From PeterB: An Iron Snakes Space Marine [Istvaan V] (75 points)

Greetings all from Istvaan V. For those of you not familiar with this planet, I believe it was the site of one of the early battles in the betrayal of the Warmaster Horus when he betrayed his father the Emperor and turned to Chaos. If you would like to know more, I believe there are a large number of education volumes available from your local Games Workshop under the umbrella title, The Horus Heresy.

For Christmas Mrs B was kind enough to buy me a paint your own, articulated, Primaris Space Marine, from McFarlane Toys. Obviously this wasn't part of my original plan for the painting challenge, but as she gave me the gift Mrs B did wonder how many points it would be worth, due to the fact it is 180mm tall!

Not being a 40K player anymore (I still do own a company of Space Marines, but they just slumber peacefully in their foam trays in storage) I am however a big fan of one Black Library author, Mr Dan Abnett. For those who don't know his work, most of his GW titles are about a chap called Gaunt (think Sharpe in space) or an Inquisitor called Eisenhorn. He has also written Dr Who, 2000AD and even Mr Men, but I digress. Mr Abnett does have one title about an Ultramarine successor chapter called the Iron Snakes, so it was really the only choice for colour scheme. Therefore being another chapter from the Black Library, I believe that qualifies me for the points for visiting this planet.

Ultramarine shown for scale

He is armed with a Hellblaster gun and is technically known as an "artist proof" so is fully articulated and therefore also comes apart to make painting easier.

The undercoating stage

The only issue I really had painting it, was there isn't really any option for a model grip, you just have to hold it to paint it and then wait for parts to dry!

As it did come apart, the shoulder pads were the one part I painted fully before putting back together, which definitely helped with the detail.

The Hellblaster is technically loose, but as his trigger hand isn't really flexible (he isn't Action Man, or GI Joe to those across the Atlantic!) once he has hold of the gun, unless you want paint to start coming off, it is not going anywhere.

It comes with a stand that plugs into either of the feet, but to be honest, it can stand by itself as well.

Finally here it is with a ruler to show scale.

So to the points. Well, I don't know. I am sure of 20 points for the planet. Then 20 points for the Space Marine? I'll leave it to Millsy to decide.

From Millsy:

Crikey, he's massive! I hope you didn't need a second mortgage for the paint Peter. Seriously though, what an absolutely cracking model and what a wonderful job you've done too. The shoulder pads are just spectacular and the smooth finish on his armour can't have been easy with a metallic on something this size either. Well done mate!

As to points? I can't score by height or weight unfortunately or you'd break the Miles' spreadsheet and we can't have him in tears this early in the Challenge. Let's call him 50 points for scale and another 5 for the shoulder pads. Plus the quarant bonus that's 75 points all up.

Amazing. I'm gobsmacked.

 

From DavidB: Merry (belated) Christmas! (38 Points)

It is a grand thing to be back at the table for this AHPC IX! Don't mind the picture above, I had the Crimson Fists above and more on my desk till very recent. All the finished models are now back in the Sabol case. I had an October order from shapeway for Marine shoulder insignia which rejuvenated my desire to complete the iconic Crimson Fists. I began them in 2009-2010 and came back from Afghanistan with full intention of completing them. Unfortunately, the decals had peeled or fallen off most of the troops. Thanks to shapeway and modern computer science, I was able to fix all the above models and in my excitement, I repainted them in my new style. They were a nightshade blue dry brushed with hawk turquoise, but now they sport a multilayer blue with edge highlights blended with a dark blue wash. I looked for inspiration for another technique, but my google foo only found aqua metallic fists, and pages by our own GregB from the painting challenge and my own!....Greg, we apparently are the only fans of dark blue marines with a heavy scout presence.

The shapeway icons glued easily over the shoulder pads(even ones painted or with remnant decals)

I would include the 11 marines painted since last Friday, but I honestly don't know which assault marines with those striking yellow and black chainswords were the ones that were unpainted till now. The blue formula I use with every P3 blue paint works equally well over white or black undercoats. 

I'll just focus on the Lamenter Marine standing next to the other copy of Veteran exclusive and my used to be favourite all time marine model.

That is a hand painted insignia, and the wrinkled decal of the old favourite Chaplin just wrecks that paint job.

