Für den Kaiser!

2007-07-12T22:31:00.000-04:00

I've been slacking, I know. But I have made progress, albeit sight unseen. I hope to get some photos of the completed Chaplain command squad up soon. In the mean time, I've folded every current project into my 5th Company project, the Kaiserschwerten (so named so I can make use of all the cool Dark Angels iconography I've lifted). I'm a few marines into the 5th's command squad, have part of a tactical squad standing by, some half-assembled devastators (and one and a half painted devastator sergeants), and have finally figured out what my lancers are going to be painted as. It's all a matter of motivation and actual painting time. But I will try to get something up early next week, even if it's only Company Captain Thorben of the 5th.

Remind me...

2007-03-26T22:48:00.000-04:00

Never to paint anything white ever again. If it wasn't for the umpteen layers I built up from grey to white on these two, I'd just paint the damn robes black and be done with it. Touch up is going to be a bitch as I paint the other parts of the marines...

Thanks for the shipping notification, guys.

2007-03-26T12:22:00.000-04:00

Oh now GW gets me my crusader frames. At least I still have two robed bodies left though I'm tempted to get a DA vetties squad to fill out the 4th's command squad. I need to step back and figure out what exactly I'm going to do. At least I have the Chaplain's retinue to paint in the meantime. And I now have the daemonhammer for my Emperor's Chump.

2007-03-25T13:35:00.000-04:00

Hello kids and welcome to an installment of Works in Progress Theater. I'm Josh, I'll be your host as we examine what's up and coming in the wonderful world of Rosenritter. Let's see if I can acually complete this amidst all the frakking interruptions that have plagued me all afternoon.

Amazingly, I've actually gotten quite a lot of work done in the last week or so. Getting snowed in here for the weekend was a boon to the 40K production line, especially since my Dark Angels bits had the good idea to show up. The DA sprues rock. There's all sorts of cool junk on them just begging to be used. And I used quite a great deal. Since GW still hasn't gotten my Templars stuff in, I decided to put the 4th Company command squad on hold and get down to the nitty-gritty of special characters. Namely my librarian and chaplain, and a whole freaking entourage for said chaplain, which I might just continue to expand.

First up is Scriptor Ulrich Boecker. I based him slightly on the original Boecker, one of the really old GW librarian minis that my friend Aaron painted for me (Aaron, by the way, is probably the best painter of the lot of us though due to residency in Hungary has not been able to produce anything new for a while. I'm hoping that changes in the near future). I used Boecker a few years later to stomp the hell out of a bunch of his Slaaneshi terminators even after a botched Smite attempt that hurt me more than him.

So there's definitely a history behind the character and I wanted to make a figure worthy of that. The chest plate's a BT Mark IV chest with the Maltese cross filed off. The sword is the Emperor's Champion's black sword with the writing filed off. I left the uneven file pattern on there to see what it would look like when painted. Most of the bits are from the DA frames, including the head. He's also go a book for his left hand which I forgot to put there before I did the pictures. It looks keen in the final product.

Believe it or not, between the time I took this photo I managed to get him entirely painted and even based! I think he looks entirely badass but I'll get some images up soon. I'm not entirely happy with the way the force sword came out, though. I was trying a few techniques I haven't really used before and I'm still not sure what to make of the end result. We'll see.

Ordenspriester Franz von Hohenzollern didn't turn out exactly as I planned, simply because I'm lousy with greenstuff. Gap filling is about all I can do and even that tries my patience. So the robes that were going to go on each side of his mark IV didn't materialize, but I figure the rest of the robes are just tucked in under the breastplate or something. I was also unable to create the scroll I had planned, so I just chopped up and filed down a backbanner and festooned it with stuff. The hammer I chopped off the Salamanders' Chaplain Xavier who I'd tried to make a Rosenritter chaplain some years before and failed. The helmet comes from the chaos marines sprue. It just screamed "skull" to me and I think it looks cooler than the actual chaplain helmets out there.

Much like Boecker's not painted "Codex Librarian Blue," I don't think he's going to end up black. These are Rosenritter, for Dorn's sake! They've got "take pride in your colors." Of course everything is going to be Rosenritter blue! I'm not doing the usual bone colors on the robes; I'm likely going to build up from grey to white. I've got Catholic priest vestments in mind for him and his retinue, maybe some red and gold trim on the edges and hems.

