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Hi! So, after painting a few of my Space Marines I've decided to start a blog about them.

Fluff:
The War Sovereigns are an Ultramarines successor chapter, who deviate slightly from the Codex Astartes.

Unlike some Space Marine Chapters who have little regard for human life, or downright dislike humanity in general, the War Sovereigns highly value "normal" humans, going to great lengths to protect the citizens of a warzone, and viewing PDFs and Guard Regiments as an asset instead of a liability. To this end, the chapter has organized themselves to act as a spearhead for larger regular forces. The preferred way for the War Sovereigns to enter a battle is to Drop Pod themselves where the fighting is thickest between the regular forces and the enemy.

Where the War Sovereigns deviate from the Codex is the level of integration they have with regular forces. It is common for veteran Brothers below the rank of sergeant to act as advisers for regular infantry squads, who will join the squad as its leader for the skirmish, battle, or campaign. This has multiple benefits for the regular human fighters, and the Battle Brother. The humans learn much from the attached Space Marine, who passes on his decades of experience, as well as gaining the morale boost from having an angel of death in their midst. Not to mention the additional firepower a Space Marine bolter gun provides. The benefit for the Space Marine is the experience of leading men, which puts him on the fast track for promotion amongst his battle brothers. In fact, leading a regular human unit is almost a requirement for the rank of sergeant, although promotions are given for exceptional feats of valor.

Infantry combat is not the only way in which the War Sovereigns become temporarily organic to a regular human force. It is common for a Dreadnought to work closely with a Sentinel Squadron, or a Predator tank to spearhead a Leman Russ formation. In protracted campaigns, the War Sovereigns often combine logistically with regular human forces, techmarines working with techpriests, psykers leanring from esteemed librarians, and so on.

This level of cooperation is beneficial to the recruiting process for the chapter. At the end of a conflict, Guard or PDF fighters who fought particularly tenaciously are extended an invitation to join the Ranks of the War Sovereigns. this provides a supply of already trained warriors to bolster the chapters ranks. However, this creates another divergence from Codex normality. Instead of neophytes beginning their Space Marine service as scouts, they are organized and equipped similarly to Imperial Guard Storm Troopers or Veteran Squads. These units are often led by a Space Marine. Once the surgeries and initiation rituals are complete, these individuals are then given their power armor and recognized as battle full Brothers of the chapter. Recruitment is conducted in this manner because the individuals War Sovereigns select are usually already trained, and retraining them as scouts has been deemed a waste of time. Once a battle brother has served long enough as a Tactical Marine, he may choose to undergo Assault Marine, Devastator Marine or Scout Training. Individuals who were tank crew members previously often serve as Tactical marines before undergoing their new vehicular training, or progress straight to it once they are recognized Battle Brothers. This depends on the needs of the chapter at the time.

This close affiliation with regular humans has often put the War Sovereigns at odds with members of the Inquisition, as the War Sovereigns have been known to directly oppose Exterminatus orders when they believe human lives can be saved.

Rules:
The War Sovereigns have no special rules as of yet, but eventually I'd like to make entries for some of the more integrated regular human units.

P&M:
So far I've only got a few models painted. This is my first real army, (I don;t count my 500 points of painted Catachans) and I'm still learning alot about painting. The primary color of the Chapter is Enchanted Blue, with lots of gold trim, some white, and Iyanden Darksun used sparingly. The War Sovereigns wear bright colors to be easily visible to regular human forces, which boosts morale and gives beleaguered Guardsmen a rallying point.

So far I've done:


Chapter Master Ludorious Endova, wearing his special, personal relic/artificier armor. The color is 1 part Gunmetal 2 parts Ultramarines Blue.


Honor Guard with Standard.



1st Squad Alpha Team, with bravo team being unpainted at the moment.

Let me know what you think! I want to use some more washes to give them more depth and shading, but I don;t know what ones would look good, and obviously I don;t want to ruin what I've already done. I'm also going to get those push-together marines so I can practice my highlighting technique, because these lack any highlights.

Nice to see another Ultramari-oh.... Well, they had me fooled for a second.

Yea. Your painting looks good, though the cloth bits could use some wash to help highlight them. But they look exactly like Ultrasmurfs. Not much point making a homebrew chapter if you're going to paint it exactly like it's parent chapter.

I think some wash do them a world of good.

They aren't quite Ultramarines. They all use enchanted blue, not Ultramarines blue. they're actualy significantly brighter in comparison.


