Badger's Log - Squat Seraphim Completed

Morning folks,

Productive week for me. After finishing off my Squat infantry, I rolled straight onto getting the remaining units left in the army completed. The first was the Seraphim, who weren't included in the original Infantry lot, as they weren't sprayed up at the time.

 I wasn't too sure on what colour to have the Jump Packs from these guys, so I went with Grey matching the clothing and vehicles of the army. The squad is 10 strong and has a Sergeant (can't remember the actual name) and a model with Hand Flamers.

This is the squad leader, armed with his jump pack, pistol and Eviscerator. Not entirely sure the pistol / eviscerator combo is allowed, but the main point is he's armed with an Eviscerator for a bit of combat punch and incase they got stuck with a Walker.

And this is my Squat equivalent of the Living Saint. I wanted him to stand out, so I got some Mechanical wings off eBay which look really cool. Would have been nice if they did some smaller ones and I would have done the full squad in that way.

So... just the Immolator to go now and the Squats are finished. Then, onto my Eldar!

Cheers,
SB

Badger's Log - Squat Infantry Completed!

Morning folks,

Over the last 2 weeks I've been in full painting flow (mostly as stress relief to a busy period of work), to try and shift some of my backlog and to get out of the hobby lothargy I was in.

It took me a while to finally get a clear day, where I was off work and had time to spray them up - but I managed to get the Squats sprayed up in that time.

Backlog for these guys now stands at:
- 1 Archconfessor Kyrinov
- 5 Dominions
- 6 Crusader Henchmen
- 20 Sisters of Battle
- 5 Command Squad Celestians
- 10 Seraphim
- 1 Saint Celestine
- 1 Immolator

Now, onto some piccies!:

Group shot of all the remaining Squat infantry. Here we've got 20 Warriors, a 5 man Celestian command squad, Arch Confessor Kyrinov, 6 Crusaders and 5 Dominions. Took the pic while the black wash was settling, so the bases aren't finished here...

Celestian Command Squad:

This is my Celestian Command Squad. I know there was a lot of moaning about how they (and other Non-Guard command squads) aren't so hot, but I really liked the idea of modelling them. I think I messed up though and made the model with a Flamer instead of a Heavy Flamer as I intended. Oh well!

These guys have Green cloaks to separate them from my other cloaked squads (standard Celestians have Black, Retributors have Blue). The way I see it is, the more experienced they are is dictated by the colour of their cloak. Bog standard Celestians have no colour, then their cloak is coloured when they specialise.

This is my Apothecary, which is the real reason I wanted to make the command squad. Feel No Pain is always good, and I liked the idea of a Dwarf Apothecary. What's the best pain relief for Dwarves? Ale of course!! So he's heartily drinking a mug of it and lugging around a barrel of it for his chums.

Last unique one is this fella with the Loud Hailer (if that's what it's still called), with his trumpet from the Dwarf Miners kit. Originally I was going to give them a drum, but I thought the trumpet looked better on the figure.

Arch Confessor Kyrinov:

This is one of the special characters I fancied making, just so I've got pretty much every unit in the codex now. For his iconic items, he is the only model in the army to carry a Hammer (his Mace of Valaan) and his Miner's light counts as the Icon he carries (I think it's the Icon of Quenelles, but I'm probably wrong). He's got a cream cloak, so that he should be really easy to spot on the battlefield amongst the others.

Squat Dominions:

Everyone swears by Dominions, and I figured they would be my dedicated anti-tank unit, combined with an Immolator. So I converted these guys up to have 2 Meltas. Also, being a scout unit, I thought that they would carry a much smaller version of an Imagifier, as opposed to a big hefty banner the other units carry.

The Dominions are painted with Red capes to distinguish them. I figured since they're scouts, they're normally fastest to the fight... and we all know that Red ones go faster!

Squat Crusaders:

When the changes were made so that Death Cult assassins were now part of a Battle Conclave unit, I fancied rounding my 3 man unit of Death Cults up to a 10 man mixed unit. So I made these 6 Crusaders with Power Weapons (not sure if they're named "power swords" in the army list). I tried to bulk these guys up with some shoulder armour too, since they'd need to be well equipped for close combat.

