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The Macharius looks mighty awesome. I give you the ol' !

Looking good, you've definitely captured the proportions and shape of the turret perfectly. I really like the design feature of the Macharius that has that cylinder for the commander to stand in on the side of the turret, super cool.

I query your gun barrels, however, for size. In terms of length it would seem you are going for a Macharius Vanquisher, am I right? The best thing about a Vanquisher, LRBT or otherwise, is the gun seems to have almost-believable proportions (although still generally of a ridiculous calibre haha). But these barrels are about the size of a normal battle cannon, except without the graduated barrel on the FW Macharius, and obviously much longer. Which are you going for? Normal battle cannons or Vanquishers? IMO Vanquishers need to be thinner, is all, otherwise it looks like both barrels would rip the turret of the tank, such is the weight of metal being thrown forward.

The other thing is tracks. Yours are cool (and no doubt laborious to make) but it seems to me that if they ran, they would just grind against the metal of the sides. There's no rail or anything to separate the hull from the tracks. See what I mean in this random gallery pic? (Check out the cannons too!)

While the tracks are still sitting on the hull, it's clear to see where the hull stops and the tracks start. Yours will be, too, I guess, once painted so this is probably irrelevant. I guess all being primed the same colour could be distracting me.

Keep up the good work!

Is somebody feeling inadequate about his barrel size? I say go big. Tracks look great, get this tank to the front ASAP!

Happy New Year and a late Merry Christmas to everyone.

I was busy during my two week holidays but managed to bring 20 guardsman and 10 assault marines from my Blood Angels along with me and worked on them a bit each day. It was really good to finish both of these up as the guardsmen were boring and the assault marines have been neglected for about six months. I really needed to get these out of the way so I could commit myself fully to the Space Wolf Madness that would arrive in my mail box after the holidays and shortly after.

First up we have the two 5 man assault squads that I tote around in razorbacks and rhinos. These were put together using a death company box set and a regular marine troop kit. It allowed for more models with blood angel iconography and didn't go over the top with it (looks good on death company but not on the run of the mill dudes in my opinion).

I also painted these guys to a better standard (I hope) than I was capable of when I painted my original marines. Because of this and the lack of use of most of the red infantry I had - I have sold of a large portion of them and reinvested it into the Space Wolves.


Assault Squad 1


Assault Squad 2


Details on the marines include a new technique I'm trying out for parchments and scrolls. I drop a dab of water from my brush onto my table, then pick up a small bit of chaos black and then run it through the water dab so that it is quite watery (you would need to practice this). With the VERY watered down black paint I scrible across the surface to give wavy lines that just barely transfer paint. You can see the effect above. I also tried out a lot of glow effect (blurry in the plasma shot - sorry) and a good shot of the new lense technique I am trying on the Marine eyes.

I have to appologize for the colour balance on these pictures - it gets dark here around 4 pm at the moment so the indoor shots and my camera don't work well together.

Oh comparison to old style painting:


On to the guardsmen. I should have about 30 now once I toss in some heavy weapons and will try out a 30 man blob squad with a commisar and Colonel Straken tomorrow. Should be interesting!



The sword effect was used on the space marines as well as the sergeant in the IG squad. I know power weapons should be blue but the green just looks so much better and stands out. Painting the eyes on 20 of these guys hurt my eyes...


The macharius turret is about 30% done and wasn't completed in time for the holidays sadly and will probably back burner to my space wolves - but don't fear I will get it done.

How did you make the armor plates on those front guardsmen. I love the models, great work!

they look like kroot sholder pads
nice idea btw

Hey man, these look absolutely amazing, i was going to do khemri and granite for my guardsman, but i plan on doing khemri armour, granite flak pads. These look amazing, can you give a quick tut on how you made the straken mask?

I was debating starting a new thread but I think I'll just post here as it's my next Imperial army. I've posted this on Warseer but I thought I'd share here as well.

Introduction
To prove that I can and do bandwagon hop onto every Imperial army that GW puts out, I've decided to start a Space Wolf army! This has been quite the trend I've noticed in my current hobby ventures. Although I wasn't doing it to powergame (I play with friends typically and aim to win only slightly more than I lose and adjust my lists to suit that goal).

