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Hey people of Dakka! It's been a while since I posted a real blog, in fact the slow death of my 40Skaven blog left me pretty burnt out.

Burnt out enough to want to try something different for me, something very different.......

..... A STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX SPACE MARINE ARMY!!!!

I know, I know, why Blackhand, why?

THE BEGINNINGS (DUM DUM DUM)

Well mainly because at the time I wanted to free up my time at home for preparing for my next kid who is weeks away from being born..

... yeah because I was really going to go cold turkey, what was I thinking?

So I thought hey lets start a new army, concentrate on upping my painting skills and less on conversions and maybe even try learning to play well and win a few games.

I considered a few armies, I have already built guard, orks, tau, nids and GK and wasn't too keen on picking up Dark Eldar or Eldar as they have never appealed aesthetically to me.
So I had a look through my bits boxs for random inspiration and realized something...during my Sabre Legion phase I had managed to pick up a sh%$load of Marine models. Enough that with only minimal purchasing (two tac squads) and a bit of stripping an repainting ( two rhinos and a Raider) and I had a workable army list.

THEME

Having built and painted a GK army I already had a baroque, "knight-ish" army, I thought this time I would go with a more high tech, spec ops look ( I mean this is the 41st millinium right?) This was great as a theme...but it resulted in ideas flying around, dangerous ideas about conversion....time consuming conversions
I also decided to use the same symbol I used on my guard army(the BLACKHAND obviously) so that I could run the two different armies as one during apoc games, which unfortunately restricted my color palette to red and black and kind of threw the whole getting better at painting thing out the window but hey, best laid plans and all.

CONSTRUCTION (or the rapid descent into Conversiosis...conversitis....conversion sickness)

So I had the models, I had the theme, I even had a paint scheme.....so I just needed to start building and painting right?

You don't really know me very well huh?

Unfortunately along with the choice of the Blackhands as a name went the smbol I started with GS'ing a couple of fists on my dreads..just for fun. Then I pulled out my dusty old shoulderpad mould and started pouring Blackhand shoulderpads, first just for my sergeants, then my HQ squad..then I dropped my HQ squad and ended up casting the damn things for every single marine.

Every...Single...Marine...one at a time....last week I just finished my fortieth marine, and thats not counting my termies and the custom pad I made for them.

But it wasn't enough they just weren't "techy" enough so I thought hey why not add those cool stormbolter ammo clips everyone uses on their sternguard. Of course at this point I only had fifteen marines...I don't think I ever want to see another damn ammo clip in my life

The bolters looked good, the ammo clip gives them more bulk and I started collecting as many scopes as I could so nearly half of them have copes now. Along with scopes I trawled through every bits box I could get my hands on and now every marine in the army has kick ass helmets with camera lenses on them..which actually gave rise to a big change in my fluff but that will come later...

Any way with my marines taken care of conversion wise I looked at my tanks. Now since my GK army has FW doors and symbols all over the place I just couldn't bear to see basic rhinos running around on the table so I started fooling around and came up with this




(edit : holy crap I had no idea how much of my fiance's graffitti made it inot these pics, so very sorry)

I have pics for an entire tutorial into making 3d chapter symbols but I figure its pretty much the same as my other casting tutorials so I will probably leave it for some other time.

So now I had a sweet chapter symbol, what to do with it?

I started plastering them n every thing I could...

First a drop pod (still unfinished as I subsequently dropped it from my list)



Then my Land Raider aka Endless Hatred



You will notice i also built a front plate for this fella, I then cast up a bunch for my rhinos....



Then I thought maybe I need a predator?



And maybe I need another so I will just cast up a quick pred turret...just for kicks



But no I didn't need the second predator...maybe I could use a vindicator?



Naaah, I have always liked the look of the whirlwind, and everyone likes a pie plate right?



