Curiously (or is it sadly?), these are the most marines of a single color scheme that I've had since my 30k Alpha Legionnaires (who in the end only clocked in at a whopping 13 minis total) and the most of any single squad going all the way back to my......Storm Wardens (circa 2013-14).
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| The closest thing I could find to a whole Storm Wardens army shot on this blog... |
Yeah, wow. Consistency, it's not my thing apparently.
Anyways, back to the present.
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| The chapter icons went on well enough, though a few of the tactical arrows required considerable profanity to achieve proper adhesion... |
In the end, this squad was kinda fun to paint despite how much I normally dislike batch painting (even small batches of 3-4). At least at this point I'm not loathing the prospect of painting more of 'em.
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| The squad's 'big guns'. |
The squad's leg greaves are rather muddy meaning the squad at some point had to wade across a flooded trench, gully or the like which lead to the curiously dirty state of one battle brother in particular:
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| Genetically enhanced or not everybody falls in the mud! |
Was it a hole unseen beneath the murk? Perhaps the shock wave of a nearby explosion? Or was it just an opportune shove delivered at just the right moment by one of his malicious brethren?
The battlefield debris on their bases is a bit inconsistent, but in the end won't really be noticeable. The first few had Eldar bits added to their bases as those were readily available without any effort required to sift through my pile o' spare bitz. That said, the Astral Claws were previously tasked with containing the Maelstrom's renegade and Xenos scourges meaning Eldar debris isn't too far off of the mark. Perhaps the Eldar were simply raiders or traders who mistakenly wandered into yet another Space Marine conflict
The Executioners' chapter Rhino door, partial hatch and helm are in line with the Badab war background. Whether or not they were friend or foe at this point is unknown. Executioners aside, the squad sergeant has a half buried helm of one of his fellow sergeants on his base and in true 40k form, human skulls are sprinkled throughout.
Overall I'm quite happy with these guys (shitty photos aside), so keep an eye out for more Astral Claws in the future.
3 comments:
Good job! Curiously, you rarely see a really dirty marine even tho the lore often has them battle damaged to the point where only the bare ceramite is showing. Hmm interesting idea..
Nice, they look great and if struggling with decals, do you use MicroSol? It softens the decal and lets them bend around curved surface, minimises wrinkles and then after a second coat, dry and press firmly down to eliminate the tiny wrinkles giving a painted on look, then seal with a layer of ‘Ardcoat. Perfect every time.
@Monkeychuka: Thanks! I often have 'dirty' minis for a beat-all-to-hell look, especially as it hides LOTS of mistakes! I went a slightly different route with the having waded through mud appearance on this squad. It was only when painting the last four that I decided that somebody needed to 'properly' fall in the mud, primarily as I too can't recall seeing one painted as such.
@Siph: Oh I do, and have taken up your tip of painting over the decals with ard coat when dry before moving on to the inking stage. Works pretty good actually.
I think my decal issues this time were due to not only being homemade decals, but old ones at that. Honestly, I don't recall what space marine project I'd even made them for, much less in what year (but am guessing 4-5+ years ago). In the end it was only two or three arrows that gave me issues, so maybe I was just rushing as I was so close to finishing the whole squad or something.
Oh well, they're on and look good so that's all that matters I guess.
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