In times of war, as in life, surround yourself with people of value, virtue and high morals, because it's always better to lose, perish and vanish in glory than to live in shame.
Lieutenant Commander Guillaume Martin, 1st Company, Red Templars
After two months of painting infantry I felt a change of pace was needed and so decided to tackle my "Leader Month". In hindsight, it was a very wise decision as March has been an insane month at work (often is since it's the end of financial year) and there's no way I could've finished a squad. Heck, I barely finished 4 guys in time!
So I went with a command group instead of going with just one leader, as it seemed appropriate for this army and I really like the specialist troops from Rogue Trader, and wanted to use as many as possible.
First we have Lieutenant Commander Martin, the leader of my company. He bears my last name. Why? Well because just like me he has legs issues! You see, I had a (very successful) knee surgery last Fall (my 4th in the last 5 years, don't ask) and so I promised myself I'd paint a marine with a bionic leg as my leader!
I mounted him on an appropriate elaborately resin base, in case his status wasn't clear! Fun figure to paint, although it's interesting how quickly GW left the Rogue Trader aesthetic. I believe this model was released towards the very end of RT, and it shows. He already has a lot more stuff on him. It does work well for a leader, though.
Then we have Lieutenant Celestin, bearer of the Red Templar's 1st Company Holy Colours. Another later figure, I enjoyed painting him more than I thought. I gave him the usual white pauldron to represent his veteran status. I went with a white striped helmet to differenciate him. He's going to be one of only two marines in my force sporting the Mark VII armour. Obviously the man had first pick of the newest equipment.
The third figure is an old school Rogue Trader style Chaplain. I went with a predominantly classic black colour scheme, with a touch of red and white to tie him with the rest of the force.
And then finally a librarian. Once again I used white (pauldron, helmet) to illustrate status. I may add a transfer on a knee, I was lacking in time. Transfers are fun but they add a good three days to my schedule (one day to apply gloss, another day to apply transfers and let dry solidly, another day to apply microsol and matt varnish) and I mismanaged my time.
With the quality of leaders entry to date these guys won't win it all but the important part is that I'm still standing, 3 months to go with a Wild Card in my pocket!
- Lieutenant Commander Martin (Major Hero) : 94 pts
- Lieutenant (Minor Hero) : 50 pts
- Chaplain (Champion) : 19 pts
- Librarian (Epistolary) : 50 pts
Nicely done sir, all appears to becoming together nicely.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking unit! The banner is great and I love the skull shoulderpads. Never saw them before!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It seemed appropriate
DeleteCool addition. I would have preferred a blue librarian but your take looks pretty nice. The commander is outstanding in that base.
ReplyDeleteI hesitated a lot between this and blue, or half and half. I settled for consistency, but I had doubts to the end ;-)
DeleteExcellent old school action!
ReplyDeleteLovely stuff! That Librarian model has been ingrained on my mind as the only permitted librarian since I saw him in the 1st WD I ever bought - the one with the Blood Angels/Eldar battle report - WD141. One day I'll collect and paint both those armies... Love the self reference with the Commander! I seem to remember he cropped up a lot in whichever year's Golden Demon competition coincided with his release. Was he originally sculpted as a Dark Angels captain or am I just remembering a lot of folk painting him up in those colours? The Chaplain looks suitably metal in your army colours with those boney shoulder pads - cracking command squad!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You may be mixing up this commander with the Dark Angel one from pretty much the same era. Although its quite possible lots of folks were painting him up as a trait...I mean Dark Angel.
DeleteNice! I like him standing out on the steps like that - far more target to shoot at :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of skulls as shoulder pauldrons, although most usually I overwork them. Yours look excellent. How come you've a mix of hexbases and circular?
Thanks! Circular for leaders and personnalities, and hex for standard marines. Well, and Terminators, but that's because I didn'd find hex in their size.
DeleteThe bases are a perfect touch to make them pop nicely! Love the banner and the cleanliness of the paintjob!
ReplyDeleteYour white is well done. I find it very hard to do well and it just pops nicely with these marines.
ReplyDelete