The Plan
Well! I'm going to buy more drop pods and terminators! I tried using simple green to strip my devestators and it didn't work super well. It worked, but maybe I'm expecting the sort of stripping that I've achieved on metal models. I also was not sure which type of simple green to use. Our local hardware store stocks about seven different types and I couldn't get a straight answer so maybe I bought the wrong kind. Anyway I got most of the paint off after some elbow grease and about $10 in chemical and toothbrushes. Because of this test, I was not willing to strip the terminators and drop pods I have already. Also the conversions I have planned will be much easier from scratch anyway.

What are the Devestators becoming? Well yes, not much suspense here, a six man Longfang squad with missile launchers.

So to go back to my previous thought line - I already owned a bunch of the models but I don't want to strip them and I also feel that my painting has advanced beyond that on the space marine models I owned so I wanted to start over.

The Goal
I plan to do a small 'Showcase' army to display some sweet conversions and a theme which is unlike any army I've previously done since while I've always strived to convert heavily and bring something unique to the table, I haven't followed much of a theme. Our local GW store where I play once and a while has a point limit of 1250 so this seemed the perfect size to aim for.

The List:
Logan Grimnar
Rune Priest in terminator armour

4 man Wolf Guard in terminator armour with drop pod
5 man Wolf Guard in terminator armour with drop pod
5 man Wolf Guard in terminator armour with drop pod

6 man longfang pack with 5 missile launchers

Total: 1247

I will put each HQ unit in a drop pod with 4 terminator body guards (one of the five man squads will have a cyclone missile launcher that will detach to join the longfangs). I've decided to equip them to abuse them but I won't bother to list that out here.

I'm looking forward to 7 missile launcher shots raining overhead and covering the terminators. Things will either go extremely well or extremely poorly but it will be fun.

Modelling:

I will be converting the terminator helmets (of which everyone will wear because there are too many snipers about!) with the following tutorial:


And the shoulder pads will be purchased from MaxMini.eu:


I've also ordered two different body casts from Scibor which will be used to create my HQ units. They have a scale slightly larger than the standard terminator so they should look quite imposing and while I will model them with normal marine helmets, their shear bulk and stature in rank should give them an appearance deserving of their terminator armour value.


Painting:
Since they will be a 13th company-esque army they will be painted in the more dull-grey scheme of years past to fit their more ancient armour as so:


Long Fangs

I sponged some liberal damage onto the models and tried that out as well as dusting their legs which I will leave up to you to critique.


Oh and I tried to paint a boot tread! A little too dark now but next time I might try green stuff to make treads on the terminators feet if they need it instead of just paint.


Runepriest and Terminator Guard






After painting two of the terminators (the cyclone and the rune priest) I was amazed at how fast it went compared to my last couple batches of 20 guardsmen. This inspired me to keep going and we now have six in progress models.



The photo does not show much of the contrast on the fur sadly, or in the white of the icons. I will of course post better images when they are complete. I still have to paint the lightning claws, power swords and the rune axe. The eyes and lenses also need to be completed. I think I will continue with green power weapons as per my other recent works as I think they will pop a bit more against the grey than blue weapons would. The runic axe might be blue though or a blue white. Once all of that is done I'll sponge on some battle damage and the dirt as per the lone wolves

The rest of the army finally showed up in the mail which is great. I was sad to have to pay import duty (sales tax and a handling fee to be told I owed sales tax). I was suprised at this as I haven't had to pay it on the last 10 shipmets from the same supplier. Hit or miss I guess. After these 6 are done I will probably assemble the three drop pods since painting those will be a piece of cake and quick.

My Rune Priest and squad along with the Long Fang's Wolf Guard are now completed paint wise. I just need to get some replacement rocks to finish their bases. Photos will follow after I make a trip to the store and have a chance to fix them up. So probably 1-2 days.

Yesterday I finished assembling my 3 drop pods and ran out of primer. That will also need to be remedied.

Today, I put together some bases and started putting spacers on the remaining 10 Wolf Guard legs for the added height. After that I began work on Logan Grimnar.

I was suprised the shoulder pads fit under the wolf pelt with some trimming. I also added some spacers at the waist to give him some height (he's about 1 mm taller than my other terminators (which are 1 mm taller than stock). I magnetised his head as well so that I can take the helmet off and use a face should I ever wish to.



