Blackstone Fortress - Traitor Guard, Slaanesh Cultist Unit

When Blackstone Fortress came out, I was immediately taken by some of the new chaos models, but I didn't want to fork out for a whole set. I also wanted to be able to integrate the minis into my force right away without having to use the odd little data sheets that were made for them for 40k.

With that in mind, I picked up a set of the Traitor Guard models on eBay and converted them for use as an ordinary cultist squad. I used a few standard plastic cultists to fill the gaps and also did a few head swaps here and there to get them all to match nicely.

I'm particularly fond of the head swap on their leader, which was pretty simple with some spare Mechanicus infiltrator bits. The models themselves had great detail, so I didn't want to change them too much.

I've painted them to match the rest of my Emperor's Children force, but I swapped the colours around and gave them white/bone colour armour and purple fatigues (as opposed to the usual Emperor's Children purple armour). They still match the force nicely, but it helps them look a little different, and it was quite fun to paint. I've actually built a second unit with hand to hand combat weapons, but I'm planning to paint them later, as finishing this unit was enough for the moment.

Behold - The Chimera Tank(s)

After Sharing my infantry with you all I thought it would only be appropriate to share their rides. I've done 2 Chimeras for the force so far. Luckily I had a few Chaos bits about the place to suitably pimp them out in.

Like most people I use them as a barely mobile heavy weapons platform. The armour 12 doesn't hurt either, and they're one of those units that I tend to use to get the job done once I've finished firing the choicer things - soften up those targets with a punishing artillery volley and then splatter what's left with wildly inaccurate, but unnecessarily punishing Multi-Laser and Heavy Bolter fire. The Heavy Stubber is always a good choice too; cheap and with a good range it almost always pays for itself and then some (plus 9 shots from a transport is rather wince inducing for most opponents - except for Eldar!

You can see I've used an evil summoning circle to bring you these tanks again. It just looks so scenic!

The second tank, sadly without the mighty stubber - let it never be said I wasn't known for my sportsmanship!

Traitor Guard Infantry

Some of the finished units from my converted Traitor Guard force. There are 20 men in total and the process of converting all of those metal Vostroyans was more than a little bit painful!

Conversion wise, I've basically head-swapped or de-bearskinned every single one of them, well except for the big guy with the Autocannon who is converted from some old Chaos Warrior and Ork bits. They were a lot of work compared to using plastic Cadians or something, but I like the look I got in the end, although some Imperial Symbols do remain - I guess they're newly turncoat!



The pictures below are from the second squad. One of the things I love about playing Guard is how expendable your men are. At 5pts each they can actually be called successful just by taking bullets for your more costly units. They are actually reasonably survivable too for their points range. The 5+ save isn't too bad and if you get them behind a nice wall they'll stay in the fight long after they deserve to be dead.

Probably the best part is the system of Orders they have these days - getting 3 shots a man can really get some mileage out of your lasguns - remember if the squad can kill about 3 or 4 marines they get their points cost back. The sheer number of shots is also good for my legendary bad luck!

Some people might say a lascannon and a flamer is a bad weapon combination. I saw who cares and fire another unit of cheap men at them. There's always more where that came from!

Behold - The Basilisk Tank!

Probably my favourite tank of all time in 40k. I still remember flipping through copies of White Dwarf as a kid and staring at the pictures and thinking "one day when I have enough money!". Needless to say years later when I started my Traitor Guard force it was an essential purchase. You still can't argue with the power of an Earthshaker Cannon either (basically a S9 Battle Cannon with indirect fire).

I also figured that it was probably time I shared some pictures of my Guard on here as I have alluded to playing them once or twice. Paint wise, they're one of my easier schemes as I have tried to keep it fairly simple. It seems to be important when you're painting an army that can be pretty horde like, as there are going to be so many men to get through that you don't want to be bogged down. The part that stands out for me is actually the silver of the gun-barrel as I think it looks very realistically metallic - like brushed steel. It was actually just dry-brushed round and round the barrel with darker to lighter metallic pants, but I really like how it came out. 

You really do need a lot of models to play them properly anyway, as having access to some fairly decent, but incredibly cheap infantry is a massive strength, purely for the number of wounds you can put on the field, as well as the number of bullets!

Theme wise the force if sort of Traitor Guard with a bit of Dark Mechanicus thrown in. I started them before there was an actual Adeptus Mechanicus range available, so it was an excuse to do a bit of conversion work about the place and have some fun with the force.

Cid - The One Man Army

Feast your eyes on Cid - Lord of all Eternia! ... well maybe not. He's actually just the leader of some Scions for my Traitor Guard force, but I like the model a lot and over a few games he has obtained a sort of character the way models often do through their table-top achievements and failures. He is converted slightly - with a head made of 2 heads (the captain's hat) and a bit of a switcheroo on the weapons and arms. The pistol is actually from the Scion medic, which is why it has that cool saw and drill looking attachment.

Mostly he ended up being a bit of an exercise in freehand technique as I did a series of 8 pointed stars on his coat that I'm quite happy with. I particularly like the circle on his shoulder - I'm always worried that when I do straight lines over cloth it will look unnatural as it won't follow the curves and folds of the clothing. Luckily I think I managed to avoid that pitfall.

I painted on the designs in Moot Green, highlighted them, and then I went back in and glazed the folds with a darker green so that they would blend better into the folds of the cloak and not look so stark and obviously painted on top.

I also recommend using a limited palette (like Cid here) when working on horde armies. I try to restrict myself to green, brass, black and brown when working on the army in an attempt finish enough units to be able to play. Even with that approach it isn't working as I've yet to finish the unit of Veterans I started on 2 years ago....

I liked the scheme so much I used it on some Skaven too!