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Hi gals and guys.

This is my 3rd attempt at a blog. This time, I need input before I post anything remotely close to a picture.
I just made myself a gift : I bought a Space Crusade box : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Crusade

Why, would you say, should I do that, possessing 2k+ armies of GK, CSM and marines (yeah, I like MEQ, what can you do?)?

Because, when you invite friends over for the weekend (which I do a lot, living in the countryside near Paris, you become really quickly the weekend place), and they do not know 40k, you may not want to introduce them to the universe using a 2k+ game, getting the 2sq.m gameboard out only for them to get bored in the first 15 seconds of deployment.

Furthemore, Space Crusade is a nice standalone game.

Problem : the minis are horrible. Terrifying. So I want to update them with new minis from the new game ranges. That will give me the pleasure of using various ranges instead of only MEQ for once!

IIRC, I will need :
- Ork boyz
- Gretchins
- CSM, one with HB
- 3 squads of 5 space marines (but if I want some options, without magetizing, I will need something like 8 for each chapter)
- A few necrons warriors
- A dreadnough (a strange one : a CC beast with 2 heavy weapons and 2 bolters)

So, I am willing to take any and all advice on this project.

Thanks !

Well the ork boyz should be pretty easy, if you need ten, the boxed set is nice. If you need more the AOBR is great and you can get them from bits stores.

Grotties, the same. The gretchin boxed set is pretty cheap.

The dread, is that one of the Rogue Trader era dreads?

Not entirely sure what sort of input you are after, but I can add more details to your list of contents.

The Orks are all basically the same and are the equivalent of Slugga Boyz with a Sluga and a Choppa.

The Gretchins are all armed with a rifle of sorts.

The Chaos SMs: 5 in total, 3 with Bolters, one with a missile launcher and one captain/commander/sergeant-alike with a heavy bolter. No options to change any of the weapons though.

Three squads of SMs:
Each with one Captain/commander/sergeant-alike with a choice of;
Heavy bolter,
PowerAxe and Bolt pistol or
PowerSword and PowerFist.

Then 4 marines per squad with a choice of one,two or three of them with one of the heavy weapons (missile laucher, Assault cannon, Plasmagun) but only one of each and the other 1,2 or 3 with bolters.

So you'd need 3 Captains and 6 marines (3 with bolters and 3 with one of each heavy weapon).

The heavy weapons are interesting as the missile laucher looks like a multi-shot job with a magazine feed but you may get away with using a normal Tactical squad missile laucher. The plasmagun is just a plasmagun, but the assault cannon is not the sort of weapon that your standard 40k SM carries (unless I'm wrong, in which case I want one). What you could use is the assault cannon from the terminator squad but how that'd look on a normal SM I dunno (but may try in the future).

There's 4 Necron-alikes, nothing special.

There's also 3 Genestealers with two 5-fingered hands and two 3 clawed hands (I believe rending claws).

The Dreadnought has a choice of 2 out of 3 heavy weapons (Missile Launcher, Plasmagun, Assault Cannon) and has 2 attached bolters.
The heavy weapons act like lives for the dreadnought, whereby when it gets hit it loses one of them, then the other and then dies on the third hit. So you'll need to make some way of changing the weapon options and signalling weapon destroyed results.
And it looks a bit like this (excuse the not quite decent pic and possibly questionable paint job):

I used to play heaps of Space Crusade, and I've been tempted to do something similar with my old set Yes, the standard SC figures are pretty terrible.

Thoughts on figure selection:
- orks are easy, pick up a pile of AoBR slugga boys cheap
- gretchin are fairly easy - I doubt anyone would mind that the current gretchin models are mostly armed with 1 or 2 pistols rather than the rifles/muskets in the SC set
- chaos marines are easy (make a chaos missile launcher by gluing a gargoyle head from the chaos vehicle accessory sprue to the front of a standard missile launcher)
- marines are fairly easy. Instead of a lot of work magnetising, I would suggest making one marine with every weapon combination. As you've noted, the assault cannon is the only nonstandard weapon, so some minor conversion will be needed. It would be good to use a different figure (e.g. bare heads?) to help differentiate the squad leader models. When making the PowerSword and PowerFist combo, you may have to search around to find a left and right-handed pair - most of both are left-handed.
- necrons and genestealers are easy
- the dread will require magnetising (or some method of swapping/removing weapons). Just maybe you could use a standard dread (traitorised) and get separate complete 'arms' with each weapon combo, but that could be expensive. A simpler option might be to start with a Helbrute and give it magnetised wrists to hold a variety of weapons.

I look forward to seeing your progress, you may even inspire me to go ahead with mine.

The box has just been shipped !
The main input I would need would be for ideas, or how you would do it - which is axactly what I am getting, so: good !

I'll use AOBR orks for the boyz.
Gretchins, I'll buy a box I think.
I have loads of CSM, I'll pick 4 standart ones, and a HB one.

I am kind of torn on the marines though. Having ultras and IF seems redundant. I'll pick a DC box for the BA. I will have either ultras or IF, but I'd like a more characterfull chapter as the last. Maybe SW ?
Any ideas ?

