Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So why did I decide to create a home brewed chapter you ask?

After having done armies for both Space Wolves and grey knights, and having painted my friends Dark Angels, I finally broke down last fall and got the Deathstorm box. I have waffled between doing Blood Angels and Space wolves, and ended up on team space viking. I already have a bunch of old Tyranids laying around so I figured "why not?" I had always wanted to paint some of the blood angels minis. Then I got a copy of Space hulk for a steal. So without really intending to, I started a blood angels army. I didn't want to paint them as Blood angels as I already have a Wordbears army, as well as a ork army of speed freaks, so an all red army didn't appeal to me. I did like the Flesh Tearers colors, but lets face it, they are darn near chaos and I already have too much chaos. So I drummed up the back ground for an new Blood Angels descended chapter, the Grail wardens:

Here's a Grail Wardens Tactical marine:



Death Company:



Here are some almost completed test minis:





Here are the chapters Details:

Founding Chapter: Blood Angels
Founding: 17th
Chapter master: Castellan Agramon
Home world: Percion V
Fortress Monastery: The black keep on Percion V
Colors: Deep red and black, reversed for death company
Specialty: Assault, combined arms
Strength: approx 800 battle brothers, 400 recruits
Warcry: “By the blood of the grail!”

Homeworld:
The homeworld of the Grail wardens is Percion V, a world of high arctic mountains and arid desert regions. Located in the ultima segmentum, Percion V is the closest habitable world to the Gate of Mourn, one of the most navigable routes into or out of the Ghoul stars. The human population of Percion V is kept in a feudal state by the grail wardens and the non human native life includes a variety of predacious species. These species are allowed to remain to serve to strengthen the native human populations. The constant struggle against the natural predators of Percion V makes for a population that produces ideals recruits for the Grail Wardens.

History:
Created during the 17th founding, sometime in the mid 36th millennium, the Grail Wardens were founded to serve as an interdiction force against any xenos incursions from the Ghoul Stars. They serve alongside the Death Specters protecting the imperium from the vile threats that emanate from this benighted area of space.

Notable battles:

Battle for Herion’s landing: The first recorded mention of the Grail Wardens listed their chapter as defending religious pilgrims from raids by dark elder raiders.

The Plague of unbelief: In one of the earlier actions in the chapters history, 4 companies helped quell rebellions in the wake of Bucharis’s secession from the empire.

5th black crusade: Both the 3rd and 5th companies lost in battle with chaos forces from the Black legion and Death Guard.

Waaggghhh! Black toof: Troops drawn from the 7th company, as well as 6 squads of aspirants’ drawn from the 10th company, lead a 2 year hit and run attack on the mechanized forces of Ungluk Black Toof. Black Toof forces are finally obliterated during an attack on the warlord’s main fuel processing facility.

Occlusiad wars: The grail wardens suffered heavy casualties while fighting the Blinds Kings forces.

The Ghost wars: elements from the 1st and 2nd companies engaged with black legion traitor marines on the desolate moon of Pradius V.

The Hrud migration of the Belios ring: Warriors of the Grail Wardens cleansed the warrens beneath the Capital of belios Prime with flame and righteous fury.

The Arcadian Uprising: Also known as “the one week war” elements of the Grail Wardens 3rd and 4th companies, in conjunction with the Krieg 18th siege division, put down a populist rebellion of more than 2 million mutants, slaves, had workers, and hive spire dilettantes.

The siege of Peliculan’s keep: One of the darkest days in the Chapter history occurred after a 6 month long siege of the planetary governor of Kromtac III, an industrial world on the eastern fringe. Over the six month siege every attempt to crack the Governors Polar keep had been stymied, and once the Grail Wardens forces finally broke through the defenses, they massacred every soul within the keep. The atrocities committed during this night of slaughter caused 8 squads from the Grail Wardens 7th company to go rogue. Knowing that they would face severe censure for their behavior, they took possession of one of the chapters strike cruisers and fled to parts unknown. As soon as the 7th Company was returned to full strength, Captain Melechan took the entirety of his company on a penitent crusade to track down these rebels and bring them the Emperor’s justice.

13th Black crusade: The Grail wardens committed 5 full companies to the defense of the Cadian gate. The chapter incurred heavy losses in the Defense of the hazardous training facilities on Prosan.

Gene seed:
The gene seed of the Grail Wardens is considered amongst the purest of the bloodlines descended from the Blood Angels. While the flaw still occurs in this successor chapter, the Sanguinary Priests of the Grail Wardens are constantly working to purify their gene seed. This has resulted in close times between the chapter’s sanguinary priests and brother Corbulo, Sanguinary High priest of the Blood Angels. The Sanguinary priests of the Grail Wardens believe that the key to eradicating the flaw in their gene seed is locked away in the tiny amounts of Sanguinius’ blood still passed unto neophytes during their induction into the chapter.

