+ Squad Mephisto +
+ A decent push last night has landed me with another three finished figures, along with two casualties. I also took to opportunity to refine the bases and details on the others in the army, to help tighten up the consistency. +
+ Tactical Squad 1 +
+ Made up of the two combat Squads Raphael and Mephisto, Tactical 1 is pretty much the archetype of Space Marines; with a loadout that would fit in every edition of the game. I'm pleaed to see that the change in colours (from a mix of Mephiston Red and Vallejo Vermillion to a pure Vallejo Flat Red) isn't really visible. +
SQUAD MEPHISTO Sinistro e Dexter:
Brother Thaddeus (Saditel 4:04, called the lost)
Brother El-Aster (Ambriel 1:01),
Brother Mephisto (Rashin Rast 2:05),
Brother Engel (Narieal 4:10) [Not pictured]
Brother Lucian (Abacyel 3:12) [Not pictured]
+ I'm pleased with how they came out, but it's so hard not to get carried away with freehand and detailing. I have to keep reminding myself that they're meant to be simple, to reflect the inspiration and keep things rooted in the M35 period. I think I'm going to have to make some Veterans or something, just to let myself get carried away! +
 |
| + The originals, by Tim Prow from White Dwarf 139. The three homages I've just painted represent the following: second from left (El-Aster – note the pose); centre (Mephisto – again, note the knife); and second from right (Thaddeus; with flamer). + |
+ There are, inevitably, a few little additions and ornaments, but I think I've been pretty restrained. Thaddeus (the flamer specialist) has a little honorific on his knee. Mephisto, the squad leader, is starting to show a bit of the ornamentation that will become more common later in the Imperium's history. He has an artificer pauldron, an autoshrine (for in-field ammunition blessing) hanging from his belt, and a targeter integrated with his helm. These little additions only stand out because the others in the squad are restrained. +
+ The other thing which jumps out is the banner. I initially painted the field a plain red, which matched the other combat squad veteran. This more closely followed the WD139 inspiration, but I found the fact they were identical a bit dull; so I added a yellow stripe. Simple, but helps to distinguish the figures on the board (and, in-universe, helps the marines on the battlefield to quickly identify who's who). +
+++
+ Vive la différence! Squad Cleon +
+ Having said I was struggling not to cover Mephisto in freehand detail, I did then turn back to Squad Cleon, who we've seen before. +
SQUAD CLEON Sinistro e Dexter:
Brother Simnal (Saditel 2:02)
Brother Ornaghi (Utchael 3:04)
Brother Cleon (Sanael 1:02)
Brother Pappacordo (Zether 1:09)
Brother Zoma (Caraniel 9:01)
+ While I want the army to look uniform, the originals were differentiated from each other in order to make gameplay easier:
+ You can see above, the captions highlight the differences. I didn't want to copy the backpack differentiation, as it just didn't feel right to me; but I liked the honour badges on the kneepads:
+ Of course, it being eleven at night when I had the bright idea to start them, I ended up painting them on the wrong knees [+SCRAPSHUTNERRORABORT+] After a brief pause for cursing, I started again in the correct place. I'm pleased with the end result, and along with the veteran banner (vertical stripe for Tactical 2), think it works nicely to mark out the different squads. The lesson is 'keep your source material close to hand'. +
+++
+ Medic! +
+ Finally for today, here are the casualties:
+ Painted in exactly the same way as the others, these were a bit quicker – mainly by dint of there being less of them! I've added a little bit more weathering than the others, but not a huge amount. +
4 comments:
I like them very much, conversions, poses, painting all very much in the right mood. As well as the project itself, starting from the old pictures…
But may i ask why you left the chest bare of any decoration? Especially thinking about the baroque nature of the Blood Angels i would like how you decided upon this?
Hey Paul, the short answer is simply for differentiation. Since I want the army to be set in M35, I needed to find some visual shorthand to differentiate them from 40k and 30k models; and the chest eagles are an obvious point of differentiation. In terms of the in-universe reason, the eagles have been removed as a mark of neutrality – the double-headed eagle is a symbol of the Old Imperium (as opposed to Constantium's Nova Terra) – and the Astartes as a whole are neutral in this conflict.
There are some real-world considerations. The original inspiration (Tim Prow's force from WD139) didn't pick out the winged jewels (the equivalent), but painted the torsos plain red. It's a nod to that as much as anything. In addition, the models of the time were much simpler. Since I want to make the force identifiable as the same army, I wanted to simplify the details to aid recognition.
...and finally, I wanted to make sure that I left myself some space for veterans, Lieutenants and so forth. These will likely have considerable amounts of freehand.
Thank you for the answer. Your reasons seem al very plausible and i think you really achive those goals with the army. How gib is it going to get?
Thanks Paul-Friedrich. Regarding size, the initial idea is to replicate the army as it appears in WD139; though I've also added a few little bits and bobs that turn up either in pictures of the period, or in the written army list. Beyond that, who knows? :)
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