Squat Warrior Squads:

These guys are more of the same. 10 man squads, Imagifier, Sergeant with power axe, Melta, Flamer. I've decided to name all my squads after Dwarves from Lord of the Rings, starting with Thorin's company from The Hobbit. I just need to work out a way of distinguishing them on the tabletop.

Squat Seraphim:

Rolling straight on while I'm in painting mode, I started touching up the areas where the spray had missed on these guys.

Then when I couldn't get back to sleep this morning, I figured I'd crack on with the Seraphim and drybrushed the metal areas. So well on the way to getting this army complete now. Just these fellas and the Immolator to go!

Cheers,
SB

Back in business - Dark Eldar, Necrons, Squats and new Eldar army!

Morning all,

Been a while since I had the time or energy to blog about anything. However, work and personal life has chilled out a bit in the last day or so. Which means here comes a blog about what I've been doing over the last few months.

Brotherhood of the Forge
Last summer I spent some pennies on a fair amount of Dwarf boxsets and bits in order to finalise my Sisters of Battle / Squat army. I posted stuff up about these a while ago: HERE

These guys are all sanded and ready to be sprayed up, along with an Immolator. But again, I've just not had the time to get them done.

Dark Eldar
From the Warboot in November I "rescued" a big horde of Dark Eldar models. I spent most of Xmas holidays high on fumes stripping the paint off of them: HERE

In the mean time, I managed to convert up some more Blasters (splinter rifles with torment grenade launcher bulbs on the end) and tidy up 3 Vypers to use as Venoms.

Necrons
As well as the Dark Eldar stuff, I had a big backlog of Necron stuff that I'd gotten for Xmas that needed to be built and sorted.

10 Immortals with Tesla Carbines, 5 Lychguard with shields, Imotekh the Stormlord, Trazyn the Infinte and a Cryptek.

After I'd done these, I had a Ghost Ark which was one of the most time consuming kits I'd done for a while. As well as a Catacomb Command Barge / Annihalation Barge which very nicely can swap between each if you don't glue stuff. And since I've not been able to paint / play with it yet, it gives me the option to choose which I prefer.

Eldar
Around the end of February, I bought the remnants of an Eldar army off another club member who has stopped playing 40k.

This has kept me busy over the last 2 months, chipping away where I can at building, repairing and converting stuff.

In all, the army consists of:
- Farseer
- 6 War Walkers
- 3 Wave Serpents
- 1 Falcon
- 20 Dire Avengers
- 6 Jetbikes

I've got a few missing bits here and there, which I'm scouring eBay to get hold of. I'm also planning on converting the Jetbikes into Dire Avenger style riders, as opposed to the really old and pants looking Guardians riding them.

The plan is also to convert another Jetbike rider into an Autarch with Power Weapon, so I've got a 2nd HQ choice and to pad out my points a bit more.

I've not done a list yet, so I don't know exactly how many points I have of the Eldar. All I know is that I'm after a unit to ride in the 3rd Wave Serpent. Fire Dragons maybe? Who knows... Eldar is still really new to me and I'm having a "I want everything" moment.

I'm also yet to decide on a colour scheme for the army. Red is a no, no because of my Khorne Daemons. Green is also bad because of Orks and Dark Angels. Blue I'm also not keen on as I want the Dire Avengers to stand out, and also it's too close to my Dark Eldar army.

At the moment, I'm thinking about a Yme-Loc craftworld, but that could be another blog post entirely!

---------------------

So that's me for now. Baby Badger is due any time now, so I'm sure just as I've escaped one thing stopping me from hobbying, I'll have another reason to neglect my plastic crack mountain.

Cheers,
SB

Badger's Log - Brotherhood of the Forge Progess

Morning folks,

After some time in exile, my Brotherhood of the Forge are currently underway and hopefully will be finished by the end of Christmas break from work. It's taking a fair while to assemble them though, mostly because of the awkwardness of converting the guns.

Either way, over the last 2 nights I've finished off some bits and BOBs...

Arch Confessor Kyrinov
Part of my plan for the army (along with the dream for all my armies) was to have the option of at least 1 of each unit in a Codex. And since I had a spare Dwarf knocking about, I decided to make Kyrinov.

I'm not too keen on him ruleswise, I much prefer Uriah Jacobus and St Celestine, but I've given him his Icon (the lantern) and his Mace of Valaan (The only model int he army with a hammer). He fits the job and we'll see how he gets on in games!

