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Hey all,

Where to begin? The top I suppose... I know, FRAT right? But I'd more than appreciate your feedback.
I've collected since I was a lil grot. Been doing so on and off for roughly 15 years now. There's been big hiatus' (hiatusii, hiatusees?) during this time, as well as several company/brand jumps. Whilst being a pleasantly mediocre player, i've always taken great delight in conversion, kit bashing and painting. However due to my big breaks in hobbying I've never really sat down and improved on my painting or sculpting skills which has left me a very experienced collector with the hobbying skills of a mentally deficient sea horse. This was fine and well as I mostly had a single good friend I would collect and game with, sporacity was not an issue. I was completely content with my life... and then I made the mistake of reading the Horus Heresy series.

That was it, like an unrequited love affair from my misspent youth, my love for marines came flooding back into my life. Memories of walks on the beach, soft candlelit dinners and listening to red hot chilli peppers while we got drunk and made out in the back of the car assailed my senses. With that, I made the decision to actually progress for once, too long had I spent doing the same old base with 2 coats! Too long had I spent using a blob of greenstuff and a metric ton of plastic glue to bully an arm onto a model! It was time to make a marine army again. Oh yes, it was time. I racked my brains and checked post after post, read blog after blog. I had so many ideas and my absolute love for nurgle (and to a lesser extent all things chaos) was pushed into overdrive after FotE. However, I didnt want to do nurgle/DG just yet. I wanted something to wet my teeth on, to try sculpting, casting and new painting techniques on, to really get back into it with. Something to really expand my skillset before I went and tackled something like my beloved father nurgle. Eventually it clicked,

What am I doing? How? etc..
Garro himself is going to be far too central to ongoing storyline to start having my own artistic way with him. However, there is no word of what Garro does after yet (save his inferred quest), however the one thing that is clear is that he is rewarded. My army is his reward.
Concept of the army: Garro is gifted the remaining (now chapterless) marines as a reward for everything that transpired and in reward for his ongoing duties. Garro (having been 'gifted' his new task) then turns to his trusted friend Hakur, and gives him a simple task, take the remaining marines and seek vengeance. Become the punishing right hand of Garro much the same as he himself was for the emperor. Become the dusk raiders once more and bring fear to the traitorous death guard. They are given the best (at the time) in imperium tech in addition to retaining everything salvaged from the Eistenstein. During the heresy they war against the death guard and end up following them into the eye of terror (ala second space wolf trilogy). *will write an actual fluffy story once I get some more solid plot lines and timeframes sorted*
Chapter Symbol: This one really did my head in, dusk raiders didn’t exist in anything more than passing sentences of long forgotten times. After much deliberation and google-fu I filtered my way through and found the one and only official symbol for the dusk raiders (shown below, courtesy of TGC). This is what I am using. Understandably I've had a lot of discussion around this topic already.. I've modified it slightly (got rid of the yellow lines) to just be a skull with four lightning bolts. I can live with this and its closer to the official than any of the fan based symbols I've found so far. In honour of the fallen brethren betrayed on Istvaan every Dusk Raider will also wear a studded left pauldron in homage to the lives lost and debts owed.

Models: At least minor conversions on every single model. Re-positioning along with custom pads at the minimum. I will be casting both studded and chapter pads as well as some early mark armours. To show they are using some of their old kit and new I will have a mix of marks 3-6 on the marines.
Paint scheme: White, based on lighter greys, (not cream) to make it more what I envisage ceramite to look like, along with two crimson shoulder pads and a crimson right arm to show they are -now- Garro's right arm and his chosen instrument of retribution.
FOC: Will adhere to codex astartes as I can’t envisage them fitting into any of the other codexs. Given the lack of awesomeness that was the chapter traits in the 4th ed codex I’m forced to customise based on force org and chars etc. Given the fluff around eye travel (time distortion) and size of the army I have chosen to have both a high number of veterans (they’ve been fighting a long, long time) and a high number of dreads (this includes ven dreads, they don’t want to lose any brethren as they won’t recruit more). I won’t be taking any fast attack as I don’t believe it was really part of the DG edict, heavy foot soldiering and reliable weaponry will be the primary focus.

