40k: Space Marine Captain Conversion

Typically I get distracted by the cooler aspects of building an army. My new look Dark Templar marine army is no exception. I discovered bitz from a project that never got started – a converted Space Marine Captain – and so couldn't resist the opportunity to get stuck in. The model is predominantly the Ultramarines Captain Sicarius miniature, so this should be a quick project. However, he is adorned with Ultramarine motifs and in need of making a little more unique.

The Sicarius model was purchased a couple of years ago, and is made from that hideous resin stuff that GW pumps out their non-plastic models in. I have never seen so much 'flash' in a long time and worse still, it was sitting amongst the finest details. If you've ever had Edinburgh rock (the crumbly confection from Scotland, not some form of heavy music) the texture and robustness is just like that!!

The flash was removed with a scalpel and I dug out the Dremel to sand off the Ultramarine logos. Not a big time sink (though I've spotted more looking at these photos).

I decided to keep the same Power Sword, just trimmed off the Ultramarine logos from the top and bottom and pinned it in place. For the head I decided to pinch an idea from an old article on the From The Warp blog – this involved using a head from the plastic Captain kit. I knew I had one somewhere, but had no idea where to start looking. By sheer blind luck I managed to find a plastic container full of old space marine sprues, and amongst them was the one that I was looking for. OMG – that was awesome (especially as I found a bunch of other useful stuff in the same box!).

I'm still on the lookout for a suitable plasma gun, or maybe something even better – no decision been made yet so will come back to that.

For the base I wanted something elaborate. The model was made to fit snugly on a 25mm base, but given that most characters nowadays are on much bigger bases I went for a 40mm. I managed to find more of the resin rocks I'd used on my Typhus conversion way back, so decided to repeat the process.

So, not bad for an hour (minus searching time). I just need to find a suitable ranged weapon and I can get to some painting!

40k: Old Tournament List

I mentioned in the last blog post that I was looking to recreate my original Dark Templar tournament list from back in October 2001. Well, I managed to find a dodgy photo or two of the army. As you can see it's made up of lots of old school models, before we had many extra bitz on sprues (or even twin-linked lascannons for razorbacks!), and is in my original Dark Templar scheme of (very) dark green and black (awful colour scheme with hindsight as there is no contrast).

The list itself (from what I can tell) uses the Black Templar listing from within the 3rd Ed Armageddon Codex, and looks something like this:

Chaplain with bolt pistol and crozius

Emperor's Champion with bolt pistol and black sword

Troop Squad 1
Initiate with bolt pistol and power sword
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophyte x1 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Razorback with twin-lascannons

Troop Squad 2
Initiate with bolt pistol and power sword
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophyte x1 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Razorback with twin-lascannons

Troop Squad 3
Initiate with bolt pistol and power sword
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophyte x1 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Razorback with twin-lascannons

Troop Squad 4
Initiate with bolt pistol and power fist
Initiate with meltagun
Marines (x3) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophytes x4 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Rhino

Troop Squad 5
Initiate with bolt pistol and power fist
Initiate with meltagun
Marines (x3) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophytes x4 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Rhino

Troop Squad 6
Initiate with bolt pistol and power fist
Initiate with meltagun
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophytes x4 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Rhino

Land Speeder with Heavy Bolter

Land Speeder with Heavy Bolter

As you can see there is lots of duplication, the idea being that no individual loss would be devastating and that there was a lot of mobility. Rhino rush with the three big squads, pop enemy transports with the melta and mop up what's left in combat – the three Razorback squads would roam around lending support where needed, whilst the Speeders played hit and run with lighter vehicles and T5 troops.

This would have been a 1500 point army back in 3rd Edition – that's 48 marines in total (if you include Neophytes) with over 100 attacks combined per combat round, 3 twin-linked lascannons, 3 melta guns and 2 heavy bolters. From what I remember it did ok, but never set the world alight (largely due to my poor tactics and inability to create a truly merciless army list).

Interestingly, in the new Imperial Index, this army would appear to come out at approximately 1586 points. Not a lot of difference, but I just don't think it's got the teeth to stand up to the new rules.

So, rather than recreate this army verbatim, maybe I'll do an 8th Edition interpretation of this list. Time to get my thinking cap on – any ideas?

40k: Return Of The Dark Templar

Some of you may remember my original Dark Templar marines from seven years ago. They were a test to see if the theory of creating a Mk6 space marine army was viable. They were quite a success, but the project as a whole has not progressed much since. I have collected a lot of Mk6 bitz and have even prepped some for mold making – it would be prohibitively expensive to try such a project by buying everything, so some resin duplication will be necessary.

With the release of 8th Edition 40k my enthusiasm has been buoyed but a project of such magnitude  is daunting and not what I want to take on right now. My Plague Marines are on hold until we see some new kits and a codex, but what to do in the mean time? I decided that the best course of action was to revisit my old Mk7 Dark Templar marines and simply paint them up in the new purple and black colour scheme. That should be simple right? Er, no.

The purple paint I used for my original DT marines was Lich Purple, which has since been removed from the Citadel range. In the years since I have been collecting pots of Xereus Purple, which was it's natural successor. Only when I started to paint and ink my old marines this week did I realise that the results were not the same. The purple colour on the models had lost its life and vibrancy.

Upon closer inspection, nothing in the Citadel line would get close to what I wanted. Indeed I was struggling to find a match throughout other manufacturers' paint products too. It was made more difficult by the fact that colour accuracy online is not great – this would involve some purchases.

I bought a handful of purple paint, spanning multiple ranges, to try and find a match. It came down to a choice of three. Sunset Purple by Scale 75, plus Royal Purple and Violet by Vallejo Model Color. Upon closer inspection, the Violet was too blue and the Sunset Purple too red. The Royal Purple on the other hand was a virtual match. I had found my replacement colour purple!!

So, eventually, I got to put some paint on miniatures. I also discovered that I can recreate my old space marine tournament army from 2000 with the new Imperial index, so that seems like a good starting point – no more purchases necessary, just re-using old models!