The Sergeant and the plasma gunner here are all primed and ready to be painted now. If you'll note, all of the retinue have Crux Terminatus on their right shoulders; all are veterans and members of the Ordens der Rosenkreuz First Company. The Sergeant's also the only one who doesn't have a hooded head, but I did that so I could show his veteran sergeant helmet marking when he's painted. Like the others, these guys are primarily a mix of the DA and command squad frames. I wasn't able to use as much of the DA stuff as I wanted, simply because while I can generally get away with using the DA insignia as just a winged sword, they're not really a sword-based unit with the exception of the Sergeant.

As you can see by the guy with the power mace. In game terms I've adjusted my Chapter's traits even more to make them really non-codex. I jumped from my initial idea of a minor divergence to significant. I've still kept Blessed be the Warriors and Have Pride in Your Colors, but I've added Take the Fight to Them (representative of their heritage and allowing me to mix bolters with close-combat guys) as my second advantage and Eye to Eye as my major drawback since I don't think I'd ever really field more than one landspeeder squad at a time. The Rosenritter like blitzkrieg tactics, not hit-and-fade.

And finally, the one bolter guy I'd finished last week. I've since built a second as well as a standard bearer with a nifty, non-banner standard. I took one of my old, old plastic skeletons and wired him to a standard pole with some bits stuck on him. He's an example of what the Rosenritter do to heretics who reject the word of the Emperor. I may also do one or two more marines, just to use the last of the robed legs I've got. Granted, I probably won't have them all painted until sometime this summer, but hey.

An update...

2007-03-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

With pictures! Here are the two completed marines out of the 5th Company's II Squad (I Squad is command). They're the first real tests of refining my technique. As always, I'm disappointed with the pictures. The flash picks out every goddamn flaw and color gradation that is not visible to the naked eye under normal light. Sigh. I need a better photo and lighting setup so I can dispense with the flash entirely...

Here is the squad's veteran sergeant. I'm quite pleased with the way his head turned out, with the sergeant stripe over the red veteran color. His eyes turned out pretty good, too. I'm starting to do the color layering on them and on the plasma pistol sight. The highlighting on the knees, shoulders, and gorget are the main parts I did. I'm trying to be a little more subtle about it than the "extreme highlighting" style that does every damn panel line.

I need to work on highlighting black parts; the straight gray doesn’t really work. I don’t know if you can see it, but there’s some subtle red highlighting on the chainsword. The purity seals on the backpack are made from greenstuff, as is the crusader seal on his shoulder. I’m getting a little more confident with the junk. Or at least I hope I am since I’ll need it for my Chappy.

I think I overdid the highlighting on this marine's shoulder so I'll probably go back and touch it up a little bit. Not much else to say about him. I've also started using actual squad markings on this company's marines. I know, I'm in danger of going Codex! Well, I decided I wanted to keep track of these guys.

I've got some of the bits I need for my Chaplain. Unfortunately, GW decided to choose now to be out of templar sprues and I have no idea when they'll be back in stock. So I may need to order the Mark IV torsos I need separately. After that, it's just a matter of waiting 'til the Dark Angels stuff comes out so I put him together.

Yeah, I know...

2007-02-28T20:42:00.000-05:00

I'm bloggering without pictures again. I do have, well, a finished mini that I need to photograph, and a second one that's nearly done. Granted, I've been working on this 5th company tac squad since before my last post.

It's just been hard to actually sit down and paint recently. Plus, I'm working on really refining my technique so I've had to take things a bit at a time. I've actually started doing some highlights. Not quite to the "highlighting every single bloody panel line on the mini" but at least the major edges. Shoulders, knees, etc. I'm thinning down my paints, mixing, trying different undercoats. I'm a little frustrated when it comes to basecoating. I'm using a 1:1 mix of midnight blue to water which goes on fine but is too light over a white undercoat. I thought going over black might be better but even with the thinned paint it's still coming out too purple. I may try gray or else use a slightly thicker mixture over the white. Experimentation is the name of the game.

I'm also on the way to doing some custom conversions. I just ordered all the bits I need for my Ordenspriester and Scriptor save what I'm going to steal from the Dark Angels sprue when it finally comes out (the Chappy's getting those nice walking robed legs) and the Libby's force sword, which I'm going to snag from the Emperor's Chump (who, in turn, gets the Coteaz Daemon hammer I just ordered). If I can pull off these conversions, they should look pretty good. And once I've refined my technique, I think I'll be ready to tackle the lancers. Here's hoping.