I'm pretty proud of what the Axe of Malaki turned into. Definately believable as a powerfist/frost axe as the rules allow. It's massive and as large as a marine judging by this picture.



I won't be putting a trophy or icon on his back so I'll have to greenstuff the spot in the fur where it is meant to go.

I can't wait to put paint to him!

I went out and bought new fine brown ballast (I think all the fine stuff was used up from my last batch and the long fangs look like their standing on gravel; well most of my other models do so this should fix that. Here are the photos of the first squad of Wolf Guard (independantly) and their cyclone missile launcher that will join the Long Fangs







The cyclone guy is my favourite by far. These are pretty zoomed in so it shows off some imperfections (they're really just drybrushed twice) but for all those people new to painting it is very easy to achieve a nice effect this way. I'm dabating another brighter level to the eyes (or a white dot) but I'm not sure yet. I don't want them to scream 'shoot me here'.

Finally put some finishing touches on my 3 drop pods. I think I am going to go back and touch up some of the boltgun drybrushed areas like the drop pod interior and the inner door. Maybe drybrush again with tin bits then chainmail to give it a two tones colour. I'm happy with the grey though I think.




Not sure what is next; either my IG valkyrie or I'll start up on the rest of the terminators. Probably the terminators! Then I could officially have the first army I've ever had "complete" with no unpainted or unassembled models. Even my previous 'finished' armies were just done to the point I was happy with despite having lots of models left. Not that it is a hueg achievement when there are less than 25 models in the army haha.

Very nice stuff, how did you make the 'collars' on your officers/straken stand in?

The collars look like kroot shoulder pads.

By the way, the drop pods look beautiful.

Holy ! The Wolves look amazing. Loving the little bits of battle damage. The pods are exceptional as well.

samwellfrm wrote:The collars look like kroot shoulder pads.

By the way, the drop pods look beautiful.

Yup; thanks for answering a question asked a half dozen times here already

Thanks for the compliments guys; hopefully sometime this month I have the remaining spacewolves painted up (10 terminators and logan). I'm going to do them as one batch so it may be slow to start but once I get going I should be driven to complete them pretty fast. I'm pretty excited now that they have rides.

Oh and as a treat since I haven't shown it:




I made my own Tyberos type chainfist and some wrist mounted combi weapons. Hope you like it.

That type of powerfist just screams BRUTAL! Love it!

I figured I'd throw up a 'deployed' shot of what I have painted so far. Typically the long fangs won't be in a pod but they were late for the photo shoot.

I thought I'd share what took me away from painting for a while. My creative juices were flowing and I have created what I will call the "Ambit Pattern Jetbike". I realize marines no longer have them but that concerns me little. Game terms will ee them used as normal bikes so it's no big deal. I may just have to create a command squad to ride them as well since I do like the look (but only have so many drop pod intakes and searchlights to use). This will also leave me with enough spare wheels to use for other ideas I have for my speeders.

Presenting the a Space Marine librarian on an "Ambit Pattern Jetbike"



The force staff is hacked off of a terminator librarian arm and I've attempted to GS the cables to blend it in. A conveniently places purity seal hides most of it! I also created the force hood from a SM shoulderpad as I did on my runepriest.

This will serve as my captain on bike (although I think I'm going to scrounge a stormshield from somewhere to strap to the rear):


Quick instructions:
1) The bike is assembled as a normal bike with the front wheel and fender removed as well as the rear wheel.
2) An old IG tank searchlight (I believe from the old russ sprues) which may exist on the current ones although I am uncertain, is assembled.
3) The lense is shaved off and a drop pod fan is attached. This fits nicely under the bike farring.
4) On the rear the openings are closed off with plasticard, a tube cut and a further drop pod vent attached.
5) Attached to a flying stand to a height you see fit.
6) Attach purity seal tassles (ok this isn't manditory but how cool is that?!)

There you have it!

I hope this proves helpful to someone.

Looking very nice.

Great work on the termies. Love the GK style helmets, and your combi weapons.

Headway!



I have a game coming up Saturday and I believe a friend may need an extra few hundred points so I was motivated to start finishing this model. It was so close to the end when I stopped I really shouldn't have. A few more touchups (hinges on the armour over the barrels) and some barrel vents at the muzzle and this bad boy will be pretty well done. I'm not super happy with the barrels but for all of the effort put into the tank, I can't seem to have better ideas. They'll probably look fine once the tank is painted anyway. I'm going to forgo the searchlight on the left side and just use that as an area for a decal I think.

