Soric's Workbench - More on the Workbench

[Soric]

Hello there fellow Fraters,

 

 I tried this once before and it ended miserably, so I'm back again to give it another go. I've got a couple of projects that I'm currently working on and would like to share my progress. I've started working on a Novamarine army and I've painted up a test mini for the scheme that I'm hoping to carry through for the rest. I was mainly inspired by Apologist's awesome Novas and have chosen to paint them gray and blue as opposed to bone (I tried the bone scheme and didn't really like it much).

 

 

 

 

 At the time of starting this force, GW had just released the 32mm bases for space marines, but thankfully I had taken a leaf from JackDaw's Fall of Serpah blog and had started mounting my astartes on lipped bases to set them apart humans characters who I'll be mounting on the 28mm bases. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[GrandMagnus]

Really cool marine, nice freehand chapter symbol.

[augustmanifesto]

sick diddley neighboreen-o. Novamarines rule. Do more! 

[That Guy Matt]

There's something very cool about a chapter with a bright vibrant colour scheme being painted dirty and battered. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[Noctus Cornix]

That is a real beauty, he is.

[Dosjetka]

Looking good! :tu:

[sockwithaticket]

This certainly has my attention. Very well executed Novamarine you've got there.

[Soric]

 Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm trying to update this as often as I can with new stuff. That said I've been working on my Novamarines again recently and have a full tactical squad assembled (just need to paint them), however I don't have a picture of the full sqaud yet. I do have a picture of the demi-squad version.

 Apart from the Novamarines I have also been working on some Death Watch Marines, which were the main feature of my previous attempt at doing a blog on here. They were initially made for a planned Death Watch RPG campaign with a few friends but it never happened. However I did have fun making them and the Techmarine amongst them was the main inspiration for me to start painting a Novamarines force.

[ckpmax1108]

Awesome Novamarine Soric, too bad that your first Plog didn't go so well. I'll give you my support to push forward, lets help each other out brother!

[Soric]

 Much appreciated ckpmax1108. I'm trying to get into a rhythm of updating my own blog alongside this one. My hobby time has been a bit hectic as of late but that's to be expected with Christmas just around the corner.

 

 I have not been idle though and much like alot of people I have been bitten by the Heresy bug.

 

A while ago I had the idea of making a space marine model to represent myself on the battlefields of the 41st millenium (which would be rare considering how little I actually play 40K), also as I nice small project for myself to enjoy.

 

Needless to say I already had a bunch of spare FW parts that I could use for it. Having also been an Imperial Fist fan for a long time, the choice in Legion/Chapter was already made.

My recent obsession with magnets got the better of me and I decided that I wanted to have a mini with a modular head.

However what I didn't at the time but have slowly come to understand about myself when it comes to this crazy hobby, that as soon as I get halfway through a project it evolves into another one. Rather than settle on making one Heresy-era model, I decided to make more Heresy era minis, each one representing the other Legions (already have the bits for my Ultramarine and am spying for Word Bearer ones).

So currently as it stands I have one completed member and another 5 members awaiting various bits and licks of paint. The current roster as it stands:
-1) Imperial Fist
-2) Dark Angel
-3) Space Wolf (or Vlka Fenryka for those Heresy aficionados)
-4) Iron Warrior
-5) Alpha Legion
-6) World Eater

No doubt this project will branch into some other project but as I write this, I have to admit that I'm enjoying the thought that is going into each one as I attempt to bring the character of each legion through these single minis (more so than my Novamarines).

[Soric]

 Hope everyone had a good Non Imperial Truth Day and an awesome new year. Thanks for the comments guys it really helps encourage me to keep going with this madness.

 Speaking of madness I have some pics showing some progress. I'm still hard at work on these Heresy marines and felt they needed something to bring them together. I came across these squad movement trays from Angry Mojo games and felt that these would help bring them together. Unfortunately the ones I ordered don't sit flush with the lipped bases from my marines so there is a noticeable gap, but I'm willing to look past that. At the moment I've only just stuck them together but the plan is to flock them and try and make them more scenic to match the marines bases (so more rubble, barbed wire and sandbags ahoy). I might pickup a few more of these for my Novas and Deathwatch at a later date.

Here's my completed VII legionary mini with his IV and VI Legion counterparts.

