Green Dragon - Astral Knights Space Marines C&C Welcome

[greendragon]

I haven't properly used a work in progress log in a while and when I had it was a little bit sporadic so I thought I'd put a bit of time and energy into it, so - on that note, I really hope the community likes my work and C&C are most appreciated!

Some of you may know I run a commission painting service on my website (see signature below for details) and this isn't an advert for that, but a showcase of the work I've done so far. My client has asked me to work on some Astral Knights Space Marines so without further ado, here is some of that work...

Before we dive right in, who are the Astral Knights? Taken from the 40k Lexicanum this short quote gives us a bit of background, "The Astral Knights sacrificed their chapter to destroy the World Engine. This Necron weapon was a planet-sized spaceship, armed with gauss projectors capable of scouring planets of all life. The World Engine destroyed a third of an Imperial Navy Battlefleet before Artor Amhrad, the Chapter Master of the Astral Knights, decided to ram the World Engine with his Battle barge, Tempestus. Engines at full power, the Battle Barge collided with the World Engine's shields, and broke through. Only once they were inside the shields did the Space Marines have a chance. The entire Astral Knights chapter deployed from Drop Pods onto the artificial world's surface. For one hundred hours, seven hundred seventy-two Astral Knights fought against tens of thousands of Necrons, destroying every flux generator, weapon forge and command node they came upon. But each victory came at a price. Only Amhrad and five battle brothers were left to launch the final assault. Fighting with the fury that legends are made from, the surviving Astral Knights made their way to the deepest part of the World Engine that housed many command nodes. In a final act of heroism, Amhrad detonated melta-charges that brought down the World Engine's shields and silenced most of its weaponry. The Astral Knights were gone."



Our first batch in this project are two squads of Sternguard Marines. 14 marines in total plus one to spare, to be equiped with a flamer, as the box contains 5 per box! For this our client has ordered in specialist weapon upgrades in order to have 5 with combi-plasma and 2 with combi-melta per squad. These two squads will use the drop-pods, but we'll do them later.

While waiting for the upgrade kit to arrive, I had enough parts to piece together a couple of marines out of odd bits and pieces just to get a start on the squad. On a personal note, I am thankful that these are finecast models as despite all of the fuss about them, I believe they are a great idea and certainly much more fun to paint as all the details are there and can be brought to life in spectacular fashion. I've begun adding a few bits to the basing on these guys, the idea being that they are treading through apocalyptic, ruined cities - perhaps on the trail of the World Engine. So far I'm pleased with how they are looking.



And here is a snapshot of the work in progress as I started to get the colour scheme nailed down.


Which led into this, the first completed marine!

[greendragon]

Here we are then as we see a few more Marines going through the process.


Followed by our second complete Marine...



That Emblem was designed by the client and freehand painted on.

[greendragon]

We tried a little scorched effect on the end of this Sternguard Marine holding a flamer, to show that it has been used to burn the enemies of the Knights to a crisp.


A wider shot of the flamer.


Of course it wouldn't be 40K without some skulls in there somewhere! Lovely Chaos Warrior skulls severed and left to rot as the Astral Knights trundle through this terrain.


Another experimental effect, chips and chunks missing from this Marine's shoulder pad, he is an experienced Sternguard Veteran afterall. This effect is to depict perhaps him dipping his shoulder into a hail of oncoming bullet-fire and the ammunition ricocheting off in all directions.

[greendragon]

Again, all part of the Flamer model, a good close look at his helmet. We'll be posting a full picture of this guy when the rest of his armor is finished.


This chap is awaiting a final review by the client before he gets touched up, polished off and varnished to join his battle-ready comrades.

[greendragon]

Here we are then, the 4th finished Sternguard Marine, our Flamer. Very happy with this one.



The skulls on the base finished.


Another freehand painted emblem

[White Tiger88]

Not bad however the white looks really thick and the whole model could use a watered down black wash =/ But that's just my opinion.

[greendragon]

Hello White Tiger,

Good to hear from you! Thank you for the feedback. This confirms my suspicions about the white. We bought a second new one at the start of this project but it has already gone really thick and gunky and I'm getting really frustrated with Citadel paints. I may investigate alternative options regarding the white. The black wash was done to a previous model, but it became too dark - the client wanted a lighter feel to the knights given that they are a shining bright glorious chapter which I think works well with the backstory.

[greendragon]

The 5th Marine complete and ready to go, power fist charged and weapon at the ready.




And the 6th Marine who just needs basing, but complete and ready for battle. Emma is very happy with the Roman numerals on the shoulder.