Edit : BTW, I have since finished painting all my vehicles but ave yet to apply a wash, I am having trouble getting a nice coat on such a large flat surface and will have to practice some more, pics to follow

Anyhoo, constant distractions aside, I actually finished a bunch of models like these guys, one of my basic tac squads



despite all appearances these guys are drybrushed and higlighted in adeptus battlegrey, the pics I took rendered them totally black but they aren't that bad...honestly

Here are a couple of my heavy weapon toting fellas, I have them spread through my squads since its free that way




In the last few weeks I discovered the awesome nurgle aspiring champion helmet from the chaos marine sprue, cut the horn of that sucker and you get a great spec ops helmet. I honestly nearly tore every helmet off my guys and gave them all the same helmet but I worried they would be mistaken for chaos so I just went with the four heads I managed to scrounge





Now to begin with I had a no terminator in my list, I was pretty against them actually I wanted to run a scout and tac marine based army all riding in razorbacks...LOL

My entire army now comprises of four 10 man tac squads in four rhinos, 3 rifleman dreads ( tee hee) a MotF and termie librarian and EIGHT terminators..why because they smash thing to pieces.

So here are my termies with their flash new shoulder pads







Thats only five you say..yeah well its an old pic

And Here is their fearless sergeant (insert name here)



And the most dangerous bookworm on the planet, Chief Librarian Reza Malin ( some of you may remember him from my GK army...the army I have not once played with hence re-tasking him to the Blackhands)



Oh and how could I forget my rifelman dreads, I have since built and painted another one...but he looks pretty much the same



So here I am, nearly finished what was supposed to be a simple laid back army build and which became an almost all consuming hobby nightmare

I have actually built and painted almost 3k of models but only play with 1850 points worth but thats fine..its nice to have options! The good part of all the chopping and changing was the amount of game sI have played with them, about 10-11 at last count which is some kind of record for me and has been really educational.

All I really have left to do is paint and mildly convert the Master of the Forge I hope to receive in the mail in the next few days ( I had a scratchbuilt MortF half built but didn't like how it came out, never mix a dread and a termie they look rubbish)and then look at some form of flyer Probably some kind of scratchbuilt bloodraven, I just finished adding VTOL turbines to a valkyrie and I have some ideas percolating.



Well thanks for reading the wall o' text hope you like the models and have some C&C for me, I think that having 99% of the work done on an army means I have the luxury of going back and making adjustments and fixing things that you guys suggest while still having a playable force..very nice for a change.




Cheers


BLACKHAND


Ps. Oh and I will try and finish my fluff for the army and post that soon..it's reached 4 pages but I just can't stop

I likes them muchly!

Sorry for being very inactive the last few weeks I've had my Laptop die on me so haven't been able to get on..
Anyhoo back on topic damn nice matey the icons turned out great and the custom tanks are the bomb. Little things like that
can really turn a common army like SM's that tend to get a bit same-ish on the table top into a unique and exciting project as well as
a awesome force to battle against.

Great work keep it up matey!

Your guys look rather good

Perhaps one day your BLACKHAND marines will have to go up against The Chapter of the Black Hand in a good vs evil showdown

@Santobell - Thanks bro, I was a bit worried about posting up marines as people see generally see them as generic. But seeing the work on Gitsplitta's blog and the other guys from his adepticon team I figured if they can create marines with character I could give it a go.

@SilverMK2 - Thanks...and hell yes! My are up for it anytime

This is looking great mate, and it's nice to see it in its (kinda!) entirety. Can you ramp up the colour correction on the pics though? It's hard to see some of the definition/detail on the pretty man-dolls! Love the Nurgle helm, been looking for an excuse to do a bits order

Had you thought about making up some extra armour and sensors for your rhinos? Also some auspex scanners for your Marines? Or lots of servo skulls carrying sensors?

High tech marines have so many interesting possibilities.

@Inmygravenimage - Thanks! and yeah I have to sort out my pictures the light box I had made up for my guard and skaven worked fine for them but these guys are so dark that I may have to find a better solution..plus I don't think Dakka's colour correction likes em either.

@silvermk2 - I am not a fan of servo skulls but I like the idea of some form of custom auspex and maybe a sensor pod for the rhinos...cheers for the ideas!