Dominions
These were planned a fair bit later into my initial thoughts for the army. I'd bought the models and planned what I was going to do, then backtracked and thought I'd make a unit of Dominions.

I made these guys with 2 Melta Guns to try and make use of the scout move and knock out a vehicle early on, along with giving them a Simulcrum Imperialis to try and ensure they pass their act of faith to get twin-linked. The plan is that their cloaks will be red (because red ones go faster!) as it should differentiate them from the rest of the force.

Crusader Henchmen
Crusaders with storm shields and power weapons was something that I wanted since the last codex, unfortunately, my dream of 9 Crusaders with an Inquisitor in a Land Raider was crushed (in the old codex) by only being allowed a maximum of 3 henchmen of each type. And now in the new Codex, my Land Raider option is gone...

These guys are the first time I've used normal Dwarf warriors to build from. The idea being they've got Power Axes and their large shields make up the Storm Shield. I've also bulked them out with some shoulder armour to try and get the feel these are heavy assault shock troops. I might also go back and add masks onto the faces of these guys and give them some more protection.

Where next? 
Well, I've got 10 Seraphim to build and 20 more normal infantry, along with an Immolator. It's taking me a fair bit of time to actually get through them because of how the weapons and arms have to be cut up meaning I've got to glue the weapons in 3 or 4 stages. Either way... They should be quick enough to paint up once they're sprayed and get on the table!

SB

Festive Projects

Morning all,

So pretty soon, it'll be Xmas and everyone will (hopefully) be getting some time off work and unwrapping lots of hobby goodies that are under the tree. Whilst I was assembling some dwarfs last night, I started thinking about what I'm going to try to get done whilst I'm off work.

1. Brotherhood of the Forge
I've made a fair bit of progress with these, as they've been sat in a box for the last 5 months whilst my Dark Angels and Chaos Daemons were top priority.

So far I've got Arch Confessor Kyrinov made and 6 Crusader Henchmen. Last night I got half way through a 5 man Dominion squad before I called it a night. The thing I loved about these guys first time round was how quick they were to paint. Dark colours, mostly metal armour and minimal amounts of skin on show - meaning that they *should* be quick to get finished so I can get some use out of the army with the WD codex.

I've got the following to assemble, spray and paint:
- 10 Seraphim
- 20 Battle Brothers
- 1 Command Squad
- 1 Saint Celstine
- 1 Immolator

2. Dark Eldar
Next up (not necessarily in priority order...) is a load of Dark Eldar bits I traded some LOTR stuff for at the last Warboot event. I've got 40 old style Kabalite warriors (4 units of 10 warriors, 1 Splinter cannon and Sybarite in each) and 5 metal Wyches to strip down and paint.

What interests me most here, is whether or not my Kabal's Ice Blue armour scheme will look any good on the older models. The new Kabalite warriors armour tends have more defined layers that curve outwards, whereas the older models have more curved inwards, closely layered armour. It'll be interesting to see anyway, and allows me to heavily bulk out my Dark Eldar with more Kabalite warriors, which are one of my favourite units in the book.

I've got the following to strip, spray and paint:
- 40 Kabalite Warriors
- 5 Wyches (to be Hekatrix bloodbrides)
- 3 Venoms

3. Necrons
Here's hoping Father Christmas brings me the Necron stuff I've asked for, if not, I've got 2 boxes of Immortals sat under the tree that I bought at the start of this month. I'm not too sure what to arm my new Immortals with, whether to go the traditional Gauss Blaster route and replace / bulk up my Metal units, or to give Tesla carbines a try.

On top of that, I should have the two released Necron special characters, some Lychguard (not sure whether I'll convert these to Crypteks yet though) and a Ghost Ark. At first, I was really miffed off with the Necron codex, but now I'm interested in how the new units will work and how it'll change the dynamic of an army I've had since I first started 40k.

Also on the topic of Necrons, I've been debating repainting the army or at the very least, washing them. They were done pre-Badab Black days and when I get them out compared to my more recently painted models, they're showing their age. It would also let me add a bit more variety to the other Necron armies I've seen around.

