Squidmaster's Imperial (renamed)

I've been on a bit of a binge lately, or certainly since joining this forum. I've been inflicting so much on you, mainly in my project log, my BFG fleets (Space Marine and Tyranid fleets now under construction!) , my Chaos Space Marine only a week or so ago....
Yeah, sorry.
But this is the last one, I swear. This brings me up to date with you fine folks on all the armies I still have lying around, so anything from here on out is new or in progress.

So, these guys, The Last Chancers.

If you remember, a couple of editions ago we were introduced to Colonel Shaeffer's Last Chancers. They were a special unit of Guardsmen Veterans with a few special abilities. Their rules were expanded in White Dwarf so that each member of the squad was a unique special character all by themselves, and scenarios were introduced to allow you to field an army that consisted of nothing but these twelve guys.

One generation on from that, but still an edition or two ago for us now, and GW made the logical step that made them even better. Colonel Shaeffer and his Last Chancers were included in Codex: Imperial Guard as a special character, but this time they were completely customizable. You bought Col. Shaeffer and Lt. Kage, but could then add up to twenty more guys, each completely customizable in almost any way imaginable (within limits of course - a certain number of heavies, a certain number of psykers, etc). The unit, once chosen, could be split into a collection of sub-units for specialized action.
And they were brilliant. Tooled up, you could field 1000pts of them easily, and that's what I decided to do.


And then changed my mind. Wanting 1500pts to be able to play decent games, I added a few things. Namely, Witchhunters Inquisitors and a few bits and pieces from Imperial Armour/Forgeworld.

The theme I came up with was this: instead of being a Penal Unit of convicts and the like, this would be an Inquisitors private army, put together from mercenaries, deserters, conscripts and assorted random Imperial citizens and soldiers the Inquisitor felt were needed for his own private little force. He's recruited them, equipped them, and provided additional support equipment.
With this plan in mind, a list was made, and the collection of parts began.


And this.........is the army I made:




Col. Shaeffer and Lt. Kage were the two named characters the unit was built around. Shaffer was built on a Space Marine Scout to reflect his carapace armour, with a few bits of green stuff, Imperial Guard parts and Malus Darkblade's sword (perhaps hinting that the Inquisitor he serves is a tad radical?). Kage was Cadian parts mixed with Chaos Marauder. Due to a glueing error, he wields a Chainsword with the Count Dooku style tilted handle.
With them here are also the unit's four Psykers: A telekinetic, a floramancer (or is it faunamancer?), a necromancer and an auramancer.



Two of the Heavy Weapons teams here, one a badass Autocannon wielder and his generic Guardsman ammo guy, and a quite imposing Missile Launcher trooper built from a Necromunda Bounty Hunter. With such an imposing figure, I decided the little Empire Citizen from the WFB Giant clutching his head to the ground just looked excellent alongside him. He really looks like he doesn;t want to be there.
Also here is one of the combat specialists, a Mordheim Mercenary, blagged here as being from a Feudal world and adding a bit more distinctiveness to the whole army.



The third and final Heavy Weapon team, this time a Necromunda Delaque Lascannon with well tanned ammo carrier. We also have here the army's two snipers, one built from a Cadian and the other from an old Sisters of Battle Frataris Militia (remember them?!) and then two of the special weapons men, a shotgun wielding Necromunda Arbite (with Cadian head) and a Grenade Launcher trooper.



Another Combat Specialist, this time a Death Cult Assassin, alongside four of the Special Weapons men. Here are some good examples of the special old-style Guard I got hold of for the army to be as cosmopolitan as possible: a Tallarn, a Valhallen and a Mordian.

That brings us to the end of the guys who were chosen from the actual Last Chancers entry itself.



The Last Chancers rules said that the unit itself counted as both one HQ and two Troops choices, making them an enclosed army for all intents and purposes. Expanding it though, and assessing my options, I wanted a few of the options from an Imperial Guard Command. So I took one small squad with a Junior Officer. I again kept the unit varied in their style to reflect the army, adding in the odd Chaos Marauder part here and there. The Junior Officer himself actually has part of a Necron Pariah's combat weapon here, another hint of the officer's in this private army being given access to frowned upon xenos/chaos equipment.
Shown here is also the army's tame Vindicare, and the Tech-Priest who annoyed me (plus his gun servitor). He didn't annoy me personally, I was actually quite pleased with him, but I want to point out that I built this guy LONG before the Space Marines release that introduced the Servo-Harness. Yes, I thought of it first.
The large claw and drill on his backpack come from a Necromunda Pit Gladiator.



