Rogue Trader Mentor Legion - Converted Exo-Suits

[Daeothar]

This idea had been brewing for the longest of times; build a completely period correct Rogue Trader Space Marine army. But for the life of me, I couldn't decide on which chapter to paint.

Dark Angels? I already have a 3rd/4th edition force in dark green. My very first RTB01 army was a black Dark Angels one (in glorious monotone enamel), which I sold off when I went to uni. Painting another black army sounded pretty easy, but to have two separate Dark Angel forces would be overdoing it a bit I felt.

Blood Angels? I loved the more orangy look the White Dwarf RTB01 army had, but those were a large inspiration for my own 5th edition own chapter, the Fiery Lions, with their orange armour and blue helmets (and shoulderpads; a slight deviation ), and again, two of the same was a bit much.

I already have a Rogue Trader 1.5 (just before 2nd ed.) Imperial Fists army, so yellow was out too. A shame really, because I liked the idea of doing a Lamenters army.

Looking at the spectrum, only blue and purple were left unused. Purple was out, because it's just too evil a colour, and I still have Emperor's Children ambitions for my Renegade miniatures.

Which left blue, which meant Ultramarines. Luckily not the posterboy variety yet, but the more grim and feral Rogue Trader variant. I liked the thought of this, but wasn't really stoked for some reason.

And then it hit me; white!

And then combined with my favourite colour; green (the Mantis Warriors also didn't make the cut because of the green Dark Angels, but they too were pretty enticing).

In other words: the Mentor Legion.

Luckily Mason decided to Space Shark with his project, so we don't have two similar forces growing on the LAF simultaneously.

So, with the chapter settled on, I took to selecting a first squad of marines, cleaning them up, removing mouldlines, basing them and priming them in grey.

Which is where this picture has captured them:



Since then, I've applied the green, using a dark grey undercoat and about 3 layers of Coat d'Arms Dark Green. I chose this because it has just the right hue (it has some very slight blueish tint to it) to match the Mentor Legion artwork in White Dwarf 98.

Here, I am in the middle of applying Wolf Grey to the (to be) white parts of the armour, leaving the primer as shading in the recesses. The three on the right have been done, but in the picture the effect is really subtle...



The face on the unhelmeted plasma marine reminds me of Dolph Lundgren for some reason btw... 

[OSHIROmodels]

Mentor Legion are completely RT old school 

Looking forward to this 

[Storm Wolf]

Thumbs up from me

Knowledge is power 

[Major_Gilbear]

Which left blue, which meant Ultramarines. Luckily not the posterboy variety yet, but the more grim and feral Rogue Trader variant. I liked the thought of this, but wasn't really stoked for some reason.

Crimson Fists? Rainbow Warriors? I guessed you were going to mention Ultramarines, but I'm shocked these two didn't get a mention given the subject! 

Anyway, good choice on the Mentor Legion, and it looks like a good start too. I'll be watching with interest!

[Storm Wolf]

I also think the Mentor Legion colour scheme served as the inspiration for Buzz Lightyears colour scheme??



and



 

[Daeothar]

Cheers guys

Crimson Fists? Rainbow Warriors? I guessed you were going to mention Ultramarines, but I'm shocked these two didn't get a mention given the subject! 

Oh, you're so right. I did think of them, but both had a few things going against them. Crimson Fists would be a Fists successor, and I already have a force of the Imperial variant. But to me, they are the OG Space Marine chapter, due to the Rogue Trader cover art. Rainbow Warriors were only mentioned in a black and white illustration in Rogue Trader if I recall correctly, and there they had an issue with the Sisters, so they would not sit well together in the display cabinet  Also; I didn't fancy having to paint those elaborate helmet stripes on each and every single marine...

Speaking of which: I was going to paint my version of the Mentor Legion with the rank markings, as seen in the little red Space Marine Painting Guide:



But most other incarnations and RT period marines, I see with the helmet stripe system.

So what to do? I'm pretty partial to the red booklet (it's been my bible when it comes to iconography on space marines pretty much since it came out), but the stripe system seems to be even older, and it's even depicted in the White Dwarf 98 Mentor Legion artwork...

[Major_Gilbear]

Crimson Fists would be a Fists successor, and I already have a force of the Imperial variant. But to me, they are the OG Space Marine chapter, due to the Rogue Trader cover art.

Yeah, for me too really, followed stupidly closely by the Blood Angels since they seemed to feature in every other piece of Space Marine art from the period. Mind you, as I have some modern CF and BT, I did consider making my "Codex: Ultramarines" force IF instead, to complete the trifecta; I chose to stick with UM in the end though, as I have sooooo many characters for them!

I totally get doing another "Fist Successor" chapter though (and I why I didn't raise the Executioners from the Badab War as another "blue" schemed chapter, since they are founded from the Fists' lineage too).

