Squaduary: Squad Damocles TO-DONE!!!

Hi folks,

Like many 40K bloggers, I have been burning the midnight oil to get my Squaduary project finished in time. My last project, Centurion Squad Aegis, actually took three Squaduarys to finish! This year I was working on some Primaris Marine models from the first two issues of Conquest magazine (the only ones I could afford in Australia, after the local newsagents all conspired to jack the price up so high it would be cheaper to get everything from GW).

The challenge was to make three sets of identical miniatures look unique. I have tried to do this by converting them to carry custom laser-cut shields and doing a couple of head swaps. The shields have the following etched into their front panel:

"Fear the snake, enemies of man. For his coils encircle us and his bright eyes unblinking watch over us forever"

Sergeant Priad is armed with the lightning claw he is described as having in Dan Abnett's Brothers of the Snake.

I knew that converting 10 marines to all carry shields was going to be a stretch, so the second rank is armed with bolt rifles, but also includes a standard bearer with Squad Damocle's colours and a heavy plasma cannon...


Sergeant Priad stopped Andromak at the bottom of the assault ramp. "Brother, it is customary for Primaris to eschew the use of heavy weaponry. We sacrifice mobility at our peril." Andromak hefted the massive plasma cannon one-handed. "My apologies, Sergeant Priad. It looked small in the armoury...".

I have chosen the colour red for Damocles (Lakodeme is white and Aegis is blue). I had to fashion a rough template out of green painter's tape to get it right; with time running out I couldn't afford to repaint the whole thing. Oh, and delta is for Damocles ;-)

 



The comtech is a re-imagining of one of my very first models. The pose with the auspex is spot on and the auxiliary grenade launcher is even more reminiscent of Hicks from Aliens than the original model achieved (it is now lost to the grey tide in the garage).

I have to say that the Primaris aesthetic is growing on me, though I can not imagine completely starting a new army of them.

I have tried a new technique with the plasma glow that really jacks up the contrast between the glowing coils and the weapon housing.

I am very pleased with how the squad turned out, especially considering how fast I did them. It definitely helped getting all of the free-hand work done in one session, as the repetition made it easier and it was a real morale boost to have the hardest part already "in the bag' during the final couple of hours.

So... what next for the Iron Snakes? I have apothecary Khiron still left to paint and then I will have a 2000 point army finished; my third in 18 months. After that, I can finally focus on my actual to-do list for 2019/20 and paint my Space Hulk set!

See you across the table,

Marc