So, almost two years after starting this Badab Kill Team project, how are things looking for Kill Team Lugeo? Quite good I think! I had originally planned seven members for the squad, and the seventh is already on the workbench. But I’d like to see the upcoming new Kill Team rules and find out exactly how many models are in an Adeptus Astartes fire team and what specialists they can have before finalising the squad. Once I’ve read and understood the new rules, I might even get a game in with them!
If you’d like to read any of the previous articles about individual members of the Kill Team and how their LED effects were made, you can either search my blog for articles tagged “Lamenters” or click the links below.
Enemy contacts are inside the perimeter. Unfortunately for them, so are we.
– Brother Ardito, Comms Specialist
Another Lamenter joins my long running Badab War era Kill Team. Brother Ardito is a Comms Specialist, so let’s hope that’s still an option for Adeptus Astartes Kill Teams in the new edition of the game!
Influence
For this model I was strongly influenced by the classic metal sergeant from the old Space Marine command squad box (sorry, this was the best reference image I could find). I didn’t set out to copy it exactly, just to capture the general energy and atmosphere of the model. Brother Ardito is made from the ‘Easy to Build’ Primaris Marine with auspex, although as you can see he’s been heavily altered to change the pose, details and make it appear that he’s wearing MkVII power armour, in keeping with the Badab-era setting.
Effects
The LED effects were achieved using the principles set out in my LED Hololith tutorial, although instead of a wrist-mounted hololith, the LED is mounted in the auspex screen. The LED is a 3V Red Ultra Nano SMD Chip LEDs available from Small Scale Lights, in series with the supplied 100Ω resistor. Although green is often traditional for scanner screens, I decided to go with red to match many of the other LEDs in the team and avoid having a mixture of too many colours.
The wire to the LED runs through the arm, torso and leg to the battery and switch in the base. A more detailed description can be found in my LED Hololith tutorial, as mentioned above. If you want to have a go yourself and you need tools and supplies, you can find them here.
First I painted the auspex screen Citadel Khorne Red, trying my best not to get any paint on the LED. Once the paint was dried I filled the screen area with the ever-useful Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World. This goes on white but is transparent when dried. You will need to apply it slowly and patiently, and use a flat tool to flatten it down. Otherwise you may have a lumpy screen!
Once the ‘screen’ was dry I painted it with two coats of Citadel Blood Angels Red Contrast, allowing the paint to dry between each application. Finally, I painted a pattern of ‘contacts’ on the ‘screen’ with Citadel Wild Rider red. This was more for visual interest when the LED is off as the LED is so bright it has little effect when it was on.
That’s all for today, I hope you found that interesting. Come back soon for more Lamenter action as the Kill Team slowly comes together!
Debate the Tyrant’s cause if you like, but it’s hard to argue with 1200 rounds a minute.
Brother Salvio, Lamenter heavy weapons specialist
This is another model that has been living in my head as a nebulous idea for well over a year. In fact, I’d say my failure to settle on a way to execute this concept for my ‘Heavy’ specialist is why my seven-man Lamenters Kill Team project has currently been running for a year and a half! But now he’s done, so let’s have a big round of applause to welcome Brother Salvio!
Influence
There are a number of sources that I’m ‘riffing’ off with this member of the Kill Team, many of them from video games. The Team Fortress 2 Heavy is an obvious one, as are Halo Spartans carrying turrets (particularly Jorge-052) and even the Call of Duty Juggernaut. What is boils down to is a heavily armoured soldier carrying a large gun that you might normally expect to find on a vehicle! To help sell the theme of heavy armour, I decided on MkVIII ‘Errant’ armour for this marine, particularly as this has the enhanced face and neck protection seen in many of the characters linked above.
If you haven’t been following along with my Lamenters Kill Team project, then I should explain that it is intended to be Badab War era, so these are ‘true scale’ Marines rather than Primaris Marines. Every member of the team so far has been wearing armour appropriate to the era, which so far means MkVI, MkVII and MKVIII. So how did I go about turning MkX armour into MkVIII to match the reference images shown above?
Used modelling putty to increase the height of the neck gorget.
Selected up-armoured shoulder pads with elbow joint protection.
Replaced the skull on the chest with a jewel.
Filled in the detail on the wrist bracers to create a smoother armoured feel.
Removed the additional protection from the top of the MkX knee pads.
Left the MkX ankle joints intact – this was the first time I noticed MkVIII armour also uses them!
