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Hey there.
I, like many others in this forum, I'm sure, have been inspired by the greats (notably Gitsplitta) to create my army and to really do it right and fully (I know the Mantis Warriors aren't his chapter, but he's doing it RIGHT). I'm going to go through a process and make my Chapter with a full set of fluff, a back story, and work in progress pictures of models, etc. I may even show some of shi**y sketches I'll be doing to really brainstorm. Hopefully you can join me in my struggle to make a decent chapter of my own. I'm going to try to make it as much in accordance with the Codex as possible, down to the dots on the i's. I'll start jotting notes in my notebook that I'll be using right now

Based on the 2 HQ, 3 Elite, 6 Troop, 3 Fast Attack, 3 Heavy Support FOC, as usual.

HQ Chaplain (130 points)
-Combi Melta, Jump Pack

HQ Chapter Master (620 points)
-Artificer Armor, combi-melta, lightning claw, jump pack
-7 Honor Guards, 3 relic blades, standard, Champion, Combat Blade, digital weapons

ELITE Terminator Assault Squad (660 points)
- 10 terminators, 3 thunderhammer/storm shields
- Land Raider Crusader with Multimelta

ELITE Terminator Assault Squad (400 points)
- 10 terminators, 7 thunderhammer/storm shields

ELITE Sternguard Veteran Squad (365 points)
- 10 veterans, 4 combi-flamers, 3 combi-meltas, melta gun, flamer, Sergeant with lightning claw and powersword
- Drop pod

TROOP Tactical Squad (275 points)
- 10 marines, meltagun, multimelta, sergeant, combi-melta, powersword
- Razorback, lascannons

TROOP Tactical Squad (270 points)
-10 marines, meltagun, multimelta, Sergeant (are 2 combi's legal?), combi melta, Combiflamer
-Razorback, Lascannons

TROOP Tactical Squad (290 points)
-10 marines, plasma gun, plasma cannon, Sergeant, Power sword, plasma pistol
-Razorback, lascannons

TROOP Tactical Squad (305 points)
- 10 marines, meltagun, multi melta, Sergeant, powerfist, storm bolter
- Razorback with Lascannons

TROOP Scout Squad (??) x2
- 10 scouts, 9 snipers, Telion (I lost my codex, scouts have infiltrate/deepstrike, right?)

FAST ATTACK Assault Squad (250 points) x2
- 10 marines, 2 plasma pistols, Sergeant, Lightning claws

FAST ATTACK Vanguard Veteran Squad (400 points)
- 10 Veterans, 10 lightning claws, 3 plasma pistols, Sergeant, relic blade

HEAVY SUPPORT Predator (140 points)
- Heavy Bolter sponsons, twin lascannons, storm bolter
(Do preddies have armor plates?)

HEAVY SUPPORT Devastators (??) x2
????

There we go, nice and easy to read, and somewhat updated (without a codex, please correct anything).

You brave man.

Make it one of the EoT Warden chapters.

Do it!

Do it!

Sometime's it's fun to take a lesser known chapter and flesh them out. We shall be watching eagerly, since we have to largely do the same ourselves with the Extinction Angels and Imperial Paladins.

Could I get a link as to what EXACTLY an Eye of Terror warden chapter is please? I love the idea to take a lesser known chapter, but I really am fixed upon making my own chapter.

I've got a bunch of points (a lot of fluff related) that I'm going to try and cover before anything else. These are in no particular order, I just picked these up from a variety of sources. Some are obvious, some are difficult, some are easy. We'll see.


COLOR - Obviously, a huge part of the Chapter, and one of the hardest parts, is choosing your color scheme.

PHILOSOPHY/HISTORY - This is a big section, as it incorporates a lot of other points. Is your chapter based on real life warriors/societies? Space Wolves being Vikings, Templars being... well, templars, etc. Is your chapter Loyalist or traitor? This is a big part, and is huge not only in fluff, but in the models. What is the chapter's homeworld? Do they have one? Are they simply born on a fleet? What founding are they from? This also applies to whether it is a rather new Chapter, or an ancient one. What are the parent chapters? Whose gene-seed? Does the chapter have any minor gods? What kind of past battle was the chapter involved in? What wars, etc. A timeline can (and will be, in my case) made. What is the purpose of the army? Were they made to defend a certain world, invade a certain fleet, etc.

