The Birth of an Army
As I’m sure any of you who have known me for any length of time knows, I’ve been assembling plastic, metal, and now resin figures and painting them for Warhammer 40,000 for years - specifically since 1994. I’ve got several armies in various stages in my closet, collected during the various editions of the game - Tyranids and Imperial Guard (2nd edition), Dark Eldar, Space Wolves, and Necrons (3rd edition), and lately Ultramarines for the 5th edition - which is the only army I’ve been working on since 2008.
In all cases my armies grew relatively organically, unit by unit, vehicle by vehicle, as I decided I need this or that, or I liked the look of a specific troop type or whatever. However, a few months back I was inspired by an article in White Dwarf and contemplated collecting another army: the Flesh Tearers, a Successor Chapter of the Blood Angels Space Marines. I waffled a bit and like most projects would have likely discarded it and focused on continuing my Ultramarines, but I decided to actually take this as a personal challenge. I wanted to try a different approach to collecting an army, and I wanted to take a bit of a break from the Ultramarines.
I decided to collect my force to a specific list of 2,000 points, as opposed to collecting in my usual ad hoc fashion. I planned what I would have to purchase, and took the opportunity for a bit of cohesion in the form of sculpted shoulder pads for squad and Chapter markings, and I picked up some Flesh Tearers etched brass from Forgeworld as well. After getting paid and trading in some old RPG books I didn’t need, I picked up the bulk of the Flesh Tearers last Friday and brought them home.
The goal here was to collect an army as an army, and so I started assembling my Death Company Marines on Friday night. Posing plastic miniatures is an art in and of itself, and one that I really hadn’t put much thought in previously. I didn’t realize how long this phase of the project would take; I naively assumed that I could assemble 40+ plastic Space Marines and 5 vehicles in a weekend. Yeah… that didn’t happen. Friday night saw two models assembled, Saturday saw another three once I got back from a six-hour shift at the store, and Sunday saw another five. Parts for the last two Death Company Marines have been laid aside for tonight and I’m hoping to get one Tactical Marines Squad assembled as well. However, I knew I was on the right track on Friday, when I showed my wife the first model I’d assembled and she thought he had been cast in the pose I’d assembled; it look that natural.
I hope to post pictures later and use this series as a record of creating an army from the ground-up as the Flesh Tearers grow. In all honesty, I already sketched out another 1,000 point addition to bring the entire army up to 3,000 points - but that’s only after I finish the first phase!
In all cases my armies grew relatively organically, unit by unit, vehicle by vehicle, as I decided I need this or that, or I liked the look of a specific troop type or whatever. However, a few months back I was inspired by an article in White Dwarf and contemplated collecting another army: the Flesh Tearers, a Successor Chapter of the Blood Angels Space Marines. I waffled a bit and like most projects would have likely discarded it and focused on continuing my Ultramarines, but I decided to actually take this as a personal challenge. I wanted to try a different approach to collecting an army, and I wanted to take a bit of a break from the Ultramarines.
I decided to collect my force to a specific list of 2,000 points, as opposed to collecting in my usual ad hoc fashion. I planned what I would have to purchase, and took the opportunity for a bit of cohesion in the form of sculpted shoulder pads for squad and Chapter markings, and I picked up some Flesh Tearers etched brass from Forgeworld as well. After getting paid and trading in some old RPG books I didn’t need, I picked up the bulk of the Flesh Tearers last Friday and brought them home.
The goal here was to collect an army as an army, and so I started assembling my Death Company Marines on Friday night. Posing plastic miniatures is an art in and of itself, and one that I really hadn’t put much thought in previously. I didn’t realize how long this phase of the project would take; I naively assumed that I could assemble 40+ plastic Space Marines and 5 vehicles in a weekend. Yeah… that didn’t happen. Friday night saw two models assembled, Saturday saw another three once I got back from a six-hour shift at the store, and Sunday saw another five. Parts for the last two Death Company Marines have been laid aside for tonight and I’m hoping to get one Tactical Marines Squad assembled as well. However, I knew I was on the right track on Friday, when I showed my wife the first model I’d assembled and she thought he had been cast in the pose I’d assembled; it look that natural.
I hope to post pictures later and use this series as a record of creating an army from the ground-up as the Flesh Tearers grow. In all honesty, I already sketched out another 1,000 point addition to bring the entire army up to 3,000 points - but that’s only after I finish the first phase!