The Inquisitor himself. Not an incredibly impressive thing, but cool enough looking for my purposes. Modelled on the WFB Dogs of War character Vespero with Necron Flayed One claws, he was tooled up as a combat beast. Alongside him here are his retinue of combat servitors modelled from old Dark Eldar Mandrakes to be arco-flagellants, based a little on the design of the one who was released for the game Inquisitor.
There's a Priest at the far end (useful at the time to bolster whichever mini-squad he joined) and one of the Imperial Armour additions - a Cyclops Demolition Vehicle.
If you're unfamiliar with these, they're essentially remote controlled bombs. This operator is modeled with the standard auspex style controller.



The other two Cyclops and Operators (these guys were a whole Fast Attack slot each!), this time with the high-tech laser guidance controller, and the similar auspex controller this time in the console-controller style (I was using what parts I had). All three of the vehicles themselves are made from Epic 40,000 Land Raiders, mainly because that's exactly what the Cyclops looks like in the Imperial Armour books (though I think they were supposed to be slightly bigger).
Finally, the Heavy Support of the army, all from Imperial Armour - it's NINE Tarantula Sentry Guns!
At three per Heavy Support slot, they made the obvious choice. Built from Land Raider weapon sponsons and hatches, I went for three Lascannon and six Heavy Bolters to lay down supporting fire for the army.



And that's it!
That was my 1500pts Imperial Guard army using the Last Chancers as the core, with Witchhunters allies and equipment from Imperial Armour.
The army is of course completely useless now, because the following Codex removed the Last Chancers altogether! (Penal Squads were introduced, but had nowhere near the level of custom options as they used to). The army sits now in a box in a cupboard, next to the almost unusable Chaos Space Marines I've posted elsewhere here, but these guys with significantly less hope for use.
I have been able to use them once or twice, as generic minions when miniatures were required for a Dark heresy/Deathwatch game, but that's it.
As my armies go, it was one I was most proud of. By my current standard, I could probably repaint them and do a better job than I did at the time, but it's hard to find the heart to repaint them when I know I may very well never use them again. I was really proud of the build though, and the sheer utter uniqueness not just of the army, but of each character within the army. It was a project I loved doing and have never quite been able to match in my later efforts, because no other army has quite the same lack of uniformity.


By all means comment, criticize or any other form of communication. Your opinions nourish me.

Wouldn't dare criticize anything Squid, this is a terrific army that clearly a LOT of thought and effort has gone into. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with your paint job.

The Cyclops LR's are a real nice touch.

I hope you keep it and can find a way to use it, you could call it whatever you want and I would be more than happy to play this army on the tabletop.

Cheers.

Got to agree with Gobsmakked and say one of my favourite models is one you're very dismissive off! I love the inquisitor with lightening claws! Absolutely awesome stuff and shows the massive range of your ability beyond your beautiful Deldar

I've been using and adding to these guys lately, fielding them in various combinations with my Legion of the Damned, and some recently added Deathwatch.

I've also recently put together a list for them which manages to hit 1800pts at only 21 models, and relies a fair bit on these five new Inquisitors:



What you have there is Coteaz in the middle, but currently missing some kind of animal to stand in for the Eagle. I'm looking to see what I can find, maybe thinking not having an Eagle, but seeing if I can get a right sized dog or cat. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!
Either side of him are two Power Armoured Inquisitors with Conversion Beamers built from the two campaign box Captains (Black Reach and Dark Vengeance).
And either side of them two more Inquisitors in Carapace Armour, also with Conversion Beamers, these guys built from a Space Marine Scout and a Tempestus Scion.
All Beamers converted from Space Marine Scout Shotguns.

My Inquisition seems to be the force I'm working on at the moment while I wait for more parts for my Warp Spiders to arrive (and decide to be bothered to finish painting my Seer Council) so I've started building a new Inquisitor.
I haven't really thought on whether I'll use him, but decided that if I was going to have a Coteaz (above in gold) then I might as well built up a Karamazov too.

