This past Sunday I made a rather sizable order from Games-Workshop, Forge World, and Reaper in order to make my brand spanking new Space Marine army. Sadly since I haven't made or painted minis in what seems like forever, I had to buy all new supplies, so sadly I was left with enough to pretty much just do my Command sections. However, that command section will consist of a Chapter Master, Chaplain, and around eight Honour Guard or Command Squad members. I will be buying more as I go, but for now the Command Squad is all I'll have.
The reason I couldn't afford very much comes from the somewhat-extensive conversions I will be doing to the entire squad. While the Honour Guard/Command Squad will be the least extensive, the Chapter Master and Chaplain are going to require either extensive bit swapping or use of a decent amount of Green Stuff (my first time ever using it).
Currently I have not decided on a name for my chapter, but have decided that they will use chapter iconography the same as the Salamanders. I experimented with a great, great many different colour schemes, but none that were overly unique or that I fancied 100%, so I went to doing what a good number of artists do: look to nature for inspiration. Since I was going for a bit of a Samurai look using Mk V Heresy Armour (thank you, Forge World~) the "warty" look of the armour gave me an idea to look at the very colourful amphibian world for inspiration.
After experimenting with a wide variety of colours from Poison Dart Frogs and Tree Frogs, I eventually decided on the following colour scheme (see attachment).
I've rarely seen Marine chapters painted using Blue and Yellow together and thought the look (based on a yellow and blue poison dart frog) was rather striking without being overpowering. The runner up was a darker blue with orange replacing the yellow, but I thought the orange was a bit too overpowering for my taste.
If any of you have suggestions for a chapter name, I'd love to hear it, but enough of the minor details, onto what I plan to do!
CHAPTER MASTER MIRALA
Yes, a female Chapter Master. Before everyone gets up and arms about a female Space Marine I have a few words: first off, I paid for the minis, pretty sure I can do as I wish with them. Second, they are a founding from the Fighting Tigers (with permission from the owner of said chapter), which also have female Marines. Third and finally, I have lore not only describing how the female marines work, but why most chapters haven't adopted them. Anyways, onto what I plan to do with her.
Lets start with the head. No offense to
GW, but their female heads tend to range between average/bland and just terrible, so with that in mind I went to Reaper to find some acceptable heads....I found a bunch, couldn't decide which I liked best, so decided to just buy a lot of them and decide once they get here.
Like the Honour Guard/Command Squad and Chaplain, I will be using bits from Mk V Heresy Armour purchased from Forge World as well as bits off of the Grey Knight Space Marine box (which I bought with my rather sizable order from
GW), primarily for the two-handed weaponry and wrist-mounted storm bolters (will simply be using them as Relic Blades and Storm Bolters in most cases). I haven't decided exactly with arms I'm going to use for her, but I may just take one of the swords and convert them to look more like a katana, either that or simply use the sword sticking into the daemon head and give her something cool to hold or do with her other hand.
The tricky part is going to come from the torso. I wanted to give her a unique look to represent her artificer armour, something that will look cool that I won't be using on any other female Marines. With that I decided to purchase Saint Celestine in my
GW order. I don't plan on using the entire Celestine model, just the torso and neck area (should be interesting cutting and filing off the metal to get to it). Then it will be a matter of fitting the pieces together with the Mk V Heresy Armour, Grey Knight arms/weapons, and the Salamanders shoulder pads (thank you again, Forge World~) and making it look good with some Green Stuff.
I figure this will make her stand out as a good centerpiece for the command section of the Chapter while giving her that really cool, unique look that you don't see anywhere else.
MIKO CHAPLAIN
Continuing with the fairly Japanese theme I've set for the aesthetics of the, I decided to base my female Chaplain around a Miko (Shinto Shrine Priestess), thus robes would have to be involved. With that in mind, in my sizable
GW order I purchased the Dark Angels conversion kit. However there is a fundemental problem with the robes that are included in this kit. Firstly, they don't cover the arms. Secondly, they use a more European Monk-style of waist cord. These issues, thankfully, can easily be remedied with some Green Stuff. Only now do I realize that I forgot to order the appropriate red paints... *facepalms*
For those that aren't familiar with the Miko style of robes:
http://site.cosplaystation.ca/Yahoopictures/cos0075-1.jpg
Like the Chapter Master, my Chaplain/Miko will be using one of the female heads I obtained from Reaper Miniatures. As for the weapon, I'll be using a modified version of the staff that comes with the Grey Knights box to give her a unique look apart from all the halbards and swords.
FUTURE PLANS
Ninja Scout Snipers
Pretty simple conversion for these guys, just a matter of covering the heads in proper ninja cowls and I'll be set. Maybe add some little features like kusarigamas and what not.
Mechanought
The chapter's dreadnoughts were something I toiled over for a great amount of time. Eventually I decided that I wasn't going to use the standard Dreadnought, but instead heavily convert the Grey Knight's Dreadknight instead. Aside from changing the weapons and removing the Grey Knights iconography, I also plan on making the cockpit (apart from the arms and legs) enclosed, as well as add better leg stirrups and hand controls.
I want to do a few different ones, at least three, and base their configurations off of certain popular mecha in a certain anime.
If you have any other ideas or suggestions for things I could use for the army, please let me know in reply to this post.