Now that that wall of text is done..

DETAILS - What are the names of major characters, stories of them, etc. How do they obey? This is an interesting example I found online: *When their officer says ''jump'' do they ask "Over which cliff?" or "You lookin' for a fight?”* Another important and very interesting detail: their equipment. Will they be focused on a certain kind of weapon? Will they completely disband a different weapon? Why?

This bit is really the gaming point:

ARMY - Does the chapter fight in guerilla warfare, and therefore have only camo weapons/armor, even over their aquilas? Did the chapter fight long wars, and so had to scavenge for different armor pieces/colors? (This idea was often mentioned in Gitsplitta's Mantis Warrior blog) What tactics does the army use? Close combat, mech, speed, veterans, or a combination? This also closely fits with my next point:

REALISM - This is a huge issue for me. I want to follow the codex to the letter, and so I'm going to write up the different companies, and choose what kind of company to do: Scout, Battle, Bike, Veteran, etc. This is (like I said) closely linked with the last point.

The last part are the army lists. What I'm going to do is make a 500 point army list, a 1000 point list, a 2000 point list, etc. I'll start by getting the 500 point list, then 1000, and so forth.

I'm going to work on filling these blanks, starting with the broadest questions, like whether or not I'm owning a loyalist chapter.

BoA.Raccoon wrote:Could I get a link as to what EXACTLY an Eye of Terror warden chapter is please? I love the idea to take a lesser known chapter, but I really am fixed upon making my own chapter.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Astartes_Praeses

There's rumoured to be18 of them but only about 10 are named. Essentially they were created to guard the Eye of Terror...like wardens.

And I love your focus on the gritty things first.

Perhaps I should sit down and do that myself.

I'll check it out. I have the basic idea for my Chapter, including it's name, Gene Seed origin, basic Color Scheme, basic attitude, and weapon preferences, but nothing on background, so this subject is very interesting

Thank you, and I get it from Gitsplitta I think

You should, I regret my waisting of hundreds of dollars on my Imperial Guard army which has no character, and cannot be played legally. Of course that's in part my lack of intelligence, I never even thought about planning or buying a codex

I'll make a post with my ideas.

EDIT: I did actually write a bit about background, though I may drop it. I was going to do what the Mantis Warriors were doing, hunting for Corsairs and Chaos Marines. Now that I think about it, that falls under Warden of the Eye of Terror, doesn't it?

I literally wrote: "Purpose: hunting Chaos Marines, Red Corsairs, etc." Reading about the Wardens now. Thanks for the idea Dark

EDIT 2: I really like the idea of EoT Wardens. It would fit my ideas so far perfectly, as advanced yet compact armor and weapons would be invaluable in such hard missions, and missions without many reinforcements. I'm going to go with EoT Wardens. Thanks again Stay tuned for a post with all my information so far.

Yes, i second strongly a warden chapter from the eye of terror! in fact i'm blogging one myself! the chapters have a good story to them although not much fluff, so we get to make up enough to work within our restraints but they also have a great history and just the fact that they are waiting for those renegade scum to try and plunder a planet so we can kick ass...is cool!

