Pre-Heresy marines, Mechanicus, Eldar & Imperial Army

[Magos Explorator]

(Split into multiple parts due to the 4-pic-per-post limit.)

I've been maintaining a painting log over at the Great Crusade pre-Heresy forum linked in my sig for several months, and thought it might be of interest to some if I posted it over here too.

Essentially I started gaming in 1994 but took a break after going to Uni in 2001, and have been slowly getting back into the hobby since late last year. The driver for this was the Horus Heresy novel series, which inspired me to put together a pre-Heresy multi-Legion Space Marine force from the Great Crusade. Seeing all manner of other fantastic new miniatures has led to me diversifying a little, so my force now includes a Mechanicum and Imperial Army contingent too. Then along came some Xenos to crusade against, in the form of the Eldar of Craftworld Altansar. Although I paint reasonably rapidly, I don't have too much time so over the past 6 months or so have only managed 30 or so figures... oh well! So I can't promise to update too frequently. I'll see how it goes.

My first goal has been to put together a ~500 point force from each of these armies, so I can play a few games (won't be until 5th edition's out by now, probably). Rough lists for these are as follows:

Space Marines

- Chaplain (Emperor's Children)
- Tactical squad (10-man, Emperor's Children)
- Tactical squad (5-man, Dark Angels)
- Scout squad (snipers, 5-man, Death Guard)

Imperial Army (Vostroyan miniatures)
- Command squad with commissar and sanctioned psyker
- Ratling squad (5-man)
- 2 infantry platoons (command squad and 2 squads in each)

Eldar: plans for this force are vague and at the moment I'm just painting whatever strikes me!
- Farseer
- Guardian squad (with heavy weapon platform)
- Dire Avenger squad
- Warp Spiders

For the Mechanicum, I need something a little different. I've decided that I can represent an Adeptus Mechanicus force pretty well by using elements from Codex: Witch Hunters and doing it 'counts as'. So the Witch Hunters list would translate to the following:

HQ
- Inquisitors, Priests: various castes of Tech-priest, with their retinues (servitors and sages mostly, I reckon).

Elites
- Arco-flagellants: the rules work fairly well for Electro-Priests.
- Repentia: a Beastman platoon. Back in the day they had drug dispensers, and you had to include an Adeptus Mechanicus to control the frenzon. So I think you could easily use some Beastmen with 40k-era weapons, led by a Tech-priest, for this.
- (Death-cult) assassins: Could be a tech-assassins (e.g. the Kaban Project short story).

Troops:
- Storm troopers: Regular Hypastist Skitarii. I'd probably use these as the mainstay of the force. Not much variety in the Troops, section, but hey!

Fast attack:
- Seraphim and Dominion squads: Could be rapid response Skitarii, or else Seraphim could be a type of Praetorian. I'm not too keen on these, though, so probably won't use them.

Heavy Support:
- Retributors: Sagitarii (heavy weapon specialists).
- Immolator, Exorcist: general Mechanicum support vehicles.
- Penitent Engines: Robot maniples.
- Orbital Strike: fairly obvious...

I've thought about using Imperial Guard rules but couldn't get it to feel right; also I envision my Skitarii in units of 8, linking in to binary, while the Guard codex limits me to 10 men per squad. Plus I thought using Witch Hunters rules gives me better-feeling Tech-Priests and makes things more distinct from my Imperial Army Contingent.

With this in mind my 500 point force would probably be:

- Tech-priest and retinue
- 2 Skitarii maniples

So for the rest of this first post I think I'll share progress with my Mechanicum/Mechanicus stuff to date. Apologies for the variable quality of photography throughout these first few posts; I'm getting used to taking pictures of miniatures, and some of these initial pictures are not in chronological order.

First up is a full body shot of the Tech-Priest I use as my avatar. I painted a black-and-white cowl to distinguish him from ordinary Mechanicum soldiers. I don't think my checks are quite good enough so am doing cogging in the future.

