours free with nothing really to do as I'll be staying at a place with no TV and very slow internet access. I thought it would be the perfect time to start a new army! I've always liked the Grey Knights, but never really liked the color scheme. The Grey Knights codex is unusual in that the fluff doesn't really allow for one to create their own Grey Knights chapter. The fluff is important to me, so I had to give this some thought. Ultimately, I think I came up with something decent. Let me know what you think.

I picked up a box of termies and a box of power armored GKs today. I'll start on assembly tomorrow night. My plan is to do a little work each night and take pictures before I go to bed.

Without further ado, the Dread Wardens...

Name: Dread Wardens
Founding Chapter: Grey Knights
Chapter Master: Grand Master Metus
Homeworld: The moon Deimos, formerly of Mars, now of Titan
Fortress-Monastery: The Voltaire
Main Colors: Red with grey/black pauldrons
Specialty: Defense
Battle Cry: “We are the Shield of Man!”
Estimated Strength: ~100

When the Grey Knights were created, they were gifted with the Forgeworld moon of Deimos to provide arms and armor. One of the chapter’s Grand Masters was assigned, along with several units of Grey Knights, to protect the moon’s manufactorums and forges at all costs. Over time, successive Grand Masters tailored the defenses and recruited new members. These Grey Knights came to be called the Dread Wardens, in honor of the name Deimos originally referring to the ancient Roma’s personification of dread.

Their fortress-monastery resides deep within the largest crater on the moon, called “Voltaire” on fragmented surface maps dating from 973.M2. The crater is approximately 1.9km across and contains one of the most highly advanced fortresses known to man, containing the finest defensive mechanisms - both human and xenos.

The Dread Wardens are currently led by Grand Master Metus. Metus has led the chapter for over 300 years. He originally served as a Brother-Captain of the Grey Knights before being assigned to defend Deimos. In reality, the defense of Deimos is handled primarily by the automated orbital defenses of the Mechanicum and by the fact that being located within the home system of mankind provides a significant hurdle to would be attackers. As such, the Dread Wardens are often sent on missions all over the galaxy, just as the Grey Knights are.

I know this pic isn't in Aegis Armor, but you get the idea.

I like your idea. Also like the paint scheme. NICE.

The scheme is nice, but I think you should do a little something to the lower body, the solid red looks strange, maybe abit of boltgun metal on the kneepads or very tips of the boots. But hey, sounds like it could be very successful, goodluck

My plan is to use the Grey Knight models. They all have text on their legs and other places. That text is going to be painted in Boltgun Metal highlighted with Mithril Silver. It should break things up nicely.

I bought a box of Grey Knights in power armor and also a box of Grey Knight Terminators this past weekend at the Bowie Battle Bunker before moving north. Of course, this was the first time I didn't open the boxes in the store. There was an issue with one of the three Terminator sprues. Customer Service is sending me out a new sprue. It's kind of nice actually. I'm going to end up with enough duplicate pieces to make a 6th terminator. He's going to be my Brother-Captain. That'll technically give me a full army... two troops and an HQ.

I've gotten three of the five power armored guys assembled. It's taking forever as I don't have a lot of free time and I'm trying to make sure the mold lines are all removed and everything is perfect. Also... each marine in the army gets a name. This is going to be the first unit...

Grey Knight Strike Squad Dirus (175 points)
Justicar Dirus w/Mastercrafted Storm Bolter and Mastercrafted Nemesis Force Halberd
Brother Atrox w/Psycannon
Brother Ferit w/Nemesis Daemon Hammer
Brothers Velox and Celer w/Nemesis Falchions
Psybolt Ammunition


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and won't have it until next week. Therefore, no pics for now. And I so like the poses of these marines!

I really love the fluff! I think the details on the armor will break up the red on the lower body nicely! I'm looking forward to some pics.

I haven't had too much time over the last week to do much hobbying, but I did make it into a the Games Workshop store in Olney, MD to pick up a Dreadknight model.

I'm not totally sold on the look of the model (the much maligned "baby carrier") or the pose, so I think it will be going under the knife. I looked at the sprues and I believe it will be relatively easy to bend the knees and straighten the arms. I want a pose where one foot is up on a rock or something and one arm is pointing its weapon straight forward.

I might use a spare dreadnought sarcophagus lid in place of the marine. I've seen some nice conversions, but I'm not sure I want to go to that much trouble. I'm also thinking about adding a shoulder mounted targeting system just for fun.

I was thinking abou picking another up myself to turn into a more automated or remote controlled style. I like the targeting idea a lot. Maybe a head from a necron tomb spider on a stand if some sort would look cool. I had even given thought to shoulder mounted ranged weapons as opposed to being attached to the forearms.

Cant wait to see some models!

I got my airbrush setup today, so I should be basecoating the first squad tomorrow. I've also unboxed the Dreadknight and started assembling it. I'm going to take some in progress photos as soon as I can. Unfortunately, I only have my iPhone for now, so the pics might not be ideal.

I did work out the actual paint plan.

For the red sections...
1. Basecoat Mechrite Red
2. Wash with Badab Black
3. Clean up with 50/50 Mechrite Red, Red Gore
4. Line highlight with Vomit Brown.

For the grey sections
1. Basecoat Adeptus Battlegrey
2. Wash with Badab Black
3. Clean up with 50/50 Adeptus Battlegrey/Codex Grey
4. Line highlight with Codex or Fortress depending on how bright I need it.

The Vomit Brown may sound like a weird highlight color for red, but it's perfect. Try it out! It's an 'Eavy Metal trick the GW painters use. I didn't believe it before I tried it.