4. Bretonnians
These have been an ongoing project for the last 4 or 5 years and they're still irritating me to this day. I really would like to play more Warhammer Fantasy and get some use out of the army, but I have zero desire to paint them. With a few members of the club expressing more interest in playing Fantasy, maybe it'll give me a kick up the backside

To paint:
- 8 Grail Knights
- 5 Mounted Yeomen
- Grail Reliquae and 20 Battle Pilgrims
- Mounted Damsel
- Damsel on foot
- 3 Pegasus Knights

5. Scenery
Last on the list to do is to deal with some scenery I've bought over the last year from eBay. I think I've got about 20 - 30 trees dumped in a box which are all just loose standing, but after going to Stockport NWGC for a tourney last month, I really liked the way they've done the trees.

Basically it's a kidney shaped piece of hardboard, with 3 60mm (ish) holes cut into it. Take the hole piece you've cut out, glue the tree to that, then glue a piece of stiffened card underneath the hole you've drilled (so you can pick it up as 1 piece) and then spray and paint.

It looked really good and meant you could easily shift the trees if you needed to, as well as meaning trees can be left loose for easy storage and mixed and matched between each base.

The only problem is just the time it takes to do all of that, maybe with some help from a local DIY expert (i.e. My Dad) the job will get done a bit quicker.

So that's it for my plans folks. I highly doubt any of it will get done, but it's worth listing down what you want to aim for...

So, what are you guys planning to get up to hobbywise over the Xmas period?

SB

Mobile bloggging!

Now, now. Badger has gone and got himself a new phone that can handle mobile bloggging. So I thought I'd give it a bash and also show off my latest purchases.

So hopefully this works and it shows my shipment of Dwarfs. 54 of the little beggers to convert into various sisters of battle to go with the new codex.

Peace,
SB.

Badger's Log - Brotherhood Imagifier and Gaming Break

Morning all,

First up is the news that I'll probably not be posting as often on here over the next few weeks, and I also won't be playing at the club for a couple of weeks. Work schedule, deadlines and so on - so yeah, that's that.

However, one byproduct of it means that when I get home I don't want to do much else other than slob around... which is handy for getting some painting done.

Currently on my paint desk I've got another Incubi squad, a Klaivex / Drazhar conversion, Baron Sathonyx, a random Hellion and a (now completed) Brotherhood of the Forge Imagifier to go with a Retributor squad.

 

I think this guy took about half an hour to paint in total, but it rounds off a Heavy Bolter retributor squad I've had done for a bit, allowing me to re-roll the Faith test, which for a small squad such as Retributors, it's vital I feel.

Only problem is the new WD codex Sisters is probably going to ruin that plan! And since I probably won't be playing over the next few weeks, he may very well be a waste of time.

So that's that for now, I'll post up some picture of the Incubi if I get them done any time soon.

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - Immolators / Rhinos

Ello all,

Had a flurry of painting activity last night while I was a bit bored, managed to get my 2 Immolators painted up, that have been sat on the desk for nearly a month.

Rhino

Immolator

Lotsa loose weapons to keep track of...

So yeah, it's took me ages to get around to painting them, but by sticking to my really limited colour palette (Grey, Black, Metal and Red) I managed to get them done in a few hours.

I originally held off on buying Immolators for my Brotherhood army, because I thought the turrets were metal, then I bought 2 and realised I couldn't assemble them without the Sister sat in the turret. So my excuse is, they're Brotherhood vehicle crews, since the warriors can't reach the pedals of the vehicles...

Tomorrow, I'll hopefully remember to post up some pictures of my Commissar Yarrick conversion - but in another note - what do you guys think is the best weapon to use on my Immolator turrets?

Heavy flamers allow me to move 12" and still fire, but I've got extremely limited range with them.

Heavy Bolters allow me to take on infantry, which combined with Blessed Ammunition, means pesky cover save claimers can get mown down (I'm thinking of you Eldar Pathfinders!!).

Multi-Meltas allow me some mobile tank-busting, with a bit more reliability and range.

Your thoughts guys?

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - Brotherhood of the Forge: Inquisitor Lord

Morning all,

Another brief update to show what's been pressed through the painting conveyor belt. When buying more Dwarf stuff, I realised my previous attempt at an Inquisitor was a bit... weedy and didn't really match the equipment he had. He didn't stand out in a crowd, he was closer to a squad Sergeant rather than an independent character.

Inquisitor MK1

So, he became the leader of my Sister Repentia squad, since he carries a whip (Neural whip). This then left me with 1 spare Dwarf Miner left to use to create an Inquisitor Lord.