Black rage: Members of the Grail wardens who succumb to the black rage are inducted into the death company, much the same as in other Blood Angel’s successors. The incidence of black range is lower in the Grail Wardens than in some of the other chapter derived from Blood Angels gene seed. The Grail Wardens Death Company heraldry is not all black, but rather an inversion of the typical colors worn by the rest of the chapter.

Red Thirst: Battle brothers of the Grail Wardens must contend with the red thirst just as all other sons of Sanguinius. The Grail Wardens attempts to eradicate the flaw from their gene seed has led to a lower level of occurrence of brothers who give in to the red thirst, but those who do go through a physical transformation which scars them for life. When a Grail Warden violates his vows and gives into the red thirst, his face become misshapen and monstrous. Their skin becomes pale and all hair falls out. This physical corruption marks them out from their brothers, and for the remainder of their lives they never appear outside of their armor. Most brother who have failed the chapter in this way never do so again, but a small minority never return from the thirst, and these brothers are given the emperors mercy by the chapters chaplains.

Culture:
The Grail Wardens are a chapter who strive to embody the best of Sanguinus’ legacy, always defending the citizens of the Imperium. Unlike many other Space Marine chapters, the Grail Wardens have a great deal of empathy for the citizens that they protect, and their interactions with base line humans are far more humane than is typically seen with member of the Adeptus Astartes.
They take their role as wardens very seriously and are proactive about quashing threats from the ghoul stars before they coalesce and ravage the worlds that the Grail Wardens are sworn to protect. The battle brothers of this chapter view themselves as holy warriors and attempt to hold themselves to the highest virtues. This desire for the ideal makes it all the more tragic when members of the chapter fall to the black rage or the red thirst.
The Sanguinary priesthood of the Grail wardens is very much involved in research into the flaw and work closely with the other chapters derived from Blood Angels gene seed. The artistic skills common to chapters descended from the blood angels is also apparent in the Grail Warden, with many beautiful tapestries and sculptures adorning their keeps and battle barges.

Organization:
The Grail Warden adhere closely to the Codex Astartes, with the exception of their death company and sanguinary guard. Unlike their parent chapter, the Grail wardens do not distinguish between squad types with different colored helmets, but rather with squad markings.

Recruitment: The Grail Wardens maintain a constant recruitment cycle based out of their fortress monastery, “the Black Keep” situated in a secluded glade high in the Mountains of Percion V. Aspirants are chosen from among the young , who compete in gladiatorial games to win the notice of the chapters Chaplains.

Unique among Astartes chapters, the Grail Wardens often work closely with a specific regiment of imperial Guard forces, namely the Prosan 3rd, or the “Morloks” as they are more commonly known. This regiment was seconded to the grail wardens after they helped defeat a chaos incursion on the world of Prosan during the 13th black crusade. The Morloks were seconded to the Grail wardens command as a reward for the sacrifices made by the chapter defending the training facilities at Prosan. The Grail wardens have integrated these forces into their battle plans to create an extremely versatile combined arms force.


I will update with some more pics (hopefully) soon. I have a decent size force started already, many of the minis in very states of paint. I'm also going to be doing most of the basing from scratch, so I'll post some shots of those as well. Thanks for taking the time to have a look, and feel free to hit me back with any questions, comments, or feed back!

I like the colour scheme but lack the patience to read the lore... Good job but you might get farther compliments from me when im not as lazy...

I love the scheme and the fluff, it's nice to see marines who actually DO care somewhat for imperial citizens

Good stuff. Very nice, especially the inversion of the scheme.

Thanks guys, glad you like the color scheme and background so far. I didnt really like the idea of a death company done all in black, so I figured an inversion of the usual scheme would be a good way to have them stand out, but still look like part of a cohesive force. Still not sure what I am going to do in regards to sanguinary guard, but I guess I will cross that bridge once I come to it.

Next shots up are of some devastators. These were actually the first models I had for this force, ironic I know considering blood angels are usually an assault force. I had a variety of different bits left over from friends and other projects, and realized I had enough to cobble together a few devastators. I was originally going to use them as long fangs for my space wolves, but then the death storm box came out, and I thought I would use the extra death company bits to make them the first marines for my blood angels.













And here are a couple of Sgts to direct their fire





All of these minis are still WIP, as I plan to edge highlight them all. This is something I have avoided doing in the past as it takes forever, but with this color scheme it is really required to make them not look quite so flat. I am getting a good set of base colors on all of them first and then will go back in and add the highlights, and possibly some shading with washes depending on how they turn out. I am also going with a space hulk/industrial scheme for the bases. I already bought some resin bases, but realized that I had most of the materials laying around to scratch build comparable quality so that is one of the other projects I am working on concurrently. Hope you all enjoy, and I will try to post of WIP of some of the bases next.

