Crusade Week: Crimson Fists!

image used without permission - copyright "old stone road"

Just for fun, since I'm up to five "painted" chapters in my marine crusade army (painted in quotes since I don't actually have any of the flesh tearers in my possession) , I've decided to do a post a day linking all the other blogs I follow who have (or had!) armies for the same chapters.  Monday is now Crimson Fist day!

Check out the following;

• A Plague Spreads (dude, add a crimson fists label!)
• Kantor Base
• Mordian 7th
• Stuck Between Stations
• Tankards & Broadswords
• The Sabre and Dice

If you have a Crimson Fist army, link your label in the comments below and I will both add you to this post and start following!

Crimson Fists: Sternguard - painted (as much as I care to)

Well sorry for the crappy pic but it's about all I can bother for these guys.  These are my Crimson Fist sternguard - having languished unpainted since Aug 3rd 2009 they definitely deserved some love considering how often they are used.  Unfortunately they didn't come out exactly the same as my previous CF marines and termies - I did make a mistake in the order I used blue wash and devlan mud - but even after extensive drybrushing of regal blue and trying again it was just a more purplish colour.  I did use a spray gun for the regal blue basecoat over a new kind of black primer so there are plenty of possible culprits.

I've had them about 95% done for a couple months now - it just annoyed me enough to want to take a break from them.  I got all the decals on and all the other touch ups I can be bothered with.  Pass on doing hazard stripes for the heavy flamers at this point - maybe I will feel the urge later.  I won't bother with the fineliner scribbles either until I am going to seal them since it will just rub off.  Oh well at least they are painted up if not perfect.  During the break I got a fair amount done on two rhino chassis and accessories, I hope to get them finished up soon too along with my two (WIP1 & WIP2) planned entries to Fallen Prince's Badab Special Character competition.  Actually I just realized I only have 10 days left, so I better hurry up on those!

Been a busy boy...

Here's what I've been up to over the past couple weeks.  Early in the year I called about booking the hobby room at our condo so I could get some stuff primed.  I like to have lots of stuff in this state as it means if painting motivation/inspiration comes to me, I can act on it more easily.

In this batch there's my Mordaci Blaylock conversion and an AoBR tactical squad for my Novamarines, Pedro Kantor, a sternguard squad, a devastator squad, a land raider and a rhino for my Crimson Fists, finally a jump pack chaplain and my deathwatch marine for my Raptors.  I also tried to undercoat a tactical squad of Raptors white, but the can was pretty empty and it eventually started getting gritty so I stopped.

What's the best thing I should do for the poorly undercoated white guys; should i just give them a brush to see if it removes the grit? strip them and start again? any other magic tips?

Crimson Fists: Devastators... blasting it old school

I've had these old 2nd edition devastator bodies sitting around ever since my brother gave me his old stuff.  I figured nobody would really be interested so I never bothered to try and trade them for something else.  One day when wondering what to do with the scout heavy bolters I had sitting around - I got inspired and figured a full heavy bolter armed devastator squad would be fluffy for my Crimson Fist army - as well as use up these bits in a way that will at the least give me a unique model that likely nobody else will have.  I love the reinforced leg armour - I'm sure Forge World will get around to it when they realize it's another product people will spend a ton of money on bits because it reminds them of "the good old days".

This is the dilemma I have left, should I use these weapon mount/tripod components or not?  I'm leaning towards not as it makes them look like they just run around blasting away like crazy, but I would love to hear your opinion.  Here's a pic with the same two models with the mounts blu-tacked on.  Which do you prefer and why?  I could also mount them in a "retracted" position (ie. pointing the same direction as the barrel) or a combination of the two, but it's either all tripods or no tripods.  I'm planning to prime these guys tomorrow so please comment and quick!

Crimson Fists: LRR!

Here's the model that got me started into modeling proper again.  It was pretty beat up when I first got it, and hadn't been put together too well to boot!  My Crimson Fists are kinda the "junk pile" of my marine chapters, so this Land Raider is definitely for them.  I used filler all around the top left and right edges and filed the results to fix a huge gap.  I pulled out the heavy bolter and added the assault cannons and also replaced the busted up lascannons with the flamestorm cannons - should I add some kind of plate to the side of the weapon or not?

In the little inset box you can see the multi-melta cupola I scratch built.  The weapon itself if an old RT era piece and I just pinned that to the targeter through the arm on the cupola itself.  I left the cupola closed and added a set of handles for the weapon.  I'm planning to skip the magnets for my CF vehicles but just keep the various cupola  bits seperate and pop them in and out.  I'm also hoping (fingers crossed) to borrow an airbrush to basecoat a bunch of CF stuff at once.

Crimson Fist Sternguard WIP

Here are some pics of my WIP sternguard. They'll be painted as Crimson Fists. Pretty much entirely just plastic bits I had. These guys were great fun to make, I have a feeling I'll be putting together my Pedro Kantor soon.

Sergeant first, I decided to use a deathwatch shoulderpad just to avoid them all having the crux terminatus shoulderpad, also I figured if there's any item I might want two of in Kill Team it's a Power Fist.

These are the two special/heavy troopers I've built so far. One is a heavy flamer (needs tubing to go from fuel pack to weapon) and the other is a combi-melta (needs some filler, a parchment and a ammo clip for his empty hand)

Finally a couple bolter armed marines. Used storm bolter ammo as per many of the guides floating around. All the marines have the scroll cases somewhere, extra purity seals and a parchment somewhere.

and the obligatory group shot

more Fists of the Crimson variety

EDIT: Forgot to mention I broke my baby toe Sunday before last, hence all the painting time ;)

Keeping focused while I still didn't have any glazing putty for my raptors jump packs, I decided to keep going with some Crimson Fist termies, since they were undercoated. They are just the basic AoBR termies, though I love the big Crimson power fists. I also decided I'm going to give all the vets white helmets as well. Just to look a little different than lots of the Crimson Fists armies I've seen. Should look good with a bunch of Sternguard.

First 1000 points will consist of tactical, termies & dread from AoBR, pedro kantor & 9 sternguard with 2 heavy flamers & 2 combi-meltas and a couple rhinos.

Without further ado... the termies
Will probably add some heraldry to the shields once the first 1000 points are painted to tabletop standard.

Crusade Army... new chapter begins (Crimson Fists)

Well I still haven't remembered to stop at the hardware store, so the Raptors assault marines have been on hold. In the meantime I painted up a unit of AoBR tactical marines, figuring if I can at least get something 'less fun' painted I'm being constructive. Also felt like just painting something different so I picked the Crimson Fists to paint up this squad as. Maybe get my ass in gear to paint up my Pedro Kantor.

Couple of pics for you to see. +10 painting points, still doing very well there.

Crimson Fists

army value: 1,500 points
background: n/a
condition: 28/52 models complete tabletop standard (54%)
record: n/a
awards;

• none
  

related links;

• Crimson Fists blog posts.
  

army composition;


to-do;
1 x pedro kantor
10 x tactical
3 x rhino
1 x land raider
9 x devastator

painting chart;