“A Sergeant Is An Astartes Non-commissioned Officer…”

“…Who commands a squad composed of ten Space Marines.”

These 6mm scale plastic models of five space marines used to be produced by “Games Workshop” as part of their now long out of production (OOP) “Epic” range, and were discovered whilst I was clearing out my original box of “Space Marines” from 1991. In addition, I’ve added a few pre-primed ‘beaky’ marine sculpts which I believe I was lucky enough to receive second-hand many moons ago.

As all of the miniatures were already pigmented in some shape or form, courtesy of my figures from “Space Marines” having suffered an attempt at the Ultramarines’ colour scheme back in my youth, I figured I would struggle to re-paint the soft(ish) sculpts in any other Chapter than the Black Templars. So resultantly, they were all undercoated (once again) with a couple of coats of some watered-down “Citadel” Abaddon Black.

"For Russ and the Allfather!"

Once dry, all the space marines’ shoulder-pads were treated to a double-coat of “Vallejo” White and Pale Grey, whilst their bolters were given a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil. I then settled upon picking out the stand’s sergeant by applying a little “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna and “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade to his hair, “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone and “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade to his face, and (more) “Vallejo” White and Pale Grey to his Powerfist. I even managed to spot the hardened veteran’s tiny cybernetic eye with some “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

Alongside this base, I have also completed ten Assault Adeptus Astartes from the Space Wolves Chapter. These close combat specialists were undercoated in two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, shaded with “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey. I was momentarily tempted to paint the space marines’ shoulder-pads yellow, but in the end simply settled upon using a little “Vallejo” Gunmetal” and “Citadel” Nuln Oil on their chainswords and bolt pistols.

"Wargames Foundry" WIPs - Ro-Jaws has been primed, shaded and dry-brushed

Setting aside my latest contributions to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC), I have been working on some long-neglected models by “Wargames Foundry” as part of Dave Stone’s Paint What You’ve Got Challenge. I thought I’d base this small(ish) project upon a handful of characters found within the pages of the British comic book “2000 A.D.”, so one of the figures is that of the automaton, Ro-Jaws.

I actually first encountered this “municipal sewage robot” whilst reading Ro-Busters in “Starlord”, but these days will forever associate him as part of Nemesis the Warlock’s line-up of A.B.C. Warriors. Sculpted by Tim Prow, I’m using the model as a test piece to see how well Emerald Alchemy by “Scalecolor” works as a metallic paint…