The Crimson Fists are getting reinforcements, hand over fist.  My 1980s Rogue Trader Space Marine army grows with the addition of another 5-man Tactical Squad composed of vintage metal and plastic Citadel Miniatures.

Time to put the huert on – Squad Huerta.

To my amazement and envy, in the time taken to finish this second squad of Battle at the Farm Crimson Fists, Nico has painted every Crimson Fist for the scenario, plus he’s modelled an evocative scenic base, plus he’s painted all the Orks and – if that wasn’t enough – some Ork reinforcements.  I feel like Falcon running round the park and being lapped repeatedly in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Freehand & Crimson Fist Icons

Again I had some fun adding freehand chapter icons and armour graffiti to the squad.  “THE TRUTH HUERTS” is just punning off the Sergeant’s name.  “INFINITE PLASMA” is a reference to the Battle at the Farm scenario, which Zhu points out gives the Space Marines unlimited Plasma Missiles (as they normally cost 1 point each, it technically means the Marines outclass the Orks by INFINITY POINTS).

I now need to paint a second Missile Launcher so I can reference Elton John’s Rocket Man.

“FOR NOW WE SEE BUT THRU A SCANNER DARKLY” on the Marine with scanner is a 1 Corinthians 13:12 / Philip K. Dick reference simply because he’s holding a scanner.  “FIST OR FAMINE” is from my handy stockpile of fist-based puns.  It’s a treat at the end of the painting process to choose some scrawly handwriting to give the battle-brothers an additional touch of the Rogue Trader era.

Crimson Fists Grand Plan

To fit into my planned 1,000 points (using the Whitescars army list from the Book of the Astronomican) the five Space Marines come out as:

SQUAD HUERTA

1 Marine Champion [9], Power Glove [15], Bolt Hun [2]
26 POINTS

3 Marines [3*8], 3 Bolt Guns [3*2] and 3 Frag Grenades [3*1]
33 POINTS

1 Marine [8], Missile Launcher [30], 12 Plasma Missiles [12] Targeter [5], 2 Suspensors [2*2]
59POINTS

Basic Equipment (all models): Bolt Pistol [1.5], Knife [0], Powered Armour [6] (with Communicator [0.5], Respirator [0.5], Auto-senses[0.5])
45 POINTS

TOTAL: 163 POINTS

Here are the two squads in action alongside each other, with a sneaky eleventh Citadel Miniature tucked away somewhere… can you spot it?

Squads Huerta and Onan fighting in the ruins of Blas in the Gallego system.

Crimson Fists Painting Tutorial

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how I paint Crimson Fists, so I photographed a Marine in between each step of the blue power armour process.

If you want to see these steps broken down, wth the techniques and theory behind them spelt out, the tutorial is available on Patreon.  The skills you’ll learn are transferable to all colours of power armour.

Coming soon – more vintage Crimson Fists to creep the army closer to game legal.

It’s the first Choose Your Own Adventurers of 2018, a group project where axiom, sho3box and I take turns painting a classic from the Rogue Trader Adventurers range.  This time I present Battle Brother Groma from the Crimson Fists Space Marine Chapter, and Ruin Priest Theodolitus from the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Only the strongest will surv-ey.

This pair came into being as I’ve already painted iconic archaeologist Indiana Jones for the project, and it’s made me want some more Warhammer 40,000 excavation personnel.

Theodolitus is an Adeptus Mechanicus Ruin Priest (not to be confused with the Rune Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus or Space Wolves), specialising in archaeological investigation.  You can see from his hunched back and tattered trousers that Theodolitus has spent his entire career painstakingly trowelling back trenches hoping to uncover archaeotech secrets and alien artefacts from ancient times.  He is a very different adherent of the Cult Mechanicus to the Tech-priest Enginseers normally seen repairing machinery mid-battle; Theodolitus only works on battlefields abandoned centuries ago.  Actual warfare – he wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole.

Check out the holstered trowel added to the Ruin Priest’s belt. 

Theodolitus is a minor conversion of the standard RT601 Adventurers Tech-priest.  I replaced his staff with brass wire, but kept the original top with its 1980s Adeptus Mechanicus wing symbol – simply flipping it backwards and adding a ball of putty painted like a survey lens.  On the back of his belt I added his trusty archaeology trowel – “Trenchbane” – made from a diamond of plasticard, a length of wire, and putty.

Theodolitus recording an ancient battlefield containing wreckage of an original Mars Pattern Warhound Titan.

