Finished Assault Squad

Months ago, in my last post, I complained how real life can get in the way of the hobby. Having broken my leg just over a month before, I fell behind in my modeling. Unfortunately, breaking my leg proved to be relatively easy compared to the next event. Only three weeks after I wrote about the Deathwatch, our three year old was diagnosed with leukemia. Thankfully it's the most treatable form of leukemia, but it's still heartbreaking when your child has cancer, even the "easy" one.

Our family's faith and a fantastic team of doctors have been getting us through this, while 40K and a newfound interest in the X-Wing Miniatures Game have provided me with some distraction. However, I've had a hard time mustering much energy for blogging.

Anyway, I eventually finished the Assault Squad I started so long ago. I'm pretty happy with how the squad turned out:

I'm a big fan of the earlier marks of armor, equipping one Marine in a full suit of Mk VI plate and giving him a bionic arm for extra character. I'm irrationally proud of the small Assault logo I painted freehand on the Mk VI shoulder pad.

For those who less obsessed with the minutiae of Astartes power armor than I am, the left shoulder pad of a suit of Mk V or Mk VI armor is completely covered in studs rather than the Chapter logo as found on other marks of armor. Thus, the right shoulder pad shows both the Chapter logo as well as a smaller version of the squad logo. Since the right shoulder pad is also rimless, the Marine's Company is represented by something other than the color of the rim. I followed the example of the old Insignium Astartes and denoted the Company number with an Arabic numeral to the left of the Chapter logo.

From left to right: 2nd Company, 2nd Tactical Squad; 2nd Company, 7th Assault Squad;
2nd Company, 9th Devastator Squad; 1st Company, 3rd Veteran Squad

Except for the bionic arm, which came from the Space Marine Commander kit, the Mk VI Marine was assembled entirely from bits from the newer Assault Marine box. Another Marine ended up with a pair of Mk IV legs from the Betrayal at Calth kit:

I've been very happy with the figures in the new Assault Squad kit; the two-part legs allow much more dynamic poses and the arms have a lot more variety.

I've been trying to get the Ultramarine army in a good place so I can start my next one (I'm serious about it, this time). As I said in my last post, I was very excited to be finally be able to field a Deathwatch Kill Team. Who would have known that less than a year later GW would give us an entire Deathwatch army? As much as I love the Ultramarines, I've long wanted to model Astartes from other Chapters; the Deathwatch is the perfect opportunity to do it. For several weeks I've been collecting Dark Angels, Black Templars, Blood Angels, and Space Wolves bits, sprues, and boxes to give my Ordo Xenos Marines a lot of variety. I've also been reading up on the various First Founding Chapters as well as the more colorful Ultramarines successors (e.g., the Silver Skulls, the Mortifactors) and selecting the bits and pieces that best represent their style and culture.