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I've been working on a new Space Marine chapter idea, based on Lt. Col. George Custer's 7th Cavalry. I wanted to make it mobile, but also a viable list for play.

In order to capture the feeling of the Cavalry, I decided to go with a regular Space Marine Bike list, backed up with some attack bikes, a few Land Speeders, and a few predators. The bikes, of course, are going to be Custer and his cavalry, the Landspeeders will be modelled after wagons, and the Predators after the North American buffalo.

I'm actually busy collecting the Ravenwing Bike Squads since I'm going to use a lot of the bits, even though the fielded units will be vanilla Space Marines.

Here's the scheme I have for the Bikers:


Here's the scheme I have for Custer (who will just be a Space Marine Captain by the rules). I'm going to custom mold a hat similar to the real Custer's hat for this model, once I find a bearded head that I think will fit.


And here's the scheme for the landspeeder pilots. I'm not 100% on this scheme, something about it just doesn't sit right with me. Maybe I will figure it out in time.


Anyways, the first set of bikes will arrive on Friday, and I will start mocking up some paint schemes then. I want to do about 4 or 5 different ones, based on different horse breeds, just to set the theme a little more solidly. There are a lot of different options for those, and so I will be going over them while my new army ships.

After that, I'm going to paint and mock up the Landspeeders. I'm toying with the idea of actually cover the top like a wagon top. We'll see. Lastly will come the Predators, which should be the last bit.

I'm also tempted to make an opposing army of some type to be the Indians for my Custer Army to display. I'm thinking the Space Wolves Thunderwolf Cavalry, Fenrisian packs, and maybe warpainted Catachan Jungle fighters. But that's another project. For now, back to gathering bitz for the 7th Cav...


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Oh, and 50 Nerd Points for those who actually get the Chapter's name and relevance.

So now I've started gathering the army. Since I'm using Ravenwing models for the army, I needed a decidedly US Cavalry theme for all the "raven" parts. Here's what I came up with:



Blue stems, then gold feathers, then white feathers. I'm going to use this same design on the handle bar feathers as well.

Interesting... I'll follow this with curiosity (which is impressive for marines with me ).

What did you use for the colour scheme images?

 Ovion wrote:
Interesting... I'll follow this with curiosity (which is impressive for marines with me ).

What did you use for the colour scheme images?

That was your 2000th post I hope it was worth it

I've also been looking at creating a themed biker army, was considering doing mine more based around Genghis Khan's hordes though, so maybe Orks would be more appropriate for that, intrigued to see where this goes though.

Yes, yes it was!

It's nice to see interesting space marine forces, being there's so, so many thoroughly boring ones.

Thanks for following this project guys!

I would love to see a Genghis Khan horde! As for the color scheme, I used Bolter & Chainsword's space marine painter, and modelled the colors off some paintings I've seen recently.

I just finished painting some of the first bike (it's been 3 hours, I'm taking my time and doing it right so you can't tell I'm a total amatuer at painting) and hope to have it finished sometime next week.

That is, of course, assuming the rest of the paints I need arrive in time. But once I get one bike down, it should be easy to figure out the rest.

Are you painting unprimed plastic?

Yes, I am applying paint to unprimed plastic, but this first bike is the sacrificial one to get down the paint scheme before I go and start the rest as they arrive.

In my experience, when you have to paint more than 10 models, it helps to have a guide to compare it to. Whenever I get to a new section, I can stop, look at the guide, and copy it down on the new model.

It also helps me adjust my color scheme from my mind to the model. For example, the tires are just Abaddon Black right now, and I was planning on using the same color for the trim around the bike. But since I can see that the tire and trim would blend together, I have to find another solution.

I can also experiment with various colors and techniques to get certain areas as close to what's in my mind as possible. When I was painting my GKs, I had one of the models painted about 50 different shades of blue, just so I could see which color, glaze, and dry brush shade I wanted to use.

I wouldn't have to do this if they had a vehicle painter with a bike I could use.

Time for another update!

I've received the first batch of bikes, a landspeeder, and an attack bike. The difficulty in acquiring these models was that I had to piece-meal the army together, and so I ended up with a mixture of bikes from the Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce and the Dark Vengence Bikes.

So now I have to choose between the two styles of the front of the bikes. Here's what I've accomplished today:

12 of these badboys down, 12 to go (once they arrive)

Stayed up late last night to work more on the models. My wife is out of town visiting her mother, so I used my opportunity wisely.

First up, I finished the legs.



But after painting the legs, I decided to mock up and paint the first Biker. After painting by my fist scheme, I didn't like it, so I copied the landspeeder pilot's scheme, but didn't quite like that either. So I did a simple scheme, and it looks better than the other two!