Then I've got another Tech-Priest (who appears to be in Mark IV power armour); on both of these I've tried to go for red, black, white, brass and silver as the dominant colour schemes. The first has got a checkered hem on his robe, inspired by Apologist. I went for a cogging effect on the shoulders of the second: sadly, the moulding isn't so good and there's a big line down his left shoulder pad which I couldn't entirely remove. I am quite pleased with the way these first ones turned out.





Next I put together a few test miniatures for the rest of the force. I'm pleased with how they turned out so will use the same basic pattern for more. I thought I'd share some WIP pictures which will hopefully interest/inspire someone!

The Skitarii:





This is essentially a Cadian torso and arms on top of High Elf Archer legs, with a Wood Elf head. I've used a couple of accessories around the waist, to hide the fact that the high elf gets slim up there, and put a targeter on (he'll be a 'counts as' Stormtrooper). I've tried to make him without resulting to Green Stuff as my skills are very poor, though hopefully with practice things will get better.

A couple of things I've noticed, which may be of interest to others intending something similar:

- High Elves are very tall and slim-waisted. For future models I'll probably chop off the top of the legs a millimetre or two down, where he's a bit fatter, to make him not so tall.
- The Wood Elf head doesn't fit on the Cadian body without a bit of filing down of both.
- Cadian arms I've found tricky to position--I've fixed the gap visible in the pictures above...

[Magos Explorator]

Next up is an Electro-Priest. He's just an Empire Flagellant with a trimmed-down weapon and some Green Stuff cables from head to arm, and hand to weapon, to make him look a bit more like he's not just a WHFB miniature.





Note that the Flagellants are actually fairly short! Here's a group shot for scale:



This picture also shows a WIP Death Guard I've made from some spare parts (note my first Green Stuff attempt in ~6 years: a banded shoulder pad) and Deah Guard Scout (which just has a head swap). The heads on these marines are both WHFB Chaos Warrior heads which, with a little filing, fit perfectly!

Next is the Skitarii with his first coat of red on him. I've used Mechrite Red up to Blood Red, which will soon get an ink wash. I've also outlined some cog-like designs across the edge of the cloak, to aid the visual recognition as a member of the Mechanicum (and not e.g. a Chaos cultist or Redemptionist). This is Dheneb stone; I figured it'd be easier to do this now than risk having to heavily retouch the red after it'd been inked...



Notice also the dangling skull I added since the first picture. Again this'll have the bisected black/white look, to go with the Mechanicum device.

A piece of advice to anyone thinking of doing anything similar: the Wood Elf heads I used are pretty small, and fiddly to paint the eyes. If you've got Green Stuff skills it may be better to create your own hood over a standard head.

[Magos Explorator]

Secondly, the Electro-Priest is almost done. He needs a little touching up and then the robes dirtying. I painted his eyes Ultramarine Blue, to represent the electricity coursing through them. Then, of course, I have to finish the base.

(Notice the Skitarii and a Death Guard on the edge of the photo, taken before I added more detail to the Skitarii!)

... and they're done.





I might try to make future versions of the Electro-Priest more Imperial sci-fi-looking than this guy.

I'm pleased with both, though, especially the Skitarii. I think he stands out as being recognisably a member of the Mechanicum, with the red robes, cog and bisected skull devices. So I think I'll stick to the same basic build for future Skitarii. The simple colour scheme meant he was very fast to paint, too--about an hour of work (more time in real-time, though, as the inks had to dry).

[Magos Explorator]

That's almost, but not quite, all for the Adeptus Mechanicus up to now. Inspired by a poster here on Warseer (sadly I've forgotten the name--sorry!), I added some electoos to my Electro-Priest. For those who don't know, these are tattoos which cover the Priest's body and allow them to channel electricity. I think he looks a bit more 40k now, which is nice. The electoos were just painted on using a fine detail brush and blue ink over the skin; they're quite subtle, but there are three sets of lines on there: one on the right of his head, one down the right-hand side of the chest, and one on the top of the left arm. I tried to use straight lines and added a circle at the end, as had the nameless poster, to make the lines look inorganic (i.e. not veins).





Expect 5 more at some point. One other thing I'll mention is that I'm surprised so many people have had the same idea as me of using the Flagellants for Electro-Priests. They're a very versatile kit!

