Ice themed marines

1609 Views 16 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Grand Master Belial, Feb 13, 2006

Xiahou Dun

Discussion Starter · Feb 9, 2006 (Edited)

I had a dream the other night about icy marines. Since then I've been gradually warming to the idea. I've come up with quite a few ideas but they're all too disparate so I've streamlined it into four distinct armies and I'd like you good people to tell me which one you think is coolest and how you would play it for maxiumum tactical effectiveness. So without further ado...

Ice Runners
Traits: Be swift as the wind and Trust your battle brothers with Aspire to glory
Primary units: Bikes, speeders, scouts
Background: Forced to adopt an extremely mobile style of warfare due to the extensive frosty plains of their homeworld. They only use units with easily portable weapons. So no devestators, no terminators, tactical squads would be mounted in rhinos. Perhaps 1 dreadnought and/or 1 predator.

Arctic Foxes
Traits: Take the fight to them and Blessed be the warriors with Aspire to glory
Primary units: Assault squads, Tactical squads, scout squads
Background: A chapter used to fighting with tooth and claw... and without heavy suport. Their style of warfare leans heavily towards close combat and they eschew the use of heavy weapons and tanks. Heavy emphasis on troops. No Devestator squads, no terminators, no tanks. Will probably use 1 venerable dreadnought.

Ice Golems
Traits: Heed the wisdom of the ancients with We Stand alone
Primary units: Terminators, Dreadnoughts
Background: This chapter is expert at both assaulting and defending. Their heavy armour giving them a necron-like feel of a slow dauntless advance. This army is probably the simplest of them all using Terminators and Venerable Dreadnoughts almost exclusively. No no's are scouts, bikes and speeders.

Ice Angels
Traits: Purity above all and Cleanse and purify with Aspire to glory and We stand alone
Primary units: Assault squads, Tactical squads, speeders
Background: This chapter has a strong belief in the purity of its icy homeworld and wishes to share that purity with the rest of the galaxy. When they're away from their homeworld they use a very fleet-based style of warfare with assault squads and land speeders dropping directly from their ships and the tactical squads with 2 special weapons and apothacaries in drop pods. This is the only army out of these four that will use melta guns.

Also I'm still thinking about the colour scheme. Icy blue and white is the obvious one but I'd like something a little less obvious. So.... that's about it, any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

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MiketehFox

· #2 · Feb 9, 2006

I like the idea of the Ice Runners, but I has this urge to use something other than the word 'ice', maybe 'Thundra'?

I'd like to see some of your conversions, cloaks for the Scouts and maybe a type of Ski on the from of bikes rather than a wheel?

Mike

Xiahou Dun

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 9, 2006

Yeah, I probably should have mentioned this but the names, like the colours are still in flux. I just thought those up ones up quickly to give people an easy way to refer to each army. So suggestions for better names are also needed.

Corianis

· #4 · Feb 9, 2006

I think that they are all nice ideas. I just had to provide this link though:
http://www.tsoalr.com/view.php?date=2006-02-02

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Foxen

· #5 · Feb 9, 2006

Hmm, which one do I like the best eh? Uh, this is a personal preference sorta thing but I like the Arctic Fox theme. Their Foxes, what can I say?

First off - modeling the minis would be a simple conversion from the extensive Space Wolves line. With some greenstuff you can really tailor and personalize the foxes, making them somewhat more foxy... More so, with a "white/orange/deep reddish brown theme, the color contrast should be quite stunning. So white armor plates with orange and brown accents (elbows, knees, wrist bands, etc.) possibly trimmed with orange/brown/grey white furs.

If I wasn't working on Space Wolves, I would retool my force with similar traits and many many jump packs and annoying scouts. Although foxes tend to me solitary hunters (versus the wolf pack), I like the hit and run idea and getting right into your foes face with infiltration.

