Last Updated 10.04.04

For the LVGC's first Army Challenge, I decided to finally finish a Space Marine army. I've been thinking about this army for about a year and a half, but never really got around to putting my ideas into action. The army challenge is a great motivator, and having the rest of the club pushing me on is a great help.

The Concept:

I've played Eldar forever. About a year and a half ago I started thinking about a second army. Since most people start with Marines (I had not), I decided that was the way to go. I've always liked the generic Marine list, but never was too keen on Ultramarines...more specifically Ultramarine Blue. I'm a fan of highly contrasting colors, so I was on a kission to find a theme/paint scheme that would suit me.

While looking through the Insigmium Astartes book, I came across a succcessor chapter, the Red Hawks. The colors were red and yellow. I really dislike small amounts of yellow on red, so I decided to go with White instead. When I think of red & white, I think of my favorite hockey team, the Detroit Red Wings. Being from the detroit area, I thought this would be a perfect theme for my new army. Not wanting to be too obvious with my hockey reference, I decided to call my chapter the Crimson Wings.

My initial concept was to convert the Imperial Eagles on my Marine chestplates to Red Wings like symbols. After many trial and errors, I finally came up with a symbol I liked, and one I could easily reproduce onto multitudes of tiny miniatures.

The Army List:

I really want my army to be focused more on infantry and less on vehicles. I think this will allow me more flexibility in the future as I grow the army. For the Army Challenge, we must complete the army in stages (600, 1100, 1500 & 1850). Rather than figure out a small list and work up, I decided to work out my 1850pt list and then work it down for the smaller lists.

1850 Pt Crinmson Wings

HQ - (1) Chaplain w/Bolt Pistol, Frag, Jump Pack
HQ - (1) Librarian w/2 Lightning Claws, Frag, Jump Pack
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Rhino w/Extra Armour, Smoke
TR - (6) Tactical Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Weapon/Plasma Pistol, Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Razorback w/Extra Armour, Smoke
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
EL - (1) Dreadnaught w/ TL Lascannon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour
HS - (1) Whirlwind
FA - (6) Assault Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, 2 Plasma Pistols, Melta Bombs
FA - (6) Assault Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, 2 Plasma Pistols, Melta Bombs

1849 points, 64 models

1500 Pt Crimson Wings

HQ - (1) Chaplain w/Bolt Pistol, Frag, Jump Pack
HQ - (1) Librarian w/2 Lightning Claws, Frag, Jump Pack
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Rhino w/Extra Armour, Smoke
TR - (6) Tactical Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Weapon/Plasma Pistol, Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Razorback w/Extra Armour, Smoke
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
EL - (1) Dreadnaught w/ TL Lascannon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour
HS - (1) Whirlwind
FA - (6) Assault Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, 2 Plasma Pistols, Melta Bombs

1478 points, 48 models

1100 Pt Crimson Wings

HQ - (1) Chaplain w/Bolt Pistol, Frag, Jump Pack
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Rhino w/Extra Armour, Smoke
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun
EL - (1) Dreadnaught w/ TL Lascannon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour
FA - (6) Assault Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, 2 Plasma Pistols, Melta Bombs

1062 points, 39 models

600 Pt Crimson Wings

HQ - (1) Chaplain w/Bolt Pistol, Frag
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Vet Sgt Power Fist/Bolt Pistol, Heavy Bolter, Flamer
TR - (10) Tactical Squad w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun
EL - (1) Dreadnaught w/ TL Lascannon, Heavy Flamer, Extra Armour

594 points, 22 models

Converting The Masses:

Perhaps the most tedious and time consuming task was clipping all of the parts from the sprues and cleaning the flash. I don't even want to think about how long this took. I also managed to cut myself numerous times with the exacto blade. Superglue works well to seal wounds.

I really want my new army to be flexible, but I also want it to stand out. In addition to converting practically every model, I decided to follow a few basic constructs when assembling my squads:

1- All of the bolters must have the barrels drilled out. This takes a small amount of time, but looks really nice when finished.
2- I will only use the leg sprues with kneepads. This was not too difficult as I managed to trade all of my non-kneepadded legs with a friend. The main reason for this decision was uniformity, but also in case I decide to put squad markings on the knee pads.
3- Within a squad, all of the members will have the same, bolter, helmet & backpack design. This will help me keep my squads seperated.
4- Heavy Weapons guys will be the only models in the army without the converted Eagle chestplates. They will be the only models in the army with the targeter helmets. I chose the heavier looking torsos with the straps across the front for these. This now makes all of the Heavy Weapons guys the same, and thus interchangable within all of my squads.
5 - Sgts will all have the helmetless screaming head. Veteran Sergeants will have Terminator honors Shoulder Pad.
6- All models with Jump Packs will have their backpacks magnetized so I can switch them out at any time. This will allow me to switch out my HQ guys with regular backpacks if I need to.
7 - All vehicles will have weapons magnetized where available. This is also for flexibility, and so I can change the list around later if I need to.

Torsos:

I carefully shaved half of the Imperial Eagle off of every chestplate. Then I glued a small 3mm rhinestone in the center. I chose the rhinestone because it is an octagonal beveled design, is just the right size, and will provide uniformity.

Shoulder Pads:

I wanted a cool shoulder pad design for the Crimson Wings. I hate decals, and figured it would be hard to hand paint 50+ shoulder pads. Instead I opted to use an existing metal shoulder pad. None of the Space marine chapter pads really fit, so I decided to convert the Emperor's Children shoulder pads. I carefully shaved off all of the rivets. I also found that I had to shave down the insides of each one slightly so it would fit the models properly.

An assembled Marine (sans backpack & bolter):

Tactical Squad Sergeants:

Tactical Squad Sergeant w/Grenade (aka Sgt. Heineken):

Tactical Squad Veteran Sergeant:

Tactical Squad Heavy Weapons:

Crimson Wings Chaplain w/ Converted Backpack & Jumpack:

Dread w/Magnetized parts (multiple configurations shown):

More to come as I complete more stuff......

October 16:

I have finished painting my first marine (well about 90%). It took longer than I expected due tot the fact that I had to flesh out the paint scheme using trial and error. I'm using Quinacridone Crimson as a base color with white trim. The armour has been washed in black ink and highlighted with gold. The white on the breastplate wing and shoulderpad wing was washed with a brown ink and then highlighted back up to white. The bolter and backpack have been given some boltgun/silver accents. I'm not real happy with the purity seals yet. Those will probably be re-done.

I'm also considering adding squad markings to one or both of the kneepads. I was thinking of roman numerals on the right kneepad for the squad numbers. My dilemma now is that I kind of like the clean look without any markings. However, I did want to stick to a traditional marking scheme. I should probably also consider marking the company with either a color designation or something on the left kneepad. Any good suggestions then email me (arylith@yahoo.com).

I'm planning on putting my entire army on Epicast Fractal bases painted up as Ice World terrain! Epicast is still in production on the 28mm size, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they come out in time (You can see the 60mm version here).