As a quick reminder, this is GW's Karamazov:




Now. My version is going to need to reach the same bulk, and will probably keep the throne theme, but will need to be a bit different just to be a Squidmaster project.
So we're going to shift it a little and instead of having a throen on legs, we're going to put it on big bulky tank treads.
Working out the best way to make that happen, I turned to nuts:



The shape works quite nicely, and stuck together gives a nice base to work from. I can make up some actual treads and wrap them around the nuts as built here, and it only takes a few rods between certain nuts to connect this up, and create a space between the side hull sections to put machiery and the Inquisitor's throne.

As such:



The bottom image here shows the front, with the first armour plates lower than at the back.
The throne and Multi-melta will be raised, probably to just about the level of the top of the treads (working on some experiments to see how big the throne will end up being).
The rest of the plan forn the cavity between tread sections is to fill it with wiring and other random machiney things to make it look.....machiney.......I guess.

I'm pleased with how the treads have come together, so I'm probably going to see if I can get some much smaller nuts and start on the base of a few Kataphron to throw in a Formation to ally with the Inquisition.

I just finished the actual "chariot" itself.

Here's the throne partly in progress, and in place in the hull.
I've also added a specific cavity for the weapon later.



STarting to add the tracks, doing it piece by piece.



A few steps on the left here, giving Karamazov a way to actually climb the tank and get to his chair, and the main gun on the right.



The main gun finished and in place.



More details added.



Rivets and wires added, finishing the greatest wheel-chair ever.



All I need to do now is build the Inquisitor himself. Or herself. I haven't decided. I think it might be nice to add a female presence to this Inquisition force, so I'll have a look and see if there's any decent sitting armourted female figures around. If you know of any, please do point them out!

DE have some warrior female bodys in armor. May be able to do something with it after cutting off all the blades/spikes.

Looks great so far

Yeah, I have a few like that, but think the spikes just aren't quite right. I may end up having to for something standing next to the chair, but will spend a week or two looking for a sitter if I can.



On top of that, I'll say that what I love about the Inquisiton is that they really open things up a bit. My force is able to play really loosely with the Detachments and Formation available to any Imperial army, and throw fun stuff in just for the hell of it.
I've been planning a few new additions, including both a Wyrdstorm Brotherhood and a Librarius Conclave to get some really strong Psyker support, and also came across something fun in Sanctus Reach. I discovered Cassor The Damned, a special character Detah Company Dreadnought..........who is a Troops choice. With no other requirements for taking him.
So, to add some big support to the Inquisiton, a small Blood Angels Allied Detachment featuring Cassor The Damned and a Librarian Dreadnought. Two Dreadnoughts. As a Detachment. Lovely.

ANd so we begin to build them.



Of course I need to make custom version. Its the joy of the build I'm looking for.
So at this base level we've got the legs pretty far along. Each leg has two sets of pistons at the back (yes, thats the back). and I've just started adding more plasticard strips to distinguish the knee joint.
Once I have that more defined, I'll add the bulkier armour plates to the front, and get the crotch in a better form.
The groin area is currently a small 2x2 Lego brick, which is there to allow me to simply use a larger Lego block to bulk out a main body and attach it on top. I can then build the armour around that Lego base, and know I have strenght inside the model too.

Legs pretty much done. Probably a few tin y things to add, but good enough for now to move on and add a waist. And a rest of the body.

Legs with added waists.



Basic Lego block frame to build the body around, with the first work done to smooth down some of the connectors and start work on the front plate of the Death Company Dreadnought.



Add additional work on the front plate of the Death Company Dreadnought.

Trying to come up with something to decorate the Librarian, and I eventually managed to make a little book:



And a little bit of extra work later, and we have the front and topds of the torso sections. The Death Company Dreadnought had to have a bit extra added for his Magna-Grapple:




Next to do is the underside of the torso, for which I'll need to go out and buy some more wire. I plan to have it as mostly exposed wiring, with a few obvious mechanical components sticking out.
I also need to add a bit more armour plating to the back.

And then after that, I'll move on to arms.

Missing image from early on, showing the main base of the torso before I started adding the armour and other stuff:




NEXT, I've started the arms.