The lamenter was primed black and has a head swap from a deathwatch sprue. I used Iyanden darksun yellow as a base and used P3 cygnar yellow and rucksack tan to lighten it up. a watered down wash of Agrax earthshade shaded the crevices and a final highlight of cygnar yellow mixed with white finished the yellow armor.

lamenters use black and white checker board for heraldry and I included that on a knee pad. the other pad was painted red.

He is a one man army with the bolt gun, bolt pistol and thunder hammer. He will be an ally for an Inquisitor in Inquisi-mundia. I have no plans to paint a yellow army and also 60 odd icons!

The Iron Snakes benefited from shapeway icons also. They are from the basic(BASIC) box of $40 which gave me a small booklet of 8th edition 40k. These fellows are the new true scale marines which seem to be replacing the old Astartes forces. The marines not including Primaris marines seem to be getting weaker in the new rules. Terminators just don't have the same staying power and the rest just struggle.

I was going to paint them as Crimson Fists, but I like my Company of blue bloods filled with scouts. I thought maybe Raven guard or Doom Eagles, but I already have deathwatch for black marines. White scars were an option, but Id rather have an army of bikers for white scars.

Dan Abnett wrote about the Iron snakes and they are a mix of Inuit and Greek for background. Plain unpainted armor except for the white shoulder pads trimmed red with blue used for the chapter insignia and squad designators.

That appealed to me, so all future Primaris marines will be Iron Snakes for me

I used every grey available from the P3 line and used a wash of Nuln oil to tie them together. This was an important step as I used the cold greys to paint the darker shaded areas and used the warm greys to color the places that would be hit by light.

The Reviers are the new assault marines and have skull masks

I used green for the optics and helmet lenses

So here are my first seven models for the challenge. There will be a few more groups like this as I have always liked skirmish games and GW has really nailed it with Kill-team. The Primaris marines are my first official kill team squad. I could always use the 40k models iI have painted already, but what fun is that?! my wife would think I'm absolutely sick if I don't have a wish list for new models as well as piles of plastic and metal lying about.

I have just finished drooling over the AD-Mech forces I just got for Christmas. The codex, the starter box and a box of Sicarian Rust stalkers. They won't feature this year, but I'll have plenty of time to figure out a kill team and colors for another time!

I have to see if this fellow is wanting back inside now. His coat only holds two gallons of December rain, he might be ready to get dried off now! ;)

_________________________

Welcome back to the fold David! It's great to see that your passion for 40K has not diminished a bit since last spring, awesome.

Terrific work here, sir. These guys look as hard as nails and I especially like that Imperial Fist dude with the warhammer. That is an awesome figure and paintjob. I like the Shapeways 3D modificationss you've done as well - they really make the models a bit more bespoke.

We've been enjoying Kill Team with our group as well, with me running a Grey Knight contingent which has miraculously not lost a model in around eight games. We play in 4 player teams which allows me to use other players' forces as ablative armour. ;P (Which of course can only mean that my boyz will be wiped out to a man in the next match.)

I look forward to seeing what else you come up with for this edition of the Challenge, David. 

Finally, I love the last pic of your hound! It could just be me, but I think he looks ready to come in...

38 point for you, sir, with a few extra added for the mods and hand-panted livery. Awesome!

From GregB - Curtgeld - Trooper Cally Samstag, Activated 26, Orestean PDF (60 Points)

Cally Samstag (centre), Golla Uldana (left) and Janny Wirmac (right)

Unlike prior Painting Challenges, this year I wanted to actually be on top of my Curtgeld obligations.  The Curtgeld theme this years is a figure characterized as a "risk-taker, daredevil or gambler." I spent a while trying to come up with something Curt might find interesting, and I settled on these three figures.  They are meant to represent Cally Samstag, member of Activated 26, from the Tertiary Reserve of the Oreastean Planetary Defence Force.  She is joined by two fellow members of Activated 26 - Golla Uldana, and Janny Wirmac. Who are these folks? Why would Curt care?  Here is the background...sorry about all the blather...

If you enjoy 40k, you need to read this book

These are all characters from Dan Abnett's novel "Titanicus".  This is one of my favourite novels, and I think Curt really enjoys it as well. To understand why I thought these characters would be good Curtgeld, I need to share a bit about the novel and its story.

I imagine this figure as Cally Samstag

She is equipped with basic kit, and a MK2 lasrifle.  Use against enemy titans? Zero.

"Titanicus" is set in Games Workshop's 40k universe, and features an "engine war", an invasion of the Forge World of Orestes by the forces of the Archenemy - a traitor Titan Legion. In GW's 40k setting, Forge Worlds are planets given over almost completely to the manufacture of arms and equipment to supply the Imperium's never-ending wars.

