Hi again,

or better „Kölle Alaaf!“ Last week on Thursday the Cologne street carnival started and it swept my senses away, but the hang-over is gone and I’m back to work.

So today you will see the first pictures of my army. I completed building the first tactical Squad, but as I just had my first look at the pictures I realized there a still a few molding lines left I still have to shave off.  I did not glue on the Bolters yet as the painting is a lot easier without them. (The melta-gun is not glued on as well it’s just on the pictures so you guys know which one will be wielding the special weapon.)

So now some pics:

These are the first nine marines. The marine on the left in the first picture is the corporal, a rank non-existing since 3^rd edition if I remember correctly, but I just wanted to get a special marine for leading one squad if I split the squad in to two. His left arm is bionic, but more on that.  In the last picture there is the melta-gun carrier with a gas-mask head and the heavy-weapon wielding marine.

Now on to the sergeant:

As seen in my list he is wielding a combi-melta and a power fist. This Squad is supposed to look a little bit more on the move, this is why I used all the assault marine legs I could find in my bitz box.

Before I started this project I tried to get as many different armor types from Forgeworld as I could find and pay for without getting bankrupt. I got a lot of MK VI ones so they are sprinkled all over the squads. I wanted the sergeant to show that he’s such an accomplished warrior he was given the right to wear an old baroque MK II armor and I think it’s doing a great job giving him a unique look and feel. Beside the different armor types I got bionic arms as well, some from Forgeworld as seen on the marine in the middle of the first picture and some from MaxMini as seen on the corporal. (BTW the helmet on the sergeant is from MaxMini as well.) And of course I got an Iron Hands squad from GW as well you can see one of their special Bolters on the last picture. I didn’t want to go all crazy about bionics and tried to only use it economically, so the marines with bionics get a little bit more attention. I tried to keep it as simple as possible so I can build one squad in up to three evening sessions. So it’s more or less just swapping weapons, heads and other bitz from different Space Marine boxes and using my big bitz box with items by 3^rd party companies like MaxMini or MicroArt.

Today a package from Poland arrived with some really cool new close combat weapons. I just put a normal marine chainsaw next to it so you can get a feeling of how big they are. The axes and sword on the left hand side will be used with the two HQs of my army. The big chain blades have just been bought, because they look so awesome I just had to buy them. ;) 

Folks, that‘s it for today as Buffy just started on TV and, yeah, I kind of like it, but before I leave I just gotta tell you what will be up next. On my hobby table the second squad is mostly assembled and my first Dreadnought is mostly assembled as well. It is a normal GW one so I just have to think about something to make him a little bit special.

Goodbye folks!