BADAB AFTER DARK: MONTH II

BADAB AFTER DARK

The Badab War fought between 901.M41 and 913.M41, raised questions about the sovereignty of its warriors, its borders and the workings of the Adeptus as a whole. The war was fought in the Badab System, a cluster of star systems in the Segmentum Ultima, between the Loyalist forces of the Imperium of Man and the secessionist Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter. Led by Chapter Master Lufgt Huron, the Astral Claws rebelled against the Imperium, seeking greater autonomy and control over the Badab Sector.

The conflict involved numerous Space Marine chapters, Imperial forces, and even Xenos mercenaries, resulting in a devastating war that left the Badab System in ruins. Ultimately, the Astral Claws were defeated, their Chapter disbanded, and their leaders condemned as heretics. The Badab War stands as a tragic tale of betrayal and the grim darkness of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

And thus a new challenge is born. WELCOME to the new season of A Tale of Gamers in which our warlords tackle the book that started the entire Heresy – The Badab Wars.

THE CHALLENGE:

YOU, yes you, can participate in this. Simply add #badabafterdark to any social media post that you write and we will find you. We will round up all entrants at the start of each month and comb over the fine hobby produced.

This is an open-ended challenge. Feel free to build and paint however much you like. For our part the challenge will be focussed on producing Kill Teams over 1 year and will culminate in a game held at Adeptcion ’24.

We hope to run games in the UK as well, but that is the acorn of the idea that will one day become the mighty oak.

To summarise:

+ Kill Team forces focussed on the Badab War campaign books. Be they Space Marine, Inquisitorial Agent, Tyrant Legion, or the duplicitous reaver from the Maelstrom, creativity is KING!

+ The event will culminate at Adepticon ’24. Max, Alex and I will gather to fudge our way through a Badab War scenario – but who knows how big it could grow?

+ Use the # #badabafterdark on all social media posts for us to find you. bonus points if you use #taleofgamers as well!

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Month 2, and this has been interesting. This month I was meant to get a few test models done, doing a quarter scheme can be difficult and sometimes scary to try. But for the Howling Griffons it is a must to get that right. But life again gets in the way, this time it was a pleasant Hobby life obstacle. I went to a Heresy event local to me and it got my Heresy buzz back. So sorry Badab, I cheated on you with Heresy. But I did manage to get one test model done. And I don’t like it, it didn’t have the WOW factor I was looking for and I can’t work out why. I was looking at these Griffons to become my new 40k army now the 10th edition is coming out (or already out) and it didn’t give me the excitement that my old Griffons did. So, it is back to the drawing board with the tester. I will conquer the quarters.

Hi, everyone! I am back for month 2 of our Badab Challenge with my first Carcharodon tithe completed! It has been an eventful month, both from a hobby and personal standpoint. I built this model and started painting it over a month ago, but it sat on my table, waiting to be finished for several weeks. Even lacking motivation, I can paint one model a month, no matter what!

So where to start? With the planning and modeling of my Carcharodons. In the coming months, you will see some 3D-printed bits created by Atlan Forge. I only used a torso in the first model, but more are coming. Additionally, my Carcharodons decals come from Forgotten Chapters. I backed a Kickstarter by Forgotten Chapters years ago and have always been impressed by the quality of their decals.

Regarding the paint scheme, getting the shark grey right was the first challenge. However, one of the things I have improved by working with Myles over the last few years is my colour theory. When painting the neutral colors of black, white, and grey, many painters often only worry about going from dark to light. However, Myles teaches us about using the colour wheel and working from cool to warm (check his content for more info. My main grey is one of my absolute favorite paints (top 5), Neutral Grey (Vallejo Model Air). I use a darker grey for the shadows, working in a bit of Inktense Purple (Scale 75).

