Starting A RT Marine Chapter / Time to Stop Hoarding

Some would say 'I've hoarded enough, when are you going to do something with all your old figures?'. The pressure has ratcheted up now that my 7 yo lad has started collecting and painting his own space marine army...

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This is the first time that I have ever had this many of them out at one go, and has allowed me to size up the problem / sort them out a bit. To my eyes it's a pretty well balanced force. I'm now resolved to get a sizeable chunk of it painted to a battle ready standard... then who knows what - maybe I can take them to a battle!

There are about a dozen or so original figures purchased by me in the 80s. Then College/ Uni took away the 90s. Hoarding truly began in the in the mid 2000s; starting out as buying a few of the things I liked but couldn't afford when I was younger, it steadily grew... About 10 years ago I started painting a few bits on a green/ black colour sheme, but then buying a house/ getting married... Whilst the majority has been stored in boxes since, I've occasionally added the odd piece here or there.

I'm currently practicing my painting and working up a colour scheme on a few 2nd Edition plastic marines, but have become rather attached to the camo look for the vehicles, so will keep that for the future.

Mostly RT era, I have acquired a few bits from the 90's in job-lots and small collections. I can't help but like some of the newer models. My two main criteria is 'do I like the figure?', followed by 'does it have knee pads?'. RT marines, with a very few exceptions, had no knee pads. Some of the newer figures I plan on converting into personality figures.

The more modern chaps who have got knee pads (not pictured - there wasn't room) will probably end up in a separate company of the chapter/ or absorbed into the kid's collections.


So here are a few pictures

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Terminators, Librarians and a few heros/ leaders/ candidates for conversion.

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Medics

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Tech marines and a modern rhino (I had to! cos I liked the dozer blade but it dwarfed the old rhino!). There is some kind of plastic model in there too that's gonna get hacked up into something...

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Chaplains

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Tactical Squads

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Devastator Squads

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Assault marines

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Land Raiders, Rhinos and Dreadnoughts

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Robots

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Bikes

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Jet Bikes/ Land Speeders/ Anti-Grav stuff

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Rhino projects / Support

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Scouts

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Old Marines

My thoughts are to chunk it into four companies, with a HQ entourage, each with variations on whatever colour scheme I settle on.

Two companies will have fairly straightforward Orders of Battle: tactical squads, terminators, devastator squads, assault squads, scouts, with a land raider, a rhino or two, dreadnoughts, and a few bikes.

The third company will be 'strike/ recon' specialists with an ORBAT comprising: jetbikes, land speeders, Grantula (tarantula on a anti/grav platform), Land Graider (anti-grav land-raider-esque thingumy) and other anti grav stuff that I have visions of kit-bashing.

The fourth company will be tech marines providing, Razorbacks, Rhinos, whirlwind, robots, etc.


I am under no illusions this will keep me going for years (three young kids, yadda yadda ya), but having recently joined this Oldhammer Community, and seeing other peoples work and ideas, I feel and hope that my interest will be sustained.
 

ardyer

Member
I am impressed.. My and a bit jealous!

And camo Marines are incredibly Oldhammer so go for it!
 
Oh :shock: your gunna be there a loooooong time :lol:

But it'll be grand when their done. Looking forward to seeing the camo scheme on the marines.
 
OK so here is work in progress update on my first attempt at a camo scheme on a marine (please don't set your hopes too high just yet).

I had been trying to get a (non camo) Red/ Amber colour scheme to work on some 2nd Edition Marines, but a combined lack of vision, experience and technique left me feeling underwhelmed - so into a tub of Dettol they have gone. I like the contrast of the colours but couldn't make it look right.


Then, whilst I had intended to retain the camo scheme on the vehicles, the comments nudged me into thinking about a camo scheme for the marines themselves. So I've had a go!

Whilst I've not tried too hard yet building up the colour depth, first impressions are pleasing enough.

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I didn't fancy too-fiddly a scheme as I've quite a few chaps to get painted, so the blotches are pretty big in contrast to the size of the figure, but I think it looks OK. I think, though, that I will try to make them slightly smaller on the next couple I paint, to see which works better. It is Chestnut Ink Wash over Halfords Grey Primer with Dark Angel Green and Zandri Dust, then I gave it another Chestnut wash and reapplied the Green and Beige. I'll next try some bleached bone and a lighter green to add a little highlight.