[Magos Explorator]

And now something still in the WIP stage: a pair of Sagitarii. For those who don't know, the Sagitarii are the Adeptus Mechanicus' heavy weapon specialists, and in my force will be the equivalent of Sisters of Battle squads with heavy weapons. I therefore wanted them to be fairly imposing and tough looking, to go with the 3+ save. With the GW painting competition looming, I thought I'd build one or two as proof-of-concept and try to get them painted in time to go as part of a Tech-Priest's retinue. In the end I settled on the following simple conversions:

In the maniple there will be 4 with heavy bolters, 3 with bolters, and 1 leader (who may be converted slightly differently--I'm not yet sure). This goes with my plan for squad sizes of 8, for the tech theme (8 bits in a byte etc).







These figures use the bodies of Warhammer Chaos Warriors. The heads are from Forge World Elysian Drop-Troops, which I'd originally intended to use on Skitarii before coming up with hoods. I think the way they're fairly sunken in helps make the models look more imposing.

The left arms had the sockets filled with green stuff and then the gun-end bit from the plastic Necrons glued in. I imagine this being some sort of all-purpose extensible laser sight/beam cutter/combat attachment, and chose it to make the models look a bit more mechanical.

The right arm with bolter is just the Chaos Warrior's arm with a bolter glued on. The one with the heavy bolter uses a Terminator's assault cannon arm (since I can't use the gun pre-Heresy ) with a Scout's heavy bolter stuck on the end.

Finally I stuck a couple of grenades on one model, and some purity seals on the other.

I'm probably going to paint the models in a dull brass colour, with traditional Mechanicum red robes. Skulls and the helmets will be black and white bisected, again using the traditional Mechanicum theme. I suspect the other details will be black or brown.

So that's all my Mechanicus to date: I'll streamline my threads on the Great Crusade forum to post my Eldar, Imperial Army and Marines soon. Any comments are welcome!

[Magos Explorator]

Not much done in my Imperial Army contingent yet. I'm using the Vostroyan models because I really like them, and mostly painting them in between other models for a bit of variety. I don't hold out much hope of ever painting enough Guardsmen for a large battle but you've got to have a goal. Two infantry platoons is plenty for me!

I thought I'd paint my Commissar in a brown trenchcoat because you normally see them in their traditional black, and I wanted something a little different:





This was actually the second figure I finished after my 6-year break, so it's not perfect, but I like him. It served as a kind of first draft for the palette I wanted the Guardsmen to use.

And, as a distraction, I painted a Vindicare assassin in camo to match the basing on the rest of the guys.



I've so far only painted 2 Command Squad miniatures... I guess with 2 infantry platoons of 25 men each, and the rest of this command section, that leaves 53 to go. Eep.

[baphomael]

Just to be a bit pedantic, commissars didnt exist during the Heresy period or the Crusade. Rather, a similar role was fulfilled by Imperial Army 'Discipline Masters'. I'd probably just use the commissar to represent a higher command officer and convert something like the FW renegade 'Enforcers' (although, obviously, less chaosy) to represent commissars rules-wise.

Also, as I probably dont need to mention, the Sagitarii could use some de-chaosifying and more admeching, but your probably on to that one anyways

I'd like to see what you do with Eldar though - are you doing Eldar as-is or have you any ideas floating about to make them seem more year 30,000?

[Magos Explorator]

Thanks for your comments--the Eldar I'm doing pretty much as they were in 40k, on the basis that their tech wouldn't have changed so much (as they were already an old race).

I've had the discussion about Commissars before; I agree it is controversial, though the current Imperial Guard codex actually does state they were around pre-Heresy. So the fluff is inconsistent there... So it's a tricky one.

The Sagitarii will have some green-stuff work, when I'm brave enough to try it. I'm thinking of putting some flat armour over the belt, and maybe some cables running up the chest. We'll see what else--I think mechadendrites are probably beyond me at the moment!

Anyhow, I've sorted out my Eldar stuff to date and here it is. These Imperials need some Xenos to crusade against! I've decided to paint up my Eldar models as coming from Craftworld Altansar. This was swallowed up by the Eye of Terror about a millenium after the Fall of the Eldar, which puts it in roughly the pre-Heresy/early Imperium phase. So you could say that they're a scouting party, or some of the remnants of the Craftworld.