Top image below is the upper arms, soon to have more armour and wires in them.
Below that, the Librarian gets some hands. Force Weapon on the left, and a fist on the right.

I'm impressed with these two latest mighty additions, your Dreadnoughts. When I first saw you start on the legs I had my doubts, but wow they're really turning out fantastically. The book is a brilliant idea to help specify it as a Librarian! Nice work man, I'm keeping tuned to see how it comes along

Also I like the Cyclops you made! What a wonderful way to incorporate 40K Epic into such a unique army as this

A couple of updates to finish off the Dreadnoughts!

Last time I shared the Librarian's hands, and today I'm able to throw in the Death Company Dreadnought's hands:



In the background there you can also see more bulk and stability added to the upper arms.

Also here are the shoulder guards:



On the top are the Librarians, for which I embraced the modelling properties of fire to burn some plasticard and bend it into a few scrolls/banners.
The bottom are the Death Company, for who I just went with expanding the X motif on the body and adding skulls. Because skulls.


And then finally, I FINISHED.


First the Librarian:



And the Death Company:



I'll try to paint them over the next couple of weeks and throw them up here when I get a chance.

Dude....great effort man. They are looking sweet!

Thanks!

And here we go, Dreadnoughts totally complete!




A problem thats been brought up with the Legion of the Damned is that the bases I used were too light in colour, and its the same bases I've been trying to use for all my Imperial forces.
And then recently a Poundland bought out the store I was getting the floor tiles to use on those bases, and those tiles are now gone. So I have to reassess.
What I'm going to do is sand it, and these are the first two with the new bases. I'm maybe add puffs of grass later.

Still looking for a suitable sitting figure to be Inquisitor Karamazov.

A few new additions, all built and painting in progress.

THis army, is a mish-mash. It is making good use (some might say absuing) the way Detachments and Formation work.
And I'm loving it.
So to expand the range of what it can do, we open with two fun Psychic power houses.

First, a Librarius Conclave (five Space Marine Librarians):



And on top of that, a Wyrdstorm Brotherhood (five Rune Priests):




Finally, I built a Cypher I was quite pleased with (pictures earlier in this thread somewhere) but his main problem is that choices for taking him require another army with a spare HQ slot, or 1-3 units of Chaos Chosen. So, just to make sure he has the option, I threw together a single little band of Chosen.

I recently got my hands on OOOOOLLLLD Land Raider, but it was fairly beat up and had "small-child" paint blobs all over it,
So I had to do a bit of work to save it, and that meant a few significant alterations.
I ended up having to completely replace the front of the main hull, so built it more like a modern access hacth, and then I had to carve off lots of the other decorative bits. Then I added some massive floodlights at the front for no particular reason. Frag Launchers? Maybe.

It also didn't come with any weapons, so I had to build them too.
While at it, I magentized the weapons. Seeing as this is for use with an Inquisition force, its tooled up reader to be a standard, Crusader or Redeemer, and if I can find some Heavy Bolters I may prep it to be a Proteus too (Forgeworld, two Quad-Heavy Bolters and a sensor unit).


And here it is:



I think the varnish may have gone wrong, but I'll fix that later.

Its been a little whole since I've been able to update anything, but I've finally got around to building something new.
This one is really on a whim (ish), and despite having some other stuff in progress. I've got some vengeance Weapons Batteries unfinished, but I need to wait a little while before I can get the last materials I need to finish them.
In the meantime, I've signed up for a tournament in October, and have decided to take a mix of my Imperial forces. The rules for this one are three Detachments max, so I'm taking my Legion Of The Damned, some Deathwatch (because they are lovely), and a small Allied Detachment of a Librarian Dreadnought and Cassor The Damned. I've come to a place where I have 100pts free, and after testing it out with a proxy I've decided to add a Deathstorm Drop Pod (the one with the many Whirlwind Launchers inside!). It worked really well in a test game, its opening salvo cutting two large units in half and being enough of a distraction for some of my opponents firepower.

So, this gives me just over a month to build a Deathstorm Drop Pod.

The problem here, is that Deathstorm is a three-door, the original model being based on the Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod. I haven't been able to find one of these, and the regular five door variant just wouldn't work.
(To clarify, the rules for the Deathstorm say that in the turn it drops, each of the three doors fires d3 times at every enemy unit in sight and 12". So if a unit is in sight of two of the weapons, It takes the hits from both. With that in mind, keeping it as three-door is important.)