Inquisitor MK2

So there he is. The Steam Drill from the Miner kit was far too tempting to pass up on using, only issue was what it would count as.

First thoughts were to use it as a Force Weapon, then as a cheaper alternative a Power Stake. Now, I'm aware the Power Stake is a bit... meh... After all, it's more expensive than a normal power weapon, requires 2 hands and it only comes into effect if you are in combat with a Psyker. But I think it's pretty fitting in the background and a cheaper alternative for a list when I can't squeeze a Force Weapon into the points limit.

Originally, the plan with this guy was to buy a Land Raider, fill it with with 9 Crusader henchmen and drive it straight at something I would like dead. Then I read the "Max 3 of any type of Henchmen" limit that wasn't pointed out very clearly in a wall of text. (I soooo prefer the new Codex clarity!)

So I'm not sure what to go with for his retinue at the moment, I'd like 3 Crusaders, then some of the "boosting" Henchmen like Sages, and so on. So I'll have to try and come up with a way to convert those (possibly from Avatars of War Dwarf Berserkers with my Assassins).

Any ideas for Henchmen conversions that fit the Dwarfy stereotypes?

I was originally thinking of a Sister Hospitalier Dwarf covered in Beer Barrels as a "Pain relief" treatment.

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - Brotherhood of the Forge: Repentia

Morning again,

Quick one from me, to ease me back into the working week.Over the weekend, I've been trying to paint up Bretonnian things that have been left in a box for ages - in the hope of either selling them, or actually playing Fantasy a bit more.

Suffice to say, I didn't get a full unit painted, got about 15 Men at Arms that are almost done, but not completed yet.

In the mean time, over the last few weeks I'd been painting up Brotherhood of the Forge stuff and after showing off the Retributor squad this week, thought I'd show my Repentia squad.

They're Dwarf Miners painted to match the rest of the army. In Fantasy, the pickaxes are Great Weapons, so I thought they would translate over as the "Ceremonial Eviscerators" for the Sister Repentia unit. Originally, the aim was for Slayers to be Repentia, but without plastic models they weren't going to make the cut.

Then I found Avatars of War's "Dwarf Berserkers", so now they're going to be bought and made into a variety of Assassins and Arco-Flagellants due to the amount of skin on show, that I can paint as flesh or a bodyglove.

Hopefully I'll get a game with the Brotherhood sometime soon, but last thing I played was a sampler game of Warmachine and really enjoyed it (although we probably missed off a fair few rules or played them wrong)...

I'll keep plodding on with the blog when I get chance!

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - Brotherhood of the Forge: Retributors

Morning,

One of the things I always liked about flicking through the Witch Hunter codex was the Retributor squad, since whilst most people would call them "SOB Devastators" they actually pose a difficult choice. The only heavy weapons they can take (from memory...) are Multi-Meltas and Heavy Bolters. Personally, I'm not keen on a full squad using Multi-Meltas, not keen on the weapon at all really... I prefer to have the mobility when it comes to anti-tank weaponry and such....

So for my Retributors, I wanted to take full advantage of the Act of Faith which gives you AP1 on a 6. I figured by pumping out a shedload of Heavy Bolter shots with them, they could absolutely maim pretty much anything coming towards them - Terminators, Monstrous Creatures and such. Even just drag down threatening vehicles through weight of fire.

These guys were made from the cloaked Dwarf Thunderers and given shoulder pads to bulk them out a bit more. I'd imagine they're the lazier (and chubbier) Brothers of the Forge, who prefer to let the enemy do the walking.

Also, Retributors can take an Immolator as a dedicated transport, which means effectively, 2 heavy support slots for the price of 1, and I can use the Immolator to be transporting another unit from the first turn, or roving around on it's own as a battle tank.

I realised now in uploading this, I planned to add an Imagifier to the squad, to help ensure the Act of Faith goes off when I want it to. So I'll build and paint that chap over the weekend, along with the Immolators.

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - Brotherhood of the Forge Battle Squad

Morning all,

After my Dark Eldar spree recently, I've moved onto bulking out my Brotherhood of the Forge army, whilst I've still been gripped by the painting bug.

I reckon I got about 400 - 500 more points painted up, and I've got 2 Immolators on the assembly conveyor belt. Which hopefully means I'm close to 1500 and a decent force to use until I find some alternative model ideas for other things.

