Guarding the Stern

Sternguard! They guard the stern... of the... boat... that is the Imperium! 

These folks will be the heavy weapons department of my first company of Minotaurs. I already have one sternguad squad with lighter weaponry, and will be making a third squad, who will carry two lascannons. 

I managed to improve my photography a bit here, moving the lightbox around the room to get better natural light, and my goodness, it makes a difference!

Something new I tried was using some different skin tones on the bare-headed model and so she has a very pale complexion. I've always thought that I would expect (white) space marines to have quite pale skin, as a result of the physical changes they go through to become space marines, their age, and the fact that they spend a lot of time inside space ships and inside suits of armour. Maybe this marine has removed her helmet to try and get a bit of vitamin D in her system! I do like painting varied skin tones though - it's a bit boring to paint the same thing all the time, especially when their armour is always the same!

I really like this squad. It's got a lot of character, and the green glowing parts look good. I'm pleased with the poses (something I have struggled with), and the sergeant in particular looks dynamic. 

Overall, a pleasing result! The Minotaurs are coming along nicely now. I am working on a vehicle this week, so hopefully I can post that soon.

 

Menacing Black Legion

Adding to my ever-growing Black Legion army is this little squad of Chosen. They are a mixture of models that include conversions from a Blackstone Fortress model, a Dark Vengeance model and some of the new Chaos Space Marine tactical squad. My favourite is the one on the left, with her pale skin and punk haircut. The one that is second from the right has a small head, and I think that gives him a "truescale" look. Or maybe he just looks like a small-headed person... I'll leave that for you to decide! 

I'm working hard on painting at the moment, so hopefully I can keep posting models over the next few weeks. I have a couple of big models in that queue, but I'm very slow with big models, so it'll be a real push to keep the momentum going when I get to those. We'll see.

 

A fistful of fists

Today I have another in my series of "single squad of space marines from a new chapter." So far, I have made squads, usually out of vintage models, from quite a few chapters, and this latest is the Imperial Fists. I already had Captain Lysander, so he really needed a retinue, and that gave me the opportunity to paint more yellow marines. I particularly like the sergeant with his freehand banner. The Imperial Fists icon isn't too difficult to paint, so if you're considering what chapter to paint, that might be a factor for you.

 

Here they are with Lysander. 

I thought this might be a good point to recap some of the squads I have done, so here they are:

 Ultramarines

 

 Black Templars

 

Iron Snakes

Salamanders

I have plenty more space marines, but these are the ones where I just have a single squad and a captain to accompany them.