Make Some Noise

Turn that speaker up to 11, it's time to RAAWWWWWK

You want to get Noise Marines on the table, you're going to have to improvise a little these days. The rumour mill says if I wait until next month, there might be some plastic ones. And the Emperor's Children are bound to make it back to Codex form some day. But who has that kind of patience?

Not this Kraken! I eBayed a second sprue of the Chaos Space Marines from Shadowspear (cheaper than the nicer box kit) and spend the difference on some shiny resin bits. Then I got me bitz box out and got to work.

Spellcrow makes the resin bits I used. The guitars, the sonic guns and the big backpacks are from their range, the Pleasure Legions kit. However, a few heads and arms extra appeared in my order - quite a lot extra, in fact! There were spare legs, loincloths and shoulder pads too, not to mention an entire bonus model, who you'll see in due course. So that was very kind of them!

(My wife, cynic that she is, pointed out that it's probably just good business sense. And I did later notice that all these spares might well be from flawed casts, there were some broken bits or missing parts. Who cares! I like freebies!)

Man, I wish I did have the money for the posable CSMs. This was quite a hard job, cutting and reposing all the easyfit models. Luckily, I had plenty of spare bits, including more than enough of the old Tac Marine 'empty hand cupping a what will be a gun' arms to get the Sonic Blasters to sit well.

Lots of random extra bits from a variety of sources. There's obviously a fair bit of other CSM going on, but also the Commissar skull from an ogryn, the head of a melta from the Raptors, some Tyranid biowhip cables and an elderly Marauder Horseman banner pole in there, as well as some Eliminator heads (which look surprisingly chaotic! Those mouths!). Great fun to do, and the first time I've spent so long or so much care on a squad - each of these was a good hour's job.

The squad is ten strong, but could be fielded as two smaller groups with a better split of purpose. Five to belt in strong for hand to hand, with chainswords and pistols. Some of the chainswords are in fact guitars, because then I can make Power Chord jokes.

The other five can hang back and fire, rocking with the Blastmaster. Two squads also meant two opportunities to make champions with Doom Sirens. They're the vocalists in the band, I decided, and gave them mics and dramatic poses, even though Battlescribe won't let me equip either. However I field them, they're going with the Alpha Legion as reinforcements, although no Hydras on these guys - I figure the 20th Legion don't like zealots and will be happy to hire these guys as a loud and short-lived diversion while they do the serious work elsewhere.

Painting was an absolute joy and a fearful chore all at the same time. Pastels are not easy! And baroque armour trim in colourshift paints, which take at least three thin coats before they work, is just self flagellation of the worst kind. The worst moment was after the varnish spray, when I discovered all the shimmer had been hopelessly dulled and I'd need to do another round. I hope Slaanesh approves of all this masochism.

Painting Guide:

• Basecoat - Black
• Armour Trim - Celestia Grey, then either Tropical Green colourshift (the melee lot) or Storm Surge Green colourshift (the ranged guys). These two paints are almost indistinguishable, I think, the latter is supposed to be a colder green/purple tint, but it looks a lot like the former's yellow/green sparkle. Makes for a decent mother of pearl look, either way, and I couldn't actually say for sure that the post-varnish coat didn't mix the colours round.
• Pinks - Screamer Pink base washed with Druchii Violet, then blended up towards white via Emperor's Children
• Blues - Electric Blue, as above but with Drakenhof Nightshade wash
• Greens - Incubi Darkness blended upwards towards white via Kabalite Green
• Yellows - Averland Sunset and Reikland Flesh Wash blended towards Flash Gits Yellow, very small Hexos Palesun drybrush in places, leopard print done with watery Rhinox Hide
• Silver - Platemail Metal and Nuln Oil Gloss, Shining Silver drybrush
• Brass - Weapon Bronze, Agrax Gloss, Runelord Brass and Shining Silver drybrushes
• Blacks - Dark Reaper and then Celestia Grey over the basecoat
• Flesh - Tanned Flesh, Reikland Flesh wash, Kislev Flesh, Flayed One Flesh
• Leather belts - either Rhinox and Nuln oil, pastels as above, the same as the flesh or blacks above, or Skrag Brown with Dark Tone and Kislev Flesh highlights
• Other colours - You know, I rather lost track of exactly what went on who over time. They're kind of busy in terms of palette, and I'm very glad they're done

Time to squeeze in something uncomplicated to keep me sane - these five Hallucinations from Deep Madness are charming little squiddies. I still haven't played Deep Madness yet! The second edition rules are already out! But these guys will make nice proxies either as spore mines for the Tyranids or Furies for the Alpha Legion.

Right! A couple of last models to finish off for my own armies, then it's going to be commissions all the way through next year. Starting with Zombicide!