Back to Basics, Part III: Combi-melta Sergeant

It's depressing to think that I haven't finished a model since July. It's not that I haven't been doing anything. In fact, during that time I prepped and primed over a dozen Tactical Marines, a Librarian, an Aegis Defence Line, its gun emplacements, and a comm relay. I even helped to prepare and prime my daughter's Death Company. But it's not encouraging to do so much work and still not have anything new to put on the table.

But this week I finally finished a new model. And I think it'll be a pretty useful one, too:

Melta: the Marine player's best friend for taking out armor

Somehow I've gone all this time with a single painted Tactical Marine Sergeant; i.e., the Black Reach model modified to carry a plasma pistol. Whenever I needed other Sergeants, I simply grabbed an unpainted model with a bolt pistol and a chainsword that Bryce gave me when I started the hobby.

With melta weapons being the surest bet for tank-busting in 7th Edition, I figured I should finally add a combi-melta Sergeant to my army. I built this guy using Mk VI legs with studs, a Mk V torso, a Mk VI helmet, a backpack, and arms from the new Tactical Squad kit. The right shoulder pad with the Ultramarines logo comes from the Commander kit while the studded shoulder pad on his left comes from the old Tactical Squad (although the new kit has a studded pad, too). His backpack decoration is from the Command Squad kit, the parchment/loincloth is from the old Tactical Squad, the melta bomb on his hip is from the Assault Squad kit, and his combi-melta is from the Sternguard kit.

I painted him using an approach meant to stretch my supply of Mordian Blue. The first two or three layers are Macragge Blue, which entirely covers the black primer. I follow that up with only one or two coats of Mordian Blue. Although the two colors are noticeably different, they're close enough that it doesn't take too much Mordian to completely cover the Macragge. I then wash the model with Nuln Oil and finish up with a dry brushing of Macragge Blue. The end result is a bit more purple than my first models, which were dry brushed with the old Ultramarines Blue.

This combi-melta Sergeant is part of my plans for deploying "melta trios"; i.e., drop podding 10 man Tactical Squads containing a combi-melta/melta bomb Sergeant, a meltagun, and a multi-melta. With the Ultramarines' Tactical Doctrine allowing re-rolls to hit, in a single turn these squads would have a 40.5% chance of exploding an AV14 vehicle, a 50.1% chance of exploding an AV13 vehicle, and a 57.8% chance of exploding an AV12 vehicle.