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Hi, all.

Back in 3rd edition, with the original Daemonhunters codex, I had designed an army around the (non-canon) concept that the Inquisition had a branch designated for evaluating new technologies for their suitability for use by the Imperium (after filtering them back through the Mechanicum). This "Ordo Diagnostica" also had a secret purpose: taking a small amount of the geneseed that each chapter tithes to the Administratum and imbuing it into test subjects who were then subjected to diverse battlefield stresses on a sort of mini-crusade to see how the geneseed might affect a marine. It was largely an excuse to build units with many different "looks", similar to having Deathwatch running around with various shoulder pads, and to take advantage of the flexibility allowed Inquisitors in wargear and army selection.

Come the new Grey Knights codex, I thought that the removal of allies as a concept from 40k in general meant that I wouldn't be able to resurrect the army for the current edition. However, I finally discovered (on like my 3rd readthrough) that there were two important things that made it possible. The first was Inquisitor Coteaz allowing henchman squads as troops; the second was the Power Armor option for the Warrior Acolyte. These actually made my original concept fit even better! Now the "test subjects" wouldn't be full marines, they would be true barebones test vessels (captured or cloned) who merely had a small portion of the marine "treatment" done to them. The henchman rules also would allow me to meet a longtime goal of melding various Xenos into an Inquisitor's army, to show how they really do sometimes have to cross lines to get their work done. So, some furious note-taking later, I had an army planned out.

The first thing was to work out the color scheme. This is largely what the original army featured, but with only two "marine" units instead of the original plan to have a full array of types, some of the original concepts (helmet colors denoting squad type and such) just didn't fit anymore.



Then, it was time to get started on the models. The "Grey Knights" in the army serve a few different purposes (the current plan is to have only a single unit): they're there to gun down any test marines that "go rogue" due to geneseed issues, as well as to help deal with any daemonic-based problems that the small expedition fleet might run into. As such, they do bear small markings showing that they are from the GK's, but they are somewhat "under cover" and do not want to jump out as such. However, one thing will jump out about them: they are full-sized Space Marines, rather than the rather small-in-stature "copies" being fielded as "Marines".

These are the first two test models I have done. They both still need their right hands sculpted into place to hold the halberds, and I definitely need to do some cleanup work on the halberds as well. The lower halves are based on the old Terminator plastics because that's what I had on hand; further members of the squad will also be based upon the even older original Grey Knights terminators (giving them some rather ornate leg armor). Thanks to the website http://masteroftheforge.com/ for his great tutorials and pictures.






Further, there are some models from the original army that are going to be reusable: mainly vehicles. These are old paintjobs, but they're still serviceable.

Upon further thought, I'm definitely not using the halberd-bolters as initially built. I've got some ideas in mind (such as doing the partial grip style from this mini), but I'll definitely be open to commentary or suggestions from the boards.

I love true-scale and your's are really nice. Also loving the biggerised chimera. Subscribed!

That Chimera is a solid win!

Magc8Ball wrote:The henchman rules also would allow me to meet a longtime goal of melding various Xenos into an Inquisitor's army, to show how they really do sometimes have to cross lines to get their work done. So, some furious note-taking later, I had an army planned out.

I realized I should probably post the tentative list to illustrate this point. I'm doing this from work, and from memory. Tonight's plan when I get home is to see what I can do as far as building new Halberds for the GK unit, as well as seeing if the old termies are done with the Pine-Sol, letting me get them back to bare metal so I can take the dremel to them and start the next phase of this unit.

Not bothering with points costs here; it comes out to around 1850 give-or-take a few models/wargear here and there. The plan is to have them all unified with a consistent color scheme (reds), so while they'll look somewhat physically different, they'll be tied together at a glance.

HQ
-Inquisitor Czorak
---Inquisitor Coteaz

-Rogue Trader <name needed>
---Ordo Xenos Inquisitor
---Conversion Beamer
---Servo Skulls

Elite
-Techmarine (two of them, likely)
---Orbital Strike Relay
---Servo Skulls

-Maybe the odd Paladin.

