Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army

This will be my first venture away from Nids since coming back to 40k in the spring of 2010.  I needed to mix things up a bit after a solid year of focusing on Nids and a series of intense tournaments with them.  A friend also personally requested that I build a small army and feature it on the blog to help promote DaBoyz GT 2011.  This is our premier local event here in Rochester, NY.  They've been running this for 5 years or so, and has grown considerably in attendance, bringing in 90 players for the 40k event alone.  We also feature some of the best terrain in the tournament circuit which can be seen HERE and in my 2010 GT Batreps.

This has been a comp event and will continue to be this year.  That combined with Chris's ATC performance where he took Best General with no spam, really inspired me to build a comp-friendly Grey Knight army.  With 3 months to go until the GT, I'm painting like a mad man already.  I really want this army to pull in a lot of painting points.  Not to worry though, I'm still getting games in with the Nids and will take them to the 'Ardboyz prelims this year.  The GK articles will only punctuate my regular Nid batreps and articles.

Without further ado...

... The complete 1850 army with a couple terrain boxes for conversions and basing.  I also grabbed a couple blisters for odds and ends.  This is a picture I took today, but I've actually been playing GK on and off since I returned from the ATC in May.  Our team won several prizes, so I grabbed a Dreadknight there.  I threw down enough to play in a 1250pt event and 1000pt event (used the same models) and took 1st and 3rd in those events.  I rolled the winnings over into more models and with some generous donations from a sponsor, I had enough assembled to play an 1850 list suitable for a comp tournament!



I went forward furiously assembling models and surfing for an inspirational theme.  If you know me well, you know I don't like painting standard GW armies.  I like to create my own hive fleets, chapters, etc.  I had an inspiration from watching the animated Appleseed movie a couple years ago to create a 40k SWAT themed army.  My initial idea was to do it with Tau, but the potential cost of 15+ battlesuits and several vehicles was daunting.  Then the GK codex came out and with tons of flexibility and potential, I decided to adapt my concept.

Here the beginning test models for my ISWAT concept (Inquisition Special Weapons and Tactics).  The theme is a highly mobile, mechanized unit designed to respond to deep urban threats.  Perhaps they are on permanent assignment to police a troubled hive city.

Strike Squad Justicar

I decided to go black and white with a nod to police, and just enough silver to maintain the GK look.  Eyes are blue with some mild OSL effects and there is a red light on his forehead to give the effect of blue and red police lights.  Sword is NMM with red tones instead of the blue used in the codex.  Storm bolter is red with freehand hazard stripes.

Terminator Justicar

Death Cult Assassin

I will have a henchmen unit in the army with a unique hodge-podge of models.  GW was out of most of the models I wanted to use when I tried to order the ones that local shops didn't have in stock.  Instead, I decided to use a box of cadians and convert them with the abundant GK bits from the strike squad sprues.  So he's my counts-as death cult assassin with two power weapons.  I decided to use blue NMM to differentiate the look from the red force weapons on my marines.  His uniform is also painted to give a hint of police feel.

That's all you get for now, stay tuned for regular updates on conversions, painting, and basing this army over the nest three months up to DaBoyz GT 2011!

Returning to regular Nid content...