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I was originally going to start a small Inquisition force to sit along side my Guard, but as the Daemonhunter codex has been moved to Direct Only, I've decided to put that thought on hold for now. I was going to have a small seconded unit of Red Scorpions in said force; but with this news, I've decided to expand it into a full force of it's own as I like the FW pieces.

Granted, there's not much to differentiate them from any other vanilla marine force, unless you venture into the FW rules; but the slightly crazed adherence to Codex structure is a nice counter balance to my rag-tag guard and their Rogue Trader commander.

I was going to leave it as part of my Guard blog, but decided I had questions that people could answer more readily if it was separate. It'd also save people working their way through pages of Guard stuff just to see the Marines take shape.

So. First up is an Apothecary to lead a tactical squad (as per the FW fluff/rules). My apologies for anyone that's seen him in my other log already.



Question
Tausept ochre seems to be a good match for the mustard colour trims, but what would you use to paint their grey colour scheme? I've seen a few different schemes mentioned :

1) Codex Grey, washed with black
2) Codex Grey/Black mix (75/25)
3) Charadon granite (or whatever it's called).
4) Adeptus Battlegrey/Black wash
5) Other?

Option 3 is out for me as that's the colour of my Guard uniforms and would end up looking far too similar. Besides which... mine is coming out an olivey green rather than grey?

I'm currently leaning towards mixing up a pot of Battlegrey with some black, but wanted to see what other Red Scorpion players were using (if there are any). I've not painted Marines before, so this could be interesting...

I've a few questions about their markings and armour, but I'll leave that until The Anphelion project arrives, so I can read it properly. Don't worry... questions will come as well as more pictures. For those of you with the Vraks books, do they have much more information on them in there, or does Anphelion cover it all?

Looking great so far. my only concern is the pointy glove arm looks a bit too unbalanced. Perhaps redistributing the drills/etc around the forearm would look better?

Otherwise a fine looking chap. Love the chest guard.

As for the grey colour... have you thought about mixing a little red wash into black wash to get a slightly warmer grey?

The apothecary arm is a standard bit so idk if he could do to much work to it.

Yeah, I'm sticking with the standard Apothecary wrist attachment, otherwise I need to recreate it every time I make a new unit.

This doesn't mean, however, that the hand and arm positions will stay the same each time as the standard position is a bit lame

I'll have a play with some different colours tonight and post some options. I like the idea of adding a little hint of red in.

[update]
I've just had a try with various shades of grey, including adding in some red. I think the final mix is 50/50 Black/Adeptus Battlegrey, washed with black and brought back up, finishing in tiny pure Battlegrey highlights.

Fair enough

I love the idea behind the models, but they have always looked a bit off to me because of the distribution of their tools.

Nice, its about time someone did Red Scorpions.

Tonight I added some paint to the first two Scorpions.



There's still some tidying up to do, a few details that I missed and the battle damage... but I'm liking them a lot. A full force should look nice in these colours *fingers crossed*

Tomorrow I'll go through the space marine painter app and sort out the colours for the different squad/character types. I'm thinking that Apothecary/Librarian/Techmarine and Chaplain are just going to have the left arm and right shoulder in their respective, traditional, colours. Knee pad designs will differentiate squads and helmet colours/markings will define the troop type; white & yellow being tactical and solid yellow being squad leader.

endtransmission wrote: but as the Daemonhunter codex has been moved to Direct Only, I've decided to put that thought on hold for now. I was going to have a small seconde

Sorry for the mild hijack, but what do you mean by that?

It's been moved to direct order only. Meaning they don't distribute/shelf stock it anymore.

Basically it translates into: "Daemon Hunters will be getting an update sometime beween 'Soon' and 'Never'"

Looking pretty sweet. I like your dark grey method especially

metallifan wrote:It's been moved to direct order only. Meaning they don't distribute/shelf stock it anymore.
Basically it translates into: "Daemon Hunters will be getting an update sometime beween 'Soon' and 'Never'"

Exactly. I don't feel like starting an army that may well change in the not too distant future, or at the very least, becomes expensive and tricky to get hold of. Besides which, I've been wanting a small Scorpion force for a while anyway...

Speaking of which. I've just been reading their section of the Anphelion Project book and it looks like I've made a mistake in the "official" colours. The grey should be lighter and the shoulder pads black, with vets and sergeants having white helmets, not tactical troops.