Fox

Foxen

· #6 · Feb 9, 2006

Ps...a quick Merriam Webster on-line search provided some more alternatives to "ice"...

bitter, cool, coolish, freezing, frigid, frosty, glacial, ice-cold, icy, nipping, nippy, numbing, polar, shivery, snappy, wintry, subfreezing, subzero; cutting, keen, penetrating, piercing, sharp; bracing, brisk, crisp, invigorating, rigorous; chilled, cooled, frosted, frozen, iced, refrigerated, unheated

Personally, I like Frost/Frosty and Glacial

Xiahou Dun

Discussion Starter · #7 · Feb 9, 2006

Foxen said:
Hmm, which one do I like the best eh? Uh, this is a personal preference sorta thing but I like the Arctic Fox theme. Their Foxes, what can I say?

First off - modeling the minis would be a simple conversion from the extensive Space Wolves line. With some greenstuff you can really tailor and personalize the foxes, making them somewhat more foxy... More so, with a "white/orange/deep reddish brown theme, the color contrast should be quite stunning. So white armor plates with orange and brown accents (elbows, knees, wrist bands, etc.) possibly trimmed with orange/brown/grey white furs.

If I wasn't working on Space Wolves, I would retool my force with similar traits and many many jump packs and annoying scouts. Although foxes tend to me solitary hunters (versus the wolf pack), I like the hit and run idea and getting right into your foes face with infiltration.

Fox

I've re-thought the traits and I think see but don't be seen instead of blessed be the warriors would be better. Infiltrate the close combat marines along with the scouts at the sacrifice of slightly weaker assault squads. Which fits the theme a bit better.

As for foxes being solitary hunters... Well I doubt they know that anymore in the 41st millennium. They'd probably be little more than a myth, or perhaps like dinosaurs are to us. Just something the chapter admired for its tenacity and decided to emulate.

On a side note...

hehe it's so cute
Anyway, if I were to do it I'd probably use a mix of space wolf and normal space marines. Make the furs orange or brown, but keep the armour white and grey. Yes, it's sounding good, I'll try making a list for this soon.

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Intrepid

· #8 · Feb 9, 2006

I like the Arctic Foxes idea. Say their homeworld was plagued by heavy storms that caused frequent whiteout conditions, so the Marines learned to fight up close.

Ice Angels also sounds interesting as it's a completely deep strike/drop pod army that still has some variety. Using fresh snow as an emblem of purity is a great metal picture!

Gray colors might be useful; also dark green, maybe? I like the idea of using bright orange for the chest aquila. A neat idea would be to make skis from sprues and put them on the troops' backpacks.

Let us know what you decide!

Reactions: 1

Foxen

· #9 · Feb 9, 2006

Damn, that picture of the fox really drives the fear of the Emperor into me!

Grand Master Belial

· #10 · Feb 9, 2006

Foxen said:
Damn, that picture of the fox really drives the fear of the Emperor into me!

It would make a scary Chapter Symbol. You only see two black eyes and a black nose with a thin black line for a mouth on white. You wouldn't know if you are looking at his shoulder or his face.

Deek

· #11 · Feb 10, 2006

Good comic but I leave mine grey until I am about to paint them. I like the Idea of the first list for some reason I just love bikes, land speeder tornados, terminators, and command squads

The first list is good but you might want to include the terminators as they can teleport you know much faster than I motorcycle.

For a paint scheme i suggest a ice blue base coat and highlight the models with progressively more and more skull white the trim can be skull white and the mask can be skull whte.

Xiahou Dun

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 11, 2006

Well, after much deliberation and list making I've decided to go with the arctic foxes. I've made a list which is here....
http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/t58854-1500-custom-chapter.html

Now, I'll probably end up undercoating them with space wolves grey, and painting them skull white, except for the shoulder pads which will be space wolves grey with skull white trim. And of course their eyes will be black, which should look cool, Overall I'm going for a dirty white look.

I already have enough close combat scouts for the list I made. I'll use space wolf blood claws for the close combat marines. One question I have... Does the space wolf venerable dreadnought come with a lascannon as well as an assault cannon? All I can find are pictures of it with the AC but I really want that awesome looking powerfist, not to mention the other little extras.

