+ Painting the Marines Mendicant +
+ Or +
+ 'See, that's just what a liar would say' +
+ Here you can see one of the Marines Mendicant; a sort of special forces set up by the Partisans during the War of the False Primarch – and if that's all gibberish to you, then why not transferinload to +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+, where you can delve and indulge in such depths of lovely collaborative models and background that even Slaanesh might say 'Ooh, not for me; couldn't manage another morsel'. +
+ For those of you who've come here to talk painting and modelling rather than lore, I thought I'd scribble down a few thoughts on painting these marines. +
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+ Off-road individualism +
+ Necessity is the mother of invention, and the creation of the Marines Mendicant was very much led by my desire to make the War of the False Primarch as accessible as possible. While there are eleven Partisan Chapters to pick from, along with six Pentarchy Chapters (owing to my desire to square a little circle about the multiple Death Eagles schemes and backgrounds), it was inevitable that some people who might want to get involved would be put off by having to pick an existing scheme. +
+ To avoid this, I created the Vigilants [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], a group of marines a bit like the Deathwatch, which would allow people to bring in one or two models of their favourite Chapter, whether of their own creation or not. Importantly, I wanted to ensure that people could share their Chapters' scheme, and so hit on the idea that the Vigilants simply painted one part of their armour red, with a yellow and black stripe (a nod to the ret-conned Field Police of Rogue Trader). +
+ That simple device means that people can join in with the minimum of effort – just by adding a panel to an existing model. Voila, a perfectly useable Vigilant marine ready to do battle. If that's all you want to do, perfect; but if it sparks a bit more interest, then that figure can be used as the seed of a Pentarchy kill team – or even army. +
+ Of course, what's good for the goose is good for the gander – and it seemed a shame not to let those hobbyists attracted by the idea of following a returned Primarch a similar avenue to get involved. I didn't want to make a direct opposite – that seemed a bit unimaginative, so instead I dropped a few hints into the ongoing narrative about a group called the Marines Mendicant, then let it stew. +
+ As the background of the project – and the Silver Stars – developed, the Marines Mendicant started to take on more of their own form. The results are in today's update on +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ , in which I was able to hint at the Silver Stars' way of working without laying everything bare. +
+ As before, creating a uniform would likely put off as many people as it attracted; and in any case I felt that a single colour scheme would not really reflect the purpose or approach of these special forces/advisor marines. Intead, I picked a logo – the reversed silver star icon of the Legion, and gave some details on how it could be applied. Other than that, hobbyists are free to paint them exactly as they choose. As with the Vigilants, it can be as simple as slapping a silver star icon on an existing figure – but there's also the option of using the rose, white and turquoise of the Silver Stars scheme in alternative ways. +
+ White can be quite intimidating (even with this handy guide to painting Silver Stars [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]), while magenta and turquoise are both beginner-friendly hues and forgiving of mistakes. Allowing people keen on the Stars to get involved without the stress of painting white seemed like a sensible idea. +
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+ Putting it into practice +
+ All the well-intentioned lore in the world won't help if the scheme looks crap in reality, so I thought I'd double check that it works. You can be the final judge, of course, but I'm pretty pleased with how he came out. +
+ I opted for a vertical split, turquoise on the marine's right-hand side, rose on the left. As explained above, this is arbitrary – the Marines Mendicant use highly individualistic schemes (though there's equally no reason you couldn't paint a kill team in a set uniform; that's well within their intentionally contrary modus operandi). +
+ There was an unintentional and unfortunate hint of Alpha Legion about the scheme when seen from this angle. I wanted the project to be a proper civil war; something more grey on grey and akin to the Badab War conflict than the Horus Heresy; and so Chaos – which is too dominant a theme and threat to be anything but the focus – doesn't really fit here. +
+ Secondly, memes have rather spoiled the XX Legion for me, and while I have no problem with planting a seed that 'the Alpha Legion did it' for the whole False Primarch thing – after all, lies and truth are the point of the project – it's also a bit obvious. I therefore used lots of iconography suggestive of the Silver Stars – and also Raven Guard and Carcharadons – to provide some equally plausible other interpretations from this side. +
+ Loads of juicy little icons and symbols here; mostly taken from logic and mathematics. The tau (upside-down 'T') is a logic symbol for 'false' – a little Easter egg. As with everything, background, lore and painting are all great, but they should all take a back seat to having fun with you hobby. +
+ A back shot. Not a huge amount to say or see here, beyond the fact that I've found I really like split schemes. There's something very focussed and rewarding about getting the lines with smooth strokes of the brush. All very mindful! +
+ Chequers helped to detail this side – again, a split scheme from this side looks a bit Emperor's Children. Not as problematic as the Alpha Legion side, but still worth breaking up to distinguish it from any extant force. +
+ Were I to do more Marines Mendicant, I'd be tempted to vary the scheme still more, and make more of the white area. If you're tempted to do a Marines Mendicant (or any other Chapter involved in the War), I'd love to see it. Why not share it with the #somethingarebestleftforgotten and/or #warofthefalsepriamrch tags? +
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