Adding Mobility - APC

Wanted to built APC for my Squat infantry units. I wanted it to look tough & brutal. No unnecessary decorations, just a bulldog delivering the troops into the thick off a fight. At first I struggled hard to find suitable base for the APC. Didn't just wanted to  choose Rhino with some Squat freehands on it's sides. Instead I wanted to create vehicle that was built using GW plastic kits but would still look completely original (pretty much what I did with my dreadnought model earlier)! Phew… Harder than I thought it would be. I was stuck for a long time not been able to find perfect starting point... until GW released their latest goodie… – Space Wolves Stormfang Gunship!

Whoah! It was perfect! no tracks but still sharing the Space Marine design language. I was thrilled, I rushed to get my copy right away, I also got the Rhino kit to go with it, since I wanted my Squat APC to still look little bit like Rhino since, after all my Squat force is still basically Space Marine army.

I started to play the game of mixing with the two kits, I wanted it to have the same access-points and weapon combinations as Rhino had, so I had some sort of plan to follow. At firs it was going to look more like one of those WWII Assault boats at Normandy but quite soon, almost by accident I flipped the whole chassis upside-down and Bam! There it was, totally fresh look that looked nothing like GW had done even tho it was made out of their own kits. I was very happy.

So here it is, the first one of the two Rhinos I still need to build. It actually ended up looking so good that I pretty sure I also need to ad Predator variant to my force in some point. Paint job was very simple - The same blueish-grey basic colour that I have used throughout my whole army. Tactical markings - White stripe for infantry & orange to mark the company (12th company) lots of weathering and simple freehand on the side & there it was. Really hope you like it!

WIP!

Company Standard Bearer - Thorsten Järnkall

Squat Engineer Tech Smith -

The Brotherhood Of Steel - Story So Far...

The Fighting Brotherhood Of Thorwarg Ironmane

Warhammer 40k Squat Army using Space Marine Army list

HQ

Thorwarg Ironmane

Force commander of the fighting brotherhood

-Plasma pistol

  -Power weapon

120pts.

Troops

Tactical Squad #1

-Plasma gun

-Missile launcher

-Storm bolter

175pts.

Tactical Squad #2

-Meltagun

-Heavy Bolter

160pts.

Heavy Support

Devastator Squad

4x Heavy boltters

110pts.

Elites

Dreadnought

-Plasma cannon

110pts.

Total: 850pts

Bringing In The Heavy Support - The Exo-Armour

"Through the fires of the war I march

Through the enemy trenches I cross

Only in the fiery furnace of the battle I can feel alive"

Thorwarg Ironmane

"Like iron is forged to steel, so has our brotherhood been forged in the fires of the battlefields. We paid the ultimate prize in the hands of those Tyrannid scum but we survived  and the brotherhood will never break. Together we will avenge the death of our forebeards and make our ancestors proud!"

So here comes the revered force commander Thorwarg Ironmane. He was the high commander of  the League of Emberg. Emberg  was one of the smallest  of the Squat Leagues closest to the Eye of Terror and included only four strongholds. When the Splinter fleet  destroyed the Squat home worlds Thorwarg and his brothers had gone to war and were drifting through the warp when the tragedy happened. Warned by his spiritual ancestors, Thorwag quickly steered his ships back home to aid his brothers but Warp currents delayed Thorwarg's fleet and when they finally got there it was too late. Now Thorwarg and his fighting brotherhood are roaming around the galaxy to seek their vengeage!  

Squats beign so stunty and all, I decided to give him a battle shield to go to war. For the obvious fact that the shield and it's carriers can, at some situations be too much for gaming purposes, I added magnets to allow him to be mounted either on the shield or just regular gaming base for those drop pod assaults missions etc.

"Forged in fire, forged in death, We march to war, Hammers will rise and heads will fall, when we go to war, Red dawn is rising, the brotherhood of steel…" 

Old Squat battle hymn 

The Brotherhood of Steel

My Squat force has now reached the point where I have managed to get the troop choices ready and painted. As you all surely know, this is also the most boring part when new army is started. Row after row of foot soldiers who all look very much alike. I have proceeded with great speed and it has been a great fun all the way!

But before I start converting any more miniatures, I must first just sit back and start to work on the background story for these guys.

Where do they come from? How did they managed to avoid from the fate that met their brothers?? To who they hold they grudge now??? Lots of questions that need answering…

The great thing about army projects is the fact that they last for long periods of time. After every new character / squad there should be enough time to really think that what needs to be added next. I don't want to rush things and I need to check all the newly released plastic kits for good parts etc...

Tactical Squad #2

[missile launcher, plasma, sergeant with storm bolter]

Devastator Squad

[4x heavy bolters]

The Fighting Brotherhood Of The Lost League

Squats, the first time I saw Squats was not in the Rogue Trader (too young for that really) but in the rulebook of the 2. edition of the game. Once again it was the John Blanche artwork that drew my attention…

Just brilliant! I wanted to field a Squat army!! but, wait!!!,,, even though the rulebook (& Codex Imperialis) displayed them as one of the major races of the 40k universe, in the reality they were already wiped out from the system (as I later bitterly found out). Bummer!!!

During the years I have played with the idea of resurrecting this race back to battlefields but since so far there haven't really been good miniatures to convert them from! Until very recently… (although Johan has done very inspiring conversion before me here)

I was browsing through GW's site and there they were! Dwarf Iron Breakers!!! seriously perfect candidates for my long time dream of fielding a army of these stunty diehards!

Iron Breaker bodies and heads combined with hands, guns and accessories from Space Marine Scouts All very simple and all very effective! and easy too!!!

So one test-mini turned into a squad and now Im aiming for a small battle force to play with my mates at work (yes, we have active WH-gaming group there!). Im thinking of using Space Marine or maybe even Space Wolves rules for them, so at least another tactical squad and a command squad… and a Ancestor (dreadnought) then few Trikes (attack bikes) and Hearthguard (terminators) and…. you get the point.

OK I got to admit that this all started as a joke, a bit of fun to got my attention back to painting miniatures again, but as soon as I started I realized that this was lot more than a joke. So the story of the Lost League started to evolve…

Very simple paint job - airbrush for the blueish-grey base coat (Tamiya paints) and GW paints for the rest. I was tempted to paint the bolter casings red just for the old times sake, but then I thought that the Squats are retro enough alone so I went for the black. I painted the sleeves orange to give some colour and it actually works pretty well with the highly restricted palette.

Hope you guys like them too.

UPDATE [3.30.2014]

Added some color to the bolter casings!