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.