I've started by drafting a 750 point list:

Renegade Command HQ
Chimera

Renegade Armoured Fist
Chimera

Renegade Armoured Fist
Chimera

Renegade Hellhound

Started some assemblage:

hoorah for more chaos militia!

Ah Pox, I was going to PM you, but as you're here.....

Anti-tank!

HW Teams vs Sabre Platforms

Sabre Pros:
Same cost (60pts)
Twin-linked makes it 75% chance of hitting with Lascannons instead of 50%
Most small arms fire needs 6s to destroy the gun

Sabre Cons:
Must be HS requiring Command Squad (whereas HWs can be attached to HQ)
Immobile
Can't be used in a normal IG list without IA rules

Thoughts?

The other options I've been looking at are Demolishers (scatter unreliable) a pair of Destroyers (single shot, BS3) or a Macharius with twin-linked Vanquishers (super-heavy may put opponents off, although maybe not if they're willing to play against Militia anyway) or a LR Annihilator.

More thoughts?

Personally, I'd go with the Sabre platforms. Why? They look cool.

Vanquisher Macharius? Tempting, but as you say the presence of a Super Heavy may put peeps off. I'd go with perhaps two Annihilators and one Demolisher perhaps? Plenty of death from that lot.

indeed - but they are effing expensive to buy (£20,00 each when you include P&P - you could buy another chimera for that!)

(though still might end up buying a quad heavy stubber one for awesome coolness)

anti-tank is a bit of an issue in this list, will think on it some more.

Nearly got squad 1 done

Converted vox:




Flamer:


Ablativ....err, other heroic members of the squad:


The veteran is nearly done, but he looked a bit lame, so he's getting a few extras. And I'm gonna put the hip grenades on before they get painted.

EDIT:

Full Squad:


Veteran with Demo Charge (belt loop needs a bit more smoothing):

I got to admit, those Chaos torsos do look rather sweet. How many more do you have to do then? Just 15 (squad and Command). Any idea how the Chimeras are going to be done?

Command Squad are one piece bodies (ie full model sculpts), some have separate arms though.

The Chimeras will be pretty straight forward, assemble as normal then put some Militia Brass Etch on some of the armour panels (same for the Hellhound). Might go for the pack of 3 vehicle crew, pondering that one. I also got lots of those spiky rails in my Chaos Vehicle bitz box (yes, they have their own) for decoration.

General Militia Modelling Comments:

I don't know whether Pox found this, but I had to angle some of the left arms to get the wrist in the right position to glue to the hand under the lasgun, then GS some noticeable gaps between the shoulder and the torso on about 4 models (no biggie, just so anyone else who has an eye on Militia knows). I also found 2 of the torsos needed a bit of GS between the waist and legs. I pinned the renegade flamer canister to the flamer as well.

Looking good!!

I've found gaps as well. With the SM it's ok because I can do some filing to match things up. Maybe a little bit of green stuff on the arms to make a nice level attachment to the shoulder?

yeah noticable gaps when using catachan arms (no problems when using forgeworld chaos militia arms) but then i figured because my catachan arms where off the sprue in a big bundle it was because i coudln't match the right pairs of arms together.

also haven't used a catachan flamer yet (both of mine have used elysian veteran flamer's, with extra mini-fuel tank on the back)

Good to know. I decided in the end when I get round to doing the 2 Disciples squads, I'd give them proper Militia arms to make them stand out (have you noticed the list implies they have a CCW as standard regardless of which gun they take, so they can grab an extra attack in CC?). The vox bodies can go into the 2 platoon commands I'll eventually get (which will be normal Militia stuff so the CS models stay unique as the HQ).

*several pages of swearing*

Ahem. I ordered the Command HQ with my IA6 pre-order, thinking as it's not released until the 22nd Sept, they'd arrive about the right time. Surprisingly FW shipped the squad, so I thought I'd put them together while I had time, although I won't paint them until October.

So, taking on board Pox's advice about delicacy.....

Flash:


No Flash:


It started badly when the autogun guy's muzzle dropped off pretty much on it's own, although this was quickly repaired. Other than that, the autogunner was pretty easy.

The Plasmagunner was up next, again, pretty straight forward.

The voxman was done third. It required a bit of patience to clean out the space between the tubing and his chest, but no complications. There isn't really a perfect fit for his autogun arm, so a tiny bit of GS will be needed there.

Then it went downhill.

