From GregB: 40K Imperial Fist Space Marines, Dreadnought, Rhinos & Terminators (120 points)

From Greg:

I'm continuing to round out my sci-fi Space Marines from GW's Warhammer 40k line. This submission includes an officer, a group of scouts, and a dreadnought. 

The officer is a plastic kit from GW - the only change I made was to use a spare "beakie" helmet to help him fit in with the other Crimson Fist marines. Otherwise it is a very similar kit to the one Byron submitted recently. I've marked a "III" on his knee pad to represent his company. He carries a storm bolter (heavy automatic rifle of the dark future) and a scary power sword. 

The scouts are a mix of new plastic models and two metal models. They are nearly all armed with sniper rifles, save the one fellow carrying a rocket launcher (one supposes to "snipe" vehicles perhaps?). I really like the look of these oversize, scary sniper rifles, although I'm not sure how well the idea of light infantry fits in with the ominous feel of a Space Marine chapter. But they are fun models - between the rifles, the optics, the cloaks, a lot of fun details to paint. 

The dreadnought is from GW's current line of plastic kits, armed with an assault cannon (high velocity rotary cannon of the dark future), a power fist for smashing things/people, and a little bolt gun under the power fist. The dreadnought armour units give the Space Marines even more "oomph" on the battlefield. They are powered by the will of a severely wounded marine who is essentially entombed in the suit…how grim, very suitable for the setting.

The Forge World is continuing to fire up here in Winnipeg. Here are three more vehicles for my Crimson Fist Space Marines - two "Rhino" APCs and one "Razorback" APC. These are all plastic model kits from GW. 

My Crimson Fist marines are mostly Rogue Trader era figures, but these models are from GW's contemporary range. I really, really enjoy them, and they scale up very nicely with the old Rogue Trader figures. 

The Rhinos are very basic, capable of carrying ten marines into the fighting. The Razorback is a kind of hybrid vehicle, designed to carry some heavy weapons to support the Marines, but at the expense of room in the troop compartment - it only carries five Marines. The vehicle is often associated with command roles, and to reflect that I mounted the little command bits on this particular vehicle, along with a twin-barrelled heavy laser cannon to help deal with nasty bad guys. 

My Crimson Fists have gone from walking to having a few different "rides" to choose from now - enough APCs to carry 35 of them into a firefight. Watch out Orks! 

Finally, here is a squad of 28mm Terminator Marines from the Crimson Fist Chapter. The figures are pewter models from Games Workshop. These are old school Rogue Trader era models - not quite the original Terminators