Category: Crimson Fists

Primaris Pedro Kantor

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, LEDs, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

Broader shoulders rightly mean greater burdens.

Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, on crossing the Rubicon Primaris.

What if…Pedro Kantor crossed the Rubicon Primaris? Although it hasn’t happened in canon (yet), it’s a question that many fans of the Crimson Fists have already considered. I had originally hoped to include my take on this idea as part of my Armies on Parade 2021 display board, but when it became clear that I wasn’t going to get it all done in time I put Pedro on the back-burner for a couple of weeks while I finished the board itself. But now Pedro is finally done!

Painting & Assembling

This was a relatively simple conversion based on the Imperial Fists character Tor Garadon. All Tor Garadon’s distinguishing features were removed, such as his head and the grav-gun. I also replaced the ruined defences he was standing on with a pile of Ork skulls!

I then added a few parts from the Finecast Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, specifically his personal banner, left forearm and Dorn’s Arrow. The helmet is from the limited edition Primaris Captain; I chose this one as it had the same laurel wreath as Pedro’s current model. I also sculpted the circular gemstone on his forehead from modelling putty to echo the gemstone on the existing Pedro model.

To create the LED helmet eye lenses and muzzle flare I used the techniques described in my LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial that you can find here. For the paint scheme, I resisted the temptation to go too “bling” with the detail on Pedro’s and kept to the comparatively limited palette that I used for the rest of my Crimson Fists.

So there we have it, Primaris Pedro Kantor! Rule-wise, I’ll simply use him as with his normal rules on the table top. The Primaris upgrade is simply an aesthetic improvement so that I wouldn’t need to field a “first born” Pedro Kantor in an otherwise all-Primaris army. That’s it for this week, see you all again soon!

“Revenge at the Farm” Crimson Fists ‘Armies on Parade’ 2021

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, LEDs, Orks, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,0003 Comments

Thirty-four years after the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader introductory scenario “Battle at the Farm”, the Crimson Fists are back at the site of their infamous retreat for revenge – Primaris style! “Revenge at the Farm” is my entry for Games Workshop’s ‘Armies on Parade’ 2021 event. My entry to ‘Armies on Parade’ 2020 was quite simple, basically just a tiered hill to display the LED Crimson Fists that I’d completed so far. This time, I wanted to tell a bit more of a story!

Captain Grimstone of the Fourth Company oversees the purging of the ruined farmstead. Epistolary Gabriel, Crimson Fists Geokinetic, leads the Eradicators to secure the left flank.

“Purge the xenos! No survivors!” The Crimson Fists don’t have it all their own way though – kunnin’ kommandoes counter-attack from the treeline!

Hellblaster Squad Ordonéz provides covering fire from Bultha’s Rise. The Reivers home in on the red signal flares to secure the ruined generator.

Ancient Santec strides past the overgrown orchard and the ruins of the farmhouse. It looks like Thrugg Bullneck didn’t escape the original battle with his stolen loot. Perhaps the grot kommando will have more luck?

The farm – then and now. This is the map of the farm as shown in the Warhammer 40,000 first edition rulebook. I had to take some slight artistic license with the layout to accommodate the models in a pleasing way. For example, if the stone walls or ruined farmhouse were too tall then it would have obscured models behind. Similarly, I changed the contours of the hills to better display the units on that flank. I also “zoomed in” slightly on the map so I didn’t have a lot of ‘dead space’ behind the orchard. But overall I think it’s still recognisable as the same location.

That’s it for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures of my Crimson Fists and the display board. I’ll be back later in the week to take a closer look at some of the Orks who are not having a good day at the farm! As ever, please don’t forget that if you want to have a go at LED miniatures yourself then my tutorials are here and you can shop for the required tools and consumables here.

Crimson Fists on Crusade

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, Crusade, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,0003 Comments

It’s impossible to argue with the sheer power of thirty Primaris transhuman warriors. Yet amazingly heretics and xenos still try!

