Mortifactors Veteran & Sergeant Colours/Markings

[Alcyon]

Wow, it's been a while! My posting history is gone, not surprising as it's been years since I logged in. Glad my account still exists if nothing else.

 

I sold all my miniatures a long time ago, but some friends of mine are building combat patrols and I'm getting sucked back in. I'm planning some colour schemes for the Mortifactors 2nd company, and I'm planning to include some Sternguard Veterans, but the fully codex-adherent paint scheme is not particularly to my taste. I made some variants here and would love to know what you guys think, if you have any alternate suggestions, etc.

 

To start with, here's the standard Tactical marine:

 

http://i.imgur.com/WQp9HEm.jpg

 

I'm thinking of doing this for the Sergeants to preserve the cool two-tone helmet look:

 

http://i.imgur.com/eiw6l1R.jpg

 

Codex-adherent white stripe for a Veteran Sergeant:

 

http://i.imgur.com/AZnJ7fX.jpg

 

Now it gets spicy. This would be standard for a Veteran:

 

http://i.imgur.com/FAtEZT1.jpg

 

What do you think of this, red stripe for a Veteran Sergeant?

 

http://i.imgur.com/VzTMp2u.jpg

 

Alternatively, I was thinking this for a Veteran:

 

http://i.imgur.com/nfXiYf2.jpg

 

With this as the Sergeant marking:

 

http://i.imgur.com/Zn3sFyW.jpg

 

Also, this might be a question for another forum, but as a returning member I have nothing really left of my collection. I was planning on buying the Sternguard Veteran kit, however it's only got five models and I'm planning to build 10. I noticed they discontinued the Combat Squad box but I found one on eBay, you think there's enough bitz in the Sternguard box to customize 5 regular marines into fellow veterans?

 

They won't have loincloths/tabards is my only concern I guess. I also found out there's an older Sternguard Finecast box which look awesome, no tabards there either though and no customizable weapons really. What do you guys do to make these WYSIWYG?

[deathspectersgt7]

The last two works .  I would invest in another Sternguard kit .

[Toxichobbit]

The Sergeants both look fine. I prefer the top two Veterans, the bottom two look a bit Black Templarish due to the amount of black and white on the top half.
 
You can easily make a good looking Sternguard Squad from a Combat Squad box + Sternguard Veteran box. The Steernguard box has lots of spare parts to customise the Combat Squad and make them look like Veterans. You'd need to use legs, bodies, backpacks, a few shoulder pads and a few arms from the Combat Squad. I wouldn't be bothered about them all having tabards myself as that's not a distinguishing feature of Sternguard. A mix of tabard and non-tabard would be fine for me, I feel like it would be the individual Veteran's choice whether they wore them or not. Maybe other people want to go all tabards, but it's certainly not required nor anything anyone can complain about if you don't do it. You can view the Sternguard sprues on the GW site on the Sternguard Veterans box page.
 
What I'd want to see in a Veteran Squad across the tables is three distinguishing features - ornate helm/head, ornate shoulder pads and Sternguard style weapon. Helm/head isn't a problem, there's enough in the Sternguard squad for a 10 man unit with spare and you could easily mix in a few more normal helms (or any other ornate helms from another Chapter or armour Mk). Shoulder pads aren't a problem either. While there's not quite enough to give two to each Veteran (16 in the box) having a few plain shoulder pads dotted in won't matter. Just make sure each one has at least one ornate shoulder pad and a crux terminatus on their right pad (either molded or painted) and you're golden.
 
Weapons could be tricky, depending on how you want to arm them. You don't have enough to give everyone bolters (Sternguard bolters are quite different to regular bolters) but you do have access to a heavy bolter, a heavy flamer, 2 of each combi-weapon, 2 storm bolters, 1 of each special weapon and a number of pistols and melee weapons for the Sergeant. Chances are you will be able to build your ideal squad from that selection of weapons. If you want more of any particular type Forgeworld is a good source. They have packs of individual combi-weapons, Sternguard Style Bolters, (more here), heavy bolters, (more here) and heavy flamers, (more here). Look on eBay or parts sellers for individual weapons rather than buying a full pack of 10 from FW themselves, or alternatively you can pick up some more of the Sternguard plastic weapons from parts sellers if you prefer a more uniform look.

[Alcyon]

Thanks for the feedback, guys, and I really appreciate the suggestions re: modelling, Toxichobbit.

Working on painting a test marine up now, and I think what's bothering me most is the combination of white and bone on the model. They are kind of similar and therefore clash. There's not much I can do about the shoulder pad trim since I want to keep yellow as 2nd company, but maybe I can extend the bone to the helmet to help show veterancy. How about this:

And for a Veteran Sergeant:

On the flip side, I was reading a crazy thread from the archives about bolters and heraldry, so it's possible I could use silver instead of gold for the 1st company trim, and then maybe change the chest eagle for more contrast:

With this as a sergeant:

I should probably stop mocking these up and just paint some so I can see how they look; promise I'll post some WIP models soon!

[Joe]

These look great. c:

 

You should check out the Ultramarines mini-event that's currently in the planning stages. It'd certainly be one way to get your Mortificators painted. ;)

[Race Bannon]

Alternatively, maybe a more humble route: only the shoulder trim shows Co affiliation, with helmet marking used only for Sergeants? The unit marking would further define their position (skull for Command, crux for 1st Co, etc.).

[Alcyon]

Alternatively, maybe a more humble route: only the shoulder trim shows Co affiliation, with helmet marking used only for Sergeants? The unit marking would further define their position (skull for Command, crux for 1st Co, etc.).

That would certainly let me maintain the black/bone helmets. Feels mean to the veterans to take away their special helmets but I suppose they can just suck it up, I'll adorn them in other ways. Good suggestion!

These look great. c:

You should check out the Ultramarines mini-event that's currently in the planning stages. It'd certainly be one way to get your Mortificators painted.

Very enticing... Thanks!

[phoenix01]

Mortifactors have their chapter and squad designations (including squad type) in bone on black. So, your veteran crux would be bone with the shoulder pad trim in white per Codex: Space Marines. Not all codex compliant chapter veterans have white helmets. You could keep the black on bone helmet and add white laurels to the black helmet brow section. Or you could give all your veterans helmets with a skull and paint the skull white. Or paint a white strip in the middle of the helmet. Or give your veterans skull faced helmets (like the Night Lords Mk IV helmets).

[That Guy Matt]

I like the white face and stripe for the veterans. Would you consider using that then swapping the black for red on the sergeant but keeping the stripe white?

[Alcyon]

I like the white face and stripe for the veterans. Would you consider using that then swapping the black for red on the sergeant but keeping the stripe white?

Like this?

\\

Having started a test model, it looks funny to me to have the white face right next to the bone chestplate. It doesn't matter so much on the shoulder pad rims because they're right next to black. I am pretty happy with just the helmet crest being white on the black helmet with bone face, and then the red helmet with the same for the Sergeant. But I'll probably do up some tests just to see.

All good suggestions as well, phoenix01. Really appreciate the input, guys.

[That Guy Matt]

That's what I was suggesting, yeah.