Whats up with red and grey knights now I've seen lots of red armies
Ive seen pre heresy 1ksons
Red hunters
Exorcists
and im pretty sure I saw a blood angels one aswell

Well, it's just the thing i spose. Red is the in color, and it fits in all those themes!

I have a very specific reason for choosing red.

As stated in the first post, this chapter is a custom Grey Knights offshoot. The Grey Knights are primarily supplied by the Adeptus Mechanicus forges on the moon Deimos. This chapter is set to guard these forges, although in practice they spend a lot of time out and about, killing the enemies of man and sometimes man also if they're acting even slightly off!

Deimos means "dread" in Ancient Greek and these guys guard it, ergo they are the Dread Wardens. Their armour is red due to the fact that they are tied so closely to the Adeptus Mechanicus. I plan on making a bitchin' Techmarine conversion at some point using Grey Knight and Techmarine bits. I'm also planning on making the Grand Master (whom I will call a Grand Warden) a cool looking cog based power axe that will count as a Nemesis Force Halberd. I have a lot of the bits for it, but I want to get a couple of Troops units painted up first.

Sounds awesome dude! 'Normal' Grey Knights I find quite uninspiring, so my new force is painted unconventionally (no metallics, vomit brown for gold, huh?)...but not as much as this! The Adeptus Mechanicus idea is sweet, will you use it to provide the entire force with Rhino's/Stormravens/Land Raiders? It's not very Adeptus Mech to be walking around everywhere =P
Subscribed.

A rhino for the Strike Squad is actually the next purchase on my list. I have a ghetto Land Raider I got from a friend that needs to be stripped down, repaired and covered in GK icons. I'd like to get a Stormraven also, but I think I'll need more troops and a Dreadnought first.

Tonight I shall do some more hobby work and I'll put up some photos at that point.

I decided that I wanted to base these guys a little fancier than my standard sand and grass routine, so I swung by Showcase Comics in Media, PA on my way home from work today. They carry a selection of bases from Micro Art Studios. Unfortunately, they only had the 40mm bases in stock, which is a shame as I've only put together Strike Squad Marines so far and they use 25mm. I bought 6 of the 40mm bases for my first Terminator Squad and their accompanying Brother-Captain. I ordered 15 25mm bases and 2 60mm bases. The warehouse was out of the Dreadknight sized bases, so I'll have to check back. The bases I ordered should come in later this week.

I also bought some Grey and Red dice to go with my Grey and Red color scheme! You just have to have special army dice!

Now for some pics. Not much to show, but it's proof I'm doing something! I particularly like the pose on the Psycannon guy. His gun barrel is facing the same direction as his hips. I wanted him to look like he was using it, not just carrying it!

Its nice to see people doing things differently with the grey knights, i look forward to seeing some painted.
I might have to get myself some of those bases too, they look very nice.

Looking good man, can't wait to see some with some paint applied

Looking forward to more, keep it up!

Looking good indeed. I like non-standard GKs a lot. If you need some more bits etc, just pop me a pm.

I did a little more work tonight, but I'm too tired to post pics. All five terminators are now assembled and glued to the bases. I haven't named them yet, but they're equipped almost exactly the same as the Strike Squad. I'm going to prime them tomorrow hopefully... way too humid today!

Oddly... I got a package from GW Customer Service today. In it was what appears to be a Finecast Cockatrice wing. I have NO idea why this thing showed up. Some customer somewhere is gonna be irritated. Any recommendations as to what I can do with this thing?

edit... I broke apart the termies as I didn't want to use bad parts. I had to recall GW customer service to get another set of good parts.

I put together three of the Terminators today. I'm still waiting on replacement parts to get the others done. I'm also still waiting on 25mm bases for the Strike Squad and the new HQ I picked up. I needed someone to lead the army, and this is such a badass looking model, in my mind.

I can't wait until I have all my parts. The termie parts should be here monday and there's an outside chance the bases will be here tomorrow. I think it depends when Showcase Comics in Media, PA gets their shipment.

Until I have my stuff, some more WIP pics...

Hey everyone! I finally started painting. I'm starting with one model to make sure I like the result. I've not even come close to finishing, but you can see the general idea of the color scheme below. The helmet is done, but all other areas need work.

Nice. Like the overall look. Very nice coat on the red.

What color red did you use?

Mechrite Red... the foundation paints in general give a good coat. I'm going to layer it up to Red Gore to brighten it just a little and to even it out. It could stand to be a little smoother. You can't really tell from 3 feet away, but up close it's a bit uneven.

Looks fantastic! can't wait to see some more done.

Like it a lot; quite similar to what I'm doing with my Knights Carnelian - I agree that green eyes are the way forward. Looking forward to seeing more!

I love your colour scheme... definitely watching this...

Part of my Micro Art Studios order came in today. Sadly, the extra 40mm bases, the 60mm case and the 120mm oval base didn't arrive. I did get ten (10) of the 25mm bases. This will allow me to properly assemble the Strike Squad, Inquisitor Coteaz and the old metal Vindicare Assassion I found in a shoebox in my closet. He looks so tiny compared to the Terminators!!! lol

I also got a set of the "not terminator" Crusader legs from Micro Art Studios. Of course, I can't assemble them as I don't have the bases, but I was surprised to find they are significantly taller than the normal termie legs. I'm going to use them to represent the Paladin Squad I'll be assembling at some point. They look cool as crap, but they do make the termies about 10-30% taller depending on the legs (they aren't all the same height). As soon as I have the first one assembled, I'll post some pics for comparison. For any of you who are of the persuasion, these legs would be absolutely perfect for Truescale or Artscale robed marines.

Really liking that Terminator head!