Brother Christopher's Purple Marines Project

[Firedrake Cordova]

19 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

these models are supposed to be my take on 'speed painting.' The irony of spending almost 2 months on painting 5 Marines is not lost on me

On the plus side, they look great! *shrugs*  

[kabaakaba]

They are looks good. Really. Way better then evy metal style. Keep going, I think you're on the right way 

[MoriyaSchism]

They look fantastic. I love the green helmet on the Sergeant, looks just like the old Dark Angels colour scheme. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Those are absolutely fantastic.

 

As for your "speed" technique being slower, I think anytime you try something new its bound to take more time as the process of figuring out what to do differently, then learning how to do it differently takes time.  So I think its great that you've found acceptable shortcuts that may make things faster in the future, even if they didn't this time round.  And, at least from the photos, I think the final product is incredible, so definitely no negative impact on the final product.

[Brother Christopher]

Many thanks to all of you for the overwhelmingly positive feedback! I'm grateful for your kind words and the amazing motivation behind them. I will take a photo comparing the different stages/styles and post it, too.

 

The new approach is growing on me and makes me want to paint more stuff. Unfortunately, this means prepping minis - something I don't like doing. But I'm getting there. And I sincerely hope that I'll get back to posting more regularly. 

 

Below is an introspective update on where I stand with 'the hobby.' Be warned - a wall-of-text (and some rambling?)

 

Why the delay in finishing the last batch of models?

June was a fantastic month, packed with amateur sports events, hiking, and travelling. It was so busy that I simply couldn't find the time—or perhaps the mindset—for a more passive hobby like painting. July wasn't much different. There were plenty of enjoyable moments, but also a lot of work and business travel.

The strange part is that I knew I only needed two or three painting sessions to finish the squad, yet I just couldn't bring myself to start. Once I finally sat down and got through the first half hour, I realised the barrier had been entirely mental. I still can't really explain it. That reluctance to work on my army hasn't completely disappeared, but I think I'm getting better at managing it.

 

The most rational explanation I can come up with is GW's release-driven approach to the hobby. My day-to-day life already contains enough uncertainty, so I like my hobby projects to feel organised and predictable. Games Workshop makes that surprisingly difficult. I know I'm partly creating these problems for myself, but GW certainly isn't helping.

My biggest frustration is the shift in the Primaris design philosophy and the return of different armour marks. Don’t get me wrong – I like that. It’s about time, too! I know I could simply ignore it and continue as planned, but I keep asking myself: why should I? Modifying armour details across entire squads is incredibly time-consuming and inevitably damages the crisp moulded details. It feels like a lose-lose situation—either I spend time fixing something I believe GW should have gotten right from the start, or I wait for updated kits and pay the inevitable premium. At this point, I'd much rather do the latter if it means less conversion work and cleaner models.

Looking back, I think I was subconsciously waiting for GW to announce a redesigned Intercessor kit so I could properly plan how to distribute my models between squads and projects, as well as decide which first-wave Primaris kits to sell.

 

The less rational explanation is that I let myself get excited about 11th Edition... which ultimately didn't change much for me. Maybe I'm simply a little disappointed—both with GW and with myself. The game still feels like an overly complicated system buried under a constant stream of updates, FAQs, and balance changes. It continues to look and feel like a massive time investment.

 

The connectivity issues with B&C certainly didn't help either. This forum has always been my main source of hobby news, rumours, and inspiration, so when it became unreliable, I realised just how much I relied on it to stay connected with the wider community.

 

What changed in the scope of the project?

One thing I'm actually quite pleased with is that I managed to resist buying Armageddon. It took more willpower than I expected, but it also helped me better understand the often-repeated advice to buy the models you genuinely like.

 

In the end, I only picked up the new Intercessors, the Ancient, and the Land Speeder. The Captain is nice enough, but nothing particularly exciting. The Librarian and Chaplain are perfectly fine, but I already have two models for each role. I still don't like Gravis armour, and Primaris jump packs (and the heel-thrusters!) simply aren't for me.

 

I've also realised that I don't actually feel like painting multiple copies of the same Primaris kits. That led me to reorganise my collection and sell a few units—a squad of five Inferno Marines and my melta Eradicators. Interestingly, I had originally planned to sell some Hellblasters as well, but after taking another look, I decided to keep them. I genuinely like their armour design, especially the tassets, which I actually prefer over those on the Inferno Marines and Bladeguard Veterans.

 

As a result of dismissing some Marines from duty, my Fire Support units will now operate in squads of three. For hobby purposes, that's more than enough. I just need to keep reminding myself not to optimise everything around the game (i.e. squads of 5), because realistically I'll probably never play the game to make this issue relevant (and if it does, I can always use my Firstborn Marines to supplement the squads). I'm also considering selling my duplicate ETB Bladeguard Veterans.