Above is the I and XX Legion minis, these guys are both close to finish. All that needs to be done is a blast of dull coat. Unlike the other minis the Alpha doesn't have an alternate head. I reasoned, that out of all of them he'd be the only one not to remove his helmet, making him difficult to predict. I based the scheme for this guy on this artwork by Aerion the Faithful as I liked his idea of making the members of the XX legion identical to one another.

If I didn't have so much else to do I'd totally do a force of minis using the exact same armour parts as each other to get this idea across.

Due to the less than sunny weather of fair blighty I haven't had much opportunity to go out and dull coat these guys, but I hope to get them all finished and then blast them all at the same time.

 

As I said before your critiques are more than welcome guys and thank you for the support.

 

@GrandMagnus - Thanks mate, I plan to improve on the freehand a bit more for these Novas.

 

@augustmanifesto - I plan to make more of these guys. Got a tactical squad worth and a Landspeeder sitting there waiting for me to finish them after I finish my Heresy and Deathwatch marines first.

 

@Asamodai - Thanks brother, really liked your Raven Guard and Deathwatch marines, you still going at them?

 

@Noctus Cornix - I'm honoured to have your apporval.

 

@Dosjetka - Hope my Novas can look good enough to march alongside your Genesis marines some day.

 

@sockwithaticket - Thanks mate. Your marine thread is awesome.

 

@ckpmax1108 - Will be glad to have your support, hope I can do the same.

 

[ElectricPaladin]

Novamarines are pretty cool. I've kind of wanted to do them ever since I read that one where they co-starred with the Blood Drinkers.

[Soric]

@ElectricPaladin - I know which book you're talking about, I haven't gotten round to reading it as I've heard mixed reviews on it. One of them saying that the Novas sounded exactly like the Ultramarines with no personality of their own, but the Blood Drinkers sound like an interesting BA successor chapter. Will see about reading it when I go full steam with the Novas later on.

 

 As if I didn't have enough stuff to do (with Death Watch, Novamarines and Heresy Era marines to name but a few) I decided to jump in on the Imperial Fist Challange and attempt to build a Death Watch member hailing from the Imperial Fists. I reckoned that I needed more Founding chapters amongst my Death Watch as I have an uneven mix of successors with little First Founders. I've taken this on as a personal challenge to myself as I wanted to see if I can build and paint a mini in less than a week (the deadline being this Sunday :O).

[hushrong]

Your marines look awesome! That Imperial Fist looks great and I love the modular head. I also look forward to seeing that Iron Warrior completed.

[Soric]

Ask and you shall receive Hushrong

Needless to say, I failed the Imperial Fists challenge, but I did manage to finish the rest of my Horus Heresy side project along with the display base.

As you'll no doubt notice there is two spaces that are not occupied, for these I have allocated them to legionnairies from the XIII and XVII (Ultramarines and Word Bearers respectively). I already have ideas on how I'm going to make these guys and I have some of the parts, I just need the last pieces. Anyway enough words, onto the pictures.

[hushrong]

Awesome new additions! I am definitely digging the Iron Warrior and that World Eater.

[Disruptor_fe404]

Whoa! Tell me about the Iron Warrior's helmet, please!

[Leviathus]

Lovely work Soric! Love the Iron Warrior with his shovel! He gonna dig out some Imperial Fists :D

[Soric]

Sorry for the lack of updates, been a bit topsy turvy here with both the reorganization of my hobby space and the acquisition of some new employment. I haven't been idle on the hobby front though and have some stuff to share.

While the Heresy bug has taken a big bite on me and refuses to leg go, I have managed to make some progress on my Death Watch minis. I've even managed to get a few of them to a state of completion, I just need to take decent pictures of them.

Here are my Blackshield Tactical and Ultramarine Apothecary DeathWatch members. Both of them have some magnetization in some form, mainly so I can swap out different weapons for each of them.

On the in progress front I have more Deathwatch that I'm working towards completion as well as some more Heresy related stuff (more on that when I have some progress to show).

However it's not all Astartes here, I recently took a scrummage through my bitz boxes and found a horde of metal Imperial Guard (I refuse to call them Astra Militarum ) models lying around in an unpainted and recently skinned state, so I decided to build and undercoat them.

The pile includes:

-2x Valhallans

-1x Commissar

-1x Cadian Lt (Old School)

-2x At ease Cadian Troopers

-1x Cadian Medic

-1x Injured Cadian (for the Medic or Commissar)

-2x Tank Crew

-1x Sniper

-8x Ksarkin Stormtroopers

-1x Techpriest

@Husrong - thanks for the support brother, out of the two of them the Iron Warrior is my favourite, looking over the World Eater I think I could have painted him a bit better. I may go back to him at a later date and tidying him up a bit more.

