Big Guns Never Tire - The Devastator Corps of the Marines Exemplar

Marines Exemplar 1st Company Devastators

As i've said before, one of my favourite parts about collecting an established army with no canon is that i get to add it myself, and most of the time this works out great as Games Workshop generally never round out the background for 2nd founding onwards Chapters.

I find that thinking up this background helps me to envision the army as i build it and reason what would "fit" into my army selection, i've become more and more defined for my vision of the Marines Exemplar and wanted them to have a strong vein of Imperial Fists Character running through them, but with their own twist.

Where Daemons tread... - Inquisitor Coteaz Conversion

Lord Inquisitor Geralt Oviron, of the Ordo Malleus

I recently picked up (downloaded? acquired?) the new Codex: Inquisition, after slight initial disappointment at the lack of new toys (i don't really know what people were expecting, they were hardly going to release a new line of Inquisition models when there are so many weird old ones sitting around doing nothing.) i quickly grew to love the book though, it's infinitely closer to my idea of Inquisitors in the background of the 40k universe than any of their other appearances so far (well, apart from maybe 2nd ed.?)

Arrogance as a Virtue - The Chronicles of the Marines Exemplar

1500 Point Marines Exemplar Army, ready for battle

The Marines Exemplar are going strong!   One of the most rewarding Hobby projects i have had in a long time, i can't stop painting units for them!

I guess i've always been a huge fan of Space Marines and with that, 2nd and 3rd founding chapters in particular.

The best part of collecting these guys has been thinking up my own background for them as the army takes shape, all from the original picture i saw in the 6th edition 40k Rulebook when it first came out!

Marines Exemplar Attack Bikes - The Punisher Biker Corps.

"Punisher" class Attack Bike

Within my Marines Exemplar army, throughout the games i have been playing lately, it became more and more clear that the force was lacking in smaller "support elements", units that while not costing a ton of points or being the most effective in terms of decimating entire units in a phase, would be vital to shoring up any weaknesses in my battle line.  Speed is also an important element as they need to be able to react to the enemy battleplan.

Peace through Superior Firepower

Marines Exemplar Devastator Squad

I've mentioned my lack of love for standard Devastator load-outs before (well, that might be a bit harsh, i just think they could look cooler.) and after having a gander at the new Marine book i was thinking that seeing as i was heading into Imperial Fist territory, i was thinking a Heavy Bolter devastator squad would be totally sweet, with all those re-rolls and the ability to annihilate light-medium tanks with tank hunter.  After having already assembled and painted a "stock" Heavy Bolter for one of my Tactical squads i decided 4 of those would be WAY too boring, and something that has always annoyed me is the way Assault cannons have never made it onto the basic infantry of the Space Marine army, any hot blooded male was weened on the film Predator and as a result has an unhealthy love for Miniguns.  Well WYSIWYG be damned, i thought, i'll just convert some Assault cannons onto those suckers and use them like the totally sweet Premium Heavy Bolters they will be in the game anyway.  And if anyone doesn't like it they can SCRATCH.

Marine Exemplar Devastator

Paragons of Obstinacy

Marines Exemplar Tactical Squad

The release of the recent 6th edition Space Marine Codex has fuelled me to a frenzy of painting what i paint best, power-armoured badasses.

I'd been wanting to do a new Successor chapter army for a while what with the veritable new odds and ends released for Marines since selling on my last Iron Lords army (all gajillion points of it.)  and being a long-time hobbyist i have plenty of disowned marines from various chapters in various states of painting sitting in various figure cases and various bits boxes.  One of the things i really like about doing a non "Stock" Space Marine army is the ability to just throw random touches of iconography from different ranges at models and use them in interesting ways, there are lots of winged shoulder pads and touches from models like the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard for example, that would look a touch out of place on an Ultramarine, but not a model with a less established Canon.

The Glorious Dead

Kaevern Mournsong - Iyanden Spiritseer

In my quest to, it would seem, collect every single force vying for attention in the 41st Millennium, i recently decided after some truly appalling defeats with my Tau that i would go back to one of my old favourite armies.  The Eldar.

And not just any Eldar, an Iyanden Craftworld Eldar army.  As with most new releases from Games Workshop, many mewled and cried and moaned about the price of the new Iyanden supplement, and while they were complaining i was ignoring them as i couldn't hand over my money fast enough.