The two Space Marine characters from the Leviathan Starter Set. Both lovely miniatures, but I hated the scenic base on the Captain. I tried to paint it to look like one of my Tyranids and it looks crap.
I bought the Leviathan box set when it came out under the impression that it had a rulebook in. Normally I wouldn’t buy a set unless I collect (or want) both armies, but I must have been feeling weak and pliable over summer, perhaps the tottering piles of plastic and lead weren’t feeling overwhelming so I jumped onto a new project, as you do. Anyway its here now so lets do whats in front of us and pretend I dont already have hundreds of pounds of unpainted models sitting waiting to be painted… sorry Mortarian, sorry Ork Stompa, sorry Horus Heresy, sorry Nurgle and Chaos Space Marine Battleboxes etc etc.
This little squad inches my Steel Guard collection closer towards the 10,000 point marker. The pyreblasters are beautiful looking weapons, chunky and utilitarian. I have to admit that I like the ‘Primaris’ Marines. There’s just the right amount of detail, but the nice clean lines that you associated with Space Marines. I tried to make more of an effort than usual on the Sergeant’s face, because we’re always being told to emphasise the faces as that’s what people look at. I don’t think that it comes out in the pictures. Its all practice!
Another one I recently finished, this is converted from a Stormguard Celestant-Prime. I don’t know what that does but I liked the mini and so when it was cheap on partwork I picked it up. A Librarian seemed like the obvious choice, though having just designated a Chief Librarian to the Steel Guard this chap is just a common or garden Space Marine psyker and doesn’t get a special hat with a button on even though his pose is way more epic. I ditched the swirly magic base and the pointy wings, replacing the wings with a standard marine backpack to emphasise that it was psychic flying. The arms took some work and this was the first time I had used model filler so its a bit of a mess under his armpits! I used lots of shade and contrast-as-glaze and I’m not really that impressed with my work but its all practise, next time will be a bit better.
Meanwhile I’ve recently started playing Skyrim (I know, but I just never got round to it before) and its a bit good isnt it? I’m a bit shit at computer games so I bought the game guide and its nearly 900 pages long! Repeat to myself: I must not sit up til 3am playing every night… I must not….
I’m still alive, as busy or busier than ever but still getting to slowly grind out some finished miniatures. Here we have a Sternguard Veteran Squad, intended as a part of Chapter Master Melmoth’s honour guard. I used Contrast paints mostly, and the grey is much lighter. I think next time I am going to use the normal Mechanicus Standard Grey and use the Contrast paints to shade it. This is the Armour Through The Ages resin reprint of old lead miniatures and has recently been on Made To Order. This surprised me because I hadn’t realised it had been taken off sale in the first place. Its a bit sad when things you’ve bought have been removed from sale and them brough back again as classic one offs! Nice to get it painted finally. I really wanted to paint the Thunder Warrior, a mini I had when I was a lad. Its a proper 80s mini that should really have been painted in neon colours! I hope you are all staying Covid safe still. Its not over, and it might cause your immune system to go crazy and disable you, even if you’ve been vaccinated.
I got this rhino years ago in a joblot of battered vehicles and unfinished conversions that caught my eye. It was covered in mud-effects and patchily painted. I scrubbed off the mud effects, stripped the paint off it, added a space marine sticking his head out and a generic cannon that could be a counts-as for a storm bolter or even a predator cannon if I wanted. I then used a thinner mud effect to give it a bit of verisimilitude. I am quite pleased with this, it looks battle damaged but functioning, very Steel Guard-esque (Imperial Fists descendents with a touch of the Death Guard infantry slogger mentality).
A quick Steel Guard squad, using a sprue of modern marines that I had lying around. They look alright but they’re not as characterful as the old ones, are they?
I haven’t painted sergeant helmets white before, but I think I’m going to stick at it, I think it adds a nice flash of colour. Of course, the first third of the chapter don’t have white helmeted sergeants, but it’s my goshdarned chapter and I declare it OK.
The Steel Guard project continues, bit by bit, and here we have one of the senior officers of the chapter. Chief Librarian Blasst has faced daemons and heretics and possessed psykers and really angry dogs, and has overcome them all. He is a fearless battler against the dark and was bloody hard to paint because of all the tricky detail!
Just a quick one this time – a drop pod for my Steel Guard. I was going to experiment with my new airbrush but I got distracted and forgot and just painted it! If I ever do another one of these I will do the red and grey the other way round so that the aquilas show up better.
The final thing I’ve finished recently is another squad of obsolete marines for the Steel Guard. Apparently Assault Squads are completely pointless in 8th edition because there are flying primaris marines who are much better. I expect the same to be the case in 9th, but if oldhammer is about anything its about playing for the love of the game and not picking your team based upon a complex series of equations most guaruanteed to deliver victory. I hope to play more games of 9th edition than I did of 8th (i.e. five or more games), but I reserve the right to throw an assault squad onto the table if I feel like it.
The highlight in this squad is that Ive slipped in a christmas marine, as I felt that his wobbly stance would work as a landing pose. You will probably agree that is doesn’t particularly, but that’s life. Sergeant Plaid is a Space Crusade sergeant whose fat power glove should have been painted as a foam fist really. Next time!