+++REDACTED+++ Sculpting a few details, start painting the army

Here's some progress since last friday evening, including that nights marathon session and a few lunch breaks. Sculpted in a few minor details, mostly just Purity Seals and filling of some gaps. Then primed everything Matt Black with Army Painters spray, followed by zenithal coats of Wolf Grey and Platemail Metal from the same brand. I finally chose to steer away from the blue armour scheme I had planned earlier. Too blue and they'd be Ultramarines, while a light blue-grey would easily make them feel like Space Wolves. I wanted neither. And I can always come back later and glaze their armour's blue if I change my mid again.

So I went for grey. I mixed quite a few grey, black, blue & brown paints in a pot, along with some mediums. I've absolutely no idea about any rations, but the end result is a bit darker than the Citadel's Astrogranite Debris for example. Consistency is much like some of the Citadel's contrast paints that don't cover absolutely everything. The whole army was given a thick coat of this new "Redacted Grey" wash, followed by Ash Grey drybrush (I used a cheap one inch super soft make up brush for this and felt great about it!). I think I made slight adjustments to the wash between squads (by adding just a little more blue & black as  I went).

I'm still in the middle of this process, but the formula so far is roughly this: 

* Shoulder pads are painted Off White, then Dead White.

* Shoulder pad rims Matt Black, except for the jump pack guys & Apothecary I used Blood Angels Red. That red also went for all the cloaks on characters.

* Bonewhite for Veteran's cloaks, hoods, loincloths, parchments, actual skulls and skin.

* Volupus Pink on the (Purity) Seals.

* Basilicanum Grey on the Chaplain's armour. 

* Old Gold for important details. I've only painted the golds on the Captain on Bike so far. Won't probably do much of it on regular Tactical dudes. 

+++REDACTED+++ Apothecary, Land Speeder & a group shot of the army assembled so far

A quick afterwork session from today. Since I didn't have any instantly suitable miniature to act as an Apothecary, I was thinking about buying one. But a new one costs 30€, so NO WAY I'm ever gonna pay that much for a single miniature. Ever. I should get a whole squad or more likely two for that price. So I waded through the bits boxes, and found a single Space Marine shoulder pad with the Helix icon on it, and an arm from a Techmarine that had a nice little drill piece in it. I combined these two with other nice Space Marine parts and voilá, the Apothecary was born! I also based a single Servo Skull to act as an Armorium Cherub for my Devastator squad. I reinforced it's tiny wiggly cable with a piece of guitar string, which was probably good idea since the plastic one already broke when I was carefully removing the mold lines from the skull. 

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Here is the Land Speeder Tornado (since it's got an Assault Cannon and a Multi-Melta). I've got no idea how to base it. Got no intact flying stands.

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Finally, here's a group shot of the whole army I've assembled so far. Last night I tried to count up the points in my head, and it was 1999 points on the nose. Hope I didn't forget anything! I'll write a list and do proper calculations soon. Now it's time to do minor sculpting of details and filling some gaps with Green Stuff, and then go priming the whole group with some spray. It just started snowing outside. 

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+++REDACTED+++ Marines, Lieutenant, Company Ancient & Rhino

Had only a few hours of actual work today, so got much more assembling done. Did 5 more regular Space Marines with Bolters, that can fill up the Devastator and/or Tactical Marine squads I've already got. I really miss those upright standing legs (the pink ones on the pic below). Everybody's just heroically squatting nowadays... There's another Lieutenant equipped with Lightning Claws, who'll jump in the Rhino along with the Company Veterans and a bunch of other characters. The Company Ancient (carrying the big banner and a Combi-Melta here) will join them as well. Please notice the ancient Crozius Arcanum piece that now functions as the banner top! And finally here's the company's command Rhino, almost ready to roll. Got a driver Servitor peeking on the roof. I'll be adding a few cables coming out of his head and run to all the radars, guns and other gear near him. 

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Disclaimer: 

I will not be removing any more hard metal Black Templar insignia 

that fill up two whole shoulder pads of a Space Marine any time soon. 