Some test cases

2007-01-20T14:22:00.000-05:00

Would have done this sooner, but the new cats make it almost impossible to get anything done at the computer, or anything painted for that matter. At any rate, I've managed to get those Grey Knights painted in Rosen Ritter colors.

These aren't the best photos, but you get the general idea. This is only one model; photos of the other didn't turn out good at all. I kind of like him but I think I'm not going to use either as a Scriptoren. I was considering getting a Justicar to fill that spot, but since that thought I've come up with a better idea along the lines of my Ordenspriester. Which has also undegone some changes. I think I might ditch the jump pack on this one simply because it wouldn't work with the pose I have in mind. I may also need to wait for the new Dark Angels stuff to come out, since it looks like they've got some decent walking legs rather than the running legs of the Assault Marines or the standard stationaries. Of course, the robes might present a problem...

Now for la piece de resistance:

The first test of the Black Knight jump packs. I think I'm on the right track with the wings but I'm still less than pleased with the way they turned out. I think I need to get a lighter brown to drybrush over the brown and black. Gradiation's never been a strong point. But that's the general look I'm aiming for.

Oh, and speaking of the new Dark Angels stuff, seen the new Command Squad and Veteran Squad yet? I hate to start yet another company, but I may have to do some 4th Company Crusaders. I know, I gank more stuff from other chapters than anyone, but there are some bits in here too cool to pass up. Those bolters with straps, new swords, and that totally bitchin' power maul the command squad sergeant's got. Combine some of this stuff with some Templars bits and I may be on to something...

Minor updates

2007-01-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

No, not dead. Just busy. I really need to get some photos of my other squads, especially now that my close-combat squad is nearly complete. I've also started on the jump packs of the Black Lancers; well, one and just the pack itself. I still need to figure out the colors I want to use for the wings and how to achieve a good look.

Meanwhile, I've taken an idea my friend Nick had for his White Kshatriya marines and am incorporating some Grey Knights models in chapter colors. I'm using the regular Knights instead of the Terminators he used. Personally, I think it really works and I may end making them Scriptoren since I'm not overly impressed with the upcoming and existing Librarian figures.

Anyway, back to the grind. Long weekend ahead so I'll try and actually get some photography done.

Future rumblings

2006-12-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

No, no piccies this time around, though I have been plotting and planning a lot of different things. First off, if you haven't seen it yet go to Thorisian's page and check out the fantastic work he's doing on the long-planned but never acted upon Black Lancers. I just hope I can give them a paint job worthy of such kickass conversions.

Poking around the web, I stumbled across GW's Germany site which is a helluva lot nicer than the US site in terms of content even if I can't read it. So now I'm getting all sorts of "official" German terms to apply to my troops, like Taktischertrupp and Ordenspriester. It turns out that this blog and the Rosen Ritter battlecry for which it is named should actually be "Für den Imperator" but I think "Kaiser" has a nicer ring to it.

They've also got sneak peaks at the new Librarian and more importantly, the new plastic devastators. That's entirely plastic, no more unwieldy metal lascannons requiring nickles glued to the base as a counterweight. It also means no more metal arms and shoulders which leads me to my plan for a squad of kreuzzugs-devastoren. And with the new Dark Angels coming out at some point in the future there'll be lots of cool bits to loot.

Finally, I think I have a solid idea on what I'm doing for my chaplain. I'm going to ditch the notion of giving him lightning claws. Instead I'm going to give him Xavier's hammer and a storm shield which I think fits in better with my whole motif. Now all that remains is to start gathering the needed bits (and there's a lot of them) and figure out exactly how the hell I'm going to do his head...

2nd Company Assault Squad

2006-11-16T19:09:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm a day late (and probably a dollar short). I was busy stomping the hell out of Orks in the Emperor's Name last night. But better late than never, and here are some examples of the 2nd Company assault squad I painted up. A lot of my pictures didn't turn out well, and I wanted to do some collaging but my imaging software is cantankerous.

I did the Sergeant with a combination of bits from the crusader and assault squad sprues. For the most part I used the standard assault bodies since they've got the jump pack straps but I love this particular chest with the combination of the Maltese cross and the Imperial aquilla. I was able to work the crosses into my company identification scheme, as mentioned before. In this case, 2nd company is red on the left side of the cross (and left kneepads, etc.). I also particularly liked the right shoulderpad which I was able to do the same bronze metallic effect I use on aquillas and occasionally on weapons.