Nerdfest09

Alright guys, this is going to be a lengthy post, so I apologize :(

I guess I should start with what's logically the first thing you think of and go to grittier details. Note that this is a work in progress, and I still have a lot of fluffing to do before considering buying my first new models (I have my reserve, see my other thread I have finished). NOTE: As usual, this has a bit of influence on the Mantis Warriors, so I'm sorry Just a bit though

Name: The Arms of Corax

I'm going to be using the standard, vanilla marine Codex. As you guessed, the Chapter is a descendent of Corax. Specifically, the Chapter is in the second founding, based on the Raven Guard. The Arms of Corax, from this point on referred to as AoC, are obviously Loyalist Marines.The scheme is going to be (in my opinion) unique in the way it is distributed on the models, but simple for the sake of my progressing painting skills, which are currently pretty low. I'm going to do a little psychologic imagining lesson with you all now Imagine a marine all black. Now imagine him with the metal parts being a slightly rusted metal over silver. Now, imagine the Shoulder pads, arms, elbows, wrists and hands being white. That's it. The detail color (anything else I'll need) is green, such as the eyes. I am going to try and do glowing green eyes as Hits_the_spot does on any minis with white helmets (veterans, etc). The Chapter was founded to be one of the 18 Eye of Terror Warden Chapters -audience cheers- to guard the Imperium of man from the crusty grasp of Chaos! -audience cheers- The Chapter is based loosely on Norse Hunters, who are rumored to be the best hunters (after the cavemen, of course) of their time, stalking their prey for months at a time, and expertly finishing it without it knowing. This is also the way of ancient Japanese Shinobi, or ninja, as well as the way of the Raven Guard. The AoC are one of the few Marine Chapters whose fortress-monastery is not a planet, but a fleet. The AoC have no home-planet [either taken away from them, or it never existed. I'll see when I go in dept with Fluff]. The Chapter has a god [obviously, considering my obsession with Mythology ] named Leikos, the god of Hunting and Predators which further describes the tactics I'm getting to . The Chapter has a specific Hierarchy of religiousness. Above all, the Arms of Corax worship Corax, followed by the Empruh, then Leikos. The Arms of Corax prey to Leikos when they are hunting a particularly pesky prey. Their idea of the Empruh being worth less than his own creation causes conflict with other Chapters. Speaking of interactions with other Chapters; The Arms Of Corax aren't particularly friendly with the other Chapters, they have a "Get the fu*k out of here" complex. The Arms of Corax are sometimes regarded as rebellious, because they only take orders from their superiors in the Chapter. Anyone else is threatened, though the Master of the Chapter is much more restrained. Because of the continuous fighting, much like the Mantis Warriors, the AoC must use various armor types which have been scavenged over time.

That's all for now. "All" Heh, what an understatement

I do not qualify as a dakka "great"... I'm just prolific. Though I do appreciate the compliment. I'm sure the true dakka grates are rolling in the electronic graves right now (though many are still around). Keep in mind I've just been around for over a year... so I'm still a baby dakkaite even though it seems like I have the mother of all blogs...

Here's a list of MY greats, and it isn't exclusive... but these are *some* of the threads that have inspired me in one way or another.

Gitsplitta's threads that Make you go "WOW!"

migsula's: "Legion: =I= munda" (The links in the blog are broken but the pics are in his gallery.)
grey_death's "Random WIP Thread" (grey_death goodness.)
grey_death's "Sons of Medusa" (Amazing work and the definitive example of sponge weathering.)
SONS of ORAR's "WIP" (Wow! Really, don't need a lot of words for this one.)
Roleplayer's "Blood Ravens and Blood Angels" (More Wow! Same as above.)
BLACKHAND's "Sabre Legion" (The brilliance can't help but shine through in this early blog of BLACKHAND's.)
BLACKHAND's "40k Skaven" (Which has unfortunately been tabled as a project but the blog is really amazing. Dammit BLACKHAND... this was such an incredible idea.)
Yggsdrasil's "The World Tree's Offerings" (Amazing kit bashes, conversions and painting. The thread that catapulted Yggs to super-stardom.)
Commissar Khane's "A squeaky Waaaagh!" (I love gretchin, and these are the best.)
Ifalna's "commission blogoblag" (The most approachable commission painter ever... oh, and lot's of "Wow!" If you want to learn how to do stuff... read this.)
Hit's_the_spot's "Another True Scale Project" (You get to see some truly remarkable works come together piece by piece, and man can Hits paint!)
IceAngel's "Ice Angel" (Ice writes just awesome fluff for his chapter and you get to watch his writing develop over time which is very fun!)
Eggrolls "Blood Angels" (Why do the Blood Angels get all the awesome painters??)
Arakasi's "Da Dark Angelz" (Arakasi's building skills are phenomenal and his imagination is unparalleled.)
Whalemusic's "The Great Marine Swap" (This thread is just inspirational from start to finish... and so many people have developed as painters throughout it's pages. Definitely a win all-round.)


