And now for another installment of Project Legs11. Here, I’m trying some beakies.
It is a self-evident truth that everyone involved in 40k, will have, at some point, painted a space marine. It's just a thing that happens, like playing Ryu in the latest Street Fighter game or buying white sliced bread. I'm not gonna say I have hard numbers, but when half the game, a majority of starter sets, and the entire Horus Heresy setting prominently feature marines, it's a thing that happens. Invariably, these form the basis of somebody's first army, and/or sold on to bulk out someone-else's force, and/or sold on to start the cycle anew. And just as invariably, those marines are the basic troops choice of the time, in this case, Intercessors. AKA the unpopular and "boring ones". Marine players always seem to have a bit of resentment towards their rank and file. I suspect part of it is, is that basic marines aren't great at killing other marines, which is most of the game. Although that may be changing soon. Or everyone just runs to the cool stuff that kills other stuff best. Good thing these are a modeling project first.
As I said way back when I started Project Legs11, I was concerned about pacing and burn out. At time of writing I had been working on the Armageddon box for about a month, and had done some of the more interesting Ork stuff, but the impending Ork releases gave me pause. I had time off for TFN, so marines instead. And just the Intercessors so I get a handle on the Crimson Fists colour scheme. I had some problems though with assembly. One leg somehow vanished, another had a breakage, so I opted for a squad of five rather than ten. Lest I loose my temper and undermine any therapeutic value in this. This largely proved to be a good call, at least until I managed to glue one to the table. And then the “big real life issue” hit and my motivation basically evaporated, my progress becoming slow and irregular. So, as a mental health maintenance exercise, this was something of a washout. I'm not a fan of how these went together, and I'm not really looking forward to the Boyz.
Anyway, I eventually got over that. I'd done some research, and Crimson Fists looked to be a fairly no-fuss colour scheme, that might work with my preferred trench brown undercoat. I opted to overbrush Kantor Blue on the model, it's like dry brushing but less selective, before going in to pick out specifics like the undersuit and gun. The backpacks were kept separate until after the overbrush to simplify matters. Once the big colours were done, and some the fiddly bits, a Nuln Oil wash was applied, followed by a light drybrush of Macragge Blue, and basing. This worked well enough, I suppose. As a colour scheme test. In so far as getting a table-ready standard. When marines consist mainly as one block colour, as they do here, the main difficulties become getting that colour right, and the fiddly bits. I’m not totally happy with the blue, but its fine as first attempt. But the fiddly bits were just kind of annoying. That’s why I skipped transfers and squad markings at this stage, as in addition to the transfers being a limited resource, I didn’t want the hassle. My style is, perhaps, a bit sloppy for marines. That said, if I wanted hassle-free models in one block colour, I’d have probably chosen something from the Silver Drybrush Brigade. The point was to mix things up, after all, I can get better. I’ll hopefully come back to these at some point.
I wrapped this in mid-August, shortly after my decision to pause the blog. In between that and publication, the hype cycle for the new Ork Codex finally began, long after that leak. And then much of it leaked before the preorder. By the time this goes up, the codex will have been out for 24 hours, I got mine at closing time last night, and we’ll all have a solid idea of what’s happened, but its clear the Orks have been reworked from top to bottom. As have the marines. The implications of all this will be massive. I'll decline to comment more deeply than that just now, as I'm not able to match the news cycle, and I don't want to just parrot the opinions of other people. And I got sick of rewriting this bit. Commentary will follow once I've actually read it, but I do like what they've done with the Kans...
That said, about the modelling side. The Boyz unit got a lot more complicated, but thanks to that earlier leak I'd got a lot of the necessary gubbins together to update existing units, and expand the newer Armageddon Boyz. There is a grand kitbash tradition to draw on here. Big Shootas are pretty easy to do; if you don't have a whole Ork with one lying around, you just put a barrel extension on a regular Shoota. Rokkits are doable if you have a tube and/or suitable bead for the warhead. Think bazooka or panzer faust. For the Ammo Runts you need a grot and a sack or box of some kind. Burnas are a touch trickier, but if you have a humie flamer, some wire and an oilcan you are probably OK. Or you can just use Burnaboyz now they’ve been sadly removed. I will. What ultimately defied my bitzbox, and possibly everyone, was the Boss Nob. And indeed the dedicated Nob unit. Through a deeply curious oversight and/or suspicious marketing choice, these don't carry sluggas anymore. Only the assorted kombi-weapons and kustom shootas which had been unpopular in 10th ed because they blocked out all of the melee options. In terms of boss nobs, this would be an easy errata, or a modest inconvenience for what I already field. I tend to use boss nobs with two-handed big choppas, and that’s still a legal option. But Nobz Mobz got a complete rewrite, and so a complete rebuild there is obviously needed. I’ll do the boyz first.
Up next: The Dakka Rig, the codex, and probably some boyz.