Honestly I'd say Magnetising the weapons would be your best option to allow for easy swap and removal.

 Seb wrote:
I am kind of torn on the marines though. Having ultras and IF seems redundant. I'll pick a DC box for the BA. I will have either ultras or IF, but I'd like a more characterfull chapter as the last. Maybe SW ?
Any ideas ?

The SC chapters were probably mostly chosen for their blue/red/yellow colours. Although the SC designers did at least go to the trouble of making the BA slightly more close-combatish and the Fists slightly more heavy-supportish (via their unique cards), which perhaps surprisingly matches their fluff. I've never been clear on how much (if any) input GW had in the SC game design, beyond the initial licensing.

So certainly you could change them to any other three chapters, so long as you don't confuse yourselves during play with the chapter-unique cards not matching the model colours. Personally I would stick with Ultras, simply because they're the perfect example of the generic codex chapter. But then pick any other close-combatish and heavy-supportish chapter for the other two. Hmm, or another option would be for all three to be the same chapter, but representing different squads, and differentiated by e.g. different coloured bases?

Since I do not have the game yet I cannot compare cards yet :(

The stats of the dread gets him closer to a defiler than a regular dread - size won't match though.

I think I'll stick to BA. I am torn for IF and UM though. My yelow painting has never been tested yet, could prove a challenge! I also like the SW models, so maybe exchange the IF or UM for SW. That way, no confusion among players will be possible.

 Seb wrote:
Since I do not have the game yet I cannot compare cards yet :(

The stats of the dread gets him closer to a defiler than a regular dread - size won't match though.

I think I'll stick to BA. I am torn for IF and UM though. My yelow painting has never been tested yet, could prove a challenge! I also like the SW models, so maybe exchange the IF or UM for SW. That way, no confusion among players will be possible.

I'd stick as closely as possible to the original, because you're playing with people who are unfamiliar with the world. You don't want to have to keep reminding someone that his rules all say 'yellow' but his models are 'grey'.

For the same reason, I'd try and pick up old-style missile launchers and power axes - the new ones look very different, and IIRC the weapon reference sheets all show little pictures of the weapons?

Also, bayonets on the bolters FTW!

Very, very valid points.
For the plasma gun and HB, I'll find some easily. I may even try those new shiny HB from FW.

For the ML, I have one left from:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Space_Marines/Space_Marine-Infantry-and-Accessories/SPAC__MARINE_SPECIAL_WEAPONS_PACK.html
It looks like the oldschool ones enough?
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/337/6/7/space_crusade__ultramarines_by_wanhus-d5myos9.jpg


Automatically Appended Next Post:
(Bayonnets on the bolters is something that I will enjoy)

Box received !


Everything was in perfect condition, I am more than happy. So, the minis are not the quality we expect today :






Pics are blurry, so are the minis !!!

And the proposed paint schemes are a bit outdated :



Now, onto the things I need :
- Ork boyz : i'll use the ones from AOBR
- Gretchins : I'll need a box of those
- CSM : got a full army of them. I'll design a specific HB commander though
- Necrons : need a box, never painted those !
- Genestealers : same as above, I am happy to change from MEQ armies!

2 tricky parts :
The marines teams are 5 guys strong, but if I want to have all the options without magnetizing, I'll need:
- Full CC commander (PW + PF) - I may model one of those with DLC, another with a TH
- Tac commander (PA + BP)
- Support commander (HB)
- 1 ML marine
- 1 PG/PC marine
- 1 AC marine
- 3 tac marines
That is 9 guys per team. I think the best way to get those would be 3 devastator box, 1 blood company box (to get BA iconography and special weapons)... and ?
Any bright ideas to get a good load of special CC weapons? (note that I have a scandalous load of GK bits, so maybe I'll use the expurgators or psycannons in place of the AC)

I'll need pauldrons from FW though, I really want to use the chapter iconography.

The other part is the dread. I could use the DV hellbrute, witch looks great, but I would not be able to swap weapons. Any ideas ?

I think you'd be much better off going through eBay and bits sites for your purchases - that way you can get the right number of Necrons/Gretchin, and probably specialise your Marine purchases more efficiently.

Marines are usually very cheap, you'd just need to buy the weapon bits. Plus, you won't need to sub in other weapons just because they're in the box.

The AC marine will be the most expensive - the easiest conversion route is to use a terminator AC arm, and those are in short supply / high demand.

The other marine weapons are pretty standard, and available fairly cheaply from bits companies. But if you're low on basic marine bodies, then buying a devastator kit and a tactical kit could be a good idea and less hassle. Personally i wouldn't bother with a BA-specific kit - there's no Ultra or Fist equivalents, and I suspect you'd end up with a pile of unneeded BA bits.

You don't know any local marine players? They may well be able to sell/swap you some bits, especially e.g. for the leftover devastator bits you won't need.

I have some AC left from a dread and a land speeder box, so that will not be a problem.

3 PG will not be the problem either. ML may prove to be a bit problematic - I have only one left from the FW supplies, and I know they are in high demand.

I have no local connexion - which is a shame considering I have over 3k points of GK I should sell...