So, before you put me in the dakka hall of fame... I challenge you to read through the above threads. You'll know then what inspires me & I strongly suspect you'll be inspired yourself. THEN we can talk.


And good luck with the blog by-the-way, I'll be eagerly reading along with you!

Thanks for the post Git I'll make sure to read these threads


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Ahh, and I've seen Hits_the_spot's blog


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As for my color scheme, perhaps just white hands and call them the Hands of Corax? Or just one arm? I think just the right arm being white could look pretty bad ass.. I'll play around with it on some spare models when I get home from school


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As for my color scheme, perhaps just white hands and call them the Hands of Corax? Or just one arm? I think just the right arm being white could look pretty bad ass.. I'll play around with it on some spare models when I get home from school


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Alright. I'm going to slop up 3 or 4 Space Marines in slightly different color schemes, and we'll see which one looks the best.

In other news: I need to think about Chapter organization.. These are my thoughts. Because The Arms of Corax are Wardens, they probably wouldn't have many Brothers in their army, right? So, I was planning on having 500 point-ish companies, so that I could have an entire chapter, and eventually (maybe) grow the companies, saying that the Imperium saw it fit to reward them for their valiant efforts, et cetera et cetera. Therefore, I could also not have a lot of companies, and build up the amount of companies likewise. I would start with these:

RESERVE (these are my models before having planned this, my old models, my spare, my test dummies (there will be various chapters in here because the AoC needed all the marines they could get, and so, no matter the rank, accepted any gene-seed though it stayed in the reserve) et cetera et cetera)-

VETERAN-

BATTLE (maybe)-

ASSAULT (the main company, and my first, probably 1000 points)-

SCOUT-

The battle would just be tactical marines and anything that doesn't fit in with the rest, in fact I may not have it at all.

Next, are the marines even called Battle Brothers? I just read that the Black Templars were called Initiates, scouts were Neophytes who were directly in the Battle Company, etc. Furthermore, they didn't have companies, so my previous statement is false -audience boo's-. Will my chapter have companies? Or Crusades? Or something different entirely? I'll have to think about that. Next, and this is where it starts getting into painting/modeling.. How will I symbolize the difference between the companies? The Blood Angels have different head colors for different squad types, and different color Chapter insignias for companies. I love both of those, maybe the colored insignias a bit less. Next, the Black Templars have no recognitive symbols, they're all just Templars. The Raven Guard, much like the Ultramarines, have the rims of their shouldepads painted in the color of their company, though only their right ones. I like this idea a lot, plus I have a sucessor Chapter of Raven Guard, so it seems it would fit, BUT I don't think it's original enough. I always played around with the helmet-hawks being different colors, so that's an option, though I don't like the colors of the other companies :( I don't think they would look very good on the models. I'll think about it and paint up a batch of test subjects (muhahaha).


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Something just occurred to me. What if each marine (I may call them Wardens, like brothers or Initiates) had a slightly different color scheme, sort of tribal? This would convey the survival factor very well and show that it's a loosely organized Chapter. This could also set aside company from company, though I think I'm going to use decals for companies, and maybe colored shoulder pads. I think I'm going with each marine having a different piece white Left arm, right arm, leg, feet, hands, right hand, left foot etc. I could have combinations et cetera


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Damn, something else I just thought of! What if the marines got more white the more times they did something honorable, like medals. The more white a marine had the more he had contributed to the chapter.. I'm really liking the feel of my chapter The Warden would also have to paint it on himself, making it personal, but with the Chapter Master (not captain, the master)'s consent. It could allow for some funky marines on the table top
I'm going to start priming my 4 test dummies now

I got one guy nearly finished, just painted his right arm. Another is slowly coming together with his two hands white, and another with both arms white. The fourth was chipping, going to convert him into an objective, muahhahaha.