Rainbow Warriors were only mentioned in a black and white illustration in Rogue Trader if I recall correctly, and there they had an issue with the Sisters, so they would not sit well together in the display cabinet  Also; I didn't fancy having to paint those elaborate helmet stripes on each and every single marine...

Yeah, it was only a tongue-in-cheek suggestion!    That said, I'd get some custom decals made professionally for the prismatic stripes if I were ever to do them (...which I won't, since I've never felt any inclination to do their chapter).

Speaking of which: I was going to paint my version of the Mentor Legion with the rank markings, as seen in the little red Space Marine Painting Guide:

But most other incarnations and RT period marines, I see with the helmet stripe system.

So what to do? I'm pretty partial to the red booklet (it's been my bible when it comes to iconography on space marines pretty much since it came out), but the stripe system seems to be even older, and it's even depicted in the White Dwarf 98 Mentor Legion artwork...

Hmm, why not do both? Veteran squads in the older markings, regular squads with the newer ones. Custom decals, or perhaps very thin custom 3D-printed rank plates glued on might make this a bit easier than doing it with a brush?

[Daeothar]

Thanks Major

I'm glad to report that the first squad is ready. Well... I call it ready, but I know I still have to tidy up the base rims and those tactical arrows on the shoulderpads are pretty bad, so they'll require a redo, but overall, I'm calling it for these guys.

I've caved, and I've gone with the Rogue Trader book style of helmet stripe rank system. That means no Lieutenants or Lieutenant Commanders, but it is the OG way of marking Space Marines, so I went with it.

As you can tell, I'm not using the WD98 article's Mentor Legion shoulderpad design, which incorporated the owl's head design with a flag design, in a black circle, with or without veteran marking. ANd that was it.

These markings were meant for Mentor Legion sent out to assist others Imperial forces as tutors, instructors and veteran cadre. But since I plan on doing more than just one squad, I've gone with a bit of an amalgation of WD98 and the Painting Space Marines booklet.

Meaning my Space Marines will sport the Mentor Legion symbol, with the role symbol underneath or behind it. Those being Tactical, Assault and Devastator. This also means no weapon badges (luckily, as those are tiny! ).

I'm also adapting the practice of reversing a shoulderpad's colours for veterans, as displayed on the Veteran Sergeant. I will also probably give him a back-banner later on, once I've decided on the style...

A groupshot:



Sergeant:



Marine 1:



Marine 2, with Heavy Bolter:



Marine 3:



Marine 4:



Marine 5, with Plasmagun:



And finally, for kicks, a shot of the entire squad being deployed outside of an Imperial outpost:



And I suppose some of you might be wondering why I painted 6 Marines in this first squad, instead of going with 5 or 10. This has to with their transport, which, going by the numbers, should then be a Razorback, right?

Well kind of.

It'll be a Rogue Trader classic, but I need to work on some stuff first before I can actually show it off. But this is the very next thing on the workbench!

[Storm Wolf]

Excellent work!

I am on something of  a 3rd edition/RT kick myself at the moment, but nothing like as fancy as yours.

Keep up the good work

Glen

[OSHIROmodels]

Love ‘em 

Resisting the temptation to toddle off to eBay and get some 

[Mr Tough Guy]

Those look great mate!

I don't think the helmet stripes and the rank badges from the painting guide are mutually exclusive, I've been working on a RT Space Wolves army myself and I decided to do both the helmet stripes and rank badges though not necessarily at the same time. And you can always do the rankbadge on the shoulderpad or arms or legs. I'm also mixing several types of helmet stripe, from the full stripe to just a stripe on the nose, so I will probably do one with just a stripe on the nose and a rank badge on the brow at some point.

Have you thought of doing the weapon markings on the shoulderpads? I've only painted one squad so far, but all my bolter marines have the bolter marking from p169 of the RT book. Think that's something that would fit right in with your marines, but I can understand not doing it, because it's fiddly as fuck to do.

[hubbabubba]

Tidy work, well done.

[Blackwolf]

Cracking!
My Space Sharks do without rank identification,it’s whose got the biggest sword 

[Major_Gilbear]

These are lovely, especially as white is such an unforgiving colour, and never mind on old models with so-so casting. Very well done! 

Resisting the temptation to toddle off to eBay and get some 

...Same! 

Especially after seeing these, Mason's, Curis', stone-cold-lead's...

Yeah, I've been good and resisted so far! 

[Elbows]

Mentor Legion (the proper, original one) is the best legion.

The original fluff, lore and game rules were freakin' outstanding and then GW did nothing with them...made their logo a lame red eagle head...and they faded into obscurity.  Their rules (in that White Dwarf the picture was clipped from) are very cool.  They have access to all kinds of crazy tech, and their cadre go out and train and study war in every aspect.

You could take Mentor Legion cadre to lead other marine squads, etc....even from different chapters.  Loads of really cool fluff and ideas that were just binned.

PS: The bolter targeting web and the slow-motion time freeze wargear were kinda nuts...