Hello Adventurers, over a year ago I entered a couple of Rogue Trader Space Marine Bikers and Tanks into the Lead Painters' League number five. The title was "Rock Hard, Ride Free" and this was the entry:
(link:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=28846.0)
Now, I had painted three tanks rather than two and took some additional pictures which I would like to share with you
First a bit of background, my Space Marines are a chapter of my own devising, the Devastation Angels. Their uniform is green with white like so:
However, for variety's sake I have decided my Space Marines take their uniform regulations lightly so I painted up some in camouflage as well, like so:
For my Space Marine bikers, the
Hell Patrol, I chose to do things differently. They are bikers so I figured black clothing suits them much better than green and white. Of course this translated to black armour all over in this case. I figured the bikers would cherish their bikes so I gave each bike a custom paint job. Incidentally, the black armour doesn't interfere with the bike's custom paint jobs, and is quicker to paint. To keep them a recognisable part of my force their helmets are still standard issue.
The sergeant comes first. His bike has a custom metallic blue coat with a fish bone theme. I carried over the custom paint job into his power fist and shoulder pad. His right greave says "HELL PATROL" and his left greave marks his rank as a sergeant (as the right shoulder pad was unavailable for this). The buzzsaw is the symbol of my chapter.
My second biker has retained much of the colours of my chapter but made them a bit flashier. The green fades to white on the top of the bike and the buzz saw motive is carried over in the wheel guards. I finished his right shoulder pad in style. His left greave says "Rock Hard, Ride Free".
The final biker has a classic black with flame motive, after all, he carries a flamer. His custom paintjob extends also to his greaves and feet, and of course his right shoulder pad, where the buzz saw is also featured again.
Besides bikes I also painted a couple of tanks. There is a Whirlwind conversion based on templates from White Dwarf 117, an original Predator (minus the sponsons) and a Vindicator conversion based on templates from White Dwarf 118.
This is the whirlwind conversion, I built it and painted it according to a camouflage scheme for ammonium based salt plains from the Warhammer 40,000 Compendium (page 79). I also added a bike rider/rhino crew model. Since there was no room for a backpack I gave the model the back of a Space Marine devastator model, whom also don't carry backpacks.
According to the 40k Compendium this camouflage scheme was used on the assault on Tsunami Reef. Of which a reference is made on the front:
R.I.P.
Battle Brothers
Tsunami Reef 945.M41The predator is more or less a standard model as it came from the box. However, a lot of these tanks are old and beat up and broken when you buy them. Common flaws are missing/broken hand rails, grab handles and aerials and broken exhausts. This predator suffered from everything and also had it's barrel missing. I made the barrel from plastic tubing which I also used to fix the exhausts. Then I added hand rails and aerials from wire. You can see all these tanks got this treatment.
I didn't refer to Tsunami Reef on this tank but I did write "Balls 2 the wall" on the turret.
The Predator kit comes with a really cool front (or rear) plate. This one was stuck in place and I couldn't remove it so I left it as it was. It doesn't look much out of place here either.
The Vindicator is a bit more work than the Whirlwind to convert but I really like the look. This one was missing the aerials alltogether so I made them from bits of sprue and wire. You can see I also cut out the 'mesh' on the tracks and replaced it with real mesh. This gives the tracks a heavier feel which fits the tank. The barrel says "Hot for love".
Another Tsunami Reef reference, this one says:
Tsunami Reef 945.M41
"Hungry for heaven"Well, I hope you liked the pictures, I definitely enjoyed building and painting these tanks and bikers, and in the future I plan to add more of course