So next is a trip to the paint store to get some more blue, white, and a few colors for some horse breed schemes on the bikes. Should have the first one done sometime this week!

Just worked on boring stuff today. Tires, foot panels, things like that. I would put up pics, but's pretty basic stuff. And of course, it's snowing, so that should help me stay inside and paint.

Tomorrow my plan is to finish the tops of the Marines, I decided not to do backpacks with these guys, as they don't fit well on the bikes. Arms and heads after that. Then I shall start on the bikes.

My plan with the bikes is do to each one as a unique color scheme based off of a bunch of pictures of different horse colors. Should be fun.

Well, I now have one rider fully assembled, and mostly painted. I'm saving touch up painting until the last day, where I will also apply my washes, dry-brushing, and highlighting. But nonetheless, I have one rider down!

I like this horse scheme, so I will do two or three more this way. I have a Paint (the horse) scheme in my head, might do those today too.








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(Oh, the horse paint scheme, for those that can't tell, is modelled after this horse

Now I have my second horse color scheme done. Similar to the last one, but this group are clearly based on the Paint. Didn't do a whole lot this weekend, had a lot of stuff going on.

The bikes aren't quite finished, still need touch ups and trim. And heads. And the Greasy Grass Eagles banner on the back of the bikes. Yeah, I have a lot left to do on these, but enjoy the pics in the meantime!

Finished up those 3 riders, and now I'm taking a break to do some Christmas shopping before continuing on with the project.

Check back soon for another update!

Well, lots of life changes in December, mostly a new job, which leaves little time for painting, but rest assured, I will be continuing this project shortly. I'm excited to see this army finished and playing in the field.

As the current Roster sits, I'm fielding 1505 points. That's a total of 25 Space Marine Bikes, 3 Attack bikes, 3 Land Speeders, and 3 Predators. Taken up against an Eldar army, it was a draw, but only just, and we ended at the end of turn 4. We both agreed that if the battle continued, my Greasy Grass Eagles would have the victory.

So my question to all of you following this project is this, if you had 494 points and owned this army, what would you add/change in it's composition (keeping with the theme) to bring the total fielded points to 1999? You can PM me with your ideas if you'd like

I apologize for the long wait between posts, life has been crazy busy. We're out of our tiny 1 bedroom apartment and into a sprawling rancher now, so I have more room to paint and project, but less time

So here's what's new:

First, I finished the paint schemes on my third set of bikes, these are just plain black, nothing too showy.



Then I sat down and painted, repainted, and repainted even more to finish the ideas I had to color the horses/bikes for the sergeants and Custer (I've renamed him Khuster for fun) It took quite a bit of effort (another reason I've been away from posting for a while) but I finally got it down. I aimed for the blond horse with black mane, and I think I nailed it. I also changed up the eagles scheme a bit for the sgts, the white was detracting from the horse, so instead of my blue/gold/white scheme, I went with blue/brass/gold instead. I think they look beautiful.







Oh, and yes, I added the gold shoulder pads in a fit of whimsy, but I'm not sure I like it. I have a couple areas left to finish testing on this model, and I think the solid gold might overwhelm the scheme I'm going with to show white gloves on the sgts.

And lastly, once the cavalry part is done, I still have my wagons and buffalo (landspeeders and predators) to paint. After that, I'm adding in a bunch of Scouts, a few Dreadnoughts or Thundercannons, and possibly an allied detachment of Space Wolves (love their wolf cav!)

Until next time peeps!

Nice take on a biker army, curious to see how the rest will turn out

Thanks! I'm currently playing around with the last 3 sets of horse schemes! I want to do a dark brown/black scheme, an appaloosa scheme, and a basic white scheme. Should be done with those mockups today, then paint them onto the bikes next week.

Basing your chapter on the 7th Cavalry? Cool.
Making all the 'savage' units Native Americans? Not so cool.

At least they aren't the Wounded Knee Chapter though.

Good point, and I apologize if I've offended anyone with my choice of units for the army opposing Custer. I'm not big on the fluff side of the hobby, I was merely browsing the models I thought would look cool against a mechanized army


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I did a mock up of the appaloosas...it does not look well. So I think I'm going with just a couple whites, a couple greys, and about 4 more paints (the horses) since I get the best reaction from those.

Now, once those are done, comes the touch ups, the dry brushing, washing, and basing. One good thing about my area is the local game store has an expert painter who has been kind enough to lend me his expert advice to determine the washes. Now, some of them won't be hard, the Leadbelcher parts will get washed with black, but getting the right colors so that the two shades of blue don't get mix any during this stage is going to be tricky.

