Ashen Sentinels - my Primaris Space Marine army

[firestorm40k]

Quick update - the Desolation Squads are mostly done - all assembled, just a couple of details to do and touch ups, then they're finished. We're away this week so those will have to wait till after! 

 

I only got them fully assembled last night - I used them in a game the previous week without heads, backpacks or Super Krak launchers on 

 

In other Ashen Sentinels related news, the Crusade Campaign I've been using them in has come to an end - you can read about that over at my blog 

[Brother Christopher]

Oh man, I don't have anything new or original to say - I love these. These group shots are absolutely cool.

 

I think that you've also did the right thing regarding the Apothecary - red tabards work very, very well despite being "impractical" (i.e. human blood is also red so in terms of practicality, I've always thought that a white tabard would work better on de-facto medics) and the one that you've started painting is looking excellent so far.

[Firedrake Cordova]

10 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

human blood is also red so in terms of practicality, I've always thought that a white tabard would work better

There is some historical precedent for red - on old Royal Navy warships, the floor in the surgical area was painted red (the - probably apocryphal - story was that it hid blood stains; the less pleasing but possibly more correct explanation is that red paint was just cheap). Dunno if that's interesting/helpful or not  

[firestorm40k]

Been a while since I posted - not that I haven't been painting, but prep for a big campaign finale team game has been taking a lot of my time - making an finishing a bunch of terrain. Along side this, I've been chipping away at the Repulsor and Redemptor. I'd hoped to get them as near done as possible before the game - I managed to get them so I was able to build sub-assemblies. 

 

Unfortunately, however, the Warp anomaly in my hobby area has struck again  So after applying washes, the armour plates in front of the Sarcophagus got stuck in place; I managed to get the top half up again, but the bottom half is well and truly stuck, so the bottom armour plate came off:

 

I put this part with the sub-assemblies on my painting desk. I carried on, finishing metallics, applying decals, and adding chipping. A couple of days later, last Friday to be precise, I went to put the Dread together - could I find that armour plate, for the last few days had sat where I'd put it, with the other sub assemblies? 

 

Like hell I could 

 

So last couple of evenings have been spent literally pulling out everything from my painting area - clearing the desk, the paint racks (and checking behind those), checking the shelves sat on the desk, pulling everything out from underneath and behind the desk... 

 

...but no sign of the cursed armour piece..! 

 

So I've had to bite the bullet and order a replacement part - I've only been able to find it for sale as part of the whole torso, so I've got part of a Redemptor kit that I don't actually need..! 

 

Anyhoo  I'll press on with getting these done over the next couple of weeks - that will complete my Crusade army (two months after it finished ). But that's not all for this army - I've got Jump Pack Assault Intercessors next on my agenda for the Ashen Sentinels 

[gaurdian31]

I missed the last couple of updates but everything is looking great! Sorry to hear about losing that dreadnought piece, I can unfortunately almost guarantee it will show back up once the replacement arrives. That's what happened when I misplaced a whole model (Khârn), once the replacement showed up I found the box with him in it.  As for the rest of the unneeded torso you could use it as a bit of terrain or an objective marker. 

[firestorm40k]

3 minutes ago, gaurdian31 said:

I can unfortunately almost guarantee it will show back up once the replacement arrives. That's what happened when I misplaced a whole model (Khârn), once the replacement showed up I found the box with him in it. 

Yeah, I just know that is exactly what is going to happen 

 

The rest of the torso will likely be used in some terrain, or on the base of another model, like you suggest 

[Rusted Boltgun]

May I suggest  you take a look in any bags you had on your work area. I pulled a part-built Impulsor out of the loft at lunch time and found two sprues of Kill Team scatter terrain in the bag that I thought I had lost.

 

That Repulsor is looking mean and all credit to you for running a campaign. I'm going to head back over to the blog to read it again. 

[firestorm40k]

5 hours ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

May I suggest  you take a look in any bags you had on your work area.

Alas, I have done that - I had a couple of bags that had the Repulsor sub assemblies in (grav plates, hatches, defensive turrets), but it didn't end up in there. I also went through all the other bags of random bits adjacent to my hobby area (though I honestly can't think why it'd have ended up with those ) - nothing there either 

 

5 hours ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

That Repulsor is looking mean and all credit to you for running a campaign. I'm going to head back over to the blog to read it again. 

Thank you  I'm glad you enjoyed the write-ups 

[firestorm40k]

I've managed to finally complete the Repulsor and Dread, but before I share some pics of those, I realised I never got round to sharing pictures of the finished Desolation Squads. I'm still not 100% sold on the design (like most people ), but they put out an impressive amount of firepower in the game 

 

I like how the big scanner on the Sergeants have turned out:

 

Here's the Repulsor, dubbed 'Talon of Fidaelis' in my recent Crusade Campaign. I've never particularly enjoyed painting tanks, and this hasn't done a lot to change my mind on that  It felt like it went on forever to get done! 