The Night Hawks Chapter

Home World
The Chapter calls home to Korak Prime, a secluded system on the edge of the Maelstrom. The binary system of Korak is fraught with unpredictable, if short-lived, warp storms which periodically cut the region of space off from the rest of the Imperium. Korak Prime exhibits a unique orbit within the system and follows a figure-eight pattern around both stars. This unique orbit causes periods of harsh draught when the planet passes between the stars. The people of Korak Prime live simple lives with much time spent rationing their limited supplies as the arrival of inter-system supplies is less than regular. The annual dry period forces the populace to roam the surface in search of fresh surface water to bring back to their home villages.

This lifestyle has moulded the Night Hawks into the chapter as they are today. Following in the traditions of the White Scars, the Chapter focuses on rapid deployment and hit and run tactics. While the White Scars prefer to launch lightning fast strikes, the Night Hawks have perfected the art of hitting targets of opportunity before rapidly redeploying without the need to re-supply. A small contingent of Night Hawks cannot only change the tide of a battle but that of a war spanning an entire continent.

Beliefs
The people of Korak Prime are a spiritual people believing that the path of survival begins within oneself and practice an ancient form of numerology. Imperial anthropologists have traced the roots of these practices to the Gyptians of ancient Terra. The Night Hawks take portions of these beliefs with them through their transformation from tribesman to Space Marine. The number 9 has become sacred to the Chapter and shapes their organization. The ancient Gyptians believed that the planetary aspect of the number 9 was the moon; symbolic of the night. The Nine is the number of the unconscious and is seen as a regulator, resolving any discrepancies between the seven (experience) and the eight (instinct). Because of this, the Nine can be seen as the interface between the inner and outer self. Only by understanding the inner and outer self can one truly hold the corrupting taint of Chaos at bay.

Village elders routinely wear a simple tabard emblazoned with the heraldry of the village’s people. Upon recognition of veteran status, a Night Hawk dons a tabard bearing the Night Hawk crest.

The symbol of the Night Hawks is a winged talon wielding a sword. This symbolizes the Chapter’s doctrine of swiftly bringing might to bear.

Combat Doctrine
The Night Hawks are often tasked with undertaking prolonged missions behind enemy lines where abnormal weather systems or warp interference may prevent re-supply from orbit or even beyond system space. Preferring to operate at night, in contravention of the standard brightly armoured shock troop renowned across the Imperium, the Night Hawks prefer the subdued nature of their chapter colours. The fear induced on an unsuspecting enemy hit by a Night Hawks’ attack far surpasses that caused by a brightly coloured uniform.

Organization
At full strength, the Chapter is made up of 9 companies. The 1st company is comprised of ninety veterans of the Chapter who ride Mars-pattern hover bikes in contrast to the standard tactical dreadnaught armour worn by codex chapter’s first companies. Captains of the Chapter’s companies form their command squads from members of the 1st as opposed to members of their own companies. Veterans of the company can best prove their worth and learn first hand those skills which may someday be required if their station rises to that of captain. The 2nd through 6th companies are made up of bike and assault bike squadrons totalling 90 marines. These marines form 10 man groups dubbed ‘Murders’ reminiscent of the tactical squads of codex chapters. The 8th company, or the “Hand of Eden", consists of 50 versatile Argonaught Land Speeders and the 100 crew required to operate them. The 9th company consists of the initiates of the Chapter who sit at the crossroads of the journey to master their inner and outer selves.

Due to each marine being issued a Space Marine bike and the large component of Argonaughts which make up the 8th company, the Chapter has formed a strong bond with the Adepts of Mars. Over 30 techmarines are currently present within the Chapter and routinely accompany the Night Hawks to battle operating Argonaughts and performing field repairs during prolonged deployments.

Maintaining such a vast stock of equipment requires a vast portion of the chapters allotted wargear and as such tanks and drop pods are a rare commodity. Such ancient relics are held within the chapter armoury for all but the most dire of circumstances.