After seeing their red-and-black scheme I thought: perhaps this Craftworld, living in/near the Eye, stave off Slaanesh by focussing more and more on Khaine? While this has been debated for both 40K and WHFB, and changed in various editions, I've always seen Khaine as an aspect of Khorne and so, while not painting them as Chaos Eldar, I'm painting Altansar using some of Khorne's traditional colours. So along with black and red we have brass, with some bone-white to set it off. That explains the figures below.

Note the bases are different as I was bored of desert. When I paint my Daemons I'll probably go for this look, too.





I hope you like them! I painted the old metal Guardian above to test the scheme; in my army I'll use shooty Guardians instead. I've also switched to Mechrite Red instead of Red Gore as a basecoat, which covers better and makes the models a little brighter, but don't have pictures of any Eldar in that scheme yet.

[Magos Explorator]

Finally for my Eldar, I completed a Dire Avenger Exarch. As I've mentioned I'm going for a black, red and brass scheme for my Aspect Warriors. I think it looks good and is very quick to paint. Sadly the varnish has slightly fogged him, but I'm fairly pleased overall. You can see the Altansar rune on one side and the Dire Avenger rune on the other, both freehand. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future I'll have found the time to assemble and paint 500 points of these! The non-Exarchs will probably have a little more bone and less black on them.







So the Eldar force will hopefully be unified by the palette: Guardians mostly red, Aspect Warriors mostly brass, Warlocks/Farseers with bone robes. I don't know which way to go for vehicles or Wraithguard/Wraithlords yet.

If anyone's got any ideas to make them seem more 30k-era than 40k I'm keen to hear them, though as I mentioned I doubt Eldar tech changed much during that period, so I'm not sure what to do.

[Magos Explorator]

And finally we come to the Marines! The era for the force is, as a whole, just pre-Heresy. Here's a veteran sergeant from the Sons of Horus:





I always saw their colour as a metallic pale green, based on text and description in Index Astartes, so that's what I went for; note this figure was painted before seeing any other painted Sons of Horus, else I may have gone for a more green scheme like I've seen since.

[Magos Explorator]

Still appear to be mostly just talking to myself, but I'll keep going for now... This is my Iron Warriors devastator sergeant; I'm more pleased with the way this one turned out. Sadly I couldn't do much about the mould mismatch on his arm, but the line on the head is my fault.







The writing on his arm is thinner and less bright in real life; the picture's got artefacts of the camera's flash on it!

[Magos Explorator]

My Emperor's Children veteran sergeant--I am quite pleased with him; looks more purple in real life though.

[Magos Explorator]

This Astartes is the first one I assembled and painted after my 6-year break from the hobby. I'll try to pass the helmet off as a prototype. Not so amazingly pleased with it, but it's good enough for me. Four more are ready for painting.

[Magos Explorator]

Here's my Emperor's Children Tactical squad, split as two pictures of 5-man combat squads.





The purple is liche purple over black, highlighted by adding a bit of white, then washed with purple ink. The gold is shining gold, highlighted with mithril silver, then washed with chestnut ink. The red is mechrite red, highlighted with blood red, and shaded with chestnut ink (again). Sadly there's a little bit of greying out from the varnish!

The models generally use the aquila chestplate with one of the Iron Warrior helms. They've got Emperor's Children pads on one shoulder with Dark Angels sword devices from the Veterans box set on the other. As a well-organised Legion their equipment and heraldry are fairly standardised, though various Marines have adopted tabards, devotion seals and other devices.

Next is my Emperor's Children Chaplain, which is one of the Rogue Trader-era figures. It's sculpted with a power sword rather than a crozius, though since the rules don't treat them as any different now I guess it doesn't matter.



Now he's done I finally have a tabletop-legal, albeit small, force (splitting the tactical squad in two), which feels nice. Though I suppose the bigger issue for me before gaming would be learning the current edition ruleset.