Holy crap what a task!

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+++REDACTED+++ Company & Vanguard Veterans, Devastators

Assembly line work from last weekend and a few lunch breaks. Got a nice bunch of tooled-up Company Veterans. I had been planning on having five of them in a Razorback, accompanied with some elite support character such as an Apothecary. They would have been closely followed by a Rhino, transporting other characters (maybe an Ancient, Company Champion & Lieutenant) and some Tactical or Assault Marines. But as I've been adding up points cost for this army, I couldn't fit all of this in 2000 points list along with all the other stuff I've already built. So I decided that the Razorback had to wait, and I would just cram in the Veterans & Characters in a Rhino. Had only four characters in mind, so could fit in 6 Veterans. Only after building all of them I realized that a squad of the Veterans is limited to a maximum of 5 models. Oh booger. But hey! I could always take two squads of three (or even squads of 2 and 4). Sweet... Got Thunder Hammers (optionally proxying as Power Mauls or Axes), Storm Shields (trimmed from Chaos shields!) and a Combi-Plasma in there. Two are carrying only Chainswords & Bolters. I'm counting on that their transport Rhino will get blown to pieces and approximately two of these guys will die when disembarking. So no need to buy expensive stuff for everyone I guess.

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Here's some Devastators. I was planning on having two squads with more variety of heavy weapons, but again couldn't fit them all in the first 2000 points of this army I have in mind. They still need an Armorium Cherub for some help. Might just use a random Servo Skull for that, 'cause I don't have any cherub type miniatures laying around. Not gonna do much sculpting this time around.

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And finally we've got this threatening bunch of Vanguard Veterans with Jump Packs. There's a few Plasma Pistols, Lightning Claws, Storm Shields (more trimming of the old Chaos shields!) and Power Fists in there. With the Melta Bombs & Hammer of Wrath stratagems, and their loads of attacks with Chainswords & Shock Assault rule I'm thinking they can get pretty nasty indeed. Really wanted to use the beakie style helmets for these guys, and had to cut up some old pink Noise Marines I had converted from RTB01 Space Marines in the late 90's. I really like the "teeth & tongue" paintwork on those two heads, especially on the second guy from the right. Might do something similar for the whole squad when painting. Or would it be too chaosy?

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+++REDACTED+++ Chaplain on Bike, Characters and Tactical Marines. Also trying out a quick paint scheme...

A bit more stuff done this week. Got a nice Chaplain on Bike with loads of skulls and decorations. I'll be doing some sculpting on the details to bring it all together. After a lot of contemplating I decided to use a skull head from Khorne Berzerker for the Chaplain. Those particular heads have been one of the main reasons I don't like too much about the plastic Berzerkers, but after cutting off the evil bunny ears from it, I feel it fits very well for this religious leader of my Space Marines. I also assembled a Chapter Champion and a Lieutenant to support the troops. There's also another combat squads worth of Tactical Marines. Other half of their (yet to be) squad will be riding on a transport with some command figures, bringing their special weapons to bear. 

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Tying out a quick paint scheme for the army. 

I might go for painting several squads and characters at once, if this method works out. I dug out a couple of old misused  Chaos Warriors to try things on. There's matt black spray primer, followed by somewhat zenithal dustings of Army Painters Wolf Grey and some cheap silver spray. I'm going for a dusty blue scheme here, with some chips showing on the armor edges, so thought these would provide a nice base to work on. Then I covered everything in heavy wash of diluted Ultramarines Blue Contrast paint. Felt good about this step, but am considering using a bit less diluted paint to get more blue feel overall. Not going exactly for Ultramarines nor Space Wolves here, so it might get a bit tricky. Things will be dirtied down, so no need to be too subtle here, I think.

