355 replies to this topic

[Shadespyre]

Hail Brothers!

 

As discussed in the "New Members" section, I am returning to Warhammer 40k after some 22 years absence to start a new Chapter of Space Marines. Sorry, at this point the Chapter does not have a name or a colour scheme or a background story or... well, anything much.

 

I've been collecting miniatures for three decades. and churning out Warhammer Fantasy models for the past five years (check the links in my signature below to see some of them), but it is only now that I am drawn back to Space Marines. My 100 strong force of Rogue Trader Space Marines (the "Grey Slayers") are long since disbanded, but I've had a box of RT marines kicking around the loft (with the thousands of other miniatures) for some time. The catalysts for suddenly starting a new Chapter are twofold - the first is a sudden enthusiasm from one of my gamer friends to "try 40k" and the other is a touch of paralysis with my Vampire Counts project.

 

This will be a side project for both of us, something to work on when we need a breather from the grind of painting 40 or 50 strong WHFB regiments.

He has chosen to play Chaos Space Marines, with a Nurgle theme. He aims to spend "about £20" a month, and I will keep approximate pace in terms of numbers / points, so that periodically we can have fairly even games with our painted figures. At the moment I expect this to mean painting 5 to 10 marines or a vehicle each month, which I hope will be manageable alongside other projects.

 

One aspect I am keen to develop is a shared theme for bases and scenery. My hope is to design a gaming board and basing scheme which match and which we can both easily reproduce, using the same materials and paint colours, so that everything matches seamlessly. This will also help us define a common back story for our forces..

 

What will my force be?

 

These are the parameters I hope to work to:

 

• all models to be from the Rogue Trader era
• all marines to be in Mark VI Corvus armour, and preferably in metal rather than the RTB01 plastics
• no old models to be destructively converted
• fully compatible with the new Codex, and fully WYSIWYG

This is quite a harsh wish list. I've already learned that varied Assault Marines will be difficult to do, for example, because chainswords just weren't as popular in 1989! There are also some old models that will be difficult to use now because of the weapons carried. From studying old catalogs and ebay, I think it will be easy enough to do a small force but hard to expand to cover all options. But I like challenges.

 

What Chapter shall I choose?

 

The big question! At this point I don't have a copy of C:SM (new or old!) and I think I need to study one before I get anywhere near this decision. I'd like my Chapter to be a successor of one which fits the models I am likely to be using - I am not going to spend hundreds buying enough Black Shadows to run a bike heavy army, for a start!

 

It will almost certainly be a new Chapter, so I will have complete freedom of names, insignia and colour scheme. I have a few thoughts on colour scheme:

 

Colours to avoid:

Blue; White - I have painted 600 Middenheimers, and I hate painting white!

Red - I am painting 100s of Undead in a red rose themed army

Brown - I have painted about 400 Beastmen!

 

Colours in my thoughts:

Old Foundation "off colours" like Hormagaunt Purple, Iyanden Darksun, Necron Abyss, Fenris Grey

RT period colours like Hawk Turquoise, Warlock Purple (I still have these from 1990!)

 

From a practical point of view, a base colour I can get in a spray can would be attractive, or else this might be time to pick up an airbrush / spray gun, which would also help with the scenery aspect of the project.

 

What Now??

 

At this point:

• I have thrown my box of marines to the mercy of the Bucket God (who dwells in my garage and occasionally regurgitates paint-free models in return) along with a few RT Rhinos and Predators.
•  I have thrown a pile of bids at ebay to see what sticks - these will be my next offerings to the Bucket! When the dust settles I will have a pile of models to base my force on, and a better idea of what I am starting from and what I can get hold of. 
• I will need to make myself fork out the £35 asking price for a Codex (how the hell do kids play this game?) and do some research on 6th Ed Space Marines.
• I'm going to start looking for ideas for a Chapter badge, and maybe daub some colours side by side to see what combinations I like.
• I've started throwing random bits of plastic and metal into a big cardboard box for future scenery scratch building, and am knocking around ideas for our battlefield and base theme.

 

Comments, ideas, suggestions are all welcome at this point. Nothing will get painted or even assembled before January, so don't expect shiny new Marines to look at for a month or two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Shadespyre, 05 October 2019 - 02:48 PM.

[deathspectersgt7]

Good luck.When I was reading I was hoping for the chapter to be this one.

[Forté]

Shame you didn't put this up before. I sold a load of RT metals and plastics last week.

As for chapter of choice...look for a Space Marine wiki. I'm sure there's one with loads of info and images.

