A little break from chaos

On the sixteenth of May, Games Workshop celebrated the birthday of the Space Marine figure. It was first released thirty years ago this year, and a special figure was made as a limited edition to be sold just this weekend. I bought one, and it will be one of the first minis to be built when I start with my Space Marines again. I already see it on sale at Ebay and Finn for three times the price it was sold for, but since there is a rules restriction on having more than one in your army, I see no point in getting more even though it looked cool.

The Games Workshop store in Oslo had a special guest throughout the weekend, as Brother Maximus of the Ultramarines had arrived to take part in the celebrations...

Throughout the day there was an event where you should paint up a Space Marine to look like an entirely new chapter. At the end of the day the staff picked a winner. There was no real price, but the winning colourscheme would be used on a small army of in-store figures painted up by the staff. I entered a red and silver scheme, but it did not win. The winner was a sort of weird looking yellow and pink, and I look forward to see what the staff can get out of that scheme.

I wanted to sit and paint for a long period of the day, but I didn't feel it would be right to sit and paint Age of Sigmar Chaos figures on such a day. So I brought with me some Space Marines that needed a re-paint and also my Imperial Guard unit with two females in it. Here is a little pic of them...

The Space Marines in the background were originally painted up as veterans with white helmets and white trim on their shoulderguards. Then some time back I did a figure count and found I had more than a hundred minis that needed to be First company figures I believe I have about seventy terminators, and then some Sternguard and Vanguard veterans too, so I decided to make these miniatures in to second company instead. That means blue helmets and yellow trim. Most of the Second company will be assembled using Dark Angels Veterans models, as I really love their look. And by doing this, I can also field a Dark Angel successor chapter using the Dark Angels rules and these minis if this should prove helpful in a game sometime.
The way I have planned it, the different companies in the Gatekeepers chapter are specialists in fighting different foes. All companies can face all foes, but if the foe is known before troops are sent to help, then the Chapter Master will try and send troops from the company that is specialists on that kind of mission or against that kind of foe.
So far I have decided the following:
First Comapny: Veterans, moved here from all other active companies
Second Company: Xenos, many warriors from this company have served for shorter or longer terms in the Deathwatch.
Third Company: Chaos
Fourth Company: Fast attack specialists, lots of bikes in this chapter
This is as far as I have some so far.

The Imperial Guard minis I am painting up have two minis that stand out. One of them is given purple hair, while the other is blond. Most Imperial Guard soldiers are men, but there are some women in the Guard as well. Some regiments are all male or all female, but there are also examples of mixed regiments, like the Valhallan 597th where Commissar Chiaphas Caine served in most of the books written about him. And there are also both male and female troopers in the Tanith First And Only. 

My female sergeant is a tribute to a science fiction writer named Tanya Huff, and her Sergeant Torin Kerr.
I plan to add some more female troopers in the future, as I am quite happy with my conversions, and I have more Deamonettes heads to use...

But first I will paint up my AoS Chaos army.  I have painted the purple on to the Slaanesh warriors now, and I am very happy with the way it turned out. This gives me high hopes for my Daemonettes as well, as they will have the same purple on hair and details. I hope it looks just as nice after the purple wash is added.