Captain Grimstone

Although I’ve played many, games of Warhammer 40K over the years, due to Covid-19 restrictions I’ve only managed to get a single game of 9th edition under my belt since it came out last year. But with restrictions having lifted further in England this week, I’m hoping to take my Crimson Fists into battle very soon. That means it’s time to look through my painted models and gather a 50 Power level Crusade force!

Company HQ

First of all I wanted to think about my warlord and leader of my Crusade. Without a doubt that would be Captain Grimstone. A heroic captain is the centre of any large narrative Space Marine force for me. I decide to immediately spend some of my requisition kitting him out. You start Crusade campaigns with the maximum allowable of 5 Requisition points and you gain an additional Requisition point after each game – win or lose – so it made sense to spend at least 1 point. So I spent 1 Requisition point to give him the Crimson Fists relic ‘Fist of Vengeance’ and another 1 Requisition point to give him the Crimson Fists warlord trait ‘Refuse to Die’. The main reason I chose these two is simply because when I’ve fielded the previous version of Grimstone in smaller games, I’ve always had this relic and this trait, so if I didn’t buy them there’s every chance I’d forget and use them anyway! So this is 2 Requisition points spent to protect against accidental cheating!

I also wanted to include Epistolary Gabriel. I’m really not a fan of allowing the psychic phase to go uncontested if I can help it. In keeping with the way he is modelled I opted for the Geokinesis discipline and the ‘Fortify’ and ‘Chasm’ powers for a mix of offence and defence.

I was fairly sure I was also going to include at least one Lieutenant (I have three painted), but I didn’t know whether it was going to be Alehoc with his slightly more expensive equipment, or whether I’d need to downgrade him to one of his more cheaply equipped brothers. In the end I had the Power to spare, so Alehoc made the cut – which is just as well as I love the model!

Troops

The choice of Troops for my Crusade force couldn’t have been more straightforward. I needed three Troops choices to meet the minimum requirement for a Battalion, and I had three units of Intercessors painted. Job done!

Heavy Support & Elites

With 30 out of 50 Power spent, how was I going to spend the remaining 20? HQ and Troops were sorted, so it was time to consider a bit of heavy firepower. Looking at my painted units, I had to choose between some combination of my Redemptor, Eradicators, Hellblasters, Reivers, Judicar and Primaris Ancient (and whether or not my Lieutenant would be equipped with a neo-volkite and storm shield or simply a power sword).

The Redemptor was a must – a great all round unit and also a visual centrepiece for the army. The Eradicators were also an essential choice for their shear offensive power. That left me a bit short on Power for the Hellblasters, so I settled on the Reivers and the upgrade for the Lieutenant. While the Reivers might not have a lot of firepower they do give me a bit of much needed objective-grabbing reach with their grav-chutes. I think this will be useful in an otherwise slow army.

So there we have it, Task Force Grimstone, ready for Crusade on a battlefield near you! I’ll report back soon with how their first game goes. Wish me luck!

Captain Grimstone, Crimson Fists Primaris Captain

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, LEDs, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

I don’t know exactly how many Orks I’ll slay during my service to the Emperor, but ‘all of them’ seems a worthy goal.

Captain Grimstone, Crimson Fists 4th Company

Meet Captain Grimstone of the Crimson Fists 4th Company, or at least the latest version of Captain Grimstone! This model is an update and replacement for my previous Primaris Captain. The LED in the plasma pistol on my old captain recently stopped working, most likely due to a dry solder joint or other loose connection. I could disassemble the model and repair it, but I thought it might be more fun to make an updated and slightly more personalised model for some of the narrative games that I hope to play soon now Covid restrictions are starting to ease.

Assembling

Captain Grimstone uses parts from a number of different sources, but is mostly based on the limited edition Sergeant Jovan model. This kit has sat on my ‘Shelf of Shame’ for a couple of years now, so it feels good to put it to use. The power fist – most likely representing the relic ‘Fist of Vengeance’ in game – is made from a spare Pedro Kantor power fist. As you can see in the ‘work in progress’ images below, it took some careful cutting and gap filling to replace Jovan’s normal hand!