[Magos Explorator]

Here is an Imperial Fists Emperor's Champion, who I envision at some date in the future may be my Crusade's overall Astartes commander. He's got a very WIP command squad to go with him, and there are some Terminators in the works too. This is just the stock figure, with a plastic Black Templar backpack. The premise is that he's either Sigismund or else a member of his retinue given command of this Crusade, hence he's in a mixture of Imperial Fist and Sigismund's own (which, as I understand, is essentially 40k Black Templar) heraldry. The rest of the squad will be similar but will focus more on the yellow.

I am fairly pleased with the way this turned out as I'm not too good at painting either black armour or yellow! The highlights on the black are more visible in person. Note the cross on the left leg and fist on the left shoulder are both freehand. Anyhow, on to the pictures:










I tried to go for a fairly minimalist palette. The black is just Chaos Black, highlighted up with Dheneb Stone.

The yellow was basecoated Iyanden Darksun and then overpainted Sunburst Yellow before being given a Chestnut Ink. Following this, it was highlighted with mixtures of Sunburst Yellow and Skull White, and then washed with a little Yellow Ink.

The white was basecoated Dheneb Stone and then washed with a mixture of Chestnut and Black Inks. After this it was highlighted with Dheneb Stone and Skull White.

[Magos Explorator]

The last Marines I've finished are a Death Guard Scout squad with sniper rifles:



The models are just the plastic sniper scouts with Chaos Warrior heads. I trimmed the horns off, though left the stumps on the Sergeant as some sort of communications device. I scraped out the wings on the chest-plates, too, leaving a skull which serves as their Legion's symbol on these scouts, although on most of the models this area is covered by their rifles. The Sergeant got a purity seal/oath of moment over a gouge where I messed up slightly.

I'm fairly pleased with how these turned out, although the white isn't as even as I'd liked.

First of all I did some block colours and first highlights:

- Scorched Brown and Dark Flesh on the brown (except the cloaks)
- Scorched Brown and Calthan Brown on the cloaks, followed by a couple of drybrushes with Bleached Bone mixed in
- Dark Angels Green and a mix with Gnarloc Green on the green
- Boltgun Metal and Mithril Silver on the metals
- Flat Dheneb Stone on the whites

This was then washed over with a 2:1 mix of Black Ink and Chestnut Ink. The black areas were then highlighted by mixing in white or bone, and pouches etc were highlighted with Dark Flesh. The armour had the Dheneb Stone reapplied, leaving the wash in the cracks, and then a couple of layers of Skull White painted over. I tried blending the Dheneb Stone with white, but settled on pure white as the mixture looked a little dirty for my tastes.

Now after I finish my 5-man Dark Angels squad I'll have 500 points of a painted army!

[AbyssRaven]

Some great models here,
I love the emperors children (then again i love all things emperors children)

And i really like the idea behind your Eldar.
The gold work on the Dire Avenger exarch is amazing.
Mind telling me the steps you went through to get that look ?

[bluebugs]

Beautiful Chaos. Very original conversions. Love the Chaos warrior conversions.

[Magos Explorator]

Some great models here,
I love the emperors children (then again i love all things emperors children)

And i really like the idea behind your Eldar.
The gold work on the Dire Avenger exarch is amazing.
Mind telling me the steps you went through to get that look ?

Thanks for the kind words. The metallic recipe is this:
- Black undercoat
- Tin Bitz basecoat
- Drybrush Brazen Brass
- Mix 1:1 Brazen Brass: Mithril Silver and drybrush as a highlight
- Highlight Mithril Silver
- Wash with 1:1 Chestnut: Black ink (don't know how the new washes will affect this)

Beautiful Chaos. Very original conversions. Love the Chaos warrior conversions.

Thanks! I really like the Chaos Warrior bodies as they're big and menacing, lumbering slowly forward. The Chaos Warrior heads (sans horns) are very versatile; luckily I found a guy selling loads of them on eBay.

Things on the go: the rest of the Dark Angels, some Ratlings, and another Tech-Priest and retinue members.

[Mutantdale]

Some real nice work here. My favourites are the death guard scouts and the eldar are just amazing.
keep it up I shall be watching this thread

MD