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As many of you know and have seen I've been debating on a Marine Chapter to choose, develop my own, or what to do as I reenter the game after a lengthy (read 10+ year) hiatus.

I have finally decided to take on building the Raptors. I hope this thread will be a chronicle of my journy down this road to include not only my building the army, but me relearning to play the game and all of the trials and tribulations associated with it. I intend on updating every few days to once a week with either a new project, some insights on a game, or some other ramblings. I also sincerly hope that you all will help and guide me in your own sarcastic/bitter/holier then thou/the internet knows all kind of ways. I will never be a Golden Deamon level painter, I just want a well put together force that looks good on the table, but the painting and modeling is easily half of the fun of this hobby for me, I'm always reluctant to play an unpainted model.

So without further ado here is the very first complete squad of Raptors.











What can I do better next time?

Coming soon - some of this squad as wip, another paint scheme I was playing with, and everything rules/fluff wise I have been able to pull together on this Chapter that I am joining.

A few things stand out for you to think about on your next squad or even this one.

Your chest eagles and wire bits could do with a wash to bring out the detail a bit more devlin mud might be the best choice. You could do this on the purity seals as well.

The other suggestion I have is to highlight the weapons with a lighter shade of grey.

I think you've done a really good job though, the green armour looks really nice and the end of the meltagun is a good touch.

I've not seen a Raptors army before so will be keeping an eye on this blog

Keep up the good work

GiraffeX wrote:
Your chest eagles and wire bits could do with a wash to bring out the detail a bit more devlin mud might be the best choice. You could do this on the purity seals as well.

The other suggestion I have is to highlight the weapons with a lighter shade of grey.

I think you are totally right, I washed the armor in devlin mud but didn't do the details, it was an oversight that I will correct. You're right on the weapons as well. It's never to late to touch up a unit!

Tomorrow I'll post the other paint scheme I did up and like but lost out to the Raptors.

I was just having a look at the Raptors wiki page http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Raptors_%28Chapter%29#.TpdZtnLPz0Q they use a lot of camo variants which could give you a (green) painting break for an Elite unit or two.

They look like quite a fun army from reading the wiki page.

I spent a few evening scouring the world wide webs for information on the Raptors and was able to come up with the mini codex for the Raptors Space Marine chapter. It has the history, info about the army, and the FW rules for the Chapter Master from the Badab War book (if someone could confirm these are verbatim from the book that would be great).












If you know of any other sources of data let me know.

Getting ready to start my next two projects first is a basic assault squad to paint




Second I have an old I believe out of production Sargent with a bionic arm and chain sword. I think I want to make him my first Sarge for a Sternguard Squad so I don't have to use the PF guy that comes with the finecast squad. Anyone else have any ideas of what to do with this guy?




my current plan is to just add a boltgun/scope and give him some honor bits but I want to hear others thoughts.

When I decided to pursue the Raptors I had to give up this paint scheme, despite how much I like it.





So I'll be striping them this week and repainting, isn't that what this is all about anyways? How many times have you repainted a squad or character?

Question on painting order. Do you wash then highlight or highlight then wash? I could see places either could work but what is more common?

I prefer the Raptors colours so glad you decided to go that way.

In regards to wash then highlight or the other way round it really depends on what your looking for in the finished product.

I tend to highlight then wash as it takes the edge off the highlighted colour (makes the colours blend together) but if you are after a striking highlight then do it the other way. Some times I don't use washes at all, really depends what your after and how you like to paint.

I find the best way is too find a mini you like that some one else painted and try and work out how they achieved the over all affect and then see if it fits your painting style or adapt it to fit. I don't just mean in colours but more the painting style as a whole.

So have a look in the gallery/google at different chapters and painting styles and see what takes your fancy and adapt it to your chapters colour scheme, well that's what I'd do.

Finally got my second squad done. My first assault squad, built from a box that was bought in probably the late 90's but never got put together. Now they are complete....viola






What do you think? any improvement over the Tac Squad above?

Next up a metal CCW scout squad also from the 90's currently sitting in Simple Green!

They look better, but one thing that sticks out for me, is the sergeants eyes, i would like them to be either a really bright orange or like a green. Red on red doesn't really do it for me, but keep it up.

As to the sergeant you want to make do it, he looks very cool and old-school, and thats what sternguard are supposed to be.

What are your thoughts on colors for the pants/sleeves of scouts. With the green armor I'm thinking maybe a grey based camo scheme.

I think more green might be a bit much and I'd like to clearly distinguish them from full power armor guys. Any suggestions?

So I completed an old metal CCW scout squad that I think has been out of production for a bit. Had these guys sitting around from back in the day and I figured I had to get around to getting them painted.

I decided they probably will have even less heraldry then normal marines, being scouts and all, so I didn't even put chapter badges on them. Do you think I should? I also decided not to go with any camo on the trousers and sleeves, just go with a plain gray that stays with the overall subtle color scheme of the Raptors.





As always C&C welcome how can I improve. I think I might be getting better, I'm trying to get my highlights to stand out more. Let me know what you think.

So these are the first terminators I've ever owned/painted. Granted they are AOBR termies, so they are relatively simple but they turned out ok I think.







I don't like the power sword, this was the first power weapon I've painted as well. I will probably try the power weapon again. I think my highlights are getting better as well but any suggestions would be great. Next up will probably be a rhino/razorback or my first dread, what do you think?