Then quick drybrushes (with cheap & very soft make up brush) of Pale Grey Blue and Khaki (on the feet). Worked out just great. I'd like to have very strong colors on the shoulder and knee pads, so went for white with black rims, followed with some red details. For the actual Space Marines, I'll be using transfers (mostly black & red, with maybe a few white ones thrown in). To get an idea about how the bases might look, I smeared them with Agrellan Earth Technical paint. Didn't want to put any more time or effort and do proper bases for these test models, so just a little bit of texture will work out just fine. Next I'll cover these dooders with Gloss Varnish spray and try out some oil washes. Then go messy with pigment powders especially on their feet and bases, and see how I feel about them at that point. 

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A quick edit here as I made some progress... 

Here they are after a Khaki drybrush on the bases as well, a coat of Gloss Varnish spray, and oil washes (diluted with Hanart odorless spirits) of Ultramarine Blue (more on bigger armor plates), Raw Umber (especially on feet) and Lamp Black (mostly around rivets and such). Looks surprisingly great for such an effortless job. I'm feeling very hopeful about this method already. Just imagine some proper clean-cut transfer symbols on the black & white Marine shoulder pads here and get in the mood for praising the Emperor! Now I'll just have to wait for the oil washes to dry for a while and go crazy with the pigment powders.

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+++REDACTED+++ Chapter Master on Bike

A quick conversion here, based on the Dark Angels Biker Champion from the Dark Vengeance boxed set. Scraped off most of the Dark Angels icons, as I'm likely to run this army as a custom chapter. Added in quite a few bits, such as an elaborate power fist and bolter (which very likely will be used as a master-crafted relic bolter in this case), along with purity seals and other decorations. This fellow will be the Captain Chapter Master for my army, and give some guidance for the Devastator / Tactical / Intercessor gunline I'll be mustering. After maybe two turns of feverish shooting, the Chapter Master will step on the gas and get in close combat.

+++REDACTED+++ Space Marines assembling for war

Already a bit of progress from last weekend. There's a unit of 10 Tactical Marines (just gotta have these in the army!). I have no idea who did the orange paintjob on these guys. That scheme is very striking (especially those black & white shoulder pads) even from several feet away, so I'm now considering trying somewhat similar shoulder pads for my own army. Most of the unit was already assembled and ready, so I just had to do some minor mold line scraping and repositioning of heads for these troopers, and put together a sergeant and special weapon guy. I also took off all the beakie heads from these. Gonna use them maybe for a squad of Assault Marines later on.

In addition to all the Space Marines found earlier, I remembered a heap of Chaos Space Marines I started working on  a few years ago when returning to the hobby. So this was right after the 8th edition of Warhammer 40k came out. Hidden in a top drawer of my secondary desk there was a batch painted group of over thirty Chaos Marines, three lizard-demon-centaur-bikers and a Khorne Juggernaut. Got only 5 of those CSM's painted ready, and never finished that project back then... 

But how does this relate to the current loyalist Space Marine project? Well, under all the burnt orangey paintjob and random thick clumps of Green Stuff (that were actually my first ever attempts at sculpting with that), I found ANOTHER NINE (9!) Primaris Space Marines, along with some backpacks, arms and weapons of their kin. I had actually lost (or just used for something else) most of the arms, weapons and backpacks of my other unassembled Primaris dudes, so these came in very handy. Immediately tore off all the GS and chaotic spikes and gathered together a squad of 5 Primaris Intercessors. Yay! I used the older Tactical Marine helmets for these, as I like them a bit more than the actual Primaris ones. 

For the bases I went for this "heaps of weathered debris and rubble and crap" approach. First I hot glued a few bigger pieces of sprue cut-offs to the bases. Then over a generous blob of PVA glue I sprinkled more such pieces and mixture of rough sawdust, sand, static grass and a mess of plastic scrap that always gathers on the table when assembling and converting miniatures. Put that thing into good use and not in the bin! A few choice detailed bits were later glued on the bases, including chain, thin pipes and gears. I also found some detailed scenery pieces I had replicated with silicone molds and Milliput. Those were broken into smaller shards and glued on as well (appearing on the bases of the Tactical Squad). 