Please post D:

Interesting work so far I like how you have developed some good background on your chapter (also nice to see Raven Guard successor rather than another BA, SW or Ultrasmurf group).

I quite like the colour scheme but how about the marines start with white hands (fits with the chapter title) and then gain more white like you said as markings on the armour so you can get some real charcter in your army, veterans would be pretty epic looking if you could pull off the paint job.

Look forward to seeing where you take this.

Unfortunately, I'm a lousy painter I've been reading a lot of tutorials lately and I think I need a pile of primed minis to practice on. Unfortunately the only minis I have are semi-precious and or not primed (which isn't that big of a problem but I find myself stalling). I'll post a picture of what I've got so far. Oh, and I did my first attempt at glowing eyes... Uh oh

I still have to highlight and base

There we are.
I don't know what it is, I feel like something other than highlighting and basing is missing.. maybe I need more white?


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Alright, well I'm struggling on a cleen highlighting job.. grr painting is so hard. Alright, so I'm touching up on details, I'll post a few pictures in a little while

EDIT: I added highlights.. I found a good spot to take pictures too

Very nice start! Nothing to be ashamed of there. And the natural lighting really is best.

Natural light helps!

The white arm works, rather well and I suspect it can also be used as a way of denoting rank as well.

Yea, it's only my third attempt at highlighting and my first at black highlighting.. and without a tutorial! I did it completely by instinct -applause ensues-. Thank you thank you I'm really happy with his pack

Also, could someone point me in the right direction for highlighting white please? His right arm looks.. Well, bland.

Now, I need to know what kind of worlds the AoC will be fighting on for bases. What kind of worlds are around the EoT? I'm assuming volcanic-ish worlds, but then again I know little about the 40k universe. Maybe they're all different? Are there even worlds? Maybe I could try for BrotherArgos' bases, but without rust (at least less), representing the raid of a Chaos ship.. Could someone give me an idea for a base, 'cause all I can think of is the classic one (green and brown and grey) with maybe a couple rocks (cork), the rust that BrotherArgos made, volcanic, and the craftworld from the rulebook... :/ Then I'll need to make Special Characters rules before getting any Special Characters. I'm planning on getting off my lazy a** and going to Games Workshop to get my first official squad of AoC today.

Edit: I found this: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Eye_of_Terror#Sectors_and_subsectors_surrounding_the_Eye_of_Terror2.2C3 (too lazy to link it).. So there are uncivilized worlds, forge worlds, hive worlds and agri worlds. I'll probably go with agri world as it suits my original theme well:

Hunting and Predators which further describes the tactics I'm getting to[/quote


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I think forest-bases would be best. Or volcanic, just 'cause they're so damn cool looking

To highlight white you have to shade it first. Vallejo makes a "pale wash" that I like to use... it's basically a light gray wash. Or you could use a really dilute wash of another color to give you some depth, then come back over the top with pure white highlights.

Another option is lipsdapips' trick of badab black wash over astronomicon grey and highlighting it back up.

Generally with white I prefer to work my way up from a darker colour - most folks use greys, I'm odd in going Shadow Grey, Space Wolf Grey, White.

I have two reaper paints, as far as I'm concerned they are the equivalent of Codex Grey and Space Wolf Grey, would that work?

Codex --> Space Wolf --> White
?

By the way:

I got my Tactical Squad As well as a Chaplain
The employee told me that there is a painting contest in 2 weeks, and that my Chaplain would be contestable. All I have to do is paint him up and bring him in and get ranked last and bath in self-loathing for the rest of eternity So I'm going to do a marine or two, then move on to my Chaplain once I've gotten sufficient practice. You can expect lots of questions..


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Ahh, and I don't have Badab black, I wanted to get it but my Tac Squad + Chaplain left me with 82 cents left over In france the damn pots of paint are worth about 4 USD.. >.< However, I have Brown Ink...