 

As silly as it sounds, I'm genuinely proud of these decisions. Selling miniatures has never come naturally to me. I'm definitely a bit of a hoarder, and I always worry I'll regret parting with something later. But knowing I no longer have to spend hours modifying the kneepads on another eight marines is surprisingly satisfying.

 

Right now I'm preparing a fairly large batch of models, including my flamer and plasma support squads, as well as several characters. Preparation involving conversions remains my least favourite part of the hobby, and I'm genuinely looking forward to never having to do it again once my Primaris collection is complete. If everything goes according to plan, I have around fifteen converted models left before I can finally focus on exclusively building models as-intended.

 

Any future purchases?

I am open to the idea of buying a new SM combat patrol box if it will have at least two multipart mixed armour squads and a cool character. If not, I’ll probably need 5-10 regular bodies for some rule-of-cool Marines in the distant future.

 

And I’m curious about the inevitable new vehicles. But I’m adamant about not buying too many new infantry models until GW re-releases ‘proper’ Marines that are not based on MkX.

 

How about some Xenos?

Yeah, so… In addition to the 10 Eldar I bought a couple of months ago, I also bought some cheap Armageddon orks.

 

By the way, would you be interested in me posting my planned force organisation chart for my Marines?

 

 

 

[kabaakaba]

The problem of purchasing and uncertainty is, of course, a common problem. Well, except for those hobbyists who are building their own tower of shame. 

Share your chart. It's always interesting for not GW bespoke chapter. 

[WBRBloom]

14 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

The less rational explanation is that I let myself get excited about 11th Edition... which ultimately didn't change much for me. Maybe I'm simply a little disappointed—both with GW and with myself. The game still feels like an overly complicated system buried under a constant stream of updates, FAQs, and balance changes. It continues to look and feel like a massive time investment.

 

What changed in the scope of the project?

One thing I'm actually quite pleased with is that I managed to resist buying Armageddon. It took more willpower than I expected, but it also helped me better understand the often-repeated advice to buy the models you genuinely like.

 

Just to let you know, you're preaching to the choir here, brother.

 

And yes, please go ahead with the planned organisational force chart, I'll be quite interested to have a peek.

[Rusted Boltgun]

I appreciate your struggles @Brother Christopher.  It seems like you've a forward path having shed some models and got your painting method down. 

 

I'll add another vote for the Force Org chart.

[space wolf]

Brother, youve gotten some amazing progress! You last few entries, have been truly jealousy inducing. Really looking foward to that techmarine build!

[Brother Christopher]

Here's the first part of my collection. I wanted to do a fancy format but we'll see how it pans out. Let me know whether you like it and whether I should proceed with presenting the other roles in the same manner.

 

I thought it's reasonable to provide info on the source of minis, number of models per squad and the current state the minis are in.

 

I'll update the rest, soon. And also reply to you, guys! I'm having a busy weekend and I wanted to get this out.

 

 HQs

The idea is to have 2 of each specialist 'role,' as well as some 'regular' commanders (Captains).

 

   Command Squad; Company Heroes; 5 models, box

 

 Force Commander/Captain; 1 model; unassembled

 

 Force Commander/Chapter Master (?); 1 model, sprue

 

 Force Commander with Jump Pack (?); 1 model

 

 Apothecary; 1 model; second-hand

 

 Chief Apthecary; 1 model; sprue

 

 Chief Librarian (?); 1 model; second-hand (stripped)

 

 Librarian; 1 model; sprue

 

 Master of the Forge; 1 model; conversion i progress

 

 Techmarine; 1 model; painted

 

 Ancient; 1 model; sprue

 

 Chaplain; 1 model; second-hand, stripped

 

 Master of Sanctity; 1 model; sprue

 

 Troops - 30 Marines

 Tactical Squad 1; 10 models; 5 from the Intercessors Kit, 5 from other kits; 5 painted; 5 converted/assembled

 

  Tactical Squad, Firstborn homage loadout (flamer, missile launcher), 5 models; Intercessors kit; 5 painted

 

 Tactical Squad 3; 10 models; Armageddon Intercessors; sprue

 

 Assault Tactical Squad (with botlers and chainswords); 5 models; multipart Assault Intercessors; painted

 

 

Edited August 8 by Brother Christopher

[kabaakaba]

What's about armor? Repulsors or something? 

[Brother Christopher]

4 hours ago, kabaakaba said:

What's about armor? Repulsors or something? 

 

I'm focusing on infantry at the moment. I will be repurposing some of my firstborn stuff, finishing/upgrading some plasticard vehicles and perhaps buying new kits if GW decides to re-release tracked vehicles. But I haven't made my mind entirely yet.