MUTANT MODIFIERS 2021 SPACE MARINE PROJECT

So I just spent 5 hours cleaning the desk and going through at least four boxes of used random miniatures I had ordered from internet market places earlier this (and the last) year from several different people. Found loads of Ork Vehicles, cool Warzone troops I might introduce to some Chaos Space Marine army later on, Empire Handgunners, Nurgle Demons, Ogors, metal zombies (I have no idea who manufactured them), things I already forgot about and well, LOTS of Space Marines. 

Now I've been toying around with some wacky ideas and whether to start building up an army of Tzeentch Demons (that would work for both for Age of Sigmar & Warhammer 40k) OR a force of loyalist Space Marines. Current mood is that I'll do them both. Simultaneously. The Demons will be completely weird and warped heaps of flailing appendages, beaks, wings, horns and eyes, while the Space Marines I'll probably mostly just assemble as they are intended, and concentrate on a cool and unified paint scheme for the whole of them. 

As for the Space Marines army project, THIS is what I managed to find from my Hobby Castle so far:

+++INFANTRY & BIKES+++

~20~ Terminators (from different eras)

~15~ Primaris Intercessors

3 Primaris Inceptors

5 Veterans (Death Watch)

5 Marines (from Space Crusade)

5+ RTb01 "beakie" Marines

10 Devastators (from different eras)

~10~ Tactical Marines (old metal)

30+ Tactical Marines (from different eras)

5 Assault Marines with jump packs (+ 9 more extra jump packs) 

~8~ Bikers (from different eras)

3 Scout Biker torsoes (old metal)

5 Scouts with cloaks

4 Scouts (old metal)

+++CHARACTERS+++

1 Gravis Captain

3 Tech Marines (one old)

1 Librarian (old Tiqurius)

2 Chaplains (old)

1 Captain (old Ultramarines)

1 Chapter Master (old Dark Angels)

2 Characters with jump packs

3 Characters from boxed games

+++VEHICLES+++

1 Land Speeder

2 Dreadnoughts

1 Land Raider

4 Rhinos (2 old ones)

Unopened boxed sets with more marines:

1 Deathwatch Overkill 

1 Dark Vengeance

Oh booger. So many cool things to choose from. Glad I've already been flicking through the Space Marines codex for a while, and know pretty much what I want to include in the army. Anyways, here's my working desk from yesterday (with all the materials I had piled in and used for the earlier Death Guard AND Chaotic Overlords projects), and another shot taken today. There's all the Space Marine stuff sorted out and ready to go. 

Painting the Khorne Lord of Skulls. Continuing sculpting the Heldrakes.

I have to say it has been a bit daunting task to paint this huge demonic engine of Khorne the Blood God. Sure it's big, at least bigger than any miniature I have painted before. And crammed with weird detail that's sometimes hard to decide how to paint. Is it iron, gold, glossy red, sickly skin or something else? Should I just leave certain areas bare and add black and white checker patterns later? Maybe cover it all with blood, transfers or painted runes? Paint the wheels with only very understated dark greys, or make them dirty with lumps of ground and grass textures to kind of match the bases of the other miniature in this army project? Are all (or just some) of the skulls bone colored, or maybe even bright bloody demonic reds? Black horns & teeth? Magenta brain tissue & gums? And very importantly, in which order should I apply any of these colors to not make other steps unnecessarily harder by accident?

Now I've enjoyed every step of the painting of this beast so far, but it has always been a bit difficult to get started. I feel it's because of the uncertainty of it all. Not absolutely sure which step to take next and how to take it. I've been doing this particular project (an army of Chaotic Overlords) for over three months now (and enjoyed everything about it!), but might need something else to do for a change. I've come to accept that these kinds of 2-4 month periods for any army project I have going on are very much normal and okay. I wouldn't even call it fatigue at this point. No need to feel bad about not continuing forever. I've managed to do a lot of assembling, sculpting, converting and painting with this group of big guys that already has started to feel like a proper army. Just have to catch a breath for a few days and see if I'll want to keep working with these guys and maybe even finish them before moving onto something else. Anyways, here's the WIP Lord of Skulls along with a duo of Heldrakes that are almost done with the sculpting phase now.