I must give Alex (Crescent Edge Creative) a shout-out on the gold. Scale 75 metallics are my favorite metallics in the game. One of my most significant decisions with any project is using a more yellow-gold or a redder bronze/copper. I went with the yellow for this one, and I feel like that was the right choice. Alex loves Peridot Alchemy as a spot highlight, which is super bright but also has an attractive greenish tint.

Having addressed this project’s modeling aspect so far, I will take the time to address some lore. The name of my first battle brother is Tuatahi, and he is just a basic Tactical Marine. I have a Sternguard Veteran built, and I expect you will see a few of those. I would also love to get my hands on the brand-new Terminators, but it will be a while until I can get them on their own. So, we shall see about that, but I will see you back here in a month with my next submission!

This month has been one of design, redesign, and design all over again.

With that though, I think I finally have a solid vibe of practicality and creative license with which to begin this journey proper. On this test piece, I used a standard Mark 6 body from the Age of Darkness box set – a little surprised I haven’t seen more yet to be honest! – and added some bonding studs using half beads you can get at your local general craft store.

From there, I needed to tell a story with the remainder of the pose. Spending my spare shampoo bottle reading time; I looked up several bits of art of modern and near modern soldiery and tried to align with what I have in my miniature tickle trunk. This is where a bit of a deconstruction and miniature rescue happens from an old primaris infiltrator (ironically, painted in Raptors colours already) came in clutch.

Adding the safely carried bolt pistol with a slung bolter not only spoke about the stalking nature of a bird of prey but gave me a subject with which to frame. Getting a little risky with a primaris infiltrator helmet and primaris power pack for bulk, I was ready to base.

Speaking of basing, I managed to get some healthy amounts of fauna STLs from www.epicbasing.com. I’ve used some of their STLs before for more modern rubble and sandbag emplacements but their jungle themed STLs was the perfect bit to frame the piece of cork strategically placed to structure the jungle floor.

Ok month two, time to get down to business! BADAB!

For this project I’m going to be building a small band of Howling Griffons with the initial objective of a legal force for games of Kill Team.

I knew I wanted to use the incredible Tortuga Bay sculpts and aim for a ‘truescale’ project with plenty of attention paid to details and individual customisation of the models, so Kill Team seemed the best way to meet this requirement and have a playable force at the end of it.

As I was using the larger Tortuga Bay models, I decided to use the primaris intercessor kill team rules as the slightly tougher models but being fewer in number than a regular tactical squad seemed to fit my idea better.

Despite using primaris rules, the squad will wholeheartedly be firstborn marines, so I renamed some of the equipment and upgrades. I liked the idea of a team of veterans inserted behind enemy lines, given near-suicidal missions. A real ‘dirty dozen’ war film vibe.

A deep dive into my extensive bitz box later, I had all the pieces of my squad lined up and they were assembled in no time.

Here’s the initial draft list I came up with:

Sergeant (power sword, bolter)

Deathwatch Veteran (storm bolter, aux. grenade launcher)

Despoiler (chainsword, pistol, grenades)

Marine (auspex, bolter)

Marine (combat knife, bolter)

Marine (bolter)

Check in next month as I start to get some paint down on these bad boys!

Month two was always going to be a month of taking stock and planning for me. A little more fluff reading and watching has cemented what my army will look like and a couple of elements that I want to include. After looking through the new siege of Cthonia book and some soul searching I’ve decided to stick with my plan of a 1500 point zone mortalis army. The units I wanted to include (from my rough grasp of the lore) were a sternguard style veteran squad and a chaplain to act as a Death Speaker. The army roughly looks like this …

 VII: Imperial Fists

Allegiance: Traitor

+ Rite of War: +

Rite of War: The Stone Gauntlet (IF)

+ HQ: +

Praetor, Cataphractii [435Pts]: Warden of Inwit, Warlord

Legion Cataphractii Praetor: Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Paragon Blade, Vigil Storm Shield

Huscarl Squad

Centurion [95Pts]: Chaplain

+ Elites: +

Contemptor Dreadnought Talon [205Pts]

Veteran Squad [185Pts]

