"going into that droppod? droppod goes into the warzone? sharks in the warzone... space sharks..."major Quint of the 111st Royston Rifles imperial guard
to open let me explain via three points:
so, first. yes this is not specialist game stuff but to be honest this is the only active forum I am a contributing member of and felt I'd like to share this with you guys. hope this is ok. If not i'll stop immeadiately
second. the space marine is dead. long live the space marine.
yes primaris is here and is totally worth the wait if you ask me!
third. space sharks...
yes carcharadon astra themselves reborn in primaris marines.
ok, I've been funting around with 40k since around 96! I began with the little rtb01 marines and then went onto second edition marines eventally settling on guard forces from thereon in.
I never went back to marines as I felt the scale issue (presented by so many 40k stories) was all too apparent when you've got a guard who is sometimes taller than the marine he's fighting with...
I practically bounced up and down with joy when the primaris marines were released this year as I can finally field a unit of allied marines that dont look ludicrously out of scale with my guard.
so why space sharks?
to be honest I'm a sucker for moncromatic colourschemes. I practically see the world in black and white and this is evident in the dark and brooding colourschemes I've used on almost every force I've painted (aside from bfg and my doomguy themed cadians that is). it is the 'dark Imperium' after all...
also they hark back to those heady teen days of the rogue trader marines and i'm an even bigger sucker for nostalgia!
so with this in mind I set about converting a squad of intercessors from the dark imperium set (ebay)
these models are great and to be honest are part of the reason I'm back on 40k again. these models (much like the genestealer cultists set) are designed to go together a specific way in a set pose but in doing so capture all the character and design beauty that I miss from the days of white metal minitures. that's not to say that I'm against multipart kits that can be posed any way. the tactical marines and cadians have tons of character but there are too army examples of models where the plastic replacements are just abhorrent. just look at the transition between the metal 90's scouts to the plastic set. argh! horrid! all the character was lost for me. these set pose jobbies (like the spacehulk and even to a lesser extent the assault on black reach models) retain that artistry I love and most fondly remember from my 40k past.
still I digress.
space sharks... my limited knowledge of them is +/- thus: crazy-assed porcelian white skinned nutters with a penchant for chain weapons that have been lurking around in the background of 40k since bitch slapping the mantis warriors in the badab war. they prefer stealth untill they reach their objective/target where upon the set upon the enemy with barely contained ferocity all in complete silence. leaving a trail of blood and carnage in their wake and disappearing just as fast. in fact their savagery would possibly give a world eater a run for his money and they're on our side! they mostly wear corvus and heresy marks of armour and have a lot of termies too.
great! all I needed was to convert these primaris to look a bit more oldskool:
as you can see this intercessor sgt has mk6 lid and pads and a phobos pattern bolter.
the colorscheme is mecanicus grey with skavenblight dinge parts (knees, bellyplates, ankle and elbow etc..) and black pads/eagle. I took some cues from aiden daley's storm hawk primaris (wd aug 2017) and used the same highlight colours all over to better blend the mini. also did similar chips/weathering along every highlighted edge. with the pockets and kit I went for olive green as its similar in tone to the grey but adds a real tactical look to it. the savage looking combat knives handily come from the kroot sprue. these kroot bits are a fantastic addition to spacesharks as they have the tribal look and large hooks (originally used for housing kroot lunch gibs) which add to the whole shark/fishy feel. scout chest rig kit further shows off the scale and adds to the aformentioned tactical look.
you can see I have altered the chapter symbol to represent a swimming shark viewed from above. (time and ease of painting were the reason for this and in truth I much prefer the simplistic look) I have included the red stripe on the lid as on the classic scheme but I'm thinking of using that as a denotation of rank/veterancy.
this is but the first and will be followed by the other four. one will have mk5 style armour (using more of the studs and a converted centurion head) and there will be another mk6. I'll be swapping out this guy's backpack for a mk6 one from the assault marine set (I'll do the same on the other mk6 and the mk5 too) to better complete the truescale effect I'm going for. will probably try to get hold of the holstered chainswords from the mk3 hh models to add too. but they can be added any time in the future...
I lavished a lot of time and effort on this and to be honest this is the best painting I've ever done to date. so have a shamelessly over-edited glamour shot:
I've not been this excited and enthused by 40k since 3rd edition! its an odd feeling and has clearly empowered me to do better... hope you enjoy and if ok, and if you want to see more, I'll share more soon!
thanks...
*EDIT*
just took this shot so thought I would put this on here too. shows the intercessor in a bit more context. standing in a ruined monastery with one of my guard from the 111st Royston rifles.
also here is a wip of the mk5 guy I mentioned above.
chainbayonets! YAY!