The sound of foot beat's 'cross the glade
Good folk, lock up your son and daughter
Beware the deadly flashing blade
Unless you want to end up shorter
Blackhanders, Blackhanders, their armours pitch black plasteel
Blackhanders, Blackhanders, they are very bad indeed


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Bad as in good.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Bad as in good.

And now they have a song.

Good to know I can always count on you Manoknok.

You've seen blackadder right? Otherwise this might be another instance where i look quite strange....

Ah now I get the reference

And there I thought you had written up a song on the spot for my army!

Believe me, the incredibly huge collection of models you own is strange, the song was just the icing on the cake

They look great BLACKHAND... customized and modified the whole way through. Liked the vehicle bit... though I know you were just showing off! I've been wanting to create my own chapter symbol thingie for my mantis warriors as well. Yours gives me good inspiration for that. Now if I can only get up the nerve to try it.

The infantry looks awfully black to me... meaning I can't see the detail of the figs through all that black. Are they really that dark, or is it just the contrast extreme with the black figures on the white background that's messing me up?

Still love those dreads...

BLACKHAND wrote: First a drop pod (still unfinished as I subsequently dropped it from my list)

The irony!

Looks awesome as usual blackhand, can't wait to see whats next!

I like the chapter icon, though you went a bit nuts on the rhino imo, the back hatch got sealed shut but orders of blackhand . The cast pred turret made me lol, I havent tried something that big (or even 2 sided for that matter). Keep at it and you'll catch me in points before you know it!

@Gitsplitta - Cheers man, and of course I was showing off that the whole point of a blog! I admit the paint is rather dark, I think I may have to follow the adeptus grey drybrush with a fortress grey line highlight but Dakka didn't do the pics any favours either. I may try a few pics on a red or green background as well to see if that helps.

@corndoggy - Thanks bud!

@whalemusic - Thanks I am rather proud of the chapter icon..maybe too proud as I stuck them on every available space I had a vague plan to cast an icon that splits down the middle and would allow the back hatch to open, may have to revisit that idea....now I wonder how many icons I can fit on my Baneblade.....


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I know a P&M is probably not the right place to post an army list but what the hey here is what I am currently running,


HQ
Librarian W/terminator Armour , Stormbolter & Force Weapon
Psyker powers – Gate of Infinity & the Avenger
Master of the Forge W/ Servo Harness

TROOPS
Combat squad "Wrath"
Marine sergeant w/ Chainsword, Bolt Pistol
Tactical marine x 9 w/ Meltagun & Heavy Bolter
Rhino
Tactical squad "Fury"
Marine sergeant w/ Chainsword, Bolt Pistol
Tactical marine x 9 w/ Meltagun & Heavy Bolter
Rhino
Tactical squad "Malice"
Marine sergeant w/ Powerfist & Bolt Pistol
Tactical marine x 9 w/ Meltagun & Multi-Melta
Rhino
Tactical squad “Rage”
Marine sergeant w/ Powerfist & Bolt Pistol
Tactical marine x 9 w/ Meltagun & Multi Melta
Rhino

ELITE
Terminator Squad “Rancor”
Terminator Sergeant w/ stormbolter & Power Axe
Terminator Marines x 7 w/ Stormbolters , Assault Cannon & Chainfist

HEAVY
"Brother Jalal" Dreadnaught w/ T/L Autocannon x 2
"Brother Sewell" Dreadnaught w/ T/L Autocannon x 2
"Brother Halahan" Dreadnaught w/ T/L Autocannon x 2

BTW if anyone is wondering why I need 3 riflemen dreads

A) they look cool
B) I recently lost a weekend playing Mechwarrior 3 and Mechcommander 2..such good games
C) they look REALLY cool

Cheers

BLACKHAND

God I hope this doesn't Auto append!

So I had a a busy weekend, got a big game in and a bunch of painting.