Replaced the Primaris backpack with a Tactical backpack.
I also added extra ammo pouches and grenades to enhance the impression of bulkiness.
That’s it for this week, I hope you found that interesting. Come back again soon to find out if I ever finish this bloody Lamenters Kill Team, haha! Hopefully I will be able to finish them soon, as it looks like we might possibly be in for a new edition of Kill Team.
Here is Brother Quartus, the latest addition to my long-running Lamenter Badab War kill team project. If you’d like to look back on this project then you can search for posts tagged with either ‘Lamenters’ or ‘Badab War’.
Influence
When designing this Marine, my question to myself was “how can I make one of the team’s “filler” tactical marines with bolter interesting?”. In the end I hit upon the idea of loosely copying this classic Mark Gibbons art. I haven’t copied it exactly – for one the marine in the art is a Blood Angel – but I hope I’ve captured the feel, both of the art and of that era of Games Workshop history. Of course Brother Quartus has grown on me over the building and painting process so now I think I might promote him to sniper specialist in the kill team.
“Downgrading” Mk X armour to Mk VII
All my Lamenters are ‘true scale’, that is to say they have Primaris stature but wear period-appropriate armour marks. There was no Mk X used during the Badab War (as far as we know), so I wanted to “downgrade” the base Primaris Intercessor model to Mk VII power armour. The most important thing was to remove the elements of the armour that are distinctly Primaris features. For me this is the ankle ‘stabilisers’, the rim above the knee-pad, the armoured stomach, the forearm bracers, the wide backpack and of course the helmet. An argument could be made that the thigh-plates don’t belong on a Mk VII either, but I think I can make my peace with that.
To remove the unwanted leg and stomach detail I simply hacked off anything that I didn’t want with a craft knife and then smoothed over any gaps with modelling putty, sculpting detail in where necessary. The arms are from Primaris Reivers, which are in scale for a marine of Primaris stature but less armoured than the standard Mk X arms. The helmet and the backpack were straight component swaps for their Mk VII equivalents.
Effects
For the LED effects I simply just followed the steps in my own LED Muzzle Flare tutorial to the letter, using the exact LEDs and components listed there. My Lamenters paint recipe can be found in this post if anyone is interested in how the yellow is achieved. As for the mid-ejection bolt shell casing, I think that’s worth talking through as this is a new technique that I was playing around with for this model.
I started with a 1mm diameter plastic rod, painted the end in Retributor Armour, and then cut off a 2mm length to form the ejected bolt shell casing.
Next I built up the “smoke” around the ejection port using Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World. This gel is white and opaque when applied (as seen in the picture) but dries transparent.
Once the splash gel had dried, I used a tiny dab of super glue to attach the shell casing.
Next I applied another layer of the splash gel around the shell casing to continue the smoke effect.
Once the splash gel was dry I gave it a thin watered-down glaze of Ulthuan Grey. This helps it to retain some transparency while also appearing smoke coloured.
Finally I applied a coat of Lahmian Medium to dull down the shine of the splash gel.
That’s it for this week. I’ll end with a group shot of the kill team so far (minus the Mk VI, who has returned to the chapter forge for modifications). That’s four down, three to go! My aim is to have the team finished by the time face-to-face gaming is allowed again in the UK, so please visit again soon to see how I’m getting on with that!
Why make your point with words when it’s so much faster to make it with the tip of a sword?
– Sergeant Lugeo of the Lamenters
Power Weapon Tutorial
Sergeant Lugeo is the third member of my (slow growing) Lamenters kill team. If you missed the previous members of the kill team then you can find previous posts on the MkVI Lamenter here and the Lamenter Breacher here.
LED Power Sword
If you’re wondering exactly how the power sword was made, then good news, I’ve just published a brand new LED Power Weapon tutorial here.
True Scaling
My Lamenters kill team is intended to be Badab War themed, which of course means no Primaris Marines. However I do love the Primaris scale and proportions, so you may have noticed that Sergeant Lugeo is based off a Primaris model, like the other members of the team. I took some time to remove a lot of the Primaris-specific detail, like the ankle stabilisers, backpack and some of the chest detail. I then sculpted replacement detail with modelling putty. Hopefully he now looks like he is wearing MkVII power armour rather than the distinctive MkX armour of the Primaris Marines.
So that’s three Lamenters down, and four more to go!
Chris Buxey Paints 