+ inload: Painting Gatebreakers +

+ Chapter colours +

'The green of grass, the yellow of the sun. Very poetic. Very old-Terran. Shame the star Andocrine is a bloated, dying dwarf, blotchy and red as an alcoholic dowager; and the nearest thing to grass there is blue-black, clinging as stubbornly to the rad-haunted rocks as the Gatebreakers themselves. A few thousand light-years distance makes all the difference, culturally, don't you think?'

Notes on the Alien Wars, Inquisitrix Barbari Kills

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+ The Gatebreakers are my experiment in creating my own Chapter. The background, detailed in an earlier inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], was drafted with half a mind to being a space for those bits and bobs I've had lurking but never got round to. +

+ With a new edition of 40k coming out, I've got a nice excuse to root around the Cupboard of Shame Opportunity and paint up a little group. Being forced to rely on scavenging, the Gatebreakers seem a good place to use up the wealth of fun bits that haven't fitted my other marine forces for reasons of time period, Chapter aesthetics or various other reasons. +

Lurking too long...

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+ Marines, but not Marines +

+ However, I don't want to just build just another marine army. Personal Chapter or not, it's a bit redundant; so I thought I'd take GW at their word and build the army that I want to. This is the marketing claim, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the new 'Crusade rules' play out in practise. +

+ The premise is therefore to create a group that's very narratively-driven, centred around the Gatebreakers and a Rogue Trader. Being on the frontier, these two forces seem like natural allies, and it'll be a good excuse to highlight the physical differences between various Imperial factions – and paint up the various cool models from boardgames like Blackstone Fortress and other odds and sods. +

Examples of odds and...

...sods – all the above are from an old Colony 87 Kickstarter; the models are now available from Crooked Dice [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

+ This will also provide a canvas for Primaris marines. I haven't tackled any of these yet – at least, not unconverted – and this project seems a wonderful way to introduce them. Thus far, I've been quite reticent to embrace the change from setting to story that 8th edition brought, and this seems a nice way to explore things and make up my own mind. +

+ Excitingly, this exploration can be brought out in-universe as the Gatebreakers meet their new comrades – perhaps escorted by the Rogue Trader. It presents a lot of nice narrative hooks. How will the two groups of Gateberakrs – Astartes and Primaris – interact and gel? +

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+ Painting the Gatebreakers +

Basic colour scheme: Flash Gitz Yellow and Warpstone Glow.

+ The theory behind the scheme is detailed as part of a series on creating with your own army [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], so I'll keep the notes here practical. +

_1 Undercoat with grey (I use Halford's grey primer), then pick out metals with thinned Abaddon black.

_2 Paint the upper right and lower left quarters with Flash Gitz yellow. You don't need to be too neat with this; just avoid getting it on the black. This may take three or four thin layers.

_3 Paint the remaining armour plates with Warpstone Glow. Aim for as crisp a line where it abuts the yellow as possible.

_4 Wash with Seraphim Sepia. While wet, use a dry brush to lift off excess.