For the LED plasma pistol I used the techniques described in my LED Plasma Weapon tutorial. As you may be able to see in the picture above, the front half of the plasma pistol is cast resin and the back half is sculpted from scratch to hide the LED connections. The connecting wires then run through the hand, into the raised leg and down through the dead ork to the battery in the base.

With the defeated ork I wanted to give the impression that the greenskin had been killed with a head-shot from the plasma pistol, and the plasma flames were still consuming him, even as he lay on the ground. The ork skull is a hollowed out skull from the Citadel ‘Skulls’ plastic kit. The LED used in the skull is the same type as used in the plasma pistol and is connected in a parallel circuit with the same battery. The ‘plasma flame’ effects around the eyes and mouth were achieved with Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World, using the technique described in my Nighthaunt Candle tutorial.

Captain Grimstone consults with his command staff during the liberation of Csian Bastion.

That’s it for this week, I hope you all found it interesting. Next week the Crimson Fists 4th Company will be off on crusade, so I’ll be back soon with a look at a 50 Power narrative list!

Primaris Librarian Geokinetic

On By Chris B.In Crimson Fists, LEDs, Space Marines, Warhammer 40,0002 Comments

A rolling stone gathers a lot of xenos.

Epistolary Gabriel, Crimson Fists Geokinetic

Today I’d like to present Crimson Fists Epistolary Gabriel, Master of the Geokinesis psychic discipline! This Primaris Librarian is another long-term resident of the ‘Shelf of Shame’, having languished in his box since the model was released back in 2017. This model will also be my entry for the Warhammer Community #WarhammerPaintComp for April, which is on the theme of “Wise Wizards”. It was actually this contest that inspired me to bump Gabriel to the front of the queue.

Assembling

The LED techniques used in this model are those described in my LED Psyker tutorial, except this time I used two separate circuits rather than one, powered by two separate batteries in the base. This required a 50mm base to accomodate both batteries, which was also useful also for allowing more room to model the ‘geokinetic’ floating rocks. One circuit consisted of three 1.8mm TruOpto Blue LEDs (the head and base) in parallel, and the other circuit was two Blue 0805 Chip LED (3V) (the hands). I expect it would have been possible to use five of the 0805 Chip LEDs running in parallel off a single battery instead, however I decided to use the LEDs I had in stock for this one rather than ordering more. The ‘energy’ effects around the hands was achieved with Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World, using the technique described in my Nighthaunt Candle tutorial.

If ez da rock I’d ‘ate to see da ‘ard place!

Zogbag, Ork Weirdboy

For the pose, I was going for the classic X-Men Magneto hovering posture, only throwing rocks instead of metal. I was also inspired by Apologist’s classic Iron Hands Clan Trago Librarian “Psi-Cursed Merdardus” (scroll down). The left hand is the default ‘open’ hand of the model, while the right I had to resculpt after removing the force sword. The left leg is also repositioned forward, although this might not be evident in the pictures. As he was no longer holding his sword I added a sheathed sword which was from the limited edition Space Marine Captain that was released a number of years ago. The “floating” rocks were made from small pieces of cork tile, cut into rock-like shapes with a hobby knife and then superglued together.

Painting

I’ve never particularly been a fan of the ‘codex’ approach of repainting armour for specialist roles. I quite like the Rogue Trader era solution of just one arm being the appropriate specialist colour, as I did with my Imperial Fist apothecary. But I didn’t feel this was an effective solution with the blue of the Librarius being so close to the blue of the Crimson Fists, and also with much of the model being hidden by robes.

I remember seeing in White Dwarf a long time ago an article with a Dark Angels army where all the specialists had their armour painted in Dark Angels colours – either green or the bone of the Deathwing – and their robes painted in the colours of their specialism. I thought that looked great, so I decided to follow that approach here. The paint recipe I used on the robes uses Citadel paints: Macragge Blue base, Nuln Oil shade, then highlight up through Calgar Blue highlight and Fenrisian Grey. Otherwise I stuck to the pallet that I used for the rest of the army. It would have been very easy to get carried away painting the Librarian’s ‘bling’ but ultimately I felt the focus of the model should be the LED effects.

That’s it for this week. I hope you found that interesting, hopefully see you back here again soon!