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82 euro cents are worth about 1 buck US


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So, I'm going to go into my SM bit box and pull out any old pieces I can and glue together my first official AoC

This squad is going to be in a "defending" stance, so that is what I'll try to portray. I'm still unsure about bases, though I think I'll go with volcanic or agri to match my predatory fluff. I think volcanic could be a lot more interesting, table-top wise and fluff wise. Otherwise I would have liked to try a Chaos ship but I don't have the bits or money to afford making those bases. We'll see


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Bar that, I am not going to make any official marines until a few things are completed:

I have practice with Lava bases (shouldn't be too hard)
I have made a 500 and 1000 point list
I have made at least 2 more test dummy models I am content with



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Recipe for my Army (list) -
Comfy couch
3 notebooks
2 pencils
SM: Codex
Pocket Rulebook (just in case)
A bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough icecream bathing in coke

Time to get these lists out


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How bendable can an army list be? Does it have to fit to the organization chart? What are the requirements? :/ For Space Marines


Alright, well I (finally) finished the army lists. I did it according to the Org. Charts and I love it I suppose I should post it :/ You may notice I like meltas I start trying to vary a bit at the end though -deep breath-

CHECK OP

I'm sure I'll manage to collect all of this eventually. I'm pretty determined. I'm going to check out forgeworld (for the first time!) for meltas of various types, as well as anything else interesting for my army. Also going to look at heads and I'll need A LOT of Greenstuff.. Ahh, good thing my dad makes *0,000 a month (euros)


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I have a scheme for veterans:

White shoulder pads and helmet, the rest in black. lots of skulls, lots of cloth.. I have a drawing I'll post later

I have bought the following

Jump-Pack Chaplain
I need to convert him into having a combi-melta

10 marines

almost done with the first Tier of my army list :3

Well thankfully with regards to the conversion - finecast is ridiculously easy to cut. The lictor I'm working on is proof of that. Should be fairly easy to cut the pistol or indeed the pistol hand off and replace with a combi melta.

Combi meltas are fairly easy to convert up as well from bolters!

I quite like the scheme, espeicially the white arm. Though the boltgun looks very fetching in green i think it may need to be red, combined with a green trim on the shoulder pads it could look very cool. As for the highlight i think it needs a slight tone down, if you do enough washes of B.black it should give a more gradual gradient.

For combi meltas i would recommend the infernus pistol:
(SPOILERED so i don't hijack.


You get two in the sanguinary guard box, and let's face it most marine players have a sanguinary guard box set.

I don't have a sanguinary box set ^^
it does look good though :/ very good even... I was planning on (and in the middle of) putting the melta body on top of the chaplain's pistol hand, but it seemed too small. What about the old fashioned-bolters (I'll look for a pic)

This. I have about 15 of them... thoughts?


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At least 15. I might have as many as 30 in my bit box!

Hmmm.. what are these? Looks like a combi flamer, a plasma pistol, an eridian gun from Borderlands and some sort of a scope... help?


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Sorry for the gakky lighting. I think you can see them.

Oh and I'm using tohe force to make them float by the way, note the shadows

Those are old marine weapons...

flame pistol, auto pistol, plasma pistol, las pistol

Rules were different back then.

Tips for using them? I'm also going to need combi flamers and combi plasmas, so any suggestions are welcome. The most needed however are combi-meltas, as I'm entering said Chaplain into a painting contest in under two weeks (11 days) and he needs his combi-melta :/

I would move the clip on the bolter to some other location and tuck the combi-weapon part under the stock. For combi-meltas, I have been known to just stick the end of the melta barrel under the main barrel, but then that's working with my sniperfied bolt guns. There are some very good conversion tutorials here on dakka if you look that can show you how to do an expert job, especially with a melta gun.

I'll check it out, both yours and tutorials.. ugh

Here you go... look carefully under the bolter barrel. Painted red it's a perfectly serviceable melta barrel.