 

 

After the drama with the front army plate from the Dread that vanished, the replacement went on (almost) seamlessly 

 

I say 'almost' - the bottom panel no longer opens 

 

Anyway, I should get a pic of the full Crusade army at some point - in the meantime, to wet your appetites, here's a pic that does make me quite happy 

 

Edited June 15 by firestorm40k
Posted one pic too many, and in the wrong order..!

[ZeroWolf]

Some nice work there 

[firestorm40k]

Last week I (finally!) finished painting the Apothecary - this one took me a lot longer than anticipated, partly as I kept returning to it after finishing off other things. I found it to be one of those miniatures that you keep trying to get 'right' (all those pipes and vials! ), in the end I stepped back, reappraised it and thought 'actually, it's turned out ok' 

 

With the Apothecary done, my attention is now fully on the next addition to my army - Jump Pack Assault Intercessors (and a Jump Pack Captain). I am now starting the armour highlights, which will be my evenings for the next almost three weeks, pretty much 

 

I'll likely post again when I'm on the other side of doing those..! 

[Rusted Boltgun]

Cracking job on the apothecary, nice white and some fantastic details. 

[Brother Captain Vakarian]

Very good job on the apothecary and a nice, clean, smooth white. Love your army as a whole too. 

[gaurdian31]

Great work! Love the apothecary!

[space wolf]

Apothecary looks great. This is my first time here and went through all the pages, what a lovely thread of progress youve got here!

Edited July 16 by space wolf

[Pearson73]

Love the smoke curling up from the Dread's plasma, a really cool touch.

 

 

[firestorm40k]

Thank you all for your kind words, very appreciated 

 

On 8/1/2025 at 5:04 PM, Pearson73 said:

Love the smoke curling up from the Dread's plasma, a really cool touch.

Thank you - made with a bent paperclip and blobs of hot glue from a hot glue gun!  Not a difficult effect to pull off. 

 

So work continues on these Jump Pack Assault Intercessors; armour panel highlights done, under suit done, leather straps and pouches done - on to shoulder trims.

 

As with my previously painted Marines, shoulder trim colour denotes the Company they're from. I'm now going to be painting Marines from the 7th and 8th Companies (shirt reason for this being, I've a narrative idea I want to follow for this next batch of Marines). The Jump Intercessors are from the 8th Company. 

 

Tonight I painted the shoulder trim on the Captain and two of the Intercessors. Then, Fraters, I realised I had made a mistake. 

 

 

I should have checked this image before I started painting them:

 

For some reason I had it in my head that 8th was Purple  so I'll be repainting these tomorrow!  I'm just glad I realised my mistake before I had painted all of them..! 

Edited August 6 by firestorm40k

[gaurdian31]

They look so good in purple though! 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Can't you just switch-a-roo the company colours of the 7th and 8th to save you from having to re-paint them? I'm biased insofar as I quite like purple, but I do think they look good

[firestorm40k]

On 8/6/2025 at 10:30 PM, gaurdian31 said:

They look so good in purple though! 

 

On 8/7/2025 at 8:02 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

I'm biased insofar as I quite like purple

Thank you both - I 100% agree, the purple does look really good  however, my Lore OCD won  so they're now going to have Grey trims 

 

Using Vallejo Paly Blue Grey, to differentiate from their grey armour 

 

I will eventually paint a Captain with a purple cloak, and he will look *fabulous* 

[space wolf]

10 hours ago, firestorm40k said:

 

Thank you both - I 100% agree, the purple does look really good  however, my Lore OCD won  so they're now going to have Grey trims 

 

IMHO this is most important lol!

[gaurdian31]

Sad to see the purple go, but the grey trim did come out nicely!

[firestorm40k]

I've finished the shoulder pads, onto other details, but I've been working on the Captain's cape. Again struggling to get a blend on the highlights that I'm happy with - after a few evenings working on it, I've settled for this:

 

From a distance it looks alright, but up close the 'lines' are pretty visible:

 

Leaving it this way though as I think going over it again and again will drive me a bit loopy 

[space wolf]

Looks great to me. Ive often found the work/time required to get smooth blends is often just not worth it. Just my opinion

[Heraclite]

I had the same problem with my own chapter, but with squad numbers... I switched the numbers between the "assault" squads and the "devastator" squads.... I only realised it after painting one of each, and painstakingly freehanding the squad numbers on the shoulder pads.... 

 

So now my chapter is slightly codex divergent and has the "devastators" as squads 7 and 8 and the "assault squads" as 9 and 10...