[Prefect Apollyon]

Lots of Beakie's? No brown/red/blue/white? Successor Chapter?

 

Raptors?

 

Better yet the very first suggestion; Rainbow Warriors! Nothing says "Rogue Trader" quite like they do...

[NomadPainting]

I say Raptor Legion. Purple and Yellow.

 

Minotaurs. Red and Yellow stripes.

 

Excorcists. Yellow with Blue pad. 

 

Tiger Claws. Black and Orange stripes. 

[Shadespyre]

Wow, lots of suggestions already, thanks!

 

I've been receiving a few packages and scrubbing off a lot of paint, andI think I have the basis of a force coming together. Assuming that I have the squad structure correct:

 

Tactical Squad:

Sergeant (may have close combat weapon?), 7 bolters, 1 special weapon, 1 heavy weapon

 

Devastator Squad:

Sergeant (may have close combat weapon?), 5 bolters, 4 heavy weapons

 

On that basis, I now have enough "vanilla" marines with bolters to make 2 Tac squads and 1 Dev squad.

 

For Special weapons, I have 2 Meltas and 2 Plasma Guns to choose from.

 

For Heavy Weapons: 2 Multi Meltas, 2 Heavy Plasma Guns, 2 Lascannons and 3 Heavy Bolters to fill those 6 slots.

 

Am I doing okay so far?

 

It would be nice to keep the distribution of weapons entirely flexible, but I suppose when it comes to painting I will have to distinguish the Dev and Tac marines if I'm going to "do it properly" ?

 

Incidentally, have you noticed that there seem to be just 4 RT metal Marines with Corvus style helmets and just a bolter as weapons? And that includes the one from the Talisman expansion set! I suppose this is because everyone used the plastic ones to fill their rank and file up.

Edited by Shadespyre, 13 December 2013 - 09:54 PM.

[Shadespyre]

First Marine Pic!

 

 

Okay, that was not what you expected? This is a quick "test base" that I knocked up to show to my mate, to make sure we are agreed on our joint basing theme before we get any further.

 

Just the base:

 

 

Here's the description I wrote... "an industrialised area, ravaged and ruined by war. Blasted buildings, skeletons of shattered plascrete and rusty rebars, stand like islands in a wasteland of black ash and sticky toxic pools fed by broken pipelines and ruptured storage tanks. Perhaps tiny twisted plants have started to find their way back amongst
the fading colours of discarded drums and warning signs, and the growing detritus of a years-long war to reclaim whatever can be salvaged."

 

And here is a quick model I knocked up last night as an example of what I'm aiming for:

 

 

 

This is just a first go at what the battlefield might look like using scraps of metal, plastic, card and paint lying around the place. I'm happy with the concrete and the black scatter (which is good as I have buckets of it!). The scummy water and rusty metal will need to be "done properly" when it comes to the real thing.

 

Umm, no, I still haven't decided what colour to paint my Marines!

Edited by Shadespyre, 18 December 2013 - 11:56 PM.

[NomadPainting]

Dude, Awesome. I've got all these off cuts of wood that I'm beginning to think would make a great base for a display board...

 

I still say go with some of the more garish RT era Chapter schemes that I posted before, it just depends how comfortable you feel painting bright Marines. 

[Aqui]

Nice start! The corrosion looks very cool!

Loving the use of what looks like a 555 IC for the scenery

[deathspectersgt7]

Promising

[The_Chaplain]

I can't really offer any constructive commentary, but best of luck with this project and I'm sure you'll be getting a lot of thread traffic soon. If you are going for a rogue trader army though, I'd recommend one of the chapters from the era (like the badab war chapters) that had brighter colors and/or camo patterns. You have the makings of a very unique project, I'm excited to see more from you brother!

[Darth Mustard]

wecome back Brother\

I too have a soft spot for the pointed helmet rather than the dog face.

I agree with The Chaplain, Badab wars seems a good source to select your chapter.

RT had some pretty cool illustrations for that era

The founding chapters were exotic at the time.

[Veteran Sergeant]

Most of what I do in my own log is Rogue Trader era inspired, though I take the modern models and give them that old school flavor. So I'm interested to see what you do with this.

[Shadespyre]

Thanks for all the positive feedback on that, I think it's going to be fun making a whole table's worth of scenery in that style. The only thing really missing from it is to include elements to give it a "WH40k" vibe rather than just a generic SF look, hopefully we can do that by using a couple of GW kits and scattering the bits around the place.