Figured I'd start off light, with a standard Battle Squad (count as Sisters of Battle Squad) that will give me a second scoring unit (or more if I split them into 2 x 5 Man squads).

The squads I like to run with is a 10 strong squad, Flamer, Melta, Imagifier, Vet Superior usually with a power weapon, book of St Lucius and Melta Bombs (just incase a Dreadnaught gets cocky...).

I do really enjoy painting the Dwarf models, especially since they're super quick to paint. The vast majority of the model is the chainmail armour. I've also incorporated a new beard colour (black) into the mix to try and add some variety in the squads.

I just need to go back and do some squad markings on this unit and the other unit of 10 I have, to differentiate them on the tabletop.

I'll post some more up tomorrow!

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - The Postman Delivers!

Morning all,

On Monday I got a fresh delivery of stuff for 40k... but ironically it was all Warhammer Fantasy miniatures. Maelstrom Games were running one of their excellent voucher codes, so I thought I'd put in a decent order to try and bulk up my floundering Brotherhood of the Forge project, and also replace some changed Dark Eldar things.

So, what did the postman bring this time?

Dwarf Thunders

First up, is a box of Dwarf Thunderers in order to convert myself another 10 Brotherhood of the Forge warriors. Then the others in the box can be used to bulk up my Celestian / Longbeard unit and I'm not sure yet about the 1 remaining guy. Possibly use him as a test bed for converting Seraphim equivalents...

Dwarf Miners

Then I fancied getting some of the more eccentric Witch Hunters units on the table, one of my favourites being Sisters Repentia. Yeah, they're expensive and whatnot, but I like the idea of an entire unit of Eviscerator weilders. So, here would be the Brotherhood equivalent.

The idea behind them is that when called upon, they use these ancient Ancestral weapons when called upon by the Brotherhood. The only ones allowed to weild such weapons are the artificers and craftsmen of the Forge, therefore they're not as combat savvy and choose to fight with less armour than their warrior brothers.

Skaven Plague Monks

Now, for something completely different... Skaven Plague Monks. Originally I had 20 Mantic Ghouls primed up, based and ready to go as Dark Eldar wracks. Then I looked at them and realised I hadn't given them any weapons, just their clawed hands... And also in my force, anything Haemonculi related was made from Skaven. So, 20 of these guys should provide me with Wracks, and the Mantic Ghouls now become my Mandrakes.

Also, the Skaven Plague Monks allow me to double up my army and work towards and all Nurgle Daemon army, which with my Rat Ogres as Nurgle Beasts, Giant Rats as Nurglings and some other plans I've got. Puts me well on my way to getting them on the table at some point soon...

I'm currently trying to paint up 1,000pts of Dark Eldar for Monday to get them on the table in a game, so I'll keep you posted on that when I get chance to do some more painting. Currently I've got 2 Raiders and a Ravager on the desk ready to go.

Peace,
SB

Badger's Big Update - Part 5 - Brotherhood of the Forge

Morning all,

Now then. This is hopefully going to the last part in this mammoth updating spree, but I've saved my pet project for the final post... The Brotherhood of the Forge.

The idea behind this project had been going for a long, long time. You can find the initial blog post that I did HERE where it discusses what my original plan was for the army. It basically boiled down to "I want to buy some Dwarves*, but never play Fantasy".

So, the Codex that I fancied using was the Witchhunters book, mostly because it offered 3+ Armour Saves, but still had low Strength and Toughness on the models, combined with the interesting twist of Faith Points - which is something I really enjoy in 40k (maybe another article some time?).

Without further ado then, I'll unveil the start of the Brotherhood of the Forge, and do a bit of background info
 on them, since they're not technically Squats....

The Original Test Forger

So this guy was the birth of it all, the first actual Brotherhood member that was made and armed, rather than the test paint model. I used the basic Dwarf Thunderer model, armed with a Crossbow stock, then cut this off, along with his spare hand.

I then cut the grip from the Bolter to make a hand hole for his spare arm, cut the trigger grip from the Bolter too and glued it together to make this Bolter arm.

This guy has a cloak on his back and a Shoulder pad, which I thought I had a lot more of, so he eventually became part of the Veteran squad. The cloak and pad separate them visually from the standard members of the Squad.

