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Hello all!

Brand new to the forum and this seems like the best site for hobby project logs. I've always loved trawling through pages of people's progress and hard work, and I've come to a realization I need to start doing this as a motivator to get through the hordes of plastic 'n pewter

My most recent endeavor of a custom Space Marine chapter, the Wardens Paragon. These are a culmination of the 2nd edition era marines I'd been gathering, a kind of nostalgia project as these were the first figures I was exposed to as a young lad.

Pics in the next post as this is my first...




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First recruit was a Captain/Chapter Master/leader dude, here he is basecoated and a bit of freehand started:



He's an old Strike Force marine with Calgar's backpack and Dante's axe head. This was the first time I tried Zenithal priming which I'm now a big fan of. Next I needed a chapter icon to adorn his other pauldron, meticulously crafted in MSPaint naturally:



He's now nearly complete rocking a snazzy banner, loincloth, and flames no retro Marine commander would be caught without!




All that is missing is a ranged weapon as I'm just not sure where/how to attach one. I might cop out and just glue on a holstered pistol from the later marine range.

More Marineage and fluff coming up.

Commander is looking really nice. I really like the old MkVII heads too, and chest gems! Checkers and flames are well executed.

I might suggest that you put a bolter/pistol under the backpack. Drenn Rebblade from DWO has his there in a holster and Captain Titus seems to maglock his there when he's using both hands to pummell the orks (though I couldn't find a better picture.)
The other picture is of Captain Garro, who has his sword and bolter in hand but has a scabbard and holster located behind him on his cape.

Capes are often another feature of classic captains- but not always. Interested to see you progress this project.







.

For the regular marines I wanted to change up the scheme:



The fluff justification is that only exemplary personnel (I.E characters) are permitted to don the glorious purple due to a past shame...
Rough story is they were a chapter founded to help defend a system from an imminent Tyranid invasion and pressed into service under strength. Their recruiting world got Genestealer Cult'd, and the poor guys have never forgiven themselves... Astartes with a guilt complex!

Primer went on a little thick this time, can be kinda easy to do when spraying with black>grey>white. But he's fine for TT standard, and I used it as an opportunity to try some battle damage for the first time and I'm quite pleased.

Below is a WIP sergeant to go with him, rank denoted by inverted helmet colours.

Welcome to Dakka!

Fun project. Old-school goodness is always nice to see. Good job freehanding all the icons.

 =Angel= wrote:
Commander is looking really nice. I really like the old MkVII heads too, and chest gems! Checkers and flames are well executed.

I might suggest that you put a bolter/pistol under the backpack. Drenn Rebblade from DWO has his there in a holster and Captain Titus seems to maglock his there when he's using both hands to pummell the orks (though I couldn't find a better picture.)
The other picture is of Captain Garro, who has his sword and bolter in hand but has a scabbard and holster located behind him on his cape.

Capes are often another feature of classic captains- but not always. Interested to see you progress this project.



.

Cheers for the feedback and suggestions!

I'm leaning towards a pistol holster under the backpack, probably one of the old CSM ones with the cloth/skin. I wanted a MC Bolter mag-locked originally but I think even the newer ones are a bit too fat to fit snugly. I'll check fittings when I get home tonight...

Think I'll skip the cape as he's got a lot going on already. I will leave that for the Lt using the old PF/Bolter Captain model.


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 youwashock wrote:
Welcome to Dakka!

Fun project. Old-school goodness is always nice to see. Good job freehanding all the icons.

Thanks! The freehand is surprisingly satisfying and it's getting easier with every symbol I paint.

I've basecoated some tactical mooks...



...And made some progress on a Techmarine

Polishing up the chapter relics...



The Rhino is 90% there, and the Destructor is basecoated. When they're both up to scratch I'm going to experiment with some weathering techniques as it's something I've never really tried on a larger scale before.
I'm going for a slightly lighter black colour (matching the infantry) on the pred and all future vehicles to help with the kind of shadow you do with that certain chipping effect.

I've also got a Destructor prime but there's still a few things to fix.



Its missing headlights and the exhaust pipes, the headlights aren't a major but for the pipes I'm thinking of either scratch-building some or hiding their absence under some homemade spaced armour. There's the dozer blade too, the original is a gluey mess but it might be salvageable with some mud effects, but I can live without it.
Open to any creative suggestions!

Hey grenb, nice old skool marines you’re knocking out! Liking how crisp the vehicles, especially the rhino, are looking! The techmarine is my favourite so far, his yellow bolter in particular! Keep em coming and kudos for all of the freehand symbols and flames!

Welcome to Dakka mate!

I really, really love the old space marine minis. Not sure if it's solely a nostalgia thing but they are just the quintessential 40k mini to me so always nice to see more of them.

