Power Armoured Painting: The Badab War Blues

Another week, another post! Last time, I discussed the dilemma that many war gamers face when choosing their army; balancing something that looks cool that also does well on the table top.  I've spent a good couple of weeks discussing possible army choices for next year's Mayhem tournament, and I've settled on Space Marines.

A lot of my regular opponents will be rolling their eyes as I am something of a Power Armour Junkie, already owning an unpainted Death Watch army, a painted Grey Knights army (that I'm very proud of), and a good old fashioned Space Marine army.

My Space Marines (the Light Bringers Chapter)  were in fact my first ever 40K army, and have graced the table top many many times (including a fair few tournaments).  I don't think I've shared any pictures of them on the Vault though. Let's correct that:

Properly blinged up Stern Guard

I've been collecting and playing the Light Bringers for over 10 years now, although some of the models are a lot older than that!  In the picture below there's a Rogue Trader-era metal beakie with Heavy Bolter standing next to the modern Grav Cannon-toting plastic devestator. The size creep is pretty amazing once you compare them next to each other!

Devestator Marines

The Light Bringers are a Space Marine Chapter of my own devising; I've written some (fairly awful) fluff for them over the years, but it has been a lot of fun using a unique Chapter.

However I'm also a big fan of a lot of the background material produced for Warhammer 40,000, and right up at the top of the list of stories is the Badab Wars. This is a tale of a time of great trouble when a number of Space Marine Chapters under the leadership of Lugft Huron and the Astral Claws declared secession from the Imperium and a civil war with many other Chapters ensued.

The Badab Wars are covered in great depth and with glorious illustrations in Forge World's Imperial Armour 9 & 10 Books. They include a lot of detail of the various Chapters involved in both sides of the conflicts.

So this is my inspiration for my Mayhem 2018 army; a force of Space Marines inspired by the Badab War tales. I might get a little cheeky and veer off the fluff to include some shiny new Primaris Marines because they look cool as hell!

So which Chapter to collect and paint? I've been genuinely torn between two or 3 favourites. The Raptors made the cut, and the Mantis Warriors were a serious contender, but I've decided on the Carcharodons, or to use their more silly sounding name; the Space Sharks!

Stupid names aside, the Carcharodons have some wonderful background material. They are just utter nut jobs; isolationists, prone to fits of extreme overkill that World Eaters would be proud of, and quite happy to take acts of revenge & terror to such levels it would make the Night Lords a tad uncomfortable.

And where the Light Bringers are primarily a shooty force, I'm aiming to make the Carcharodons a bit more assault focused. I have painted a few Carcharadons in the past, so this should give you an idea of their colour palette. First up a regular ole Tactical Marine:

Flame On

Lots of greys, blacks, white and metallics as you can see. It's a very simple scheme, but looks effective.

Forge World produce a Special Character for the Carcharodons called Tyberus the Red Wake:

Lightning Chain Buzz Saw Fists guy

He's a nice model, but mine is still very Work In Progress, and quite likely to remain that way (at least for a while) as he is a bit pricey points wise for a 1250 list. In the old version of the rules he allowed a unit of Lightning Claw armed Terminators called The Red Brethren to be taken as a Troops choice. Nice!

Sarge

And the lads!

These guys might still make the cut! In all honesty, I'm still figuring out a list, but I can see Scouts, Vanguard Veterans and Aggressors all having a place in it. The Carcharodons are rumoured to come from Raven Guard gene seed, and I think the Raven Guard rules will work quite well with how I see this list playing. Failing that it's Black Templars rules for re-rolling charges!

I'll talk through some list ideas and tactics, and how Stratagems, Warlord Traits, etc. affect them in a future post.

As a hobby project I'm going to explore shaped shoulder pads, scenic bases, a possible digression into Tranquility Conflict Camo (go look it up, its awesome!) and I'm even thinking about a display board for Armies on Parade next year! I might even do Sharknado the Whirlwind as has been suggested to me!

It's going to be a busy hobby year; I hope you stick around to enjoy it with me!