Back in September 2020, I kicked off what was to be a series of articles about my return to Warhammer 40K and the building of a Death Guard army. Best laid plans and all of that… While I got some units done, the project generally fizzled as life got in the way and spiraled in scope.

With the launch of Codex: Grey Knights, it felt like an opportunity to try again with a bit more focused force.

I’ve never been much of a Space Marine player but for some reason, the Grey Knights always intrigued me as an army. When I started off playing Warhammer 40K in second edition, all that was available was one unit of metal Grey Knight Terminators. They were hard to get and not used all that much in games. Fast forward about 5 years later and while working for Games Workshop I decided to buy 100 of those Grey Knight Terminators by the pound. Around 20 years later I still have 80 of them… and some of the new line (I’m still trying to figure out where the 20 went).

I have no plans to paint all 80 of the metal Terminators, but some of those models will absolutely be a part of this new force… just not sure how.

Taking inventory of what I have:

• Grand Master Voldus x3
• Brother Captain Stern x1
• Lord Kaldor Draigo x2
• Castellan Crowe (original) x1
• Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknight x3
• Grey Knights Strike Squad x20
• Grey Knights Terminators (new) x10
• Grey Knights Brother Captain x1
• Grey Knights Terminators (old) x80

This weekend is the release of the Hexfire box which adds:

• Castellan Crowe (new) x1
• Grey Knights Strike Squad x10
• Grey Knights Nemesis Dreadknight x1

There’s no vehicles currently and I’m not sure I’d add them. This is a force that’ll mostly be for casual play and try to get back my modeling skills.

With what’s available, I think the plan is pretty simple:

• 1 of each character
• The old Castellan Crowe is converted to lead a Strike Squad
• 1 of the Nemesis Dreadknights is converted into a Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight using one of the Voldus figures as part of the conversion
• 3 Dreadknights will have swappable weapons
• Make at least 1 of each of the squads the Strike Squad allows with 10 figures in each for three of them right away and then get an extra box to finish off the final 10
• Have fun with the Terminators with the newer design being the standard and the old metal ones being some sort of “veteran” force keeping it to 4 squads of 5

I’m also going to up the display a little bit using Sector Imperialis bases instead of the basic black.

Is this manageable? That’s 56 figures and then 4 Dreadknights to start. That doesn’t feel all that difficult as it’s a force whose style feels pretty similar per figure with some details picked out on each. Beyond the vehicles, there are some other characters missing like a Librarian and that can easily be mashed together from figures already in my collection.

Codex: Orks has been revealed for a September release (though I have the codex already). With so many new figures, it’ll be fun to return to my first army and do an updated version mixing old and new figures. Can I finish this army in a month? We’ll find out!