As for the paint scheme, originally, they were going to be Blue, as was shown on the test model in an earlier post, however, when it came to multi-tasking the vehicles, blue was off the menu since it's my Ork Deffskullz colour - and I can't associate myself with those poster boy Ultramarines!

So I used Adeptus Battlegrey as the fatigues and I think they've come out really well, the grey matches kind of this dark, miner community that I see the Brothehood living in.

Melta Guns on the Cheap

Now, one of the staple weapons for the Witchhunters army is the Melta gun, but as anyone who's ever checked eBay for cheap plastic Melta guns, you'll find they're like 40k golddust. Everyone wants them and can charge a quid or two per gun. Noes I say!

My melta guns are made from Imperial Guard grenade launchers, with the barrel using the Chaos Tank sprue decorations. I see their Melta guns, being part of the Forge, as more ceremonial  items, passed down from generation to generation as gifts.

Brothers of the Forge a.k.a Sisters of Battle

This is the first full squads of "Sisters of Battle". A 10 strong unit, with a Flamer, Melta, Imagifier (Ancient Tapestry of Battle) and a Veteran Sergeant.

If you notice, the Veteran Sarge in this unit has a brown beard. He's a veteran amongst his peers in the Squad, but he's still a youngling to the rest of the Forge. I imagine these guys a bit like Blood Claws in the Space Wolf army.

Forge Lord a.k.a Cannonness

Now, you may recognise this fella as the Dwarf Lord from Skull Pass, which has previously been shown on the Blog before. However, he's had a new coat of grey paint, over the blue, to tie him into the rest of the force.

Forge Veterans a.k.a Celestians

The Forge Lord joins his retinue of Veterans, made up of Celestians with an Imagifier, Melta and Flamer. These guys all have cloaks and Shoulder pads to show their Veteran status.

Forge Prophet a.k.a Inquisitor

Now, in the Brotherhood society, they commune with the Forge through their Prophets, who are able to understand the Forge and relay the message to the rest of the Clan - quite similar to the Mechanicum in that they believe the Forge to be some kind of entity or God.

This guy probably won't stay as an Inquisitor for long however, since looking at his armoury (Whip and Pistol), he's more suited to being the leader of a Sister Repentia (Slayer) unit, but for the moment, he's an Inquisitor.

Forge Oathkeepers a.k.a Death Cult Assassins

Now, these guys I got off eBay for a few quid, knowing that if I was going to do some Space Dwarves, I'd need to use some Slayer equivalents.

Originally, I wanted a Repentia unit, however, with the price it was costing me buying the plastic Slayer models, I couldn't keep it going. So the other alternative, once I had made an Inquisitor, was to use them as Death Cult Assassins.

One thing I didn't want to do with them was have Naked Dwarves running about the table, so I've given them a kind of "stealth suit" look, with a jet black bodyglove.

So there you have it, the unveiling of the Brotherhood of the Forge. I've got a Whirlwind with my Relictors that's being used as my Exorcist for this force, with a removable top hatch to be a Rhino for the Celestians or SoB squad.

Hopefully you guys like them, and I'm looking forward to adding more units. I need another squad of basic dudes, along with fleshing out the Celestians to a full unit. Then I want to look at some Penitent Engine options and how on earth I could make flying Dwarves....

Peace,

SB

Brotherhood of the Forge: An Update

Evening all,

I've not posted anything on the Brotherhood for a while, mostly due to very little (no pun intended) happening with them. I've had lots of ideas, themes, paint schemes and conversions planned - just no money to make a start with anything.

So after months of thumbing through the Witch Hunters Codex and settling on what I'd like to include in the army, I bought a cheap plastic Warhammer Dwarf Thane off eBay to paint up as my Cannonness count-as.

In game terms, he's a Cannonness with Blessed Weapon, Rosarius and maybe some other upgrades I've not thought of yet... He's had no conversion work, just been slapped onto a round base.

I went for a Blue Colour scheme on his cloth and Black for his cloak. Originally I had done him with red Cloth, but combined with the White Beard he looked a bit too much like Santa goes to War.

So yeah, hopefully this chap is the test-bed for the rest of the army in Blue and Black with White detailing. The other difference to my other armies is that I drybrushed all the metal with Tin Bitz and then Boltgun Metal, as opposed to the latter on it's own. I'm not keen on Bronze or Golds on models, but I felt this makes the metalwork look different enough from my other armies.

