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Hello Dakka. With the new book I'm sure this place is gonna be inundated with new topics of people trying to build the fabled space marine company, but my project is a little more ambitious- an entire space marine chapter.

Looking at any 40k forum you can find dozens of topics on building entire chapters, but I haven't been able to find someone who actually has. With the release of the new space marines codex myself and a few others have decided to give it a go. Four of us have decided to collaborate on this, and hopefully this plog will help keep us motivated and showcase a full chapter in all it's glory.

When researching this project I came across a number of resources on the numbers of a Chapter and If it really is 1,000 marines. Keeping away from the debates on the subject, we have decided that the 1k number is A) Propaganda and B) indicative of the combat arm of a chapter, rather than both combat and support arms. Vehicle crew, pilots and fleet personnel come from the armory and support units, rather than reserve companies. This means all reserve companies will have their full complement of 10 squads.

We did have a head start before the project started. Three of us already had Ultramarines forces, and luckily had chosen different companies. In the next few days I'll upload pics of our initial forces, as well as our revised MTOE that will give all of us a better show of our progression.

EDIT: Here's the Planned forces of the 1st-10th companies. Blue Squares are painted models, grey squares are models that are built awaiting paint.



Thanks for checking in. Comments and criticisms are always welcome, as well as any ideas you may have.

Good luck

So here's the extent of our initial forces as well as our goal for the infantry. I may make one showing all of the armored support but that will wait until we're more underway. I've updated the initial post to show our progress

Here's the MTOE, Each group of 10 is a squad. In the battle companies the top 6 squads are tacticals, bottom 2 are devestators and the 4th line down are assault squads. In the first company we are shooting for 30 shooty terminators, 30 sternguard, 20 assault terminators and 20 vanguard. The librarius and tech contingent are both understrength, but no-one wants to paint 30 tech priests so we are assuming the rest aren't cleared for combat for one reason or another. The big circles at the bottom of each company represent the dreadnoughts assigned to each unit. Squares filled in represent marines we currently posses, not necessarily have painted. I may begin to differentiate between the two but I don't want to have to fill in that many squares at once.



Here's second company awaiting a repaint. Lancador will be the primary painter of the 2nd



4th Company, Begun by yours truly



5th Company with Armored support, painted by General_Tod. After seeing his pics he will be the primary photographer of the project.



Here's a few close ups as well as the command razorback converted by General_Tod









Thanks again for checking in. Comments and Criticisms always welcome

Ambitious, this should be good!

Love the 5th Co Captain!

Best of luck. Should be fun to watch this all come together.

I've got another quick update for everyone.  I got a package in the mail this past weekend and here's what I found inside.  I got these guys for dirt cheap and they definitely need some TLC, but overall I'm pretty with all of them and they will fill out the rest of the 4th, 5th and the beginning of the 6th.  



We also got a package from GW, courtesy of the FLGS- This should make base coating much easier



I was also able to get a batch of bases done for the 4th company.  These are super quick to do but end up looking pretty good when they're done.  

You realize that the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th companies are supposed to be support companies? The 6th and 7th are all Tacticals (10 units), the 8th is all Assault squads (10 units), and the 9th is all Devastators (10 units). The 10th company is all scouts. That's my understanding of space marine chapters, at least. It's an ambitious project in any case. Good luck!

@Warboss_Waaazag- Yep, we're pulling a lot of our info from the 3rd and 6th edition marine books. The reserve companies are going to be as the Codex describes, but it was easier to copy and paste the template for the battle companies than to have to make more that just said "tacticals" or "devestators.

Another update for you guys- The first batch of marines is about to leave the stripper and Should be ready to prime in the next day or so. I'll be posting pics of their progress soon.
I also received another package in the mail. Inside was another lot of marines- they also need some TLC, and a few are missing weapons and bases but nothing a quick trip to the bitz box won't fix.







I've also started on the old Crusaders from the last package. These were the old metal kits and were a complete pain to put together- almost enough to wish it was finecast. Basecoats are done and I've started on the weathering, so hopefully I'll be able to put the finished tanks up here soon





C&C are of course, always welcome- I've updated the tracker in the OP to show our progress

eBay really is a wonder for cheap space marines. It is helping me build a force from all four secessionist chapters in the Badab War. I wish you luck with your endeavour!

So It's been a veerry long time since I've had the opportunity to update this thing, but I do come bearing many gifts. I've updated the mtoe, showing our progress. We have the marines for the 2Nd, 4th and 5th companies, as well as a sizable chunk of the 6th and 7th reserve companies. We decided to put all of the bikes and speeders in the 8th because it didn't make sense that tactical marines were using bikes and speeders when all pics from GW show those units with assault squad markings and battle company bikes and speeders are used by the assault marines. The 1st company is half complete. We got a bunch of the new betrayal at calth boxes, so expect more Mk4 goodness in the army. Onto the pics!



Here's the extent of my contribution so far: I've got the entirety of the 4th, plus 8 squads from 6th company.



Here's a close-up of a 6th company squad. Not my best work by far, but they are quick and easy to paint up. I also feel that after painting your 150th space marine you're allowed to coast.

Here are some close ups of the veterans and members of the 4th company





















I'm not the only one whose been busy. Lancador has been busy on the scratch-build front. After realizing how many zeros are attached to the price of a chapter's worth of vehicles, we're trying to build our own. Here's the progress on a rhino





And for arriving in style, his mock up of a thunderhawk. I told him we need at least 5 or so







And more air support, in the form of a storm raven and storm talon






We're also on the lookout for more marines and vehicles. We need a bunch, so to keep costs down we're looking for old models that need a lot of TLC. If anyone can point me toward cheap marines, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for following us, Comments and Criticisms are always welcome!

Wow. What a project!

EDC

It's been a few weeks but I'm back with another update. We have another person who's joining the chapter project- bringing our total to 5. Lancador also showed up with his Thunderhawk MKII, more detailed than the last- here are a few pics

Here's the base of the forward fuselage




Plus the rear, both of these receive a lot of details before they're finished



The base for the forward wings/tail



Coming together



The turbolaser mount and a few details start coming together



Here's the MKII next to the original

This is quite the undertaking! good luck!

Good luck on this! I spent the last week ploughing through the rest of my smurfs!

Honour Guard is a tough one, I reccomend kitbashing!

Hello everyone- I'm back with another update. We've all been really busy with the holidays but we wanted to share our progress in the last few months. I think we all are a little burned out on painting infantry, so we've switched to vehicles for now.



Our scratch building efforts so far- a 4th thunderhawk is half finished. Only one rhino in the picture is an actual GW model

More pics of the painted thunderhawk





and the MKIII: We're in desperate need of lascannons and heavy bolters for these.



Our scratch Vindicators- We want a dozen for the full chapter



A few comparison shots of the GW kit and our Demios rhinos. They're not perfect but they are cheap and easy to make





And as a teaser: Here's the beginning of our next addition to the chapter



Thanks for looking, Comments and criticisms are always welcome

Here's more of the Titan so far.

I made a template to wrap around the leg and reinforced it with balsa wood









The first leg is coming along. It still needs cleaning up and a lot of detail work, but that can wait until the rest of the substructure is done.

Here's another update on the Titan. I've gotten some of the details done on the legs.





Here's the basic pose for the titan. One of the legs isn't glues yet so it's shifted around in a few pics



Here are the legs with what will probably be the base. I tried my hand at a spartan but I didn't like the scale. I think it works pretty well as debris though