Troops
-Diagnostic Squad Alpha
---9 Warrior Acolytes
----Power Armor
----Bolters (2 plasma guns, 2 Storm bolter)
---1 Mystic ("Junior Inquisitor")
---Rhino APC

-Diagnostic Squad Beta
---10 Warrior Acolytes
----Power Armor
----3 Meltaguns
---1 Mystic
---1 (something goes here)
---Chimaera APC

-Stormtrooper Squad
---5 Warrior Acolytes with Hot-Shot Lasguns, Carapace Armor
---Razorback APC (either TL Lascannon or HB+Psybolt Ammo)

-Kroot Mercenaries
---6 Kroot, with melee weapons (Death Cult Assassins)
---3 Kroot, with Flamers (Warrior Acolytes)
---3 KrootOx (or maybe just slightly orky kroot) (Arcoflagellants)
(rides in the LRC with Czorak)

-Warlock <name goes here>and Eldar Exodite (or pirate) Band
---4 Eldar Warlocks (Psyker)
---3 Wraithguard with "experimental light Shuriken Cannon" (Servitors with heav bolter)
---3 Eldar Shield Units (Warrior Acolytes with Storm Shields)
---2 Bonesingers (Jokaero)
(unit will always be accompanied by the Rogue Trader "Inquisitor", fitting both a game reason (keeping the servitors active) and a fluff reason (he's the one that is working with the Eldar))

Fast
-Grey Knights Interceptor Squad
---10 Grey Knights
---3xPsycannon
---various melee weapons

Heavy
-Land Raider Crusader

hm, sounds quite nice to me

I realy like armies with different units and quite a bit of fluff in there.

What technique did you use to cast the shoulder pads?

IPS wrote:What technique did you use to cast the shoulder pads?

Just basic green stuff molding. Pushed the original into some GS, let it cure, took out the original and pushed some GS into the mold.

Spent some time tonight working on weapons. Since my original plan of using old Eldar power weapons as the halberd blade, I had to go dig through the bits boxes for other options. I... may have gone a little bit extreme.

Yes, those are warjack weapon blades. Only the fact that these are full-scale Space Marines makes them even vaguely in-scale; I figured, well, they're GK's. They're supposed to be ripping through demons: might as well have a blade that looks like it can do the job.

(The weapons aren't glued yet, so I can still have second thoughts.)

Looking good mate. The weapons look... Extreme, but they actually do kinda fit! This is 40k after all. The only suggestion for improvement I could make is to make the marines a bit thinner around the waist so they taper down a bit to the belt. Anyway though, good work with this! It's a different way of truescaling than I've been doing, and it's nice to see!

The new hafts on the SEUDs (their weapons shall herafter be know as the Super-axes of Extreme and Ultimate Death! I declare it to be so, ergo it must be true) are much better than the originals, and their rounder shapes compliment the shape of your marines' armour better.

Thanks for the comments; answers inline.

master of asgard wrote:The only suggestion for improvement I could make is to make the marines a bit thinner around the waist so they taper down a bit to the belt.

I agree on the tapering suggestion; part of the reason the marines are so barrel-chested is because I'm using old plastic terminators rather than the new ones, so the waist is just a big, flat space rather than the rounded, angled attachment point as on the newer ones. This means that if I want the upper body armor to taper, they're going to be REALLY wide across the chest. While that's not necessarily undesirable, it's going to be difficult. Doesn't mean I won't try it.

automatonsleuth wrote:The new hafts ... are much better than the originals, and their rounder shapes compliment the shape of your marines' armour better.

Thanks, I definitely agree with this. The originals were rather clumsily made; it was hard for me to get them properly and uniformly thin while also having the grip grooves there. I think these will be far more sustainably craftable.

Finished the storm halberds for the first half of the unit: getting =I='s on both sides, and using a little plastic tube to make the ends of the copper tube cleaner. I'll probably sand down the cap on the butt of the halberds to give it a little angle; I might also put some rivets/bolts on the joining pieces.



In further news, I think that fluff-wise, the "GK's" are going to be "junior" inquisitors that the head of the expedition has been enhancing with the Marine geneseed he's supposed to be testing (or perhaps "test" Marines that have fought long and well enough that they implanted them with the full range of stuff). That would be a suitable reason for them to only have the Ordo Malleus stabbed-book and not the entire Grey Knights' panoply. It also is more likely than a unit of full GK's going out with a deep-space expedition and even fighting alongside xenos. It also gives my Inquisitor a nice touch of rebel to him, like he's building a personal army.

Interesting idea here!

I think your latest gun halberds look better than the first, but a bit too extreme (even for 40k). Maybe if you used smaller storm bolters on the end?

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Rawson

Yesterday, I finished the stripping of paint on the army's former Terminator squad. I had forgotten how good a number Pine Sol does on plastics, so I lost one to the Fortress of Globitude. This means the final squad count, until I can get more old-school terminator legs, is going to be 8 (7 if I use one of these as the base for an Inquisitor).

This was... interesting to do, taking some old minis (including three of the original Grey Knights) and chopping them up. I got the basic filling on the legs completed; I'll have to do a little repair on some of their feet, but that will have to wait until I get my order of Warmachine-style bases in and I can get them off of their temp bases.