 

Here's what I've been working on for a few days:

 

 

That's the plastic bits of my collection of second hand Rhinos and Predators. They have all spent some time with The Bucket God and are now being cleaned up for reassembly. Some of the parts are a bit battered, broken or just missing - I'm going to start putting them back together and pick up a few spares off ebay. It's all a lot of work but unused RT Rhino kits are selling for £50+ on ebay and I bought all these for less than that! It may be that one (or parts of one) end up as scrap, and that'll help with the scenery part of the project!

 

I've also been looking for back packs (I think I'm going to try to do everyone in the metal style rather than the plastics) and Jump packs. Does anyone know what the earliest (so "most" RT!) design was? I don't think I had any in my original army. Here are a couple of contenders I've found, I think the ones on the right are a bit on the new side?

 

[Seleucus]

The jetpacks on the left are the RT ones - difficult and expensive to source now, with ebay the only real option and constant vigilance needed!

[Shadespyre]

I guessed as much, thanks for confirming it... I've bought the two pictured, and will look out for more. Not a top priority as an Assault squad is way down my list of things to do (but I assume some characters might be able to use them - I really should buy a Codex sometime soon!

[Shadespyre]

Mucking about with colour combinations.... not the same as painting a marine, but a lot quicker!

 

 

Nothing really jumps out at me, both the turquoise and the purple are quite neutral in tone and as a result they don't really work with other neutral colours. I was thinking of doing a half-and-half colour scheme but perhaps one main colour would work better?

[War Angel]

Not really liking anything myself either. That dark blue you used for most of them is... No offense, hannus

[NovemberIX]

If I make a motorsports originated suggestion, baby blue and orange with white accents, the classic gulf livery is always a striking combination.

[Shadespyre]

I know the colour scheme you mean. I think I'm ruling out bright orange - I can see it working on a space marine, but can't imagine myself painting a bright orange Rhino and carrying it off convincingly.

 

BTW the unpleasant dark blue is either turquoise or purple, I guess the pictures aren't that clear!

[Ratboy1664]

I always thought the Crimson Fists were the most RT era army as they were on the front cover and featured in the battle scenarios at the end vs the orks.

[Shadespyre]

Can't argue with that, but I'd rather paint my own Chapter just so I'm unfettered by anything that has gone before. A thought - what other Chapters don't wear the colour in their name (i.e. why aren't the Crimson Fists in crimson armour?) ?

 

I also just found this quote on Veteran Sergeant's awesome Tall Marines log:

 

"All the Marines should have helmets because no good Marine would be without his helmet. It's just dumb. Encased in nearly impenetrable ceramite, only to leave you nugget exposed, and lose all the life support, communications, imaging and targeting enhancements of the helmet? Silly."

 

This is exactly what I was saying to someone the other day! Unfortunately, RT marine sculptors were obsessed with bare heads - a quick look at my Space Marine spreadsheet (yes, sorry!) shows that 14 of the 44 sculpts of Marine I own are helmetless. That's 1 in 3, and I've been avoiding them where possible, but the ratio is worse for any model with assault weapons or special weapons.

 

Back in the old days I used RTB01 plastics for my rank and file, and the metal guys as officers, so the helmetless models were the sergeants, captains, librarians and so on. For this new project, my own rule - no model to be destructively converted - means I can't just whip off the head and stick a plastic helmet on instead. As I don't plan to use the plastics at this point, it looks like I'll have to compromise on one or the other principal...

Edited by Shadespyre, 24 December 2013 - 10:28 AM.

[Ratboy1664]

Or get round the problem via fluff i.e. the atmosphere is breathable but a strong electromagnetic signal is compromising all the gadgets in the helmets and so commands are issued by hand/flag/bugle. Then it is personal preference weather you wear your helmet with all the gadgets switched off or not at all. Simples

[Bronze Beast in the Dark]

[(i.e. why aren't the Crimson Fists in crimson armour?)
 

I always thought it was because their fist was the crimson part.

[Veteran Sergeant]

Don't get me wrong, I actually like a lot of the bare head sculpts, lol. And there's a lot of cool model possibilities for bare-headed models and emotion conveyed on some of the better head sculpts. I just have a hard time imagining a situation where the Marines would be in combat without their helmet on. And all of my posing is done trying to evoke the idea of Marines in the midst of a battle. 

 

One of my concepts has the idea of a Marine whose helmet has been damaged by incoming fire. Then he could have gotten permission from his Sergeant to take it off. But then I'm trying to figure out some kind of secondary comm and visual system for him to be using.