+ Troops: +

Phalanx Warder Squad [265Pts] x 2 

++ Total: [1,450Pts] ++

I’m basing my list around the 30k Imperial Fists because as they’re the Executioners parent legion it just fits. I picked traitor as I didn’t plan on using any special characters and it felt right for the role they played in Badab. I wanted the army to feel brutal but not chaotic or traitorous. It might be outmanoeuvred but it won’t be out fought. The amount of power axes might be a little ‘on the nose’ for the Executioners at 26 but I’m hoping it gives a barbaric feel to the army. A force used to storm enemy ships and beat resistance into submission. I’m undecided on which model to base my Praetor on now (that’s a problem for next month) but I’ve ordered both Fafnir Rann and Evander Garrius to play about with and see which one is more to my liking. Over the next month I plan to do some 3D printing and kit bashing as well and deciding on what my basing might look like. 

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Successionist

This has been an unusal month.

Since painting the Lamenter:

Someone charged my card with a limo ride and a bunch of diet pills.

My kitchen ceiling has flooded with a burst pipe. Not only did we have to take chunks out of the ceiling, but also in the laminate flooring above it in the living room.

My wife, while teaching her nephew to ride a bike, fell, and broke her nose.

I’m switching faction.

The above spinny marine is a test piece for the Astral Claws using Wilph’s excellent Bertrand mini (that’s free to download). It’s only a test, thus devoid of decals, weathering or any such techniques that would ground it in the context of the world. I wanted to see how to create polished silver for the armour, and it looks pretty shiny.

Next month I hope my luck changes otherwise I might just end up dead in a ditch somewhere. Time to get a life insurance policy.

So, this month has seen me pivot from my original plan of action: I was going to make the scenic base first then populate it with Mantis Warriors.

Instead of this I’ve decided to make at least the first dude and use this to determine the lines that I then need to add into the scenic base.

So then came the choice of what to use. I was actually really excited to use mk VII bits as it’s been so long since I had so that’s where I started.

With it being my commander model (as the section of the killteam/base everything else will take its ques off) I wanted the model to be something special.

The Space marine Heroes models were a great place to start and a static/collected pose in the form of the reloading marine was perfect for the tone of the piece I was going for.

I then asked a friend to 3d print bits from a few sources (shoot me a message if your interested in where from) and did a bit of chopping of the arms to form the moment before action and drawing the sword.

This pose would stop me being penned into a specific pose for other marines around the base and fits with the artwork that I’m basing the piece on.

Max

For my first official submission, I decided to paint my Executioners tactical squad sergeant:

I’m happy with how this guy turned out. I went a little wild with the colors. Usually, I try and have a nice, tight color scheme but I decided to bounce all around the wheel on this one: 

Warm yellows/oranges, bright blue, bright green, cool red. It was a conscious decision and I think I love how it looks. It feels like crazy colors lend themselves well to 40k space marines.

Like with my test models from the last submission I want the focus of the model to be the head, so all the brightest highlights all frame the head – chest armor, shoulder pads, backpack, top of head – all draw the eye to the model’s head. Then as far as the head itself goes, I think this is the best head I’ve ever painted. I had a mini breakthrough when I realized that the basecoat/shade color I was looking for was simply red. I don’t know why I hadn’t considered that before!

For this project I didn’t plan on going crazy with NMM, then I immediately split with that decision and did NMM on the axe and plasma pistol lol. Since this guy will be one of the few characters in the force, I think its fine; but for my sanity’s sake, I’m going to try and keep it to little bits and bobs like this going forward.

For modeling, decided to go with a power axe, since Executioners are the axe chapter. Then I sculpted a

happy smiling flayed face skin tabard to fit with some artwork I saw online:

That’s one happy-skinned face.

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So as I started to slowly (emphasis on the slowly) ease into the challenge, I found my focus varying a lot; as I’d outlined in the previous month I wanted to explore Astral Claws and a more ‘40k’ feeling set of vibes but wasn’t totally locked in on how I wanted everything to look.
Whilst this month did not solve any of those issues (I still contemplate if I dare update Lugft Huron to match this new style) I have crawled closer on a couple of examples.