Like the colour scheme and paint work is crisp; I hadn't realised how much I missed hand-painted banners til I saw your captain.

The Rhino looks really great; I've always struggled with painting vehicles but you've captured the clean lines really well. Going to be keeping an eye on this one

gobert wrote:Hey grenb, nice old skool marines you’re knocking out! Liking how crisp the vehicles, especially the rhino, are looking! The techmarine is my favourite so far, his yellow bolter in particular! Keep em coming and kudos for all of the freehand symbols and flames!

Cheers! I'm happy with how the yellow pops against the scheme and I think I'll do some more special weapons in this colour.

tzurk wrote:Welcome to Dakka mate!

I really, really love the old space marine minis. Not sure if it's solely a nostalgia thing but they are just the quintessential 40k mini to me so always nice to see more of them.

Like the colour scheme and paint work is crisp; I hadn't realised how much I missed hand-painted banners til I saw your captain.

The Rhino looks really great; I've always struggled with painting vehicles but you've captured the clean lines really well. Going to be keeping an eye on this one

They're my favorite iteration of the marines, though I'm not sure why lol - nostalgia definitely factors into it I'd say. Same reason I've gone for the silly banners!
Appreciate the feedback

Today I made some weathering powder to match the basing of my guys. This was made by crushing up some chalky earth tone pastels, credit to Midwinter Minis for the tip.



Here it is applied to the Rhino:



I'm stoked with the result and will be applying it to my infantry as well, the colour I've used is a perfect match to the bases I've done so far.

Next for the Rhino will be flags and maybe antenna, then I think I can call it done.

I've got the Tacticals done and dusted. Kinda phoned it in on the last details but I'm eager to get playing with this army and they read fine at tabletop distance, can always touch up later.





Up next will be some choppy Scouts and another Tactical squad:




Once these are done I'll be able to field a Battalion, so will reward myself and finish one of these characters:

Like your choice of color on the grunt’s weaponry. Not sure why but red always looks “right” to me for bolters.

Great work on the weathering powder mate. How is it applied after you ground it up?

Took me far too long to realise the terrain piece/vehicle behind your dudes was a keyboard...the colours match perfectly lol

Grenb,

Another question, have you sealed the weathering powders you made?

Cheers,

CB

ChaoticMind wrote:Like your choice of color on the grunt’s weaponry. Not sure why but red always looks “right” to me for bolters.

Thanks ChaoticMind, Blood Red is a classic choice for sure.

tzurk wrote:Great work on the weathering powder mate. How is it applied after you ground it up?

Took me far too long to realise the terrain piece/vehicle behind your dudes was a keyboard...the colours match perfectly lol

Captain Brown wrote:Grenb,

Another question, have you sealed the weathering powders you made?

Cheers,

CB

The weathering powder was dabbed straight on in a stippling kinda fashion to get it in all the places it would gather, then I sealed the whole mini with a matte spray varnish. Seems to be holding up but time will tell.

In other news I got the scouts completed yesterday so will snap some pictures tonight.




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Sorry for the poor photo, I'm going to look at making a simple lightbox or at least get a second lamp.
I was about to dive into freehand for these whippersnappers but I kind of dig the plainer look, and it differentiates from the Scouts in my Blood Angels army which are pretty gilded:



Maybe some more dirt to evoke them crawlin' around, rustling and tussling with the foe.

Second Tac squad next on the list...

The other week I popped into a store to buy some ETB Eldar Guardians to test some schemes on but they had none in stock. As I was walking out I was tossed a sprue of ETB Marines instead for free! I graciously accepted despite having no shortage of Marines.
These old Macragge (I think?) sculpts aren't the greatest but I was excited to try something new. I painted a Libator marine as I wanted to practice painting yellow. The yellow isn't a rich clean shade as I'm using a kind of antiquated method of gradually adding yellow to brown over a zenithal undercoat but I'm happy with the dirty look.



And practice I shall get... One marine turned to a squad, naturally. I built a Combat Squad Leader and ML Marine from some SM Heroes models I had lying about, here they are underway.



As a bonus I've realised I can re-purpose some of my Blood Angels bits as the Libators chapter symbol matches the BA chalice motif. I threw together a Captain, as well as a Sergeant and Plasma caddie for the Tactical squad.



The remainder of the squad will be filled out with another three ETB marines to match.

Hopefully it ends with a squad and HQ but it rarely ends that way does it?

I wish you luck in resisting the siren song of building a full army.

However as an agent of chaos I must point out that a rhino can be procured relatively cheap and would round them out into a wonderful little display kill team.