So while those are slowly getting finished, it's time to move onto the next phase of the army, the Predators styled after the buffalo! Pics coming soon!

After a long day of being sick and still painting, I've nearly finished the bikes. I still have two colors left to paint on some of them (gold and leadbelcher), but other than that I am ready to start the washing process, which should happen later this week. Here are the pics (minus the 3 models I am taking in to get advice on the washes.















You'll notice that for the Sergeants I went back to the original scheme for the décor (blue/gold/white). As beautiful as the other scheme was, the wash would have blended all of it together.

Up next are the covered wagon theme speeders!

No new pics yet, mostly because base coats are boring. I'm finishing the speeders last, waiting for the material for the wagon tops to come in.

In the meantime, I have base coated the Predators, and when I started with the buffalo scheme, I just hated the colors. It made the tanks look like turds driving around the table. No offense to our friend the buffalo, but it's hard to translate from a majestic (and tasty) beast to a metal vehicle. So I'm redesigning them. instead of a themed unit, I'm just making basic tanks, with highlights in the colors of the 7th Cav, and I will mount a space marine carrying a miniature version of Custers Flag on the top. No as exciting as a buffalo themed tank, but still pretty neat.

And to top it all off, I've added one more step to this army. I've started looking for basing material, and originally, I was going to do a complicated scene with mud and grass. That's changed. Instead, I'm planning a small camping trip...

...to the Little Bighorn Battle Memorial...

...to hike up to the hill Custer's last stand was on...

...to gather sand/soil to base my army with...

...oh yeah, that's a dream come true!

Ur models look awesome, but friendly tip, read my signature.

Thanks for the advice!

Well, the tanks are done! I tried a couple different schemes, and I liked this one the best.

I've got one more that's finishing the drying cycle, and it's a different model from the other two. Might end up a variation, but this is what they look like.





So onto the wagon speeders!

Also, I expanded the army a bit, and the unit of scouts is being shipped as we speak. Those will be painted in the usual scheme, same as the bikers, so nothing special there.


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Oh, and I am looking for a nice white backdrop to start posing my models against.

A4 Paper will do it.

I'm actually thinking about at building a light box using a frame made from box-lengths of card, with a layer of white paper on either side of the boxes, it'll be nice and cheap, as big or small as I want it, light, and collapsible for easy storage.

Looking good though. The only thing I can think to improve it any is possibly some washing, but it might just the camera flash bleaching out any shading.

That's a great idea! I might try to build one of those today as well.

I haven't washed them with anything yet. Honestly, I have trouble with it, so I'm taking lessons from a friend to help get it right

Washing is easy.
'specially how I do it.
Step 1 - Base colours, etc, you've done that.
Step 2 - Slap on a layer of wash, it'll flow and pool in recesses, autoshade stuff, etc.
Either just do it in the recesses to highlight those, or coat the entire model to lazy-man the entire thing.
It's basically a slightly more refined version of dipping at that point, but I like the result.
Step 3 - Touch up anything that's been made too dark by the wash, and optionally drybrush over it in either the original, or a slightly lighter shade to pick out the edges.

Must say though, as much as I dislike the rhino chassis (though slightly mitigated by the predators turrets), I do like how you've done yours.

Nice to see someone do some SM Bluebellies! My own Chapter, the traitorous Storm Riders, follow a civil war CS grey motif. Too sad it is highly unlikely we will ever meet in battle... would be a real happening to have my Johnny Rebs spank some Union cavalry, although Custers 7th is from a later time... But rest assured I will follow your progress with high interest. I am looking forward how you work the theme into your army. The start looks nice, and somewhat not soo far away from my ideas, although as a civil war derivate, my army has a focus on infantry.

Besides, it was a black day for me when I started 40k again after long years of absence, only to find out that not only didn't the power swords and chain swords sport the cavalry style hilt anymore, but jumping from 2nd to 5th edition my bikers had lost access to them... and I miss the bayonets on the newer bolters. Sorry I don't have the equipment to have some decent photos online, it would nice to compare our solutions to a similar theme.

- on a side note, I am REALLY looking forward what you will do with your scouts...

edit: just after I wrote this, I saw that meanwhile you had told your plans for the scouts. Well... mine are not very original, either.

Dude, a grey coat army sounds awesome! It is too bad we may never meet, but you never know! I am building this army to be competitive!


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Okay, finishing up my work for the weekend, here is where I'm at on the wagon speeders.



Not sure I like this look, but I really don't want to skip this one, as it really helps tie in the theme. I don't know.


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The image does come out really bright, the canvas is actually a dusty white, almost identical to the period colors for wagon tops, but the flash on my camera over whitens it.