@Disruptor_fe404 - The helmet is from the Forgeworld upgrade set, I was inspired by Apologist's take on the Iron Warriors and knew I had to implement elements into my model. I had to do a couple of passes to get the helmet to a stage I was happy with.

@Leviathus - Thank you for the kind words Levi. I wanted to implement an entrenchment tool somewhere on the model and I figured he might as well be using it for that very purpose

[Soric]

 Well while I've been busy with real life and all that jazz, that doesn't mean I've been idle on the hobby front. On the Deathwatch side of things I've been able to scratch alot of things off my to-do list including a few more Kill Team members as well as a Watch Commander model.

As with all of my previous Deatwatch models, the Ultramarine and Marauder have been magnetized, allowing me to switch their loadouts.

 In addition to finishing some new members, I also managed to go back and work on some of my older models as well. I had some issues with the Dark Angel Librarian and decided that his sword arm needed to be reposed to a more relaxed angle.

 With my Watch Commander model I wanted to do something different, rather then have him be a founding chapter member I thought it would be interesting to make him a Successor chapter member, but one with a more interesting colour scheme. To that end I chose a chapter whose lineage I was not completely sure of (although they're probably Ultramarine sucessors now), I chose the Howling Griffons.

I also chose them because I wanted to take a crack at freehanding their Chapter logo, the infamous Griffon. I think it worked out really well and I'm pleased with the overall result.

With these members done my Deathwatch are starting to turn into a more sizeable force, and with the recent release of Deathwatch Overkill, the rules to use those models as a unit in 40k and rumours of a potential Codex in the future, I might be able to use them on the table top at some point and not just as display pieces.

[Reyner]

Awesome stuff here Soric, love me some Deathwatch. 

[Commissar Molotov]

I hadn't seen this thread, but you have some fantastic figures that really showcase the diversity of the Space Marines. I look forward to seeing more!

[Soric]

@Reyner - Thanks mate, I'm glad you like them.

 

@Commissar Molotov - Thank you, I aim to please. Watch this space as there will be more to see soon.

 

I've been working away at my desk on other projects lately but I have managed to finish some things that I can show here.

 At the time of building my Heresy themed Space Marines, I was struck with the idea that if I ever found someone who was willing to play Black Crusade, then I would probably make an Iron Warrior character for it. As such when I was magnetizing this guy and the others, I added an extra magnet in his arm socket so if the hypothetical scenario were to occur and he was to receive any gifts from the Dark Gods then I could switch out his arm to represent it. I'm not really good at blending but I feel that this came out pretty well.

 I've also been working on building a force for 30K based on Aeonid Thiel's Red Marked from the recent Black Library Audio dramas. I've set up a new thread for this endeavor in the Age of Darkness subforum.

 Just to show it's not all Space Marines all the time from me, I present to you my recently finished Valhallan Sgt and Flamer trooper. I've had these guys lying around for a while and wanted to get them finished so I could throw them in with the rest of their squadmates.

 

[Pearson73]

Nice work on the Griffon's shoulder pad.

[Soric]

Nice work on the Griffon's shoulder pad.

Thanks, I really wanted to make sure that I got the symbol right and if I wasn't already working on another quartered scheme army then I would definitely be trying to paint up some Howling Griffons (I must have something for quartered colour schemes).

 

 I've managed to make some progress in my Death Watch and have finished my Red Scorpion member. This guy has been sitting on my to-do list for the best part of a year and today I decided to sit down and finally finish him off.

 As with the other Deathwatch members this guy has his backpack and wrist magnetized so I can switch between different loadouts. I'll need to make up a jumpack for him and the other kill team members at a later date.

However I've also managed to work more on my Red Marked and have gotten these guys to a standard I'm happy with.

Here's some individual shots:

 

Test Marine:

 

Venator:

 

Bracius:

 

Envelio:

 

Sgt Aeonid Thiel:

 

 Lastly a look at one of my upcoming minis to join the rest of the Red Marked. A banner bearer I made using parts from the Betrayal at Calth Chaplain, tactical marine parts, some a forgeworld parts, an anvil industries drum mag and a Venerable Dreadnought banner.

 I'm looking forward to painting this guy up and I've already got a design sorted for the banner that will hopefully represent the Red Marked, Imperium Secundus and the XIII Legion.