How the blood came to flow...

Ok,
i have yet to get any decent pictures taken,
but thought id run through the concept for the look and feel of my Bloodpact,
as well as discuss a few sources of inspiration for future and previous projects.

Like many people who have read the Gaunts Ghosts series,
i was inspired to create a Bloodpact force.
At the time i was an Imperial Guard player,
and the idea of stopping guard to start a Bloodpact army pretty much stopped any ideas eventuating into reality.

At the time of the release of Apocalypse i had stopped working on my guard for several years,
and had started a 1000pt army for $400,
and seeing as it had to be a new army i had chosen 'nyds (of which the whole army list had to be re-worked due to new codex).
It was during this time that something major caught my eye,
and so i started assembling a Baneblade (which i have still yet to complete...) for the purpose of a guard tank to get my interest back into them and finish them off (never happened).

After a new release of Gaunts Ghosts (Only in death i believe it was),
the urge for blood came back in full force.
This was when the perfect idea hit me,
why bother starting a new army when i can convert an incomplete guard army into the Blood pact army i had been wanting to do.

So,
loyalty out the window and in with the powers of chaos.

First thing i had to do,
outline what seperated the guard from Blood pact from a standard guard army,
aside from the obvious aesthetics of the infantry,
it all came down to vehicles, the powers of the warp and xenos.
So i looked through all my novels,
and through my sabbat crusades book (bought for $30 AUS at the time),
for all vehicles and creatures and such that were used by the dark powers.

Aside from scavenged tanks and traitors,
i came up with the following-
Usurper self propelled howitzers
SteG4 armoured cars
AT 70 Reavers
AT 83 Brigand
N20 and N22 Half tracks
Stalk tanks
Locust aircraft
Loxatyl xenos mercinaries
Wirewolves
Bay Hounds

(i may have forgotten some of what i came across,
as well as some spelling).

The next step was to work out how i would include these units into my army...
-Usurpers clearly had to be a form of artillery (based around ww2 german artillery, similar to the basis of Dave Taylors 'Priest', but with a central cannon based more towards the rear with a longer barrel
-SteG 4s as sentinels (as its not mentioned that they are transports. I cant remember where i got the inspiration from for these, so once posted if anyone knows please tell me so credit can be given)
-Locust aircraft as valkyries/vendettas (the problem was how the troops would be transported, but after seeing how this issue was overcome by Dave Taylors Warp Locator , i was reminded of the huge pink crystals in 'Only in Death' that the Bloodpact were teleporting in from, as well as giant ogryn and human mutations, and so they will be placed on the bases of the craft. The concept for converting the aircraft i found thanks to Spikey Bits jet fighter)
-Loxatyl would be my Ogryns
-A lone Wirewolve would represent Sly Marbo
-AT 70 Reavers would be a form of Leman Russ, as would the AT 83 and the Stalk tanks (all will make sense once the conversions are done, but the idea did click in from seeing the Stalk tank by Dave Taylor and the AT 70 thanks to Rabidchild)
-N20 and N22 Halftracks would likely be chimeras, hellhounds, and light artillery.
-Bay Hounds... they would just be an upgrade option for the N20 and N22s, representing there search lights (idea based on events in Traitor General)

Thats about all i can remember for now,
its all written down somewhere,
will post more when i remember more.

After that,
colour scheme was next on the agenda...
Seeing as how the Bloodpact are made up from recruited units as well as traitor units,
a portion of the army would be done in loylalist guard camo and uniforms with a suitable goreish reworking done to them,
while the rest would be purely done in a scheme suiting the pure Bloodpact.
Im a spray painter by trade,
so through work i have access to a whole tinter machine as well as certain types of sealer for spraying on cars,
of which i have found a mix that once sprayed out at EXTREMELY low pressure with high fluid settings creates the look that someone choaking on there own blood just coughed all over your army.
Looks great and oh so fitting too.
Down side being you have to let certain mixtures sit for a few days prior to adding it all together or you lose the whole dried clotted blood effect.
Its also very shinny so you must either put in matting agent with the mix,
or spray over it with mat varnish.

That settled,
where should they be fighting?
After long deliberation,
and a chance watching of Behind Enemy Lines,
i decided on the look of an Eastern Europe industrial complex thats gone to ruin.
So blackened and greyed rocks and rubble,
dark coloured mud,
with scorched and dead grass and weeds.
Perhaps some pools of oil and water too.
Similar to the scene depicted in the area around the spoils outside Vervunhive in the book Necropolis,
just with more vegetation,
or at least signs it was there...

Well thats the concept behind the look and feel of my army,
once i have the photos together i will go through the basis of my army make up,
force organisation and the reasoning behind my choices.