So.

A scratch-build it is.

I scouted around online, and managed to find some reasonable dimensions for the Lucius Pattern, and started on that, working in plasticard.



I've got the three doors and part of the base so far.
To give the doors strength I carved each out twice and glued them together (so each is a double layer of plasticard). The outer layer I adjusted the dimensions to give some layering to the armour plates. I plan to find something decent to act as rungs on the inside to match existing Drop Pods.

Also shown in the picture above are two hexagons of plasticard which will form the base. To give it bulk, I'll be cutting out an equal sized hexagon in foamboard, maybe double-layered again. This'll give the base more height and bulk, and still be reasonably light. I hope to make it strong enough to support a set of hinges I can attach the doors to.

SImilar smaller hexagons need to be done for the top, and the three side wings still need to be done too. I think these will also be plastic either side of a foamboard middle.

Once thats all done, I can add interior and exterior detail. Its importsant for the overall build that the doors do open as a Drop Pods should, and that the Whirlwind Launcher within be there.


I'll probably try to get the foamboard I need tomorrow, and hoipefully this'll be done by the end of September.


Hopefully by then my local stores will start stocking Halloween decorations, and I can find the last pieces I need for those Vengeance Batteries (using skulls as the base of the guns on top).

A little more to add, I've put some of the extra detail on the top and bottom plates.



The top plate is going to be made of the larger hexagons here, a ring and poker chip used to space out where the landing thrusters will go. I've laid down a textured floor for the drop pod in general, and with this bit at least I can start planning where the Whirlwind Launcher will go. I may put a magent on the bottom here, not necessarily to remove or swap the gun, but to provide an easy pivot point for it.

Smaller hexagons here go on the top and bottom of the upper plate, held up by the wings of the Drop Pod.

Those wings really do need to be the next thing I build.

Great looking projekt. Very good scrath built stuff

Top and bottom plates assembled, and you can also see here the first texturing on the insides of the pod doors.




I've cut out the foam-board base for the three wings and have started prepping them. Just waiting on a new delivery of plasticard sheets so I can encase the foam-board in plastic and build up a few layers of armour plating.




And a quick addition, showing the wings in place with the top and bottom plates.




While I wait for more plasticard, I'm going to start looking at options for the Whirlwind Launcher within.

I finished up the wings, adding the plasticard layer, and adding a few extra details like some small washers. Three of these, but there was one small mistake. One of them has a steeper hypotenuese than the other two. Damn.
So I'm going to have to add some sensors of an aerial or something there to make it look intentional.




I've then also managed to find some hinges small enough, and attached them to the doors.




Next, the wings got glued into place, with the top and bottom plates.




And finally, the doors were attached!





And with a Dreadnought for scale!




So, whats next?

The doors don't close perfectly. ossibly something in how they were measured, but there are gaps all around the doors when they close. Theres no solid seal. So I'll be adding to the sides of the wings and doors and make sure that looks better.
I also need to add the aerial to one of the wings to cover that mistake.
And very importantly I need to build the Whirlwind Launcher for inside, and put together something for where the vent/engine should be on top (in the centre of the top plat where the wings should meet).

I've been working to get my Imperials ready for a tournament in a few weeks time, and after a tragic problem involving a certain companies product "Purity Seal" cuaisng a horrible frosting glaze on newly painted models, and then some stripping and repainting, I've got some Deathwatch ready to join the fray.

To start, Kill Team Cassius. I originally got these guys some time back before Deathwatch became a full release but never did upload the image here I think.
This is how Cassius turned out:



For the upcoming tournament, I'm using a Strategium Command Team with Watch Captain Artemis, so needed to add a few extra guys to the mix with new weapons, etc.

So these are the additionals for that team, to be joined by a few of the models from Cassius to make my Kill Team:




I'm quite liking how Deathwatch work and the current new ruels for them, so I picked up a few more Deathwatch, a Blood Angels unit for variation, and the Dark Vengeance Terminators. All got cut up and mixed around a bit, so I have a few more models on the way for this side of my Imperial army, Here's the work in progress on the rest:

Deathwatch Dreadnought from the OVerkill set added to the overall Imperial shenanigans: