A New Chapter: RT Space Marines +++Reinforcements!+++

[Redarom]

As somebody with a massive soft spot for the old metal RT marines, this army is very inspiring! So many brilliant models painted excellently, I especially love your land raiders. Truly awesome work! 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks very much!

 

Here are some slightly better Stormraven pictures, now with ruined industrial style base...

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/DSC00253_zpsybrq4q7g.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/DSC00255_zpstatcwrth.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/DSC00257_zpsnf1bsgdg.jpg

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work.

[Shadespyre]

Thanks! I'm pleased with how it came out in the end.

 

Coming next - pictures of EVERYTHING - I hope...

[Shadespyre]

Here we go then: Squad by Squad!

 

First Company First Squad - Terminators

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00284_zpsf3afg2mb.jpg

 

First Company Second Squad - Sternguard

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00268_zpsnhx6c71n.jpg

 

First Company Fifth Squad - Vanguard

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00270_zpslpw0h6lq.jpg

 

First Company Seventh Squad - Terminators

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00286_zpsml9gqa0w.jpg

[Shadespyre]

And there's more:

 

Fifth Company Command

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00299_zpshdl5x1qm.jpg

 

Fifth Company Second Squad - Tactical

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00289_zpss7k2nmde.jpg

 

Fifth Company Third Squad - Tactical

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00292_zpsaqmcmyys.jpg

 

Fifth Company Fourth Squad - Tactical

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00290_zps66fqgimu.jpg

[Shadespyre]

Patience, Brothers! More of the 5th Company...

 

Fifth Company Fifth Squad - Tactical (aka 55ers)

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00295_zps6a5q3qq3.jpg

 

Fifth Company Seventh Squad - Assault

 

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00281_zpshkyrtkd2.jpg

 

Fifth Company Eighth Squad - Assault

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00276_zpsj4ou65hf.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00278_zpsvaiig4dg.jpg

[Shadespyre]

And still they come...

 

Fifth Company Ninth Squad - Devestator

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00296_zpsfdx2w6e9.jpg

 

Fifth Company Reserves (spare special weapons models)

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00298_zps3ud2dw5m.jpg

 

Scouts attached to Fifth Company, with Drop Pod

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00275_zpsqevhfehj.jpg

 

Fifth Company Dreadnoughts

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00283_zpsp1qfmu9f.jpg

[Shadespyre]

Still more... 

 

Fifth Company Heavy Support

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00313_zpsjpocm44e.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00311_zpssnjdquu5.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00310_zpsm3u35nym.jpg

 

Seventh Company Landspeeders

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00302_zpssqtse4zh.jpg

[Shadespyre]

Officers and Specialists...

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00308_zpslblel6yo.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00305_zpsx5ts5k5g.jpg

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00304_zpssqvelszu.jpg

 

And finally for now:

 

 

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/Shadespyre/WARHAMMER/Space%20Marines/Army%20Photos/DSC00306_zpsxl2bvidi.jpg

[Kriegsmacht]

I might be in the minority but I wish I had gotten into 40K back when these minis were out. They're just so cool would have been fun to paint and play them.

[Calyptra]

I might be in the minority but I wish I had gotten into 40K back when these minis were out. They're just so cool would have been fun to paint and play them.

They're still fun to paint and play with!

 

There's usually a lot of the old Rogue Trader stuff available on Ebay, often for prices lower than their modern day counterparts, so you haven't missed your chance.

[Brother Lunkhead]

I might be in the minority but I wish I had gotten into 40K back when these minis were out. They're just so cool would have been fun to paint and play them.

 

You are not alone brother... the retro look is very cool. Brother Calyptra is right... Ebay has some great RT stuff and the prices are generally good. Shadespyre, your work is inspiring

[Achinadav]

Lovely work, looks so great all painted up. I got into 40k at 2nd edition and my first army had a few of these old school marines in it. At the time I didn't appreciate how good an entire force of them would look. The unified paint scheme really binds them together, whilst the individual variety gives personality. 

[Calyptra]

I got excited about people getting excited about Rogue Trader models and forgot to comment on Shadespyre's gorgeous army?

 

Somehow I missed that this army had grown overwhelmingly huge. It's huge!

 

I was silently judging you when you decided doing company and squad markings on each model was too much work. Now that I see how big the army is I take back some of the things I said with my inside voice.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work.

[Shadespyre]

Thanks all for your comments and support, both now and all along the way.