I mention the game because it was 2 v 2 player match against demons...fairly nasty especially since the aim of my opponents was to start this bad boy up





Because of my teams poor generalship (not too fond of my partner, found it hard to play with the guy) the guys actually managed to start the Blood Chalice and hose my entire army to death, was still fun though due to one of my opponents modelling skills, here are his two soul grinders






Yes those are actual teeth and bones, mostly from snapper ( a type of fish ) though he does threaten that he has used cat jaws before.....thats dedication!

And now for something completely different..a friend of mine just received a big lot of models he bought second hand online specifically to get the three 2nd edition rhinos included in it. He opened the package to find that the idiot he bought it off must have run a blow torch or heat gun over the damn thing and they were pretty warped, bummer.
We were able to salvage enough parts for two rhinos but we have struck on a plan to refurbish and sell all the other gear in the auction to pay it off and hopefully raise funds to pay for some more bits for his army. To this end I scrounged through all the bits and found a weird metal coffin with a vampire in it and a skeleton horse. along with another skeleton horse and the base form the skaven screaming bell I have come up with this, a Vampire Counts Black Coach.



I read in the rules they can fly sometimes so I modelled it flying over a graveyard, where else right?



I figure all the magic siphoning powers it has is because of the sleepy vampire inside



The Coach also needs somekind of Wraith as a driver with a Great Weapon so I have been GSing this fella together, will get a pic of the whole lot before we put it up for auction.



My MotF also arrived on sat so I have made some headway on his construction as well



Here he is all shiny and new, what a b&*ch of a model to put together, I swear I needed to pin every join!



And I just had to add the Blackhand chapter badge



Here he is last night with several thin coats of mechrite red on him, I am taking my time with him to really do him justice (not sure why he came out so orange in the pics though)



And this is after tonight's work, a wash, a layer of blood red and a highlight of blazing orange has really given him some depth which I don't think comes through on my pics but its there honest! I have a few more bits and pieces to pick out like his purity seals and I think another wash may help his contrast but he is coming along nicely should have him finished by the end of the week.

Well thats enough for tonight, C&C is welcome as always

Cheers


BLACKHAND

Requesting tutorial on how to cast self made chapter vehicle plate / door please :'D

Nice update!

I am noticing GS on the Wraith...conversion work again?

Looks good Blachand! The vampire ting is cool! Looking forward to seeing your MoTF develop!

@Lunahound - Sure thing, I will post one up soon.

@Manoknok - Yeah he is about a third GS! Started with a wood elf torso, the skull from a chaos marine chain, the arms from an empire wizard and I also found the bottom part of some robes cast in metal that had been hacked off a model.

I am a bit iffy about the bit around the neck I will probably extend it into a hood to make him more "avatar of death"-like.

@Gitsplitta - Thanks bud, I havn't done any converting on the MotF as he is just such a cool model, I have a question though....

Librarians are blue no matter what chapter they belong to right? And am I right that Techmarines are red in the same way? Because of the Cult of Mars and all that?

I quite like how he has ended up with the exact opposite colour scheme to the rest of the army but I am thinking now that I should paint my librarian blue as well, maybe not a bright ultramarines blue but a dark midnight blue.

Thoughts?

Correct, though they may not be all blue or red or whatever color we are talking about (White apothicaries, black chaplains). The real trick is when you get something like a Libby in the Ultramarines or a Tech in Blood Angels.

Well my scheme is mainly black so I suppose I will only run into a problem if I decide to add a chaplain. I think I will go for the blue libby (in a dark, DARK blue) as it gives me the chance to work on my blending and highlighting without being an enitre armies worth of work.

I love that tech marine. I actually quite like the orangy/rusty colour he has.

He's not quite as orangy in real life, but I did use a fair amount of fiery orange to highlight as I like the "pop" it gives red.

I am also liking how his shoulderpad looks with the black edgeing so I may repeat it on his other shoulder pad, not sure yet since as he is now he is exactly opposite to my other marines ( they have a red shoulderpad and black armour) I will wait and see how he looks once I have painted his purity seals and parchment as he might be busy enough without adding extra detail.

I found that model quite difficult to paint as there are a lot of crevaces and nooks. There are flat bits too but...