There is no pics as of yet, for which I apologise profusely. I have a couple of finalised colours on marines I’ll be using but those are horrendous photo’s that I took for reference more than display. I’m knee deep in converting up my first dread as a starting point to get my dreadnought fever out of the way and then I’ll get to work on the marines. Will convert up the first 750 points then paint them. I really just want feedback and whatever info anyone can share on the DR right now and I hope to get some WIP pics of the first model soon..

Cheers!

While your concept and background history was a great read your image appears to be broken (to me anyway) have you tried using the dakkadakka gallery? could solve the issues. Can't wait for an update with progression!


*Nevermind i refreshed the thread and could see the image. loving it, unfortunately i don't have much background knowledge about DR but im sure some google searches could enlighten you.

I love this idea and I look forward to see how you translate the story into model form.

Lol, great introduction! I can just imagine you trying to unhook a space marine's chestplate for a cheeky feel

As for thre project it sounds great, and with the amount of marines you are talking about you will probably be able tyo model all 70 marines ( and dreads)

Will look forward to the test scheme painted marines!

Sounds like a cool project. Im looking forward to it.

Your the bastard that took the marines away form me. Every time I ask where they where off to I got "Oh, just gonna take a walk on the beach. Will be back after dinner." And every time The red Hot Chili Peppers came on the radio it would instantly be changed to another station. I never really understood what was going on...... untill now. You.... you ruined my life. I was happy, content with what I had.... But know I have nothing. I've been reduced to orks. Oh yea I know what your gonna say. "whats wrong with orks?" Nothing untill you want to have a conversation with them. Yea they are great for chopping stuff up but its like talking to a rock. I can't take it anymore. (Click. BOOM!) ........................................

BTW love your intro to the blog.

interesting stuff , good luck with the project.

Right, it's about time I finally put some pics up isnt it? I warn you they're horrendous.

First off, this is the scheme I'm rolling with, as mentioned it's more towards grey than cream.

Next up is my test marines, as you can see I hit quite a few different colour combos before I figured out one I liked >.<. ADHD ladies and gentleman, it's both a gift and a curse.

This is my final test marine, the crimson on the shoulder pad is my final red that I'll be using too. The centre vent or details will likely be the grey/boltgun that is shown here but none of my marines will have aquila's etc on them due to the time period fluff they inhabit.

After that, everything was stripped.

So the first part of my project as I mentioned is the first dread of the army, being my first actual dread in an army (ever), there's no way I could resist cutting it up!

However I hated it and subsequently scrapped it. I decided to start actually planning things before doing them. Then I had a plethora of ideas!

Aaaaand that brings us to where we are now. I'm relatively happy with it so far, still need to create the head and do some cleanup work on the centre of the sarcophogi as well as tidy the GS used everywhere. Also I'm having to (and almost successfully) scratch building an autocannon for the left side and a plasma cannon for the right. All magnetised of course.

Good conversions so far. I like the paint scheme too. Also, where did you get that Sm template?

Thanks.. unfortunately it seems all my pics are super tiny. Odd.

The template up the top? B&C here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?autocom=pages&do=show&id=1

Thanks, have you posted the pics through the dakka gallery?

All good, I was spastically linking to the image, not the gallery URL. Should be able to see them a little clearer now.

Still quite small.

Click the image, it'll take you to bigger shots in the gallery.

Finally an update.. just finished off the first dread for the army. Pics as below.




Now I can at last get started on the troop choices. I'm in sydney on work for the next 2 weeks. I think i'll be quite occupied respositioning and posing marines for the most part.

I need suggestions, I have ideas for poses already however my army list is a little more troop heavy than I thought. As such I need some suggestions. Drop some ideas here for poses/positions you'd like to see marines in and I'll likely add them to my list, I'd prefer if they were less comical and more practical but I'll consider anything if I think I can pull it off well.