First up was the leader of the tactical/combat squad, whose major challenge was trying to get the balance right on the density and scope of the detail. To me 40k marines are all unique snowflakes, but part of the joy I find in the older 4th and 5th ed marine models I love so much is the fact that their ‘uniqueness’ is expressed subtly; and comes more from armour marks and weapons than grand changes in decoration. For someone who works in 3D this poses a trickier task than one would think: a big benefit of Digital Modelling is that you can sculpt a base mesh and just pose it in a hundred different ways, thereby saving you from having to reinvent the wheel each time; but this is counter to the subtly unique vibe I will be aiming for. 

Leaving the full squad aside in favour of just the sergeant, I tried to really push the ‘Noble Savage’ feel of the design by layering up the detail and trying to vary the resulting texture. I didn’t want a suit of armour custom crafted to fit, I wanted one adapted over years, added to, draped in trophies and honours. At this stage I’m still a bit unsure of where the perfect line between over and under theming the models lies so I’ve tried a few different things to see what sticks: early Mediterranean elements like the Xiphos or the fringed cloth; sinister elements like the skulls or the whip (nodding to the Tyrant’s legion) and of course a variety of Astral Claw logos and symbology.

Next I tried a Chaplain in Cataphractii armour, both as a personal challenge as well as a potential HQ for some minotaurs. I have less to say about it; the focus was more on coherent and well scaled modelling rather than trying to find any particular theme (especially since the minotaurs are well laid out already by Forgeworld).

I also tried painting a bit this month (an NMM interpretation of the astral claws scheme that went disastrously wrong in almost every way) so next month I might try and get a few Bertrands printed off along with the Sarge and have a play with much darker TMM schemes that I will keep simple and effective.

Anywho, thats my Badab thoughts for the month

Wilph

Month two was always going to be a month of taking stock and planning for me. A little more fluff reading and watching has cemented what my army will look like and a couple of elements that I want to include. After looking through the new siege of Cthonia book and some soul searching I’ve decided to stick with my plan of a 1500 point zone mortalis army. The units I wanted to include (from my rough grasp of the lore) were a sternguard style veteran squad and a chaplain to act as a Death Speaker. The army roughly looks like this …

 VII: Imperial Fists

Allegiance: Traitor

+ Rite of War: +

Rite of War: The Stone Gauntlet (IF)

+ HQ: +

Praetor, Cataphractii [435Pts]: Warden of Inwit, Warlord

Legion Cataphractii Praetor: Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Paragon Blade, Vigil Storm Shield

Huscarl Squad

Centurion [95Pts]: Chaplain

+ Elites: +

Contemptor Dreadnought Talon [205Pts]

Veteran Squad [185Pts]

+ Troops: +

Phalanx Warder Squad [265Pts] x 2 

++ Total: [1,450Pts] ++

I’m basing my list around the 30k Imperial Fists because as they’re the Executioners parent legion it just fits. I picked traitor as I didn’t plan on using any special characters and it felt right for the role they played in Badab. I wanted the army to feel brutal but not chaotic or traitorous. It might be outmanoeuvred but it won’t be out fought. The amount of power axes might be a little ‘on the nose’ for the Executioners at 26 but I’m hoping it gives a barbaric feel to the army. A force used to storm enemy ships and beat resistance into submission. I’m undecided on which model to base my Praetor on now (that’s a problem for next month) but I’ve ordered both Fafnir Rann and Evander Garrius to play about with and see which one is more to my liking. Over the next month, I plan to do some 3D printing and kit bashing as well and decide on what my basing might look like. 

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If you would like to join the journey please write an introduction to your project and post it on your social media with #badabafterdark. Every month keep apace with the warlords in creating your own collection.

For the Maelstrom!

For the Imperium!