I did the power cables at the front as power cables...brown, yellow and er blue?

Anyway...he is looking good. Will you be doing lightsourcing etc?


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What time is it in NZ btw? Wonder if it is same time as here...

I really like what you have done with the tech feel. I have been around 40k for over a decade but haven't really played seriously since 2001. I am getting back into the hobby and have to say your work is very inspiring! I have been collecting pieces for a while now and I'm just about ready to start building. I am a bit nervous though. Being basically a noob here, my modeling isn't bad but I'm afraid my painting isn't going to be up to par. I know to keep my paints thin and layer, use washes, etc. Any other advice?

Dude! You know I love a good marine army.. and this is! Love it.

What is that techmarine model? (More importantly, where'd you get it), it's complete awesomesauce! I agree completely on the reverse schema of the chapter on him, it will make him pop incredibly well when he's deployed.

Careful with your libby, I think the super darkness is what really makes him look better than most libby's around. Good idea on the dark blue.. can't wait to see how you go with re-painting him. If he shapes up like your techy then it should be goooood.

Nice dude!

Fallen: Bud, don't be afraid, just get into it. Do your best and listen to the advise of the people around.. you've happened over one of the best communities on the internets!

Everything looks fantastic good sir, always a pleasure to read one of your threads!
Like Santobel, I apologize for vanishing for a while, monetary issues and all tat jazz
They do look a little black... I can't tell if they have anything on their right shoulders... might that break up the black a little? Heh some litanies of hate to match your squad names? Also, are you hard lining or highlighting the edges of their armor at all?
Also, love the dreads, fully agree with you, they look fantastic!

@Manoknok - Yeah I made sure to paint him in as many pieces as possible and plan which layers to paint first...forgot to do his eyes first though :(

As for OSL I havn't tried it before so I might practice on a few other models before going to town on this guy

@Fallen Veteran - Wow thanks man! I'm glad you like my work but as for painting advice I think there are much better people to ask as these pics are pretty much my best work! The best tip I can think of is spending the time as it really shows, oh and washes are awesome. When you start painting post up some pics and start a blog I can tell you that the advice you get from your fellow dakkites will help you more than anything.

@Monkeh - Thanks bud good to have you here! The Techmarine is from the box with the four servitors, it is just like the blister techmarine with servo harness but with the sick helmet...kinda looks like iron man. Found it on trademe (nz online auction site) for $45 then sold the servitors for $20 so I am happy, especially since the box set usually costs around $80

Hope you like the Libby, pics to follow

@Joshoftheforest - Thanks Josh, nice to have you back (your avatar always cracks me up) I can sympathize with the monetary issues!
The marines are a little unrelentingly black and as of now there is nothing on the right shoulder, I have been thinking of what to paint on them for unit markings, I want to stay away from roman numerals if I can. As for the squad names they will make more sense once I finish my fluff and post it, at the moment I can imagine they seem a little emo
The black is getting a light drybrush of adeptus battlegrey but I may have to follow up with a hard highlight of fortress grey but I don't want the black to seem grey if you knwo what I mean?

I have had a ;little time to paint tonight, was able to finish a few more details on the MotF and give him another wash to up his contrast





Even with how the pics have washed out the shading I may need to have another go with the fiery orange to bring the highlights up further..never knew actual painting was this time consuming

As for the Librarian I had a fool around with him as well. Starting with a midnight blue to a 1:1 mix of midnight blue and enchanted blue with a edge highlight of enchanted blue. Got a fair amount of wet blending on him due to using a wet pallette, well a plastic lid with some wet kitchen towel on it with a piece of baking paper on top. For anyone who doesn't know why you would go through the hassle of all that it helps keep your paint from drying and means your mixed colours will last for an entire painting session..very helpful.







Again I think he will need a wash to tone down some of the too bright highlights but I am happy with where he is going....I forgot how much I like midnight blue, in some lights it fades to black with just a blue sheen , very cool.


C&C is welcome as always guys, thanks for reading!

Cheers

BLACKHAND

beautiful work my friend.