I need to, at some point, finally decide what sort of basing style this army is going to have. My Eldar are scrubby desert, the Jade Fists are sort of jungle, and my Khador is early spring forest. I'm thinking that this army will be urban of some sort, though it'll need to be "alien" urban, since they're really pushing beyond the edges of the Imperium's territory.



(sorry for blur on this one)

I really love the idea behind this blog. It's fantastic concept that has plenty of modeling scope.

Do you have any plans on how you will model the diagnostic squads? Will they be different variants or will they all be the same? Despite your excellent start on the true scale Grey knights / inquisitors, the realy highlight of this army could well be the Diagnostics.

Genuinely can't wait to hear your thoughts and see what you come up with.

LilLoser

Right now the plan for the "test marines" is just that they'll be standard Marine models. There's some planned variety in their shoulder pads and that the marines will exhibit some characteristics of their geneseed (the Space Wolf, for instance, "shows a tendency to collect trophies from battles").

That was the original plan, at least, when the Diagnostic Marines were the core of the army, making up tactical, assault, and dev squads. With them only being 2-3 units in this army, though I might spend more time and thought to make them be a little bit more interesting.

Scratch-built stuff is impressive; well done.

Looks amazing nice job!

I've been spending some time thinking, after comments from LilLoser above, about what sort of interesting things I can do with the "Diagnostic Marines". As described, the current plan is that they'll just be standard-sized marine models with chapter-specific shoulder pads and very little additional work done. That said, I'm certainly open to suggestions to try and spice them up a little bit. I'll post the fluff for them again, for reference, and then give my own brainstorms/ideas and open it up for comments from everyone else.

Basics of fluff:
The Diagnostic troops are cloned, captured, or otherwise "acquired" humans that have had a small portion of the Space Marine geneseed treatment placed into their bodies. The idea is to figure out how each chapter's geneseed behaves under controlled and observable conditions. Over time, individual soldiers might eventually get sufficiently through the process and survive, getting "promoted" into the support roles of the expedition (those would be the counts-as-Grey Knights). Those that fail or reject the implants (but don't outright die) get shunted off to be arco-flagellants or servitors.

Initial ideas:
My main intent with these squads is that each soldier will simply be a small microcosm of that chapter's look and feel. The idea here being that the basics of a chapter's geneseed do have some small part to play in the tendencies and attitudes of the chapter: an Ultramarine does have some genetic drive to correct posture and obsessively cleaning his armor, for instance, while a Space Wolf likes collecting totems and souvenirs. (Note: The Blood Angels, doubtlessly, cheat the Inquisition in some manner: their bloodthirst has never exhibited itself during a proper examination, else they'd likely have been exterminated by now.) As such, the most basic idea, modeling-wise, is that each one will simply have little touches paying homage to the parent chapter, sort of a Deathwatch writ large.

Other alternatives/additional ideas:
-I've thought about modeling some sort of explosive charge on the backs of the models, do denote that the =I= in charge could cause a self-destruct if any particular "marine" seems to be getting out of control.

-Modeling the units in various stages of advancement (having some larger, or freaking out more, etc). This may be a little difficult to represent using Warrior Acolytes, as they have a pretty straightforward statline and no real additions that would help. On the other hand, I suppose it would not be out of the realm of possibility to include a couple "Banishers" or "Arcoflagellants" that have broken down their power armor's chestpiece as part of going a little crazy (reducing them to the "carapace armor"). This would let me add some heavier melee, chainaxes or stormshields to a squad here and there.

Additional thoughts?


EDIT:
Been thinking about this today while working and I think I'm going to see about doing up an "assault" DiagMarine squad, which will be made up of some of the more "wild" chapters. This will probably mean dropping the Kroot assault squad (for the points), or combining them with the Orks (an ork-and-kroot squad? That should be interesting...) and if I can work out the points, bringing the LRC back into the planned army.

Sketched army list with this change:
-Inquisitor Czorak (Coteaz)
-OX Inquisitor or Rogue Trader
-Purifier Squad in Rhino (with 2 incinerators, "Coteaz" rides here)

-"Marine" Flex Squad (10x Warrior Acolyte, Rhino, 2 plasma guns)
-"Marine" Tankbuster Squad (6x Warrior Acolyte, 3 Meltaguns, Razorback w/Psyvy bolter or Psyssault Gun)
-"Marine" Assault Squad (12x, some combination of Banishers, ArcoFlags, Crusaders, and Acolytes, rides in LRC if points allow, Chimera if not)
-Eldar Shooty Squad (12x, Servitors, psykers, Jokaero, Warriors with Storm Shields)
-Xenos Assault Squad (12x, Kroot and/or Orks, some combination of Death Cult, Arcos, and Warriors with Flamers and/or Storm Bolters, rides in Chimera or Rhino)
-(if points allow, Kroot and Orks will remain seperate squads)

-LRC

Got my order of bases from the FLGS last night, so I should be able to transfer the current GK's onto their final bases. Means I'll have to decide what sort of base style the army will have... probably means just browsing the gallery here for inspiration.