Whats a good wash to use on the cloth?

Personally, I still think they look too similar. Maybe some scheme of Ench. Blue with White and Yellow/Gold? Something to just make them look less like Ultrasmurfs. The Ench. Blue and Black in that half finished shot didn't look bad either. It just needs to look more original IMHO.

As for washes, I find Devlan Mud does a good job making cloth look old and gritty.

Ummm...I'm sorry dude, but these look exactly like Smurfs. They're bright blue and gold...which is exactly what Ultramarines are. You don't have to use Ultramarines blue for them to look like Ultramarines. You've done just find using Enchanted Blue. I would reccomend doing something to make them stand out from Smurfs. Because somehow, I highly doubt that anyone is going to think these are a different chapter just because they are a 'slightly' lighter shade of blue.


However, for smurfs your painting is quite clean and even. I would however, work on the eyes a bit (red is a good contrasting color), and give the cloth a wash of Devlan Mud.

Ok. Devlan wash it is.

I probably would've made them Ultramarines, but I'm not a fan of the letter U. I'll figure something out...

Might just be the photos. But its not like the Ultramrines are the only blue chapter. Avenging Sons, Death Strike, Emperor's Hands, and Rainbow Warriors come to mind (one link to lexicanum per customer ). Its not like they play any differently.

For the cloth, I'd suggest going with a Sepia wash - its quick an easy for lighter colors.

I was thinking about throwing in a yellow. Maybe more Iyanden Darksun. I wouldn't use it in a uniform pattern. Maybe sprinkle it in on backpacks, knee pads and pauldrons. Would that be enough to individuate them?

You could go Blue greaves, chest, shoulderpads, elbowpads/kneepads, and packs, and then Black thighs, arms, shoulder trim, yellow helmets, and say, scorpion green or snot green eyes.

That would definately set them away from Ultras, but still make people recognize them as an Ultamarines sub-chapter at a glance.

Pretty good, though i would suggest using an ink or two

Okay. Messed around with color schemes. I've decided I'm going to do some halving. Thanks to the B&C Marine Painter. (Chapter symbols shown are placeholders, and tactical designators may vary.)

Basic Color Scheme:


Sergeant:

Note the silver stripe on the helm.

Techmarine:


Apothecary;


Librarian:


Veteran:

Note the gold helmet stripe.

Champion:


Chapter Master:


How's that? Distinctive enough?

as to your last post, i like the schemes except for the sergeant(make the stripe red) and the Librarian/apothecary...they look like the same person...

That's because I was a dolt and linked to the same image twice. Fixed now.

As for the sergeant, I get what you're saying, but I think that would confuse at a glance with the Techmarine or the Apothecary. Besides, the idea of the chapter is that you get more "bling" as you rank up. Starts with silvers, then goes to golds. It has to do with the theme of the army. Since the chapter name is the War Sovereigns, I've settled on a crown as the chapter symbol. The stripe represent the crown.

Sorry to double post, but I've made enough progress to warrant a bump.

After spending a few days stripping and repriming all my models in white, (as trying to paint yellow halfing onto black primed and blue painted models wasn't working, I am pleased to present:

Brother Korsos:


The first one I've done. Tactical squad member. I have to go get some tranfer sheet paper at some point to do up chapter, tactical and squad markings. My freehand isn;t any where near good enough.

Very nice - I would like to see more!

Ask and ye shall receive. Just finished these two:




Tactical Sergeant.

Group Shot:

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. I've been distracted by life. You know how it is. I've decided to sort of do a reboot of the Chapter. I'm going to be redoing all the fluff. In the meantime, I've painted a few figs in the color scheme, that ironically I don;t even use on the table.


This is a Chaplain. I never liked the Skull Helmet thing that chaplains have going on, so I went with the hood.


An assault marine, that was led by the Chaplain.



Finally, a scout.

Glad you decided to move onto a variation color. And they look good. Use more washes. They're the easiest way to make your painting look significantly better. For the yellow wash it in Gryphonne Sepia and the blue in Azurmen Blue. This will outline the details perfectly and make the contrast between parts pop. I like the fluff, similar towards the Mentor Legion chapter iirc.

Wow thats a bright yellow. Those scouts better never try and use infiltrate!

I hope you like the letter S more than the U . S for Sweden ...

Nice scheme but need some washing I think .

I like them, but why does the Chaplin not have black armor?