Bladeguard Ancient – Return of the Lightguard! Freehand Banner and Conversion

I’ve been hinting at the return of some old friends. Long ago I ordered some Forge World Mk V armor to make a custom Honor Guard for Chapter Master Perseus: The Lightguard.

I never got to use them. They were too expensive. Now, honor guard seem to be an Ultramarines thing. Boo.

But they’re not gone. In fact, they’ve crossed the Rubicon! Behold, my Indominus Bladeguard Ancient, the first of the Lightguard Reborn!

What’s this? That’s not the Bladeguard Ancient from the Indominus box! Where’s his creepy skeleton banner and useless bone hand?

They’ve been removed. I drilled into the helmet, removed the skeleton hand, and carved the fingers so he can hold the helmet instead. I’ve replaced the head with a Sternguard Veteran head. I chopped off the skeleton banner and replaced it with the regular banner from the old Command Squad box set (I had a spare). Finally, a Black Ark Corsair cloak was green-stuffed onto his back, under the backpack.

Because the previous Lightguard had my first freehand banner, I could do no less for this venerable gentleman. The only part that is not freehand is the “IV” decal. I added the Lightguard Chasma Spica Constellation logo to both the banner and the heraldry shield on the chest. These stars represent the 11 star systems in the Azure Flame’s home sector, fought over in BG V.

The cloak had each scale highlighted on both top and bottom for a nice 3D effect. The flame up top was started with Enchanted Blue and coated with contrast paint, then highlighted all the way to white.

Next: a squad gets their decals, and some Tactical Sergeants get finished!

Firstborn Tactical Sergeants and Intercessor Decals

These Sergeants have been in and out of my lists for the entirety of 8th ed, but it’s only now I’m getting them painted up.

For efficiency, I also added decals to my Intercessor squad, so I could varnish them all at once. It went well, so instead of making each decal squad a project, I’m going to do a squad worth of decals for each paint job I do from now on.

Next: back to Indominus! No more cookie cutter by-the-book models, it’s time to bring back some old friends and make the Indominus sculpts fit the Azure Flames more closely!

New Major Project: Decal Squad Markings

Thanks to Josh Muma of Bedlam Creations, I am about to do something that I’ve always wanted to do.

I’m completely re-doing the shoulder pad squad markings for the entire Azure Flames army.

Bedlam creations helped me to set up a very large decal sheet with roman numerals 1-20 in all of the colors of the companies except orange and purple (they wouldn’t fit).

Due to the complete coincidence of Bedlam Creations being so close to me, they shipped incredibly fast. I got them today and took them for a spin on the new Indominus models I’ve already painted.

Only the green is shown so far because all of my Primaris marines are going to belong to the 4th company. Soon, though, I will intersperse labeling the other squads in my box. Once done with my current Firstborn Sergeants, I will now work on alternating between Indominus and already painted squads to replace shoulder pads.

On a more practical note, even in a good case, paint jobs and models suffer wear and tear. I haven’t done a full-case maintenance job for half a decade and it’s long overdue. This is the perfect opportunity.

If other things go well, Firstborn marines may even get a base size upgrade, if that seems like a good idea. It doesn’t now, but it may in the future.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HOW DOES MY PLATE ALWAYS STAY SO FULL? Too much ambition!

Next: Firstborn Sergeants and then a special Indominus surprise! Some old friends are coming back!

Indominus Primaris Chaplain

One more of the Indominus box set done.

This chaplain proved to be a bit of a challenge. First, when clipping the backpack from the sprue, the back of the skull at the top snapped off! It was not able to be bent back or repaired, so I had to completely remove the pole that held the crowned skull and replace it with plastic rod. Mine will be a bit taller than a normal Indominus Chaplain as a result.

During painting, my sub-assemblies were:

• Base
• Legs, head, and Crozius
• Front torso and bolt pistol
• Backpack

Next: Firstborn Sergeants for Tactical Squads. After that, if I get a shipment from my LGS, I’ll do Bladeguard Veterans. If not, probably the Lieutenant with the Volkite Pistol. Stay tuned!

Multiple Meltas

…and with that, I have four of every heavy weapon for Devastators painted! It’s been a while, almost 21 years.

My initial Devastator project had me buy four sets of the old Devastator box. Most of my Devs are those old half pewter minis. I never did Multi-Meltas because until now they were kind of awful.

Now these gentlemen are going to pile into a drop pod or outflank, and rain hell on some poor Knight or tank column.

Next: Indominus Primaris Chaplain! I already have complaints, and he’s barely off the sprue!

