Space Marines update

As several people on the Warhammer 40K forums didn't find my fluff believable, I had to go a few rounds with myself. And... *drumroll*
I've decided to totaly rethink my Space Marine fluff. As a result of this I will also need to change the apperance of my Marines.
The main design will be as is, but some changes will appear.
The main color will be Ultramarine Blue (as before)
Legs will have a darker color below the knee, Midninght Blue for the minis already finished, Necron Abyss for new minis.
One shouldergard will be Scull White with the chapter symbol painted on in black. For the first company there will be a thin black line between the shoulderguard and the white rim. The other Shoulderguard will be Ultramarine Blue with the company color on the rim.

I really liked the name The 2nd Ultras, and the name might stick as a nickname for the chapter, but there has to be a new official name. I have gone several rounds with myself to figure out if I should use an existing name from the Lexicanum as there are several non described chapters there, but if I choose this I make it possible for someone to write about my chapter and hence change my chapter history without my knowledge. So I have landed on finding my own name and chapter symbol. I have several symbols I would like to use, but my problem is applying it to the small shoulderguards and making it look similar from marine to marine. This means I will have to simplify quite a lot. Also, since my hands are not noted for being 100% steady on a normal day it will have to be simplified further.
I am currently testing out patterns on paper, and will try the best of these drawings on some spare shoulderguards from my bitzbox tonight.
After I have landed on a shoulder guard pattern, I will try to find a name that sounds good and matches the symbol.
I will try and post a picture of a Marine with the new symbol as soon as I have decided what it will be.

Finally, some progress...

The Imperial Guard soldiers are finally starting to leave the table and move over to the box where the miniatures awaiting basework stand. Half of the two plastic command squads were transferred over yesterday. The rest are missing one or two minor details or needs minor mistakes corrected before they join the box. Hopefully they all will join this afternoon. They will need washing along with the basework, but I have to do some tests to find the correct washes before I start. No ned to ruin miniatures with wrong washes...

Some Spacemarines are standing battle ready, just waiting to join the base-box. All that is missing is the final wash. I know what washes to use here, so it shouldn't take too long before they get off the table.
They have several units of battle brothers still to be finished, but hopefully most of them will be off the table during the spring. My assault squad will probably be on the table a little longer, as I am missing most of their arms. I hope I will get to arm them by using spare weapons from the boxed sets I have on my shelf, but time will show.

While assembling my Chaplain venerable dreadnought I managed to break a piece of the assault drill arm, so I ordered a spare now. Also added the upgradepack for the cadian veterans, so I can build sergeant Bastonne and his elite warriors. Will need another upgrade pack to make all 10 soldiers in the unit, but I will see how the upgrade pack is to work with before I buy more.

The base design for the Imperial Guard army is now decided. It will be nature bases. This means some will be grass, some rocks, some gravel. Some of the larger bases will get rivers or other larger details. Several of the bases will also get some sort of bushes or growth.
Since battles often rage for as long time, some bases will also have razor wire and other signs of a warzone on them.

I have also decided to make some of the heavy weapons teams hide behind trenches or earth walls, perhaps with added sandbags. This will depend how much of the base is left after the assembled models are placed.