Doormat to Good Enough in Less Than a Day

On a whim, I recently purchased a Rogue Trader inspired Techmarine fan sculpt from ye_alchemist on ebay, sculpted by James Sheriff. The model is 32mm and is somewhere in between more recent firstborn and primaris marines in size, whilst retaining 80's design cues.

A size comparison of Astartes

Many more motivated and productive hobbyists tally what they've completed against what they've bought, so with that in mind I decided to complete the model in under a day. This plan was almost scuppered by the fact that the model doesn't come with a backpack and the modern ones I have in abundance don't fit due to the increased size of the 'jet' vents meshing with the pauldrons. 

On the excellent Rogue Heresy blog (which inspired me to buy it and furthermore has a much nicer paint job), they appear to have used a metal RT era backpack, which is a tad prohibitive for me. Luckily, I had some Spellcrow Space Knights backpacks to hand, which fit nicely.

It's a nice sculpt all in all; I particularly like his dinky hammer which is no doubt used in all manner of percussive rituals. The only details that are a little off are the lack of detail on his boots and the design of the bolt pistol, both no doubt due to 'certain' reasons. It acted as a useful model to try out a scheme for a specialist; the bare metal legs and torso of a standard marine replaced with that callings sacred colour, in this case martian red for a techmarine.

 As the title implies, I painted him to a 'good enough' standard; one of the things I like about space marines is that they can look good with even a simple paint job. Eventually I will add more details, such as finishing the dial on his watch and adding markings. On the battlefield, I may field him as a Rapier Carrier crew, if I can acquire one cheaply that is.

He was such fun to work on that he's inspired me to carry on work with the rest of my marines and I shall hopefully have a whopping 20 more done by months end. 🤞

Skitarii Advent

 At long last I have completed a squad of dubious legality for my Forgeworld Velchans Prime. They've been sitting around at a nigh finished state for months and I've finally completed them, barring unit markings/transfers and highlighting.

Skitarii Rangers

For the scheme I was inspired somewhat by the German M1910 uniform as depicted in Youjo Senki. It doesn't quite translate onto skitarii uniforms but I hope to replicate the dark green with red trim elsewhere across the force. I'm using Lupercal Green as I had a pot to spare, which is a happy coincidence 😏.

I say the squad is of dubious legality as the weapon loadout is no longer doable in 9th edition as well as the fact that there are a few third party heads in there. They're cultist gas mask heads from Anvil Industry. In the lore, or at least my interpretation of it, skitarii are furnished with a hodge-podge of whatever bionics and equipment the techpriests have to hand. I therefore wanted to try and add a bit of variety and alas, these heads were the only ones that I could find that looked similar. Not sure I entirely like them with hindsight but they add interest nonetheless. 

On a side tangent, my plans for the skitarii vanguard were even more grandiose; different heads, bodies and legs entirely! I'm not really a fan of the two squads from one kit design ethos GW have developed, especially when it came to my latent idea of what skitarii should look like. Ultimately, I couldn't find anything to my liking and it was yet another form of procrastination so I eventually settled for the bog standard look, which I do like in fairness. In an ideal world, I'd 3D sculpt compatible parts to give variety but that's a bit of a pipe dream.

Back on topic, this is my first time using Valhallan Blizzard and I must say I'm quite impressed. It's consistency somewhat reminds me of marshmallow Fluff spread and it can be applied quite realistically. I also used some old school flock rather than faff around with tufts and such. Hopefully it will go some way towards tying my army together visually with those of my Imperial allies.

With regards to the photo, I've seen something similar where people use book spreads as backdrops, in this case the creepy inside cover of a 9th edition codex. I have skimped out by using painting newspaper though rather than a faux ground surface. The photo is unfocussed and requires a bit more jiggery-pokery.