Brushwork – Wednesday 28th November

I’ve had quite a long break from the painting desk, although I’ve not been totally out of the hobby, as I’ve managed to fit in quite a few games over the past month or so (some of which are on the campaign map, some which aren’t). This week, I’ve been working on my Sternguard units for my Redeemers Space Marines.

Since 5th Edition I’ve been using a unit of Sternguard in my Space Marine army, even if the rest of what I picked changed on a game-to-game basis. Given the limited successes of my Space Marine lists, I’ve decided to go back to how I used to play my Marine army, with a standard list, so that I can get used to the various units and work out their strengths and weaknesses a little better.

With this in mind, I decided on a new structure for my list in 6th Edition, and, given how successful my Sternguard had been in previous games, I decided to add a second unit of them using some spare Tactical Marines I had knocking around. In order to further increase the effectiveness of these units, I decided that I would use the rules for Pedro Kantor in my list, making these two units scoring. I already had the perfect stand-in for the character – the limited edition Games Day Space Marine Captain from Games Day 1999 (yikes!). It was a simple weapon-swap to give him a Storm Bolter as opposed to the Bolter he normally comes with.

A couple of months ago, I discovered Anvil Industry, a British company who make conversion pieces and weapons which happen to fit the GW Space Marines. I figured the perfect thing to make my Sternguard further stand out from the regular Space Marines was to add some of their Compact Box Mags to my units. I must say, the casting quality of these pieces is fantastic, I’ll definitely be getting further kits from them in the future for other projects.

Anyway, on with the show! First up, my Pedro Kantor stand-in, Lord Commander Xerius, who I showed a work in progress pic of back in September:

Captain Xerius almost complete – click to enlarge

Here’s a shot of the detail on his shoulder-guard. Interestingly, I didn’t re-paint this part (other than to add a wash of Devlan Mud), so at least the 13-year old paintjob wasn’t completely useless!

Detail of Xerius’ Shoulder-guard – click to enlarge

The first unit of Sternguard, led by a Veteran Sergeant with his Combi-Plasma Gun:

Sternguard Veteran Unit – click to enlarge

And some closeups of some of the squad members, showing of their box-mags:

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine – click to enlarge

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine – click to enlarge

Here’s a detail shot of his oath-paper:

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine – click to enlarge

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine – click to enlarge

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine – click to enlarge

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine – click to enlarge

Here’s a different angle of that last one to show off the box-mag a bit more:

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine – click to enlarge

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine Sergeant – click to enlarge

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine Sergeant – click to enlarge

Also, here’s a shot of the second unit, who are still in their early stages of paintwork:

Sternguard Veteran Space Marine unit – click to enlarge

Finally, I also spent a bit more time on my pair of Vindicators which just need a bit of detail work with some paint chips and weathering to be complete:

Space Marine Vindicator – click to enlarge

Space Marine Vindicator – click to enlarge

Space Marine Vindicator – click to enlarge

These two guys will also be included in my usual Space Marine list, as I find they’re very useful at soaking up a bit of fire, but also they can wreak havoc if they surivive long enough to fire!