Looking Great Brother! I cant wait to see the finishing touches put on them. Excellent choice of colors, works really well with the blood angels bits as well

So heres a few shots of some of the HQs for this army. first up is a chaplain in terminator armor. This guy is very nearly done. Just need to do some coverage on one of his shoulders, find where i stashed is iron halo, and finish a base for him. I love this model, its by far one of my favorite space marine sculpts ever. Its also a real joy to paint!







Next up is a power armored librarian. Hes also pretty much finished except for a base.





And last but not least, here is the calisterius model from Space hulk. This model is one of the main reasons I bought that set. I've gotten most of him painted, i still need to figure out what to do with his force axe, and I want to go back in and do some more work on his face. Also needs a base.



and heres one with the flash on to show a bit more of the shadowed details.



and speaking of bases, here are a few that I have been working on

Nice work thus far, and I'm really digging that chaplain.

Thanks for the compliments everybody, I'm glad you all like what I'm doing with these guys so far. Next shots up are some terminators that I have gotten the basic colors on. I have a bunch of terminators for this army already, not sure how that happened. Seems like every deal I find includes some terminators. I swear I have more terminators in my space wolves than in my buddies death wing!

First guy up is from the space hulk box. I love his pose, but I'm not entirely sure how I am going to base him. Most of this army is going to be on bases with diamond texture on them, so I'm not sure if I will cut bits to match what he is ripping up, or do something else.



Next is my test to see how this pattern looked on an assault terminator.



Last but not least, my first test terminator. I think he was a freebie that came with an old issue of white dwarf.





Thanks again for taking the time to look, and for all your feedback!

Just picked up a pretty good deal off craigslist last night to add some variety and boots on the ground for the grail wardens. $30 netted me 20 tactical marines, 3 bikers, a landspeeder, 5 of the old school terminators, and 5 of the old mono pose tactical marines that came with the old starter paint set. Strangely enough, I think the thing I'm most excited about were the mono pose tacticals. Don't know why, but I really cant wait to paint one of those suckers! And by some miracle, none of them are horribly mangled or painted with 18 layers of lead paint or anything. Most of it isn't even glued together.

Heres the whole hoard I picked up



Old school termi sgt.



Old school tactical sgt. I'm not sure if I am going to leave him as is. or possibly swap his chainsword for one of the blood angels bits and give him a plasma pistol. Anybody
have any opinions on this?

That's a very nice haul of marines. I'm jealous. Good work on all your guys so far

Very nice start, and the scheme really works - both for the DC and the regular force.

Thanks so much for all the feed back everybody.It really helps keep me motivated. Since both of the large sets that I bought to provide the base for my grail wardens also included Tyranids, I have been working on them as well. I actually already had a pretty sizable tyranid force that I was given by a buddy to paint, and I've been puttzing around with it for years, never really happy with a color scheme. After much hemming and hawing, I think I finally found one I like, so heres the fist few I have painted.






















As always comments, criticisms, and questions welcomed and appreciated!

I like it. Except the Librarians face. The tyranids would look better with some kind of bright detail on the carapace (see Splinterfleet Dendrobates in august 8 WD).

Ember

Thanks Emberlordof fire. I'm actually planning on doing some more layering for the librarians face, plus his force axe and writing on his scrolls. I just put him aside until I have some good uninterrupted hobby time at home, as alot of the painting time I get is in my office during my lunch break where the set up is not ideal for detail work like that. Its great for putting on base coats etc though. As for the tyranids, the lack of a bright eye catching color is intentional. I wanted to go with a more organic look as opposed to one of the super bright insect schemes. Plus I like the thought of them creeping down a space hulk corridor, blending into every shadow. The light grey/white highlighting on the carapace shows up brighter in person as well. Thanks for the feedback!

Hobby time has been pretty restricted this week due to the purchase of a new car and graduate school classes resuming, but i was able to get enough time to slap some paint on a few of the really old marines i got in that craigslist deal a week or so ago. They actually tuned out pretty decent in my opinion, and were a bit quicker to paint as they have a lot less fine details.

First up is the Sgt. I swapped out his bolt pistol for a period appropriate plasma pistol I had laying around. I also gave him a contemporary chain sword so that he had a little bit of blood angels swag.





Next is a standard tactical marine. I realized after I took the pic that I forgot to get his lenses. Guess thats what I get for trying to paint after taking sleep meds!



Thanks again for taking a look, and C&C is welcome and appreciated!

Those are beautiful. You should try RT beakies too, if you get the chance.

