+ inload: To war! +

+ The Gatebreakers march +


+ Well, the force is now at a stage to be taken to the field: two HQ, one Elite, three (four at a pinch) troops and a Heavy Support are ready to fight. +


+ Seeing your army en masse is always a nice way to build motivation for more building and painting, don't you think? It's at this point that the decisions made at the very start of making your army [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] really start to pay off. +


+ You can now step back and see how – and if – you want or need to make any changes. At the moment, I'm pretty happy with how the force looks. I think it strikes a nice balance between grittiness, sci-fi and the Rogue Trader-era sensibilities that I personally find fun. +


+ I'm broadly pleased with the balance between personalisation – that is, giving each marine a subtle tweak, like a mark III torso plate, or a bare head, or a raven's claw trinket – and keeping them still looking like a coherent, archetypal space marine force. +

+ With that said, at this point, I think it'll be worth introducing some different unit types, to prevent the army becoming too much of a mass of identikit troops. I like the uniform feel, but an accent or two – in the shape of some distinct visual flair (say a banner, or a few models with obviously different equipment, or a vehicle or two) will go some way to giving the army as a whole a good visual hook. +

+ On the workbench +

+ Talking of vehicles, the Land Raider [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] is receiving some paint, as are a few additional infantry +


+ Yes, call it inertia, but even when I decide to paint something other than infantry, it takes me a little while to change track. At least these marines are in slightly more dynamic poses! +


+ Rather than using the Assault Intercessors as intended, I'm going to be arming these five (along with three Hellblaster bodies) with boltguns, to be scattered amongst the existing squads. That'll give me a nice variety within the three 'big squads', and minimise duplication. In turn, if I decide to do actual Assault Intercessors, they'll use a mix of different kits. +

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