As always, there has to be at least one beaky in just about every squad. I went for a slightly different weapon color scheme in this squad, using the aforementioned bronze on the guns instead of the usual red gore. I wish the second marine here photographed better; he's one of the two I used a crusade helmet on. I was saving most of them for the tactical squad so I stuck primarily with standard.

This guy's a pretty good example of the marines from several angles. As you may have noticed, all of the marines carry axes as their close-combat weapon. The ax is the trademark weapon of the Rosen Ritter, based on the use of their namesakes' weapons from the anime series Legend of Galactic Heroes. This particular ax is from the old close combat weapons sprue that dates way the hell back to 2nd Ed. or so. I really miss those, you could get an axe, chainsword, power sword, powerfist and some pistols all on one sprue. Now, there are only about 4 places to get decent plastic space marine axes. That really puts a cramp on any further assault squads I want to do, since all assault marines are required to carry axes apart from the long-planned but never acted on Black Lancer squads.

Here's the last marine just for completeness' sake. I'm still working on the last 4 marines of that close combat squad and I guess I should start taking pictures of the rest of my Crusaders. I'm also going to get some fluff up here so I have it down some place. I have no idea what the next project is going to be. The Rosen Ritter chaplain is a possibility but there's a lot of bits I need to get my hands on. And even then I'm going to have to modify whatever lightning claws I get for him since the new ones all suck.

Good news!

2006-11-14T18:20:00.000-05:00

I managed to tear my attention away from my Dark Crusade Guard campaign long enough to take pictures of my 2nd Company assault squad. I need to do some editing and uploading but they should be up tonight or tomorrow evening.

The Immortal 3rd

2006-11-08T22:33:00.000-05:00

As I get things in order with pictures and the like, here's a few of the marines I recently finished. They were supposed to be a third tactical squad for the Rosen Ritter 3rd company but frankly I'm bored with standard tactical marines. I had all sorts of close combat bits left over from my 2nd company assault squad (which will be next to be posted up), as well as a few spare crusade sprue bits like sheathed swords that I wanted to use. So I figured I'd just make this last tac squad into a unit of close combat specialists. I'd probably never be able to field them using WYSIWYG, but then I'm not in this for the gaming, I'm in it for the painting.

Keep in mind that not only does the camera pick out every single flaw in my technique, these are also primarily repaints of old squads that really needed the sprucing up.
First up we have the squad sergeant. This has long been a favorite mini of mine. For one, he's one of the few space marines with hair. This angle doesn't do much to show him off, but it's the only decent picture I could manage. He's straightforward enough, I think.

The first picture is a poor shot but it's the best where you can see the crusader sword I added to this marine. I did it on a whim at first so he's really the deciding factor for doing this squad as a close combat unit. The auspex is a holdover from his original pose, which is largely unchanged save for the addition of the plasma pistol.

Typically, I use red gore on Rosen Ritter weapons, but I've been playing around with some more individual variations lately. The sergeant's chainsword and this plasma pistol--ganked from the commander sprue--left almost entirely in boltgun metal.

For some reason, I really like slapping power fists on marines. This is the most recently completed and looking over the picture, I think I need to go back and do some serious touch-up work. Still, I'm pleased with the way his left kneecap turned out. In case you hadn't noticed, the left knee is where the company marking goes on all Rosen Ritter. If they don't have a kneepad I paint on a small shield in company colors. In this case, the single stripe down the middle represents 3rd company. Second, as you'll see, is half red on the left side. First would be half red on the right side, and that's as far as I've gotten in planning out company markings for the moment. I have a general idea of a scheme in mind but I need to get it down some day. Maybe if I ever make a serious effort at writing down t he chapter fluff.

The last marine in this entry is a simple chainsword marine. He's another example of the use of crusader bits--since all Rosen Ritter have to serve in the Crusade companies at one time or another, some of them choose to keep the iconography when rotated back to their normal company. In these cases, though, the crusader cross is altered to bear that company's mark.

Anyway, that's all for now. I still have three or four marines in progress that will be added to this squad, so I'll get them uploaded as soon as they're done. I'll hopefully get some of the 2nd "Crusader" company up as well as some of the more codex troops from 3rd.

Bandwagon

2006-11-08T17:08:00.000-05:00

Well, since inspiration is often synergistic, I'm taking a cue from Thorisian and starting this blog specifically for any and all work I'm doing on my Rosen Ritter space marine Chapter. Don't expect Golden Demon quality work here. I know my limitations. But this will be a dumping ground for past and present projects, provided I get off my ass and actually photograph some of my minis.