 

At the moment, I know that the army will eventually have:

- a rifleman dreadnought,

- 1-2 Land Speeder(s),

- 2 DIY plasticard Rhinos;

- 1 Baal Predator;

- 1 Hunter/Stalker;

- 1 tracked Repulsor.

 

I will probably also add:

- 1 DIY plasticard Land Raider - an old scratchbuild that I've never finished painting - I find the model's quality lacking and intend to modify/upgrade it);

- 1 DIY plasticard Storm Raven - an old scratchbuild that is conceptually cool but needs some tweaks to really shine; while it's a painted model, I will repaint it purple;

- 1 Vindicator;

- 1 Spartan Assault Tank;

- Drop Pod(s) and Rhinos/Razorbkacks leftover from the Neurode Crusade.

 

... unless GW re-releases proper Space Marines in the meantime and I'll start another Chapter that'll need some vehicles.

 

 

[Brother Christopher]

For better or for worse, my holiday period ended. Hopefully, at least I'll get back to painting regularly and actively participating in the form life!

 

Next up - some fire support marines (organised in squads of 3 in my chapter):

 

[space wolf]

I admire your ability to plan. I've never been able to do that, and just have throw myself at the whims of the creativity muse. Are you going to do an army progress shot? I'd love to see all your finished models ranked up together.

[Heraclite]

It will be nice to see more of your purple marines! I second @space wolf's request of an army shot!

[Brother Christopher]

23 hours ago, space wolf said:

I admire your ability to plan. I've never been able to do that, and just have throw myself at the whims of the creativity muse.

 

The 'planning' is more of a journey than I expected. I think I recall a British idiom: Cut one's coat according to one's cloth. Over the years, I've discovered that many of my ideas/projects/designs are regrettably unfeasible given my work and other hobbies. In addition to that, there's GW always meddling with things. While I feel that I've failed at planning this project properly from the get-go, I am determined to keep it under control. 

 

Thankfully the new 11th Edition releases and previews aren't to my taste so I don't have to adjust my plans too much. I would like to believe that I've finalised my Purple Army as far as the number of minis and squad compositions are concerned. 

 

I'm also quite excited to to try new things out in the future - I have plans for that, too. But the guiding principle is moderation and restraint. No more army-sized projects for me. Two Space Marines armies will do!

 

Allow me to go off on my usual tangent

The biggest bummer for me is that I'm more and more convinced that I'll never get around to playing current editions of Warhammer-proper. From what I gather here, as well as other places online, it seems that 11th edition quite quickly devolved into a mess built on a rules' churn impossible for me to follow given that, optimistically, I'd be able to play one game per month. Maybe I'm a bit of a coward? Or maybe I'm prejudiced against GW? Or maybe I'm allowing the Internet's negativity poison? Perhaps 40k is a fun, casual game, after all. I could give it a go but.... I'm worried that the learning curve is quite too much. The game seems to involve an immense mental load with rules stacked upon rules with exceptions and whatnot. Luckily this rather gloomy realisation, stemming from my disaffection with GW's rules has it's upsides, too! It helped me pull the trigger on custom squad sizes and compositions. For example, I'm planning an oldschool-type command squad with an Apothecary, Banner Bearer, Sergeant, Company Champion with a combat shield and gunner/specialist. I just hope that I won't regret doing the 3-man fire support squads in the future. And on top of that, I still remain hopeful that I'll be able to find people who play older editions or OnePageRules.

 

As for an army shot - your requests are duly noted! This is very flattering and I hope not to disappoint. However, I think I'll wait with that till the year's end - just to see how much work I'll be able to do and post a more meaty update. Hopefully, about that time I'll have around half of my army done.

 

 

[space wolf]

You know what, I hear you. I've been back in the hobby since about 2019, and I have played a total of 1 game (with my Ultra-Roman Ultramarines). At first glance, I think the rules look a bit daunting, however, upon further thought, I think the difficulty lays in the army construction, not necessarily in playing the game. Once you've got your detachments, I think its pretty self-explanatory.  It seems to me casual play is more of a mindset than the game itself. What are you and your friends willing to accept/change, if the game doesn't conform? I've  been seriously considering, just modeling my armies so that they would be compatible with the newest edition and perhaps 3rd or 4th...depending on my fancy...which means for my Void Panthers, I'll need to figure a way to make tactical squad weapons for primaris: perhaps a fun challenge. Anyways, that's just my two cents (and they've discontinued the penny lol).