The Champion has several hoses that need cleaning between the hose and the body, which were more irritating than the voxman. The power hose that is a separate bit was damaged, and is currently lying in 3 pieces. I could:
- repair it
- phone FW
- forget it
- replace it with a piece of wire
This was clearly a model where someone should have intervened and explained to the sculptor that it looks cool and all, but that lovely detail will be a b*****d when it comes out of the mould. The power hose is my favourite, I mean, FFS, the damn chainblade is part of the guys arm (which looks ace btw), W(hy)TF does it need a powre source at all
To be honest, I think I can repair it, so fingers crossed on that one.

Speaking of fingers......
Despite Pox's warning, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the Icon Bearer is missing his fingers on the bottom hand. FW didn't help by including brass rod that is too thick for the small drill on the pin vice and too thin for the large drill (which is too thick for the model). Having said that, it is entirely my fault for pushing on instead of coming back at a later date with something more appropriate (which I probably have somewhere anyway). Let's hope my limited GS skills extend to fingers..........

Aside from that there are some knives and grenades to dish out. I put the knives on where they appeared on the models on the FW website, but no clues for the grenades. In the end I put them on the autogunner and the icon bearer. Yes, the grenades are so small they required tweezers to move into position.

In summary, there's nothing really advanced going on here, but you will need a fair bit of patience in my experience. The models are really nice though

Next step is to clean the torsos for the second squad and stick them to the legs. Then I'll base the first squad ready for spraying.

In other news, as I got paid yesterday, I ordered IA1 to properly peruse the HS options available, and the vehicle crew discussed with edmund above, and some Brass Etch.

Well, going by both yours and Pox's experience with these Chaos Renegades, these particular FW models really are for the more advanced modeler. However, I think you'll pull through Baragash.

How are you doing their colour scheme? Dark reds and rather tatty looking?

I suppose it depends what you mean by "advanced". If patient, with a bit of experience with GS, a pin vice and tweezers is advanced then, yes, you are correct sir!

(In all fairness, FW do say the stuff is for experienced modellers).

GS'd the voxman's arm, part repaired the power hose, although it looks like it's been broken. Some very tiny GS work will need to be done to fill the gaps and painting it should cover most of it (bar a bit at the bottom where it hasn't actually broken but is bent - arrgh, the irony. Contemplating breaking it there and resticking it).

Just preparing to sculpt the fingers now



I want the Militia to be God neutral, so no obvious colours.
Base Bestial Brown, main Snakebite Leather, highlighted Dwarf Flesh (this will be the same for the vehicles).
Unsure if the hood will be a different colour or not, I'm thinking base Scorched, main Bestial, highlight Snakebite for the hoods.

Why did the image of the archetypal portrayal of the medieval heretic just pop into my mind? You know, browns, grey, filth, dirty etc etc.

looking good, and lots of luck on GS the fingers.
I just left kilroy with his broken finger, being the uncaring kind of sort.
and yeah the power cable on my champion was ok until i glued it on wrong, and then i broke the connector part off, so it is just a plain cable now (albeit in the right place)

can't wait to see any of those guys painted up, also a note on brass etch, i have found it best to apply it AFTER spraypainting the tank/model as it loses a lot of detail if spraypainted - needs to be hand undercoated skull white.

Sadly my guy is missing all but the little finger (yes, the thumb went too)!

Anyway, what's a missing fnger to a Nurgle Militia?!



Mine came knackered, but I'm going to wrap the broken joints in a thin piece of GS so it looks like it's got intermittent insulation on it.



That's weird - I've used it on Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, Castellan Draco and the Doom Mortar so far and even the little skulls in the background on the Khorne Icons have been fine.

I could see it being an issue on this guy though with the writing:

Well, the power hose didn't work out, so I'm going to replace it with some electrical wire or such like.

Although the Champion gave me the finger, the Icon Bearer turned out ok:




Squad 2 has 4 done (minus GS arm joints), so not far away.

I'm really interested to see these all painted and game ready, it's only been in the past week or so that I happened upon the chaos militia models on the FW website and thought that they would look perfect in my army idea, although I would be covering the chaos insignia and would be using them as part of an IG army.

I've never bought anything from FW before, I've read that you have had a few problems with fiddly bits, but how about just the torso sprue, does that also require a lot of care?

Have you seen this?



Seems a lot of expense to go to, what's your idea?



Basic torso sprue has been no problem at all apart from the flamer canister, which has a substantial mould line on one side. Note the torsos aren't consistent width like the Cadian torsos, hence the filling (talked about further up) between shoulders and arms.

Status: based squad 1 and assembled 5 of squad 2, just psyching up for the vox conversion.