Anniversary Marine Project (Part 1)

The winner of the Neverness Hobby Chronicle birthday-6th year anniversary giveaway, Adam, reached out to accept the reward and inform me on how he would like to have the model completed:

"When I first got into the hobby back in 2010, I bought a box of Black Reach, my friend took the orcs and I took the marines. I picked a black/bronze scheme for them, and slopped some paint on. I was never happy with the results (black is hard to paint!) so I quickly moved onto imperial guard, but I've since picked up some 30k stuff and have been wanting to return to my...preheresy Iron Warrior loyalists? A similar paint scheme done by someone much more talented than myself could be a fantastic reference piece and inspiration."

Adam's original paint scheme from 2010.

So this miniature is going to be inspirational piece? That is pretty cool, but also it ups the game a bit as now I really got to do the best job I can do on this marine, especially if it's going to be the inspirational piece for a whole army!

After some additional correspondence he decided to take a Plasma Gun option with the heating coils painted red. That should be fun, since I have never painted them in any color other than blue.

I immediately started the night I first heard from Adam by picking a base and cutting a slot for the slotta tab.

Slot.

And presto, he was based!

Astartes Erectus.

Adam also gave me some direction on the look he wants for the base:

"I've tried to base my marines with a swamp inspired theme. I've attached an image of a contemptor base I was working on as well as one of my old Black Reach Marines. I found that Stirland Mud with a bit of Pallid Wych Flesh drybrushed onto it gave it the color I liked for the ground."

Sounds easy enougb to me, and the effect does look sufficiently swampy.

Tread'n on swampy ground.

After thinking about it over the course of a week, I figured out how I am going to paint this scheme, which will reveal that in future posts as I progress on the model. In our correspondence Adam requested that I lay off the 'hazard symbols' that seem so common with this Legion, and should be an easy request to fullfill as those things can be time consuming.

Iron Warriors Heresy-era scheme

So having said all that I was able to get started on the model. Gathering and selecting the bits, and assembling the plasma gun arm took me longer than expected, but I'll blame the resident toddler for distracting me. Here I have started the base and primed the model black:

Primed.

 Next I have begun the drilling and pinning for the arms. Neccessary if one hopes to not be reglueing them back on all the time.

Drilling the holes.

Test fitting.

And there you go, the project has offically started!