Miniatures Gallery
Ben's Space Marines: Grey Knights!
Daemon Hunters!
Although I never expect to actually win a GT
(not a good enough painter!), I had so much fun last time I can't help but keep going back
for more. The only question on my mind is-- what army to play? As a stylistic choice I've
already decided that each year I will design my army to "take on" whoever last
year's champ was-- not out of spite or any intent to actually BEAT last year's champ, it's
just easier than agonizing over the decision for a year.
(My GT 2000 Ork Army was actually designed to
tackle Tyranids, who I had heard were the army of choice for the top generals. I never did
face a single Tyranid player, but I got pretty good at beatin' the stuffin' out of Space
Marines.)
Last year's champ was Mike Butcher with his
disgusting Nurgle army. With that in mind, I have now begun working on next year's entry:
The Daemon Hunters of the Ordo Malleus!
Update 09/17/2000: I've switched some of the older images to thumbnails to make it
easier on repeat viewers. Click any image to see the full-blown version.
Update 03/03/2001: I passed on this year's Chicago GT-- but I am hoping instead to
tackle Toronto! (Please! No weird force composition rules!)
Army
Commanders: Master of the Ordo and Inquisitor
The plan (right now) is to base the army on the Black
Templars list (Black Templars, Grey Knights, get it?). Here are my two army commanders.
The guy on the left is the Emperor's Champion and Master of the Ordo-- note artificer
armor, purity seals, and "The Black Staff." I've cropped the image so you can
see the grey slate bases I'll be using for the whole army. It's important to note here
that it is extremely hard to re-pose terminator armor, and especially taxing considering
that these models are OOP now and any mistake is a costly one. I made just a couple of
attempts on the Grey Knights (see below) before thinking better of it. The Master was
repositioned slightly to give him more of a charging look-- one knee was bent and his grip
on the staff twisted just a bit.
The angry looking fellow on the right is my
"official" HQ choice, currently dubbed "Inquisitor Rocker." (He's
supposed to look like he's warding off daemons, not enjoying the mosh pit.) That power
fist isn't really going to help much against Plague Marines, but it'll do a number on some
Nurglings, jimmy!
Grey Knights Terminators
Here's the Grey Knights Terminator Sergeant. I've been
learning how to do "blending" and you can sort of see my questionable success on
his sword. The halberds of the rest of the squad will be a bit trickier, I think, since
the blade is shorter and there is less room available to blend.
Grey Knights Marines
Unlike the golden baroque armor of the Terminators, the
armor of regular Grey Knights is, in fact, grey. (Interestingly enough, they are also
psychically "sterile," another important point of difference between their elite
cousins). The problem with grey power armor is that it is terribly difficult to get it to
look interesting. I went through a half dozen "throw away" V2 marines before I
finally settled on a paint scheme that seems to be working. It may be too bright.
Currently they are base-coated with Codex Grey and then I go over the whole thing in
Fortress Grey. I may want to step the whole thing down a notch-- base in black and go over
it in Codex Grey.
I've tried to add a splash of color to these guys
by doing their shoulder pads and backpacks in the same gold as the terminators. Skin color
is the same pallid, alien-looking pink that I did for the Inquisitor above. I have a
feeling these guys don't get a lot of time out in the sun so they have that "I just
stepped out of the gene pool" look to them.
This lascannon trooper had his leg/knee
resculpted with green stuff so I could get him down into this nifty kneeling postion.
| Squad "Temperans"
is armed with bolters and mounted in a twin-HB Razorback. The frenzied cultists of
Slaanesh are best denied hand-to-hand combat, and engaged at range from the safety of the
troop transport. |
|
| Squad "Sanitas" is equipped to
deal with the horrors of Nurgle. They are mounted in a Rhino to quickly deploy their
melta-gun and powerfist to the toughest and most bloated of foes. |
|
| Squad "Aequus" brings pax
gladii to the blood-thirsty followers of Khorne. They are simply but effectively
armed with great swords and pistols, though it is not unusual for one among the squad to
carry a pyschically-charged power weapon. |
|
| Squad "Constans" has fought
countless battles against the Thousand Sons of Tzeentch. Their Razorback blasts away with
its twin lascannons until the enemy is close enough to engage, whereupon they are quickly
hacked apart and dismantled. |
|
And now for something big...
That's right, you guessed it... Surely the Grey Knights
have Dreadnoughts, and what a great excuse for a cool conversion! It makes sense to
pattern him after the Terminators, only everything on a bigger scale. I started with his
"Nemesis Force Halberd." I've ugraded the halberd's built in storm bolter to
something more appropriately scaled: twin linked autocannon.
A halberd that big is going to require big
hands and long fingers-- more conversion work ahead. I've used bits of sprue to make
"knuckles" which are then connected to the hands with guitar strings. This is
great stuff for your "bitz box" by the way. A single guitar string (about 3 feet
long) costs about 50 cents. They make great textured wires.
Green stuff sculpting... Grey Knights badge and laurels.
Temporary back banner-- RT worthy, not GT worthy!
Below you can see just a few of the added
details... You can see he's been positioned on the base in "midstride" which was
pretty simple to do: I just cut his leg off at the knee and bent it back, wires and all.
Purity seals here and there, a storm shield in place as "extra armor" and the
finished details on the halberd-- including some grim souvenirs of chaos foes past.
Not quite complete... but good enough to show.
At last! But worth the wait...
Click the image to view the army list.
Comments?
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NOTE: The background image for the
pics is copyright H.R. Giger, used without permission.
Army
Commanders: Master of the Ordo and Inquisitor