Gene-seed
Imperial records indicate that the Night Hawks Chapter was founded during the ninth founding early on in M33 from the White Scars’ gene-seed. The gene-seed appears stable if not more-so than that of the White Scars. Any apparent uncontrollable ferocity periodically displayed by the White Scars has not translated to the Night Hawks. Whether this is attributable to the meditations of the Marines or the stock in which their initiates are chosen is unknown.

Battlecry
“You are your own undoing!”

Armoury
The Night Hawks Chapter utilizes equipment not common to the Adeptus Astartes. Included among this list is the Mars-pattern hover bike. This STC was recovered from the 3rd moon of Korak Secundus late in M40. Following centuries of review by the Adepts of Mars, production on these bikes began and preliminary shipments were directed to the Night Hawks’ for use among the 1st company. The hover bike is not a true jet bike and is not capable of attaining heights of more than 1 metre above the ground's surface. What the hover bike does achieve is the ability to traverse uneven terrain with greater ease than a standard bike. The hover bike is also incapable of traversing bodies of water with a depth greater than 1 m as the gravimetric displacement field employed by the bike does not work with fluids.

The Argonaught-varient land speeder was created in M38.657 on the forge world of Aritek. The adept Primalus had a shortfall of the materials required to create the anti-grav plating which provides the land speeder with it’s low altitude flight abilities. The A ground-based land speeder variant was thereby created in an attempt to fulfill the battlefield role of a light assault vehicle. It was quickly realized that the lack of anti-grav plating and the systems required for it greatly increased the available cargo capacity of the vehicle. Though falling out of favour in the eyes of many of the Astartes, the Night Hawks found this new variant to compliment their combat doctrine almost perfectly. The drawback of being ground-based was of little concern as the Chapter utilized them as a long-range support vehicle capable of carrying their much needed supplies; the benefits far outweighing the costs. The reduction in materials required to construct the variant also weighed heavily in its favour as the Chapter already devoted much of its resources to bikes.

I like the idea for the landspeeder conversion to use the wheels, but I'm not too sure on the execution...the thing that worries me is how exactly is that vehicle going to turn? now if that was an ork vehicle i would completely understand. what I would do is have the wheels sit out just a little bit more, and have some plastic tubing holding them out so that you get the impression that those wheels could in fact turn.

Thanks for the advice. Maybe I should try that on the next ones. I was just a bit worried that it would either look bad or look not very marine-like since no other SM vehicles have open gears and pistons (ad-mech titans don't count)

Wow, everything in this thread is hella sexy. I'll definitely be watching this closely.

Your Terminator Wolf Guard make my mouth water. I'm so jealous!

kizzap wrote:I like the idea for the landspeeder conversion to use the wheels, but I'm not too sure on the execution...the thing that worries me is how exactly is that vehicle going to turn? now if that was an ork vehicle i would completely understand. what I would do is have the wheels sit out just a little bit more, and have some plastic tubing holding them out so that you get the impression that those wheels could in fact turn.

Oh I suppose to solve this issue I will address it by saying that it is rear wheel steering.

Just a nice bump for this great blog, those terminators are fantastic. It's nice to actually see that Scibor stuff in action.

Griever wrote:Just a nice bump for this great blog, those terminators are fantastic. It's nice to actually see that Scibor stuff in action.

Thanks man, I have tons of more stuff to share but no camera to take photos with right now.

As a teaser, I'm making 3 dreadnoughts including an ironclad model converted to have a head and all 3 given small leg extensions about the size of a shin guard. I'm also planning to do them with a bit of an egyptian theme (along with 5 chaos terminators done into thousand son obliterators. It should all mesh in a strange way I hope since I plan to use both in chaos and loyal armies. Also purchased a pair of daemon princes that are in the mail. Egyptian bits will come from maxmini including khobesh swords, new helmets and some shoulderpads for the termies that I will upsize slightly.

The Wolf Wing is done and I'll have photos of that completed to post. It will be worth the wait I promise.

Since I don't have a camera on me, I thought I'd share something that I don't believe I have ever shown here before. Scratch built thunderhawk - yes another one.







Definately a labour of love and I use it to fly around my Blood Angels in apocalypse. Ok that is a total lie. Mepheston uses it as a personal transport and doesn't let anyone else in.

Winning! Not bad for a Canuck

Those terminators make me feel all kinds of funny! Did you do the tutorial for the helms? I think I may have to seal i mean be inspired by it

Great work! Loving this thread.