Creating a Space Marine Chapter - Aurelius Legion Dreadnought Fully Painted

Slight change in the posting schedule, I decided to show the Dreadnought instead as this would then complete the AOBR set i began my journey with.

Here are some more pics for you to enjoy.

I know, the bit of static grass hanging on the back is annoying but I hear it helps with the aiming of enemy troops.

Please let me know what you think with a comment or two.

I think I will show the AOBR Orks  in the next post as I used them to experiment with, little conversions and painting camouflage. Also in line with my army fluff it was natural to use Orks as the enemy they were fighting at Blood River as they came together in the same box. So stay tuned.

Vitor

PS : Next Post - AOBR Orks

Creating a Space Marine Chapter - The End is Near!

The end is near! Just one more twist in the tail left. To all those of you that are following this series I wish to explain the time frame involved in this creation of mine. I began the creation of my chapter with the purchase of the AOBR box set about 3 years ago now. Part One of my series took me about a year to get the Tactical Marine (blue and red scheme) squad fully painted, I was still mostly  into Warhammer Fantasy at that time. The U-turn followed about two months later, so a year and 10 months ago, with the new red and green scheme shown in my previous post.

Back to the story. After staring at my red and green miniature for a week I just couldn't see my chapter coming together. I was at a loss, should I try another scheme or change the background or just plain use a standard marine chapter? At the end of this agonizing week I decided to do two of the three.

First up, I put My 'Order of  Navaar' Chapter on ice. Both the colour scheme and the background, well at least some of the background. I did this because I like what I came up with and perhaps in the future they will take the field ready to purge all the Emperors enemies from the galaxy. For now though they would be placed in deep space hibernation (a storage box).

Secondly I needed a new scheme and a revised background. Since, at that time, I was more into Warhammer Fantasy I thought of how that could maybe help me. I collected an Empire Army and really enjoyed the various colour schemes, heraldry and fluff each province had. I had painted up my Empire Army in the Talabheim red and white scheme (read 10 years ago). Later I was drawn to other Provinces like Nordland with their nautical theme. Another province that caught my eye was the Averland Province with their black and yellow scheme and solar motif.

Of these two Provinces I liked the black and yellow scheme the most and set about creating my Space Marine Chapter using this scheme on the Bolter and Chainsword site.

This is what I came up with.

First scheme.

This scheme has it all, its unique, has one red arm to symbolize the blood spilled, black torso for the new background symbolizing the Chapters mourning the losses of their brothers and now the yellow/gold arm to symbolize the sun rising the next day over a victorious Chapter at the 'Battle of Blood River'.

Finally everything I wanted!

 Second scheme.

Here I was playing around with the various colours and looked at the possibility of a robed Marine. Everybody like robes, right?

 Third scheme.

Again, just playing around with the scheme to see what it would look like without the red.

 

 Ah the sweet taste of success! I lovingly took my test Marine into my hands and began to paint the first version of my scheme onto him. Admiring the brush strokes bringing my Chapter to life...two days later I looked proudly at my first recruit with his defiant gaze and ............to be continued

Please let me know what you think.

Vitor

PS : Next Up - Creating a Space Marine Chapter - Finally!

Order of Navaar

So after coming across a nifty little tool on the Bolter and Chainsword website, which allows you to paint up a space marine in any colour scheme you wish, I came up with the scheme above.

The red shoulder pads and arms were symbolic of the blood spilled during the 'Battle of Blood River' which turned the water red and the blue is symbolic of the clean water after the carnage had been washed away.

Here is a painted example of a AOBR terminator and a tactical marine (photo take with mobile phone camera).

At the time I was painting these the incredible Blood Angels were not released yet so I was looking for something to use as the symbol? I rummaged through my bits box and found some WH Fantasy High Elf shield bits and cut them up to represent the Eagle Wings seen on the terminator shoulder pad.

I really enjoyed painting up the colour scheme and from a black undercoat I used Ultramarine blue as the base coat and a heavy wash of Asurmen Blue followed by some edge highlighting. For the red I used a base coat of scab red then a layer of red gore, a heavy wash of equal parts devland mud and baal red with a final edge highlight of blood red. I was happy with the result but thought about getting a wet look on the red areas as if the blood it represented was still fresh so I applied a wash of red ink.

Hope you like them, any constructive feedback is welcome, enjoy!

Vitor

PS : Next post - Order of Navaar complete Tactical Squad

Creating a Space Marine Chapter - not as easy as it sounds!

So I thought I had difficulty deciding which Space Marine Chapter to use from the Space Marine Codex!!

Making up your own is even harder. Where to start, coming up with a name first or colour scheme, how about fluff or tactics or background????????????? jeez man this is not so easy, especially for someone like myself with such limited knowledge of the 40k Universe.

Anyhow, got to start somewhere so I began scribbling down thoughts and ideas as they came to me.



The first idea I had was to have a 'Death from Above' type army, Raven Guard style. I like the Screaming Eagles (101st Airborne) of WW2, parachuting in over hostile ground, outnumbered and outgunned but getting the job done none the less. Their emblem was also pretty cool, an Eagle (very 40k). Now to come up with a name that would encapsulate all this, how about..........

                            'The Avenging Eagles'
                                            (it sounded pretty good at the time)

Further to the idea was to have the chapter divided into 3 companies instead of the 10 standard ones as per the Codex Astartes. The 3rd Company is made up of the recon element (Scouts) and called the 'Eagles Eyes'. The 2nd Company is made up of the mobility element (All Vehicles)  and called the 'Eagles Wings'. The 1st Company is made up of the assault element (All fighting troops) called the 'Eagles Talons'. How it works is as follows, imagine an eagle soaring high in the sky using its Eyes to locate its prey, once located it swoops down for the kill using its Wings and finally crunch!! it sinks its Talons into the poor helpless target and game over. That is the combat doctrine I wanted my chapter to utilize. (Laugh here..)


Now how did these guys originate? well same as everybody else' s home made chapter I came across out there in the web (lol), they are a successor chapter of one of the existing chapters, in my case the Raven Guard. Talk about originality!

The fluff went like this, Raven Guard engaged in brutal war with????????? taking heavy losses and regrouping (you've heard this all before, I know). An unusually brave company captain/sergeant????? calls for volunteers, a suicide mission, from the remaining depleted forces to re-engage the foe and 'Avenge' their fallen brothers. Needless to say the suicidal mission is successful in taking out the enemies command structure and forcing them to retreat giving the Marines the day. This battle is known as 'The Battle of  Blood River' due to the nearby river turning red from all the carnage. The Emperor notices this hero and favours him with the creation of a new chapter named in honour of his victory. The captain????? and said surviving volunteers claim the planet???????? as their new 'home world', change their armour to commemorate their fallen brothers and so a new chapter begins.....???


This is still a WIP before anybody gets to excited!

Don't know if all this is feasible, I'm sure you guys will tell me if its not, in the 40k universe but that was the fluff I came up with. If you have any great ideas about what to fill in the ???????? with and how to make it conform to the 40k lore then please let me know.  

So where does the Order of Navaar come into it? (if you looked at my last post) keep reading my series to find out.

Vitor


PS : Next post  -  Order of Navaar colour scheme.