[Brother Christopher]

I understand that much of my gripes is boil down to a matter of a proper, pro-active mindset. I'm sure I'll get around to giving the game a go sometime in the future. The most difficult things are: breaking the mental barier and finding like-minded people. I've lost most my 40k acquaintances over the years.

 

After pledging my whooping 3 marines to the Call to Arms event, I've managed to get some work done yesterday. With my 'speed painting' technique, I've managed to paint the purple armour, as well as do base colours for most other things (brown for leather accessories, black for the guns' casings, shoulder pads and top parts of backpacks, silver for the guns, armour ornamentation and other metallic bits).

 

I've spent way too much time yesterday which results in a backlog with important, professional obligations. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT. It sure felt like I haven't painted anything in a month so dropping everything else and getting lost in the hobby felt great. Now, well, I'm dealing with the aftermath. But the CTA clock's ticking! Given my plans and pace of work, 15th September feels like just around the corner.

 

For the plasma coils, I'm torn between blue and green. I'm leaning more towards green at the moment, though.

[space wolf]

Well, that IS the beauty of hobbies, they are there for ua to reset our minds from the stressors of life. Of course like everything, its temporary. Lol

 

Green, Im solidly in the green camp for your marines...of course, yellow could be an interesting choice.

[Heraclite]

Agreed. Green should contrat better with the purple than blue coils

[Brother Christopher]

So, this week's been brutal. But I've managed to squeeze in some hobby time every day. I think I'm making good progress, especially by my standards.

 

- Painting the purple armour was a breeze. The 'new' approach is quick and satisfying. Great upgrade 10/10.

- I finished did most of the secondary colours. This was quite quite time-consuming - surprisingly even - probably due to taking care not to spill any paint on the purple armour.

- I did most of the metallics; I just need to add the final pass of extreme highlights.

- I painted the shoulder markings.

- I tried a different approach to painting the plasma coils... and I'm not sure about the results at the moment. I chose green but the glow effect - at least at this stage - didn't turn out to my taste. Maybe it's due to an interim stage or maybe I failed at replicating an effect that I've seen online. Time will tell!

- I managed not to obsess about difficult-to-reach and mostly obscured places. Given that these guys are basically already completely assembled, I've been seriously concerned with how difficult my life will be. The most annoying parts were the power cables - not bad! I feel that I've saved some time so will probably continue this approach for the most of my other minis, with perhaps the exception of veterans and HQs.

 

Photo updates to come. As impatient as I am, I feel I really should make more progress on this guys before taking and sharing photos. This way, I'll have more to show and will be able to inspect the paintjob before doing the finishing touches. As I've mentioned, I'm quite short on time this week. Sorry for this! (It's a bit silly to post a progress update without photographic proof, I suppose.)

 

As a reminder to myself: I should finally try using transfers on flat surfaces. After the recent failure with applying markings onto shoulder pads, I've given up on this. But I think I should try smaller decals on shins or whatever.

Edited September 4 by Brother Christopher

[Brother Christopher]

Here's a photo update.

 

Foreword: I messed the photos up. I forgot to set the camera up properly. The photos ore SOOC with some wonky colours and rather problematic lighting. Do accept my apologies - it's just been one of those days.

 

Consequently, I've decided to post 1. group shots and 2. focus on details.

 

While referring to this as 'speed technique' is quite objectively false, it still feels quick and pretty fun. I quite naturally shifted from obsessing about highlighting every edge, following GW's style, and developed a quick and pretty effective style for the armour. The time I've saved, I'm wasting on attempts to improve my skills painting tiny details and ever-smaller freehands.

 

Here are the group shots:

 

 

And here are the details. 

 

 

This white blob is supposed to be an imperial aquila. 

 

Here's a skull:

 

And close-ups on the guns:

 

 

This guy was supposed to charge his shot - that's why I've made the back of the coil brighter.

 

 

Please do let me know what you think about the plasma coils. Do you find them to be convincing?

 

I think they're not half bad - they're quite nicely painted, particularly since this was my first attempt with using ink for plasma. Eventually, I suppose I'll leave them the way they are (I'll perhaps add more OSL to the marines' bodies) but I'm not sure if they are what I wanted them to be. 

 

For future projects, I guess I'll stick to the old, more simplistic approach - like the one here:

 

So a base colour + brighter ribbed parts of the coil, instead of using inks in recesses for the glow effect. Regardless of my doubts, exploring this was very fun.

[kabaakaba]

You really make huge progress! 

[Heraclite]

I love the "charging" effect on the plasma gun, like a glowing download progress bar !

As someone who also tried painting very small aquillas, I can only praise your skill on this one, it realy reads as an aquila and not at all as a blob

 

[WBRBloom]

Amazing work @Brother Christopher, love the freehand details on the marines and the paint scheme is spot on!