Its made me think that there is a balance to be found between being 'too camo' to the extent that it obscures some of the shape of the model vs making the colours 'pop out' too much.

Anyhow, I'm going to play around with the scheme a little bit more on a few more figures to see how cohesive the scheme looks when looking at a group.

Thoughts, observations, comments - all gratefully received.
 
i like the camo, looks great.

must have taken ages? i've never had the patience to even try.

with the skin, i'm guessing you've given a coat of flesh wash over elf flesh or something like that. give the skin a drybrush of the original tone, and it'll take away the kind of odd yellow-green tint that flesh wash has.
 
Having recently ruptured my Achilles Tendon, and facing two months in a plaster cast and being signed off... I've some time on my hands!

The garage being a tip means that few models are readily accessible, so I've started with what was closest to hand: Mk14 Bullock Jetbikes. I've also rediscovered a workaround to the inaccessibility of the garage - the postman delivers direct from ebay, just don't tell the wife...

My unwritten fluff for my jetbike mob are that they are a swing-role 'you name it / they'll do it' kinda unit. That'll be my excuse/ rationale for equipping them with a bit of everything. I've plans for a company captain, tech marine, maybe a medic (if I can find him, if I can't he'll ride a regular bike along with my chaplains). There will be a mix of close combat, ranged combat, and a couple of special/ heavy weapons if I can make them look right.

These are the first five:

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I reckon the RT bolters look pretty neat with the addition of a targetting scope (ebay bag of modern bits). Likewise I like the modern grenades and other bits and bobs so have bought a few more to adorn some of the other chps. Using the small backpacks makes the join between body and legs more visible, so a few accessories mask the join and look the part. I do have some RTB-01 accessories in the garage... just can't get to them...

I feel that my painting has progressed quite well in the last few weeks, certainly my confidence has.

Make no mistake, I'd rather not have the injury, but doing an hour or two modelling/painting a day is a most welcome pastime.
 

AndrewMay

Member
They look great. I've only got one jetbike for now, trying to resist temptation now with seeing these!

the postman delivers direct from ebay, just don't tell the wife...

I don't know what you mean. :lol:
 
Thank you for the comments.

Here are the next batch of jet-bikers that I've cobbled together with bits from the (now accessible) bits box.

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I've experimented with additional levels of highlights, but (and it's probably my technique/ experience limiting me) when I start adding more highlights they start looking 'too pristine'. So for the time being I'm happy with the more gludgy look, which for units is looking quite cohesive. I may make a more determined effort with personality figures down the track.
 
Taking a break from Camo, I've 30 marines in various stages for tactical, devastator and assault squads, I needed something a bit quicker to work on.

So looking at the easily accessible models, I came upon a dreadnought.

I fancied a plain colour scheme, something that wouldn't look incongruous alongside the camo scheme, and which maybe can become an alternate colour scheme for my chapter. Though I enjoy painting the camo, it is very time consuming, so having an alternate will both provide a bit of variation, help progress, and help/force me to try out highlighting techniques. I'd always like the simple look of old Dark Angels (in black), but fancied working in a very dark green.

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A simple basecoat, wash and a few drybrushing layers, I was pleasantly pleased with the result.

Right back to the camo...
 
Managed to tidy up my first couple of squads of camo marines. I'm satisfied that the colour scheme works well enough at a squad level. Now need to decide what to do with the bases. I'll probably go with some scatter browns and tufts of grass with brown edges but that can wait until I'm more mobile and off crutches / able to clean up a mess before the missus notices...

Devastator
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Tactical
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The plastic marines in these two squads are salvage-jobs from ebay job-lots that'd been painted several times. They cleaned up well enough, but I chose not to repose any of them. I've quite a few more like these which I'm quite happy to use to pad-out my squads; I'm going for a ratio of about 50:50 plastic to metal figure per squad. This will be somewhat higher in the assault squads as I've a good supply of metal marines for the two squads I currently plan to have.

I've also got a few unassembled plastic marines that I'll hack about for future squads.
 
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