The Forge Worlds are run by the Mechanicum, a sort of dark, dystopian sect of machine-worshipping types. Imagine the worst facets of every IT department you have heard of or experienced, combine them with the post-human fantasies of the douchebag entrepreneurs who dominate Silicon Valley, and put them in charge of a whole planet, and you pretty much have the Mechanicum and a Forge World...   

Golla Uldana, a delivery nurse from Orestes, called out to join the fighting as a member of the reserves

Anyway, in "Titanicus", the Forge World of Orestes comes under assault.  Normally, such worlds are well-defended - Forges have their own Titan Legions, and Titans kick ass. Who worries about invasion when a huge force of 100-foot walkers, 200-foot walkers and 300-foot walkers, together with assorted support elements, are handy. But in "Titanicus", most of the Orestean Titan Legion has been sent elsewhere, and the skeleton force left behind is falling rapidly in battle.  The Imperium has messed up, and Orestes is vulnerable. The situation is so desperate the Imperial Governor calls out the tertiary reserves of the Oresetean Planetary Defence Force.

Janny Wirmac, young daughter of a high-born family in Orestes

The Victoria Lamb sculpts are incredible

An "engine war" in 40k is the worst kind of battle - Titans vs. Titans, laying waste to everything in sight.  The scale of destruction is enormous, and victory in this context is pyrrhic at best. In such a war, even elite heavy infantry can do little but pray to survive.  The tertiary reserves, the very last line of defence, have even less of a chance.  Cally Samstag, Golla Uldana and Janny Wirmac are members of that reserve, and they go to battle in "Titanicus"...

For a 40k setting fan like me, this "engine war" as related by Abnett is, of course, the coolest! Big machines! The Mechanicum! The Archenemy! Massive Titans beating each other to bits! Entire hive cities in ruins! Awesome! But what Dan Abnett does so well as an author, in my opinion, is that he calibrates the context properly.  Through the eyes of Cally Samstag, you see the Titan war not as a fan boy of the genre and setting, but as a real "civilian" might.  Not the vista of heroic, genetically modified soldier, or configured mechanicum engine god, but a regular person, who had been living a regular life, called forth to face terrors you mostly read and heard about, but never thought were real.  It is terrifying - and so well done in the hands and mind of a gifted writer like Abnett.

So why is Cally a "risk-taker, a daredevil or gambler"? Cally and her husband Stefan had relocated to Orestes from a different Imperial world in the hopes of a better life.  Stefan is a skilled labourer, in high demand on Orestes, but Cally is a junior clerk.  To get the permission needed for relocation from the Imperium's Maoist-style government, Cally had to agree to serve with the Tertiary Reserve of the Orestean PDF.

"No," he whispered.
"It was always a possiblity."
"I can't believe it."
"It was always a possibility Stef." she repeated

Cally Samstag took a risk of agreeing to join the PDF so she and her husband might have a better life.  When war found them, the gamble catches up with Cally and other members of the reserve...

Three members of "Activated 26"

These figures are 28mm female Arcadian Guard from the excellent Victoria Lamb.  I have to say I was a little disappointed at the amount of flash on the figures - lots and lots of prep needed - but overall, they are just tremendous sculpts, and it is great to see a line of figures which includes female sci-fi troops without having them appear to be complete dork fantasies or BDSM play acting rejects.  The Victoria Lamb sculpts are everything the plastic GW Imperial Guardsmen might have been, and her range of figures affords Imperial Guard fans a whole new outlet to collect for the setting without having to use the roid-addled and overly round plastic Cadians from GW's current line of figures.

I used a colour scheme that would match my other, older, GW Imperial Guard collection.  I don't recall any specifics about colours of the Orestean PDF in the "Titanicus" book, so I thought the colours would work OK...hope you like them dude! 

Ahh, Greg, this is just brilliant! As you know I'm a huge fan of Abnett and loved 'Titanicus'. He has that wonderful talent to be able to communicate the 40K universe beyond the 'pew, pew' dorkfest to a manner that adults may actually appreciate. The Cally storyline was one of my favourites from the book as it brought the 'mega-ness' of the situation down to a human level.  Anyway, these are brilliant and I'm very keen to see examples of Victoria Lamb sculpts as I hear that they are magnificent.

Thanks so much Greg!!