Thanks Stormwall! I actually have a couple of REALLLYYY old metal beakies laying around that I recently stripped. They were caked with so much paint it was hard to tell what they were. Maybe they will be next on the to do list!

I just warnt to say something:
Thanks to you I just went impulse buying for tyranids. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH TERMAGANTS?!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I painted them in a really cool variation of the box colours, with grey substituted for cream, green wash in the crevices/vents and red carapace.
I'll post pics soon,

Ember

Emberlord, I'm glad I could help destroy your will to resist the hive mind! You definitely need to post some pics as that sounds like a sick color scheme. As for what to do with termagaunts, I suggest using them to soak up in coming fire.

Great job on the sergeant. He upgraded nicely.

Next up is the death company dred I got in the death storm box. Got the basic colors in, I'll try to get the highlighting and details done next.









As always thanks for looking, and C&C welcome and appreciated!

Is that your workspace you've fotografed it on?

My, ummm, "Place Of Important Work Where I Must Not Be Disturbed Do You Hear Me I Mean It!" Looks like a bomb hit it, I'm now painting on aproximatly 10 square centimeters due to receiving 5 boxes of Chaos Marines, Space Marine devastates, vanguard vets, and the space I DO have is covered with, like, a razorback, the TERMAGAUNTS YOU MADE ME BUY, and one very VERY broken Inquisitor.

Sorry for the rambling, AMAZING DREADNOUGHT, I love painting dreads (although I never run them). I have a really cool WIP conversion with a riled of arm and all the wires coming out. I got it off EBay and it didn't have a second arm. It's turning out nicely though.

I feel your pain Emberlord. My painting desk is currently covered with: Too many paint pots to count, several metal dragons that have been stripped and need to be re painted, a squad of necron tomb guard who have been half painted for about 6 months, same thing for a sgt telion and pedro cantor, lots of bits for the grail wardens I am working on, an entire box of base coated minis from various factions that serves as my "on deck" to be painted box, and lots of various odds and ends. In fact its easier to just show you so here it is:






As for progress on my painting back log, I did get some of the details on the Daeth company dred finished, namely the blood claws and some of the edge highlighting for the red black. Here's what I have gotten done so far:










I'm not entirely sure I am happy with the way the edge highlighting is showing up on the red. I think because the panels are significantly bigger on the dred than on the marines it may not be as obvious, so I think I may go a shade lighter and try highlighting with orange rather than the bright red. What do you guys think?

Once again thanks for looking and C&C is welcome and appreciated!!

Cool scheme. Nice to see some homebrew BA successor chapters.

D

The dreadnought looks great.

Thank you Isaniak and evildrcheddar! I'm glad you like it. Any opinions on the red highlights? Should I leave them as is or go one level lighter?

As some of you may have noticed, I have been simultaneously working on both my grail wardens and a as yet un-named hive fleet. This is for a couple of reasons, first and fore most is that I began the base of both armies with two large set (death storm and spacehulk) that both happened to contain Blood angels and Tyranids. Secondly, I'm having a good time working on them as dedicated opposing force. They will both be based in a similar fashion and may even have some mini dioramas. Lastly, and to some degree most importantly, having two very different armies to work on keeps me from getting fatigued painting the same thing over and over again.

So after putting in some work on my death company dred, I've gotten bored with my Grail Wardens and spent some time last night working on my hive tyrant. Unfortunately his tail broke off when I was moving him to take pics, so he's a little stubby in these shots. I'm fairly pleased with the color scheme so far and how they are turning out. Not sure what color I want to use as a spot color on things like toxin sacs etc, anybody have any good suggestions? Heres the results so far:

Ei like the Orange whip thing' it draws the eye to the mini, especially because the rest of the model is so dark. Nice work!

Ember

Thanks Ember, glad you like it!

Sorry for the lack of updates folks. My pops was in the hospital with cardiac issues, and then I eloped with my fiance last week while on a trip to scatter my mother ashes. Been a slightly busy beaver!
So heres what I have been up to. Lets start with the first two minis I would consider pretty much done. All the highlighting is done, bases done, etc. I'll take some better shots with a better background at some point.



Net shot is group shot of a bunch of tactical machines that I am mostly finished with. Still need to do some highlighting on most of these guys, especially the black areas:



Here's a little diorama I put together. I didn't intend for these two to go together, but I think they fit pretty well!



Next up are some WIP kit bashes. Fist is a combination of tactical, blood angels, and a scout heavy bolter:






Next is a bunch of tactical kitbashed WIP:











Lastly are a couple of old bikers who i kitbashed with blood angels tactical and death company bits,and various stowage:






There you go, thats what I have been up to lately. Hopefully wont be quite so long before my next update. As always thanks for looking and comments and criticism welcome and appreciated!!