Other questions... Do chaplains always have to be black? I imagine it'd stand out like a pile of coal in a snowdrift. Also can anyone reccommend a good boxed set or sprue I could use to get furs for my scouts?

Finally the chapter symbol. I don't want to use the space wolf one cause, well it's a bloody wolf. I was thinking maybe an evil looking fox face (anyone who has seen naruto should know what I mean) but I dunno, I'm not very good at painting symbols freehand so I'm wary of trying that.

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Intrepid

· #13 · Feb 11, 2006

For a chapter symbol, maybe a crystal radiating light rays? Not very original but easy enough to paint.

Chaplains can be any color but I'd do something to make him at least a little distinctive.

minus_t

· #14 · Feb 11, 2006

For furs etc you can get some good bits from the Space Wolf accessory sprue
*here*
or the mordheim Middenheimer accessory sprue
*here*

There's probably some metal bitz you could use aswell, but those were the things that sprang to mind. The Middenheimer sprue is probably better for scouts, and is cheaper aswell. :shifty:

One of the old space wolf transfers is of a head-on wolf face, looks pretty fox-like to me...
Infact, there is a metal shoulderpad version of it *here*. I know you said you didn't want to use a Space Wolf icon, but I thought you might make an exception.

Traditionally, Chaplains have black armour because it is a symbol of thier loyalty to the Emperor, but I think that some chapters could and would subvert this marking for consistant colouring. Perhaps just paint one shoulder pad black, or something along those lines?

I like the idea, and I quite like what you've done with the army list aswell.
:yes:

-t.

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Foxen

· #15 · Feb 12, 2006

Wow, I'm impressed with the thought and effort you're putting into your Marines...we want pictures when you start working on em'!

I'd strongly suggest going to the GW Website to order individual sprues to accessories your Foxes. Space Wolve Sprues would definately help as already previously suggested.

For furs...beyond what was mentioned, someone had used Chaos Marauders (WHFB) for their Space Wolf Lords. More so though, I've been playing with the Green Stuff from GW. Furs are not that hard to sculpt and ONE packet of GS goes a LONG way. There are a number of good articles on-line including the GW website, and I'm sure local sculpters would be glad to offer you advice.

For the Wolf's V Dred...well, I believe it comes ONLY with the Assault Cannon. However, you can always order parts straight from GW. Forgeworld also has individualized parts too...in case you wanted to get the multi-melta. Also, if you are purchasing plastic Drednoughts, they should come with extra parts right?

For symbols...I dunno where you can find it, but I have seen people custom make their own decals. Using Photoshop and mail ordered transfers...I think you can easily make transfer decals for your foxes. I also know of one chapter called the Star Foxes...from a local player. He uses a star design to make a fox head symbol for his foxes. Sorry, I don't have the link off hand. His force was something like a desert fox theme.

And as Minus stated, your Chaplins don't necessarily have to be completely black. There are always other options...painting black accents would be nice. Or you would go with a dark gray scheme with him. Be creative, this is wht I like about this hobby.

Anyhow, we want pix!!!

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Xiahou Dun

Discussion Starter · #16 · Feb 13, 2006

Thanks guys, you've been very helpful.

That space wolves sprue is exactly what I was looking for, not only that, it's got a powerfist as well!. Doesn't get much more perfect than that. Also, after digging through my old white dwarfs I found a bunch of space wolf shoulder pads you can get 50 cents each, some of which will work quite nicely.

The next thing I'm going to do is buy Ulrik the slayer and Captain Shrike. Put Shrike's lightning claws and jump pack on Ulrik's body and it should make a very cool looking chaplain.

Grand Master Belial

· #17 · Feb 13, 2006

I am curious by what you mean by making the chaplain a little bit distinctive. If they get the standard black armour they will stand right out against your white marines or do you have something more subtle in mind. << Imagines Chaplains and Libbies with toned down armour colors. >>

Also, Krylon makes a grey primer that you might like. It could save you a step. Just a suggestion.

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