Nice work on the Libators, would be interested to see WIP of the progression from brown to yellow. I hadn’t thought to do that, but it gives a nice grimy look

No update in over a year, shocking!

I have a fair amount of progress to show fortunately. Starting with the Wardens...

I painted up a dude for a marine painting competition, I got him about 90% done and forgot about it.


He's just a mook for the next tac squad now, but with a fancy base.

Pred Destructor is almost there. Touch ups and weathering pending:


I changed up the scheme for the next scout squad, incorporating camo and putting greater effort into the faces (eyes!):


Finally a Captain WIP. Haven't decided whether he'll replace the other guy or demote/run as lieutenant:



I'm going to make an effort to update this thread at least once a week. The above pics are actually pretty old so there should be a steady flow of updates once I've taken more photos.

Great update! Hopefully you get to post pics more often - although I say the same thing every time and always seem to slip off soon after

The yellow on the flamer is seriously good and some lovely work on the base.

Love the old school predator turret and that captain has been a long time favourite - you have some awesome minis in the collection!

I like the camo on the scout and that it's different to the other squad. I've always been a fan of variations on a theme within an army rather than just copy paste across different units. I remember reading something like that in an old old Eldar codex; that their colours will show up differently in different squads e.g. blue helmets white armour in one, white helmets blue armour in the next, but it's something you don't see a lot of.

Good to see you posting again!

 tzurk wrote:
Great update! Hopefully you get to post pics more often - although I say the same thing every time and always seem to slip off soon after

The yellow on the flamer is seriously good and some lovely work on the base.

Love the old school predator turret and that captain has been a long time favourite - you have some awesome minis in the collection!

I like the camo on the scout and that it's different to the other squad. I've always been a fan of variations on a theme within an army rather than just copy paste across different units. I remember reading something like that in an old old Eldar codex; that their colours will show up differently in different squads e.g. blue helmets white armour in one, white helmets blue armour in the next, but it's something you don't see a lot of.

Good to see you posting again!

Cheers tzurk! Appreciate the feedback, and the variations on theme thing is on point. It's fun and functional.

Here are some more pics...

The Tactical squad I started a while back is now Sternguard. I've worked on the Serg and HB guy so far:



I'll get some pics of the rest of the squad, they have converted SIB made from Calth Boltguns and they've made me realise I don't mind having newer bits sprinkled in like the under-slung heavy bolter above. It really opens up what units I can make and use in editions newer than 2nd Ed!

I've also worked on the Chaplain:


His banner was something different for me and looks a bit primitive but kinda creepy so I like it.

And the Las-Pred:


I feel I still need to sort some exhausts or something for it, looks a little sparse as is.

I'll keep the ball rolling with some more stuff I've worked on the last few months. This is all WIP as I'm still terrible with completing minis, they're always 90% done before I end up jumping to something else lol.

Angels of Absolution Tac marine - I love these guys' scheme but the Chapter symbol is a bit daunting:



Here are some of the Eldar I alluded to in an earlier post:







I'm going with an oceanic colour palette for the Eldar, I have a large squad of Shining Spears I'm planning different shades and heraldry for.

Finally, my first dip into the Old World and Realm of Chaos - a converted Nurgle Warrior! Super proud of this one.

Welcome back! And what a return! You really look to have been busy. The highlights on the Eldar are great, especially the jet bike. The armour on the Nurgle warrior is great, it has a real sense of decay. Good luck keeping up on the posting

Wow, really cool stuff in here! Keep it up!

Cheers y'all

I've put some more paint onto my Libators Captain.

Back with a vengeance. Loving the weathering on the Chaos Warrior. The Eldar look cool. Huge fan of the metal Wraithlord/Dreadnought.

Thanks youwashock! I love the old dreads too, I have another one but he's missing the backpack to mount his shoulder weapon :(

Apologies for the spam people, but I keep finding pictures of forgotten minis!

Here are some Wargames Atlantic Raumjager I kicked off for a guard detachment. With a bit of kitbashing they fit the 40K aesthetic well I think.





And here's an old Marine serg, gave him a beard!

The next Tactical squad is scrubbing up (very slowly, seriously lots of scrubbing tonight).



Have also slapped some colour on the other Sternguard. I couldn't resist doing yellow for the Sergeant's SIB... May as well do the rest of them in yellow yeah?

Bolter huggers! Awesome. The yellow works. I say go for it.

Yesterday I got the huggers cleaned up, primed and basecoated. I gave up on scraping the old paint out of nooks since they're pretty basic models.



Basecoated the 2nd scout squad too, much happier with the flesh tones on these guys

The huggers look great with a lick of paint. The war games Atlantic stuff looks cool, if only I didn’t have a huge pile to get through I’d be tempted by them.