I have also officially decided that the "Diagnostic Marines" squads will be made up of fighters in various stages of the "Marinification Process", some reacting better than others. The two squads ("Flex" and "Tankbuster") that are fully Warrior Acolytes in Power Armor (WAPA for short) will largely be normal-sized Marine models, with small touches to give character from their "chapter". The assault squad, though, is one that I will put a lot of modeling time into: they're all going to be in late-stage marine transition or complete and total breakdown.

This should give me some nice split-time between very simple modeling (assembling basic tac marines) and some more complex scultping work (the sort-of "in between" marines of the assault squad).

I'm thinking of doing the following sort of chapter breakdown for the squads. All "marines" wear red armor with their right shoulder pad denoting their chapter.

Tactical Squad Alpha:
-WAPA "Sergeant": Ultramarines
-WAPA with Boltgun (7): Aurora Chapter, Jade Fists, Howling Griffons, Storm Lords, Raven Guard, Mantis Warriors, Sons of Medusa
-WAPA with Plasma Gun (2): Crimson Fists, Lamenters

Tactical Squad Beta:
(decided to replace with stormtroopers for the points savings)

Assault Squad: (12)
-Arcoflagellants (little armor, major body changes): Iron Hands (have replaced much of body with bionics), Black Dragons (bony plates and ridges), Space Wolves (Wulfen)
-Death Cult Assassin: White Scars (wild, dervish-like fighter with dual swords)
-Banishers (reduced armor, massive weapon): Flesh Tearers
-Daemonhosts (severe problems): Blood Ravens (psyker-gone-wrong)
-Crusaders (Reduced armor, Storm Shield; might model in power armor since they all have a 3++ anyways): Imperial Fist, Black Templars, Dark Angels
-WAPA (standard armor, Meltaguns): Blood Angels, Salamanders, Emperor's Spears

Nice idea for the chapter, it's always fun to make different kinds of Marines. ^^
And a nice colour scheme as well, looks especially striking on the vehicles. Those look really great.

Very cool stuff. When do you think we'll see one of those marines painted up?

IceAngel wrote:Very cool stuff. When do you think we'll see one of those marines painted up?

Well, I'm hoping to finish the sculpting on the unit of GK's by the weekend. I have to decide if I'm going to paint them by hand or wait until I get an airbrush.

The other marines will be a little while: they're still loose bits in bags in the closet.

Over the last couple of days I've been working on more of the squad (I intended to do work on them during the middle of the week, but ended up having to buy a new car instead). I'll be getting, hopefully, the rest of the squad finished today but that will depend on how exciting the 49ers-Lions game gets (dammit, Alex Smith just threw an interception). At the least, I should be able to get the backpacks onto the models that don't have them yet.

I've pretty much finalized that this squad is going to generally be fielded as a Purifier Squad, 8-9 models in size. 2 Incinerators, 3 Halberds, 2-3 Hammers, and the Knight with a sword.

Finished the unit yesterday (go Niners) and got the backpacks done tonight. Took some pics of the unit; we'll see if I can get them primed this week and start on the painting, or if I spend more time working on the next units.

Full unit shot:


The obligatory size comparison:


Nemesis hammer troops:


Halberd troops:


"Sergeant" and Incinerator troops:





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Just a quick couple notes for the morning:

-I sprayed a couple test models with some dark red primer that I had in the closet for a terrain project that never happened. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out (one was over black primer, the other was just on plain plastic) so that is likely how I'll be doing the basecoat on the army. It means a little more work to do with the brush if I stick with the Quartered pattern for all the elite troops, but I think it will save me a ton of time with the painting of the "regulars".

-The cast shoulder pads didn't come out quite as cleanly as I would have liked (especially where I put them over old Terminator shoulders). I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to sculpt and/or use plasticard to create full-size rims on them. I think it might help to clean up the work, but I might also screw things up more. Feedback is welcome.

- I'll probably be custom sculpting the master for the shoulder pads for regular troops: the =I= pads that I cast for the GK-equivalents is a little ornate, and it won't really match the more plain pad that will be on the other shoulder.