 

This has mostly been a nostalgia project for me, though it ended up including models I never owned and units which didn't exist back in the days of my first army. As much as I love the original releases, I also enjoyed using a combination of slightly newer metal models and the wide variety of plastic bits from 30 years of Space Marines to make whole new-old models. Some of the Veterans and bikers I made this way are among my favourite models in the army. My favourites must be the 55ers, a tactical squad I assembled from the stranger odds and sods of the range, which gave more of a "US Marines in 'Nam" feel than the rather more faceless, identikit image of Space Marines we have today. 

 

Would I recommend a Rogue Trader army to anyone else? Well, the models are out there and not *that* expensive. I'm not sure how they compare sizewise with the newest Space Marines - I think the Primaris are probably bigger than my Terminators, so that might be an issue if your force is full of the newest GW offers. Perhaps a unit as a separate project, or maybe a few old minis scattered amongst your ranks? Either way, I hope some of you might have your love for RT minis rekindled, or perhaps initiated for younger readers, by this project. 

[Calyptra]

The old models are definitely smaller. Personally, I only really care if my army is to scale with itself. The size of my opponent's models, which may or may not be painted, or may be extensively converted in some weird way, are outside my control and not worth worrying about.

 

I often find that Rogue Trader armies (or even just very old models that have since been redesigned) get a lot of reactions when I play them. It makes some people really happy to see them, or really curious because it's a whole army of models that are completely new to them. Obviously not everybody cares and my experience is pretty limited, but I generally find that my older models lead to more positive interactions at the game store.

 

I think if you show up somewhere with a well-painted army of Rogue Trader models, you have a good chance of making somebody's day. (It would certainly make mine.)

[Shadespyre]

Greetings to you, Brothers!

 

It has been a long time since The Unicorns* received reinforcements. After a long stuggle with some unusual brown-skinned Orks** the Emperor in his wisdom has provided us with some new comrades in arms - combat doctrine experts from the Mentor Legion***

 

 

* I still don't have a better name than this

** I've been painting a fantasy army for the last 9 months

*** The Mentor Legion, like they should be called, not just The Mentors. Note the proper owl's head icon (crudely daubed by my own fair hand) and not the more modern red hawk head. 

 

Something else that I never did back in the day, these are meant to represent a Mentor Legion Targeting-Web section. They are all plastic models, using Devastator heads to represent the advanced targeting gear.

 

It's an interesting coincidence that the original artwork for this Chapter included orange eye-lenses, just like I chose for The Unicorn marines, which I hope pulls them into the project a bit more.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Great job on the Mentors, Shadespyre!

[Shadespyre]

Thanks! I could be tempted to paint some more in future, though hand-painting the chapter insignia was a challenge. It was nice to be working on power armour again, though

[Shadespyre]

Once more I have returned! I have recovered the remains of yet another Rhino while clearing out our garage during lockdown, and I will attempt to turn the damaged parts into something new. Possibly some sort of transport for my Mentor Legion squad?

 

 

 

[Shadespyre]

I obviously made quite a mess of this model taking it apart to paint strip it. After throwing all the bits in hot soapy water and giving them a good scrub to remove remaining paint and Dettol residue, I glued them back together as best as i could.

 

 

Quite a mess still. The lesson I leaned from my Legion of the Damned Rhino project was that it's very hard to get those surfaces back to being flat and smooth, so this time I'm going to re-skin the whole thing in plasticard - thick where it's to replace damaged structure, thin where it's purely cosmetic. it ended up looking more like this.

 

 

A bit of gap filling and tidying still needed, but the basic shape of the Rhino is restored. Obviously a lot of components are needed on top of all that white plasticard, time to dig through the bits box. I've got the modern top-plate off a Predator, I think, so let's make a Razorback. There's also two old plastic Predator turrets, so I used one of those to make a custom turret. Where are these las-cannons from, I have no idea?

 

 

Threw on a few other bits and bobs, about ready for further assembly

 

[OakRiver]

Nice to see this blog resurrected again. For the lascannons, I believe those came from a Space Crusade expansion pack

 

[Shadespyre]

Aha! Thanks for that, I don't remember them at all.

 

Hopefully this project will never quite end, but I collect and model in so many different genres it might be a while between updates. I recently added the Gaslands game to my list, so I've been ruining a lot of diecast cars recently instead of proper miniatures!

 

 

Assembled Rhino - I made the doors by gluing plasticard to a metal washer and then filing it into shape - a good way to make round things! The front brushcutter is off an old Landraider, I think.

 

And with some other spare parts from my collection - getting a bit sparse after all these Rhino rebuilds. This is the nearly-finished Mentor Legion Razorback. I'll have to work out the colour scheme next...