Given that I'm only two models in, I need to decide if I care enough to go back and start again... It shouldn't really matter as they are my models, but it feels like I've painted Ultramarines in a very dark blue, or Dark Angels in a bright bright green. Using B&C's painter... this is mine Vs the official one :




I think mine is more in line with the old RT era scheme that was bordering on black armour. There are some photos of the FW scheme over on James Clay's blog : http://homepage.mac.com/james.clay/iblog/B233824576/C609644043/index.html

What do you think? Stick with what I have, or lighten it up a bit? The benefits of lightening it up is that the grey is just Battlegrey with a black wash. the downside is that I"d have to redo these two

i say redo them. I am one that likes to make everything as close to official as i can.

Go with what you like. You can always say these are a Scorps successor chapter.

Looks good so far. Really like the yellow trim and helmet colours.

Should be striking if done on an army wide scale - assuming you go that way.

Don't worry about the colour scheme, they're your models. The Red Scorpions don't really have a very well-defined 'official' colour scheme anyway. As you say, in pictures from an old White Dwarf they are black and yellow, but even across the Imperial Armour books their colour scheme varies; in The Anphelion Project they are depicted as being a light grey whereas in The Siege of Vraks III they are very dark, almost black. Personally I prefer the lighter grey, but it's entirely up to you.

hey man I think your stuff is looking great.

I also had a question for you, where did you get yoru scenic bases from? I like them allot.

I say stick with what you have, looks great.

I did my Red Scorpions using a similar method:
- Basecoat 25/75 AdeptusBattlegrey to ChaosBlack
- Heavy drybrush of 50/50 AdeptusBattlegrey to ChaosBlack
- Drybrush 75/25 AdeptusBattlegrey to ChaosBlack
- Light drybrush pure AdeptusBattlegrey
- Edge highlight with thin lines of CodexGrey
- Wash liberally with BadabBack

It comes out with a rather nice grey

Horus Aximand wrote:It comes out with a rather nice grey

Do you have any photos?

V. nice. Always been a fan of the 'Scorpions, and it looks like your going to do them justice here.

Where did you get that bearded head from!? He looks like a 19th Century Doctor!

Very nice work thus far. I've always loved the Scorpion's fluff, so I can't wait to see more.

@Metallifan(I know I'm not endtransmission, so I hope you don't mind me pitching in), IIRC its from the new space wolves grey hunters kit.

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Very nice work thus far. I've always loved the Scorpion's fluff, so I can't wait to see more.

@Metallifan(I know I'm not endtransmission, so I hope you don't mind me pitching in), IIRC its from the new space wolves grey hunters kit.

I am so buying a box so that I can get that head and make a Marine with a Monacle. Or a Col. Mustard Marine

lol. Anyways, to the OP, to decide the colour you gotta answer a few questions.

1: Do you want everything to be the "official way" where thee are lighter grey?
2: Do you want to repaint everything?
3: Do YOU like it?
Great stuff man!

metallifan wrote:I am so buying a box so that I can get that head and make a Marine with a Monacle. Or a Col. Mustard Marine

If you buy a box, you can make both as you get two of that head. Win!

Over the weekend I had a play with the FW scheme for them. It's not only quicker to paint, but it does actually look nicer in a large group.

For the lighter grey, it's simple a basecoat of Adeptus Battlegrey washed in black, brought back up to Battlegrey with a bit of white for the final highlights. The yellow is Tausept Ochre shaded with Delvan mud, brought back up to Tausept.

I'm now part way through a tactical squad (including touching up the armour on the two posted earlier), so I should hopefully have a complete unit by the weekend (assuming deadlines don't get in the way too much).

They look really good! - i'm very tempted to go and buy some from FW now....

*must resist temptation... wallet opening slowly... nooooooooooooooooooo*

endtransmission wrote:

Horus Aximand wrote:It comes out with a rather nice grey

Do you have any photos?

Here you go. Its not the best photo ever, but it gets the idea across.


I've recently done another batch of twenty or so marines and the grey has come out alot smoother this time for some reason. It may have to do with the wash itself or the weight of drybrushing.

your stuff is looking very good so far though so it is up to you

~ Aximand

I personally like the color scheme of the FW Razorback and Aximand's models; that darker grey with the yellow borders looks very nice. That being said, I have no reservations against the lighter grey and I think this decision really falls on personal preference.

I'm liking the work so far, SM's rarely interest me so kudos to you sir for getting me to check it out!

Horus Aximand wrote:
Here you go. Its not the best photo ever, but it gets the idea across.

They look very good indeed. I just hope my repaints come out as nice
Thank you for sharing!

No problem, and thanks for te complements! Now get cacking! You can never have enough Feel No Pain Tactical Squads going around