-I decided to downgrade the 6-man squad from "marines" to "stormtroopers" (dropping the power armor, basically). The points saved let me add Assault Cannons to the razorback instead of heavy bolters and make some tweaks elsewhere in the army. It also will save me from having to put many plastic models into the Pine-Sol.

I did decide to add plasticard rim to most of the shoulder pads. The odd pad that was too small, positioned badly, or was already sufficiently "clean" got left alone. Some of them are still a little messy at the joins; these will get purity seals and other suitable cover-ups later on.

The first paint was also added: I did a spray black primer first, then did a layer with a dark red primer, with the intent of having a little pre-shading in place. The plan from here is to quarter them with a grey, do a wash to unify the shading across the colors, and then start highlighting them up to their final colors.

Sorry about the blur, the conditions were rather low-light. I'll get better pics tomorrow.

I've done more of the primary colors on the Purifier counts-as squad: the quartered color scheme is fully in place; I need to probably go back over the highlights on some of them and tone them down a little bit, blending them back into the base colors. The next step is going to be working on all the little doodads on the armor.








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And got the major metal portions painted and washed. A few of the squad:

Doing more work on the counts-as-GK's, getting something besides red and grey on the unit, doing the yellow of the shoulder trim/eyes, as well as taking pictures without flash so the camera is a little bit gentler on the eye.

The next step is to finish off the bodies, I think, followed by the weapons and then the bases.

Full squad view (sharp eyes will note that the original 9-man squad is now 8-strong. One of the hammer troops was, to be honest, complete crap. He's been broken down to try again.









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Pretty much finished at this point, just need to do the bases:








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(I hope this doesn't append...)

I have completed this squad of "Grey Knights". Overall I'm fairly happy with them, and I was able to cover up most of the sculpting problems with "authentic battle damage", which gave me some nice bits of weathering without overloading the unit with it. Feedback is welcome, as this will form the basis for the warrior acolyte squads' paintjobs (though without the grey quartering) and since I plan to do my other marine army fully Artscale once I get rolling on it.

Tomorrow I will make an effort to get out the lightbox and take pics with good lighting.

Two full squad shots:




Views of the individual weapon groups:






And side views of the unit:

Had a major case of painting fatigue yesterday, so I sort of just lounged around and played EU3 rather than starting on the next bit for the army. I also have to decide what I want to actually work on next, too. I think I probably want to avoid doing any major sculpting work on the next thing, just to take a break from it after this unit.

My options are:
-Put some rivets on the Chimera and get it painted
-Assemble the squad of "normal" marines, which will be almost entirely without conversion work (other than maybe scratch-building a couple Plasma Guns out of Plasma Pistols)
-Start work on the "Marine" assault squad, which has some significant conversion work, even on the more normal members of the unit
-Strip some stormtroopers to paint up (though I'll have to scratch-build a couple Meltaguns, I think)
-Work on the Eldar (fairly simple, though it'll need me to sculpt some hands since the Psykers and "Jokaero" probably won't have weapons)
-Work on the IC's (Coteaz, the Rogue Trader, and the Techmarine) - all involve significant work

I'm probably leaning towards either doing the basic marines, since they'll be quick to paint, too, or the Eldar since they'll probably be pretty fun to do. I can't do the Eldar "servitors", though, since I'm going to need some Necron warriors for that, and I can't work on the Ork squad, either until I get some, well, Orks.

I've begun work on the shooty Xenos Henchmen squad for the army; this is the squad consisting of 4 Psykers (warlocks), 2 Jokaero (bonesingers), 3 Servitors with HBolters or Plasma Cannons (Wraithguard) and 3 Crusaders (Shield generators). The first step was raiding the bits boxes for parts for the shield generators; the plan for these is to create translucent "projected shields" that float out in front of the generators. Their role is to be 3++ saves to dump shooting wounds onto while the squad sits back dropping templates (it'll be paired with an Inquisitor/Rogue Trader with a Conversion Beamer). Unfortunately even on 40mm bases there's no room for an extra model with a power sword, so I'll simply describe them as being able to focus the shield down to a laser-like focus for melee purposes.



Next step is to start on the warlocks/bonesingers. I've raided my stock of old 'locks, and have them ready for chopping up and sculpting work. I'm still deciding if I want to boost their size a little bit by swapping out their lower-halves with High Elf archer legs, but I think they'd run into proportion issues.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Did the Bonesingers / Jokaero; they'll be distinguished from the warlock / psykers by having staff weapons, and by them calling forth weapons from the stone below them.

Pictures are crap because I couldn't use a flash; the Eldar are old ones from my stock and had already been primed white; the flash just washed out the whole figure.

The one on the right is the old Necromunda "Female Farseer" figure that GW put out very, very briefly some years ago.