For my birthday, my Father-in-Law kindly braved Games Workshop and got me a box of Dwarf Thunderers to assemble.

This box of 16 models should hopefully be converted into a 10 strong unit of Sisters of Battle, armed with Flamer and a Melta. The remaining 6 Thunderers however, are something I'm stuck on what to do with them.

One idea is to turn them into 5 Celestians (Longbeards) and a second Cannonness, either to back up my original, or to replace him full stop.

The other option is to turn the 6 of them into an Inquisitor and his Retinue, to enable me to buy and take some Dragon Slayers as Death Cult Assassins.

Do you guys have any suggestions what to do with the 6 of them?

The Inquisitor is a bit awkward to justify with my Dwarf theme, unless he's some kind of Legendary Thane with a Retinue? What are his Psychic Powers and what justification is there for them? etc.

I think the Celestians would be a good way to go, maybe convert the remaining model into something else or keep him as a spare.

And last but not least, the ongoing side project I volunteered myself for, which involves painting a complete Ork army in my usual speed machine style. So far I've got about 80 - 100 Orks:

Hopefully painting up them will stop me spending money for a while!

Next on the shopping list is a Rhino and as many more Dwarfs as I can get together...

SB.

The Brotherhood of the Forge

Afternoon all.

Last night, I was doodling away with an idea I've had going around for a while. I really enjoy the concept, models and background of Dwarves in Warhammer Fantasy, however, we don't play enough of it at the club to warrant a second army.

So the idea began - How can I get Dwarves into a 40k Army?

The Brotherhood of the Forge are colonies on Miners spread around Imperial Space, designated as Abhumans by the Imperium, but have become new allies in this time of darkness.

The Brotherhood are a single unit, with a hierarchy, split between different Guilds across space.

The fluff behind the Brotherhood is still under development, but they're based mostly on getting Dwarf units from Fantasy into an similar style army for 40k.

This is a concept sketch of a Forge Brother I drew yesterday. The actual models would be converted from Fantasy Dwarf Warriors with Bolters, extra sculpted armour pads and a custom made Visor.

The idea behind the visor is that the Brotherhood double up on their equipment, with it being Welding / Forge gear in times of peace, and extra protective armour in battle. It also adds a bit of mystery to them - the hope being their faces and exposed skin are never seen. Could they actually be human... or some kind of cyber-construct?

The idea is, the actual army will be able to cover 2 armies at once - a Scout heavy Codex Marine army and a Witch hunter army.

Witchhunter ideas:
Cannonness - Forge Lord
Inquisitor Lord - Forge Priest
Arcoflaggelants / Repentia - Oathkeepers (Slayers)
Sisters of Battle - Brotherhood Warriors
Stormtroopers - Brotherhood Rangers
Celestians - Longbeards
Rhino - Rhino
Penitent Engines - Forge Guardians
Exorcist - Rhino / Organ Gun construct

The Witchhunters list made sense to me as it focuses a lot on Melta and Flamer weapons, which a Forge would make use of. Also, the fact they are S3 T3 with a 3+ save sounds a lot to me like they could be Dwarves in heavy armour. Plus faith points are always cool...
There's a couple of staple Witchhunter things that are missing from the list, specifically Seraphim - however I'm not sure on how Dwarves would feel about flying around places - if you've got any ideas though, feel free to suggest!

Scout heavy Marine Codex list:
Space Marine Captain - Forge Lord in MKIV O-D-I-N prototype armour
Librarian - Forge Priest in Prototype armour
Techmarine - Forge Priest?
Sternguard - Longbeards
Dreadnoughts - Forge Guardians
Scouts - Brotherhood
Drop Pods - Tunelling Vehicles
Whirlwind - Organ Gun
Bikers - Bikes...
Land Raider - Mag Train
Land Speeder - Gyrocopter style thing

So that's the idea at the moment. I'm looking for a heavily converted army I can take my time with, steadily paint it up to a high quality and create a bit of unique background inspired from the Squats and Demiurg races.

Hopefully I can get some tester pieces built up in the next couple of weeks and start using them in

If you have any other suggestions or ideas, or some feedback on the proposed ideas let me know. I'll admit, I suck at drawing... so don't comment on the quality of the sketch, it started off initially as just the Visor concept and went from there.

Peace out!
SB