Last Updated 10.18.04

October 14:

I chose Daemon Hunters for the same reason that I chose Chaos for fantasy: a dead hard elite force with a minimum of models to 1.) paint and 2.) buy. That said, I was also attracted to the idea of having Inquisitors and their motley retinues. I already had a couple of futuristic figures needing a warband to call home and so what if they weren't GW? (I have no plans to play in RTTs or GTs). They would be part of the odd scum that surrounded my Inquisitors. With my headquarter choice obviously being an Inquisitor Lord, I also jumped ahead and decided that I needed another Inquisitor in the group, which would take up an Elite choice. I would have 2 Inquisitors and 12+6 for 18 assorted hangers-on. From Mos Eisley to Jabba's Palace to the palaces of Dune, to the rogue traders of "Alien IV: Resurrection", I have a strong attraction for weird collections of characters. At the same time I love orderliness and crisp cool uniforms. Like many others, I find a strange appeal in the Nazi paraphanelia and uniforms of WWII as well as their fictional counterparts, the Imperial Storm Troopers of Star Wars fame. So when I first saw Bruno Rizzo's Stormtroopers in Issue 292 of White Dwarf, I had a very strong scheme in mind for my army. I would compare my choice of Storm Troopers to a Chaos player choosing marauders over Warriors. My "elite" force is not as elite, but I do not want to purchase/convert all of the Grey Knights that I would want and from what I've seen, there are quite a few Grey Knight armies out there (including one of my coworker's).

When I saw that I have white decal transfers I knew that my shoulder pads would have to be a dark color (obviously). I have always liked the different designations among Space Marines, whether it be by chapter or even mission role and settled upon having black or red shoulder pads depending upon the mission. Also certain special Storm Trooper characters would have all black armor or all red. I already had 3 Chimeras (2 of which I picked up cheaply at May Madness from Nick) and later picked another up at Dreamland. I also have a Super Heavy lined up for May Madness: my ArmorCast BaneBlade. I want to stick with the heavy amount of individualism in my army and so will eventually pick up a Vindicaire Assassin as my second Elites choice and some Death Cult Assassins for my third choice.

So far I have been priming my Inquisitorial Storm Troopers with Bleached Bone, then doing a black magic wash on them and then going back in with Bleached Bone, then a 50/50 mix of Bleached Bone and Skull White drybrushed on. My final highlights will be pure Skull White. I am basing all of my troops on Epicast bases with ST receiving regular terrain and urban rubble bases and the Inquisitors and their retinues getting Industrial bases. I hope that this will tie them in together and distinguish them from one another.

I am uncertain of the end result of all of this: can this hodge podge army win? The only games of 40k I played consisted of directing where my troops would go and whom they'd attack, not composing my force, so I truly am a novice in this respect.