Battle Brother Groma has been temporarily requisitioned by from the Crimson Fists Chapter to serve with the Explorators of the Adeptus Mechanicus.  Groma served in his Chapter as a Fire Support Specialist, relaying the coordinates of the rocket strikes of the Crimson Fists’ Whirlwind formations.  He is equally at home operating the las-survey devices of the Adeptus Mechanicus to record their archaeological digs, though it took him time to adjust to the tedium of measuring points on a landscape without witnessing their fiery destruction seconds later.

Groma’s graffitied survey case and his freehand Crimson Fists Chapter icon.

I converted Groma from the biker-with-scanner torso from the 1980s Space Marine bike range.  His legs are a mongrel of metal biker legs and RTB01 plastic legs.  The tripod is plastic rod, and bits box spares.  The toolboxes with dinky padlocks are courtesy of Ramshackle Games.

I decided on Crimson Fists colours as it’s the iconic Rogue Trader look, and it might lead in to a Battle at the Farm project later in the year.  I experimented with several different blues, trying to keep him away from the Ultramarines Blue as seen on my Rogue Trader Marneus Calgar, settling on a mix of Citadel Mordian Blue, Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey and Vallejo Royal Purple.  The key to a classic Crimson Fists scheme is staying away from white and gold, and getting in a lot of crimson.

Groma sometimes imagines Theodolitus and his sodding pole obliterated in a storm of rocket fire when he glimpses him through his sights.

Check out sho3box for the next thrilling Rogue Trader miniature!  You can find a selection of the other Choose Your Own Adventurers episodes below.

This is one of my Golden Demon entries – Sergeant Rophocalas of the Blood Angels chapter.  He was entered into the Staff Category at Golden Demon Space Marines back in 2015.

Sergeant Rophocalas with Breacher Squad Aceldamus during a boarding action on the Space Hulk Dies Inproba Apollonis.

Sergeant Rophocalas is the event-exclusive Mark III Boarding Marine from Forge World.  He’s had a head-swap with a Forge World Legion Preator so I had the opportunity to paint some flesh.  I also built a step-style base out of Necromunda bulhead and Zone Mortalis fittings to help draw the eye up the model.

I really enjoy painting limited edition figures.  I feel they’re intrinsically more valuable than their mass-produced counterparts.  My enthusiasm for limited editions is more likely to last for the scores of hours that it takes to paint models to a high competition standard, so it’s a great completion strategy.  And, at the end of the day you have a extra-special piece with an extra-special paintjob

There’s a number of techniques on this Blood Angel I don’t normally do on my gaming miniature.  My standard Space Marines are largely flat block colours on their panels as I’m painting them (at least theoretically) for gaming.  But on Rophocalas I wanted to push my blending and transitions.  His red armour has has smooth transition from dark to mid red.  Areas like the silver on his combi-bolter and the gold aquila on his shield are done is a non-metallic metal style.

I didn’t nail the standard or style to be a Golden Demon winner, but I got closer than I’d been previously.  I wince a little bit looking at parts of this entry now – but I learned a lot and stretched myself.  It wasn’t the best Space Marine in the Golden Demon cabinets that day, but it was the best Space Marine I’d done up to that point.

I painted my first Primaris Space Marine!  He’s Nemesis Chapter – an Ultramarines successor chapter with origins in the dark days of the Horus Heresy.

Sergeant Glaucon, 2nd Battle Company, 3rd Squad, Nemesis Chapter.  His banner reads ΝΕΜΕΣΙΣ – “nemesis” in Greek capitals.

This Intercessor Sergeant, from Games Workshop’s Dark Imperium starter set, is largely indistinguishable from the squad he leads.  Traditionally, Space Marine sergeants have a different weapon configuration (something Napoleonic like pistol and swords), bare heads and big banners to mark them out.  I originally finished painting the mini, but was uneasy with how he looked alongside the rest of the squad.  Only thing to distinguish him was the helmet being red.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will also spot the checks added to his right pauldron since this photo was taken.

So I added a dirty great banner.  This one is from the Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought, which matches the swollen proportions of the 2017 Space Marine iteration.  Here’s Glaucon next to some classic Space Marines with flags to show the scale creep over the last 30 years.

Left to right: 1987 Blood Angel; 2013 Ultramarine; 2017 Nemesis Marine.

Yeah yeah, I know you’re gonna say “Marines got swole cos of Guilliman’s super-seed”, but I reject your fluff-led view of Games Workshop’s miniatures and state flatly that Primaris is the new de facto Space Marine and is directly comparable to the other two Marines above.  Nurrr.

Glaucon leading his little brothers from Ultramarines Squad Varenus.

The Dark Imperium box is overwhelming with the amount of Marines in it, and I’m going to trick myself into thinking it’s one of the smaller starter sets so I’m making better progress through the purchased model pile.  Next off – the rest of the Intercessor squad!