Armies on Parade - Part 1

Every year Games Workshop have a worldwide competition they call Armies on Parade. The rules have differed a bit from year to year, but the purpose have always been the same. Show off one of your armies.
Some people show an army, some build a big diorama showing an army in battle, and some do other things.

This year the competition is set for October 24th, and I have decided to participate for the first time.
I have been to Armies On Parade for two years and seen what people bring, and I would like to give it a go myself this year.
I do not think I will win anything, but hopefully some of the people in the event will like what I do, and more important it forces me to paint up my army and that is perhaps the biggest motivation to take part.

I plan to bring a Space Marine army (or part of it to be exact), with a little support from the Mechanicum.

I bought a base tile from Games Workshop at an event they had a little earlier, and also got to use their bit boxes to assemble what I would like to have on the board.
I chose a tile with a hill on it, and the idea is to have a tower on the hill, a bunker-like building below it and a partially underground passage between them to show that it is part of a bigger complex.

We were two people on the tile event, and while I was building buildings, the other man was building a big bridge, so I made my tower of the high tower from the Fortress of Redemption, and my bunker-like building from the curved wall tiles, while he made his bridgehead from the straight walls.
The passage between them will be made with plasticard, and the roof of the passage is floor tiles from a manufactorum set.
I'm also thinking of adding top wall tiles on the passageway, but I will see how it will look. If I do, I have plenty in my bit boxes to use.

In the tall tower there will be one or two chaplains (the one I know I will use is an Interrogator Chaplain that came as a special character in a Dark Angels box. I don't have the box, but I bought him on Ebay just because he looked so mean). Since I am leaning more and more towards that the Gatekeepers have some Dark Angels working with them, and not as part of the chapter, I will let him keep all his Dark Angels symbols. Then I might add another chaplain who is clearly a part of the Gatekeepers. And I will need a captain. I will see if I can fit three characters on the tower, hopefully that should be possible. if I have to sacrifice one, then it will only be one chaplain. I haven't decided what captain to use yet, but I need to decide quite soon.

On the roof of the bunker, there will be 10 scout snipers, and their leader Sergeant Telion (with a new name and without Ultramarines symbols). Looks like 9 sniper rifles and one rocket launcher, with the new rocket-bit with a rocket being fired (from the new devastator sprues).

Beside the tall tower on the hill, a Hunter will stand aiming for targets, and three bikes and an attack bike will be on their way down the hill in some manner (if it gets too much I will sacrifice the attack bike), to take the fight to the enemy.

On the flat surface, or maybe partially in the slope, there will be a 10 man strong assault squad lead by their sergeant. They will have two marines with eviscerators (big two-handed chainswords), one with a flamer, and one with a plasma pistol. The sergeant also have a plasma pistol. In accordance with the idea of the Gatekeepers, I used as many beaky heads as there was in the boxes for these units, and two marines also got studded shoulderpads.

Also on the ground there will be two five man squads of devastators. These are in the process of being built, so I have not sorted out their weapon options yet. But there will be beakies in these units as well, and they will be as heavily armed as possible, That is why I went with two five man squads instead of one ten man squad, as I can have eight heavy weapons instead of four this way.

Behind a barricade (hopefully in front of the bunker) will be two Kastelan robots and their handler from the Adeptus Mechanicus. Their presence hints that the base might have something to do with the Mechanicus as well, and I just wanted them on the board because they are really cool models. Both robots will be armed with phosphor blasters and their Cybernetica Datasmith will wear the robes of the Tech Priests from Mars.

I am also thinking of adding a Venerable Dreadnought of some sort from my collection to the board, but I will see what I end up with in the end.

I will also add some small details to the board to give it some feeling of a wasteland, like a small cestpool with some chemical spill (a small pond of Nurgle rot and barrels floating in it) some barricades here and there, and some rats on the slope. The rats are from some Skaven sprues that was available to raid when planning the table, and I will make one or two small bushes on the slope as well.

So far the table and buildings are primed, I will have to make the passage from plasticard (bought and in planning). The 10 man assault squad is partially painted (missing weapons and the final details), the first devastator squad is being assembled and painted, the 10 scouts is partially assembled and partially painted, and the Hunter is assembled and primed. The interrogator chaplain is also primed and partially painted.