Firstborn Devastator Grav Cannons with Grav Amps

I am painting these side by side with some Multi-Meltas. Those are almost done. Then, I’ll go back to Indominus. Probably try out a character. My next Indominus project used to be the Bladeguard, but I have a special conversion in mind for them which requires some time.

Primaris Outriders: a critique of the sculpt compared to the old Space Marine Bike

Primaris Outriders are finished!

These models were quite annoying to assemble and paint. Due to the overlapping armor plates, I did a sub-assembly procedure as follows:

• Central bike body plus wheels
• Left Bike Armor, leg, and exhaust
• Right Bike Armor, leg, and exhaust
• Torso, head, and arms
• Backpack
• Chainsword (one model only)

My initial gripe was that the pins that make this model a snap-together break exceedingly easily, especially the thin pins that slot into the larger pins for the side armor. However, I consider this to be a blessing rather than a mistake. If you are building these models, BREAK THESE PINS OFF. You don’t need them.

My sub-assembly procedure was also not a good idea for this snap together in terms of pieces fitting. Before priming, the model dry-fit together snugly. With the added layer of primer, these became too tight to fit without a pin vise gently scraping the inside of the holes. Even then it was so tight that excessive force was needed.

Excessive as it was, it was not enough for the front armor plating. All three models had to have a gap in this plating filled with green stuff and filed smooth.

I also had trouble with the incredibly thin join between the foot/pedal and the side armor. This bent a bit too often. If I had to do over, I might have used a modeling knife to completely separate these two parts. It would have made painting and assembly easier.

As a final note, I’d like to compare these to the original Space Marine Bikes. Here is a stock photo below:

The old bikes were 90’s sculpts, and it shows. What doesn’t show is that these bikes had a similar problem to the new Primaris ones. The halves of the main body met in the middle, sometimes leaving a gap that needed putty. Not shown in this stock photo is the join of the riveted armor moulding where it comes together on the back of the bike. This was almost always mis-cast. The moulding itself was annoying to paint (I like the lack of it on the Primaris models).

All in all, the new Primaris are a huge step up from old bikes. However, they still have significant flaws. Use caution and think ahead when assembling and painting yours.

Next: I like the idea of alternating between Primaris and Firstborn. I’m going to finish up my Devastators with Multi-Meltas and Grav-cannons. With Multi-Meltas having 2 shots at D6+2 damage, I can revive my old failed Melta drop strategy to assassinate a knight (or two!) Plus with two wounds on all firstborn, I’ll need those Grav Cannons in working order.

Intercessor Interruption

So, recently I finished my Eradicators and wanted to find a place for them in my case.

When I opened it, a squad of half-painted Intercessors glared at me, accusingly.

Fair enough. I started painting these when I planned to use them on a vacation to visit Lexington of Red Wunz Go Fasta (and soon the owner of a new Space Marine Chapter: The Ashen Swords). However, COVID happened and then a lot of other stuff too, which made me less inclined to paint.

However, I’m back in the saddle and pleased to present the squad, finished!

The Sergeant’s hammer and brassiere are from the Salamanders Primaris upgrade sprue, and the flame is painted with the new Talassar Blue Contrast paint over white, with a bit of drybrushing at the edges.

From a modeling standpoint, I’ve painted three Primaris units, and I noticed a significant difference from the design philosophy of the older Space Marines.

Firstborn Marines are, of course, multi-part which allows greater posing and customization. You can choose to add grenades, pouches, or holstered pistols at your discretion.

Primaris Marines are mono-pose. They’re going to look a bit same-y in larger armies (which should be combated with extensive conversion IMHO). Also, they have pouches, pistols, etc, sculpted directly onto their belts. While this takes away your choice, I have to say these pouches look more real to me. The older glue-on pouches never perfectly matched the curve of the waist, and always left a bit of a gap at the front or back. These look like they’re really on the belt, which is a bonus.

Next, more Indominus marines! I may even get off my ass and do an old-fashioned On My Plate post!

Indominus Part 1 – Eradicators

Got the Indominus box and decided to go with my love of Gravis armor first. Here are the Eradicators!

Oh, no. Wait. That’s THE Eradicator, the menace of squash courts everywhere.

Here are MY Eradicators.

These are much nicer than the Aggressors. There’s not too much detail and they don’t have random relics hanging in front of their junk. But they are detailed enough to be interesting visually.

Next: Outrider Bikers!

Painting Competition entry: The Star Cyclones

A while ago at AFK Games, when contrast paints came out, they passed out some easy-build Intercessors, and had a painting contest.

I was called away before finishing, but came back to finish the next day. I wanted to challenge myself…

…with orange.

Not a lot of chapters are orange! So, I did it. Here is an Intercessor of the Star Cyclones chapter.

Next: Indominus Marines!