Ironically I'm staying less than 50 feet from GW australia's sydney branch but I'll be leaving for work before they open and getting home after they close.. damnit!

Love the Dread! I hadn't thought of using a SM torso as a surround for the helmet but it came out well, this guy is a librarian right?

I salute your scratchuilding skills too, that autocannon is slick.

Cool thread! Subscribing!

BH: No, not a libby dread. They werent in use around that time as far as I'm aware. This is a quasi ven/IC count as. I want to make all my dreads personalised to attempt to show some level of respect for fallen brethren (fluffyness!). The torso/head idea took some playing but it worked out well enough, should blend in a little more once painted. The only issue is how much it sticks out from the sarcophogi but that's sorted after some trimming.
I'm glad the autocannon turned out ok, it's my first time scratch building anything and this dread is my first time using plasticard so yay!

Walrus: Cheers bud!

I'm serious though guys, I'm tasking the forum in general to provide me some marine pose suggestions.. every single one of my marines will be altered in some way. Post suggestions, screenshots, pics, links, stick figures doing the mamba, whatever works for you and I'll consider it.

Awesome work! You are in a similar boat as I am, I started getting into this hobby around 1995, and took an extended hiatus...10 years or so. I have just recently (couple of months or so) gotten back into the modelling/converting aspect again, I am not a great painter, so I am dreading the day I actually have to start painting my conversions. I however have gotten the Daemon/CSM bug, and I am looking forward to making a pretty large force of each. I also have yet to play a game since I got back into the hobby, I would like to have whatever I play with fully painted...or at least to gaming standard. Anyway, can't wait to see more pics!

And I think a great pose would be for the model to be pointing off into the distance with his left hand (power fist?) like he's saying he's going to hit a home-run, with the weapon/bolter in the right hand either pointing at the ground, or resting on his shoulder. I just like the pose.

Have fun Down Under!

forge world offers autocannon arms etc, but its pretty gak quality

RSJake: I already had an idea similar to that but didnt think of the bolter casually resting on the shoudler.. that's badass! I have the perfect model in mind! That's totally going on the list.

CalasTyhpon216: I found that the Mortis one is pretty small dimension wise, I really wanted the extended WW2-esque flak/AA gun type feel. Hence making one myself I guess. If I had to make more I'd likely get the forgeworld ones and just do some work on them.

It's looking amazing. Are we gonna see one of these WWI style tanks rolling across the battlefield?

Haha, thanks. Not yet. First 1000 points has no tanks.. using this to get my feet wet on an army and get right back into the hobby. You can expect to see 1-2 more heavily modified dreads and a lot of posed marines in both serious and somewhat compromising positions.

I'm doing a death guard army after this (whole nother idea!) and I may just do some WWI steel in that legion as A) that's a brilliant idea and B) because I hate the existing tanks.

Very cool stuff, looking forward to more!

Sounds great. Do you do make sketches of what you're going to make or just sort of go with the flow?

Nice job on the dread. Like the conversion work.

love that dred! i will be keeping tabs on this work!

LeBaron: Good mix of both really.. as I mentioned in an earlier post I started down one path then hated in then wandered into another. I kind of imagine a rough concept then sketch out a few ideas (roughly as I have the artistic talent of a ball pein hammer) and then I think it through. Seems to work ok so far.

Sage/Wolf/Dark: Thanks guys! As mentioned I'll be working on them next week while I'm in Sydney.. hopefully get 1 marine reposed a night!

don't ever get forge world stuff if you can help it
the detail is ok, but the amount of mould lines and faults is just fething rediculous, i mean i wasted 30 pounds on an upgrade kit where every weapon was bent almost 90 degrees. also they say it will arrive in 7-10 days? it doesn't. i waited 4 weeks for my stuff. and resin is impossible to chop up without splintering

KUDOS on that Dread man ..... very innovative .... I am in awe