Heroes of Badab army mega WIP update

The dream is finally starting to become a reality. Save for a Stormtalon and some FW tank crew I have all the parts I need for the army finally and have gotten everything assembled. Most things are undercoated and a about half the army has basecoats, although as the pictures reveal I am playing around with colours on many of the models still. To recap, this is a themed Space Marines army which will be played as Ultramarines but includes members of each of the loyalist factions from the Badab war. So for example, One tactical squad belongs to the Minotaurs while another is Howling Griffons.

In terms of the models they are a polarised mixture of bargains and salvaged models alongside Forgeworld models. In gaming terms, most things will simply run as Codex Marine equivalents despite appearances although it would be nice to use some of the Imperial armour rules for certain units in friendly games. Here's a rundown of which units are included in the army with a bit of rationale thrown in for good measure:

Red Scorpions: I wanted to use a Red Scorpions Commander as Culln Seemed to be prominent within the Badab war in terms of overall command. The gorgeous FW boarding Captain was a perfect choice, along with the canonical MkIV amroured chaps (including a FW apothecary) to make up a command squad. A bargain Razorback from EBay with FW doors was the icing on the cake. 

 

Minotaurs: quite the undertaking, these chaps I wanted to convert extensively and so picked up a box of hail Caesar Spartans from my FLGS. I added crests, javelins and shields to each model to make them very distinct and used the Games Day Champion with a Space Wolf Axe as the Sergeant. The Rhino has FW doors and a couple of extra shields. The main challenge with these guys now will be finding the right shade of bronze to paint them.

Howling Griffons: A uniformly codex chapter, it seemed only fitting that they be represented by the ubiquitous tactical squad. An old Metal Sergeant is the only stand out model here, with the exception of their ride which is a FW Deimos Rhino with some WFB Griffon heraldry.

Raptors: Nothing says Raptors quite like a sniper squad and so sniper scouts were a must here. A small squad made up of salvaged old metal scouts and abused plastic ones made for a cheap squad that just needed some TLC.

Exorcists: No particular reason for the scout squad here except that the background states somewhere that they make extensive use of them. Mostly these are old metal scouts except for the converted Sarge who has a RT power fist. The colour scheme incorporates lots of hexagramatic wards.

Novamarines: Having lots of suits of terminator armour made the choice for the Novamarines a simple one as I love the Tartaros kit.

Salamanders: Instead of copping out and using a Dreadnought from my Salamander army, I went full on a bought a FW Contemptor kitted out for flamer/melta duty. I went to town on the base, with a wounded Astral Claw firing up at the Dreadnought as it closes in for the kill. I can always steal the drop pod from my Salamanders to give it a bit more utility and run it as a venerable dreadnought.

Carcharodons: Initially I wanted to run a 5-man Vanguard veteran squad but when I couldn't decide between cool-looking weapon options I upped it to 10-man, using a variety of weapons and even some more hail caesar shields. Naturally, Vanguard veterans are suited to the brutal, overwhelming attacks the Carcharodons are famed for.

 

Sons of Medusa: I love the look of the Javelin Speeder and figured that it could be run as a normal typhoon as well if I equipped the missile pods. The Green paint job looks great on it and an Iron Hands successor should of course have access to all sorts of archeotech.

Marines Errant: The missing piece of the puzzle, the Marines Errant don't have their model as of yet but a Stormtalon seemed well suited to a Fleet-based Chapter that make extensive use of aerial/naval assets.

Fire Hawks: They make extensive use of vehicles such as Vindicators and so the FW vindi seemed perfect for the fire Angels. I still need a FW crew member to man the hatch as I hoped to be able to paint at least one actual marine from each Chapter.

Fire Angels: These guys love predators and so a Deimos predator (magnetised) was the obvious choice as again it's a beautiful model. I converted up a couple of rapier crew to represent a Sergeant Chronus counts-as model, who is the only special character in the army. (though I was tempted to run a counts-as Telion for the Raptors)

Star Phantoms: Last but not least, these guys have a plasma fetish and so a devastator squad with several plasma weapons in seemed fitting.

And that's all for now. My aim for the immediate future with these guys is to basecoat all the models and finish all the bases so at least from a distance they'll be decent to look at and recognisable. I also hope to get ahold of the Stormtalon in the next month or so to complete the collection. Cheers.