Late Heresy / Scouring-era Salamanders Project

[Deus de Mortalis]

I have finally committed to a new hobby project since my last DIY marine chapter from 2019-2021. This is the logical conclusion of what has been brewing in my mind for several years now. I will try to make a 30k army of Salamanders using a lot of stuff mixing both current and older 30k models and older pre-primaris 40k models. It will feature lots of castraferrum dreadnoughts and lots of MkVI beakies. As far as units go, I will be sticking pretty closely to things that were available to Space Marines in the 3rd edition of 40k. Space Marine lore and units at the end of 3rd edition was my favorite.

 

Click if you want to read a little backstory about how I ended up at this point in 2026:

Spoiler

It's been a long road since I got into 40k in 2001. I read the 3rd edition Space Marine Codex cover to cover about once a week for an entire year. The lore that really stuck with me was about the Horus Heresy. I thought it was so cool and wished I could model stuff based on that and older marks of power armor. My favorite was Mark II armor, followed by Mark VI armor. I also liked the aesthetic of Rogue Trader marines. I saved all of the beaky helmets I could for some future project. When Forge World released their pre-heresy armor, I saw it in person at Games Day Baltimore 2010, but they sold out at the event before I could get some, but I ordered some immediately. I was very disappointed with the proportions of some things, such as the thighs. I bought a bunch of MkII and MkIII, along with accessories, but I ended up never using any of it and sold it all on Ebay. Later when their improved "Legion" armor came out it was an improvement, but I was already disillusioned. I bought some of the Horus Heresy characters which I thought were cool, but I never painted any as I thought my skills to be lacking. It stayed at that for a while until plastic Mk IV armor was released for the first edition of Horus Heresy. I was excited by the models, but not the game. I used the models in 40k. With the release of Primaris, it worried me about the future of 40k. I did not like the aesthetic or lore at all for the armor or vehicles. All the while, 30k kept expanding and releasing more things in plastic and resin. I kept collecting more stuff that I liked, but it was always first born marines. I tried to go Primaris with a boxed set in 2021, but I couldn't do it. This left me in limbo as all the models I liked in 40k were disappearing (scouts and terminators are still here though), and I didn't have any more time for the hobby with my young children. Something has been gnawing at me for a long time and finally the lore and models of 30k has won out over 40k. It took me a long, long time to decide on a legion, but the least bad option for me is the Salamanders. It seems like the natural option and they are growing on me.

 

The aesthetic I'm going for is late-heresy, early post-heresy period. I want to make the Salamanders have a semi-codex compliant paint-scheme. I really like blue librarians, black chaplains, white apothecaries, red techmarines, and different helmet colors and helmet stripes! I also heavily favor plastic over resin, and decals for symbols. I also need to be careful with not showing the crux terminatus, purity seals, or 40k aquila from any models that have them. We should show some stuff that is pro-Emperor and pro-Vulkan.

 

The lore is that they were obviously not present at Istvaan. Some of them missed out for whatever reason either being preoccupied, stuck in transit, or didn't hear the message soon enough. The other half are newly recruited. The army should be heavy on infantry mostly in Mk VI armor, light on tanks, with also a significant number of veterans and castraferrum dreadnoughts.

 

I haven't painted anything yet, but am in the planning and model prep stage for some dreadnoughts. Those will be the first things I post within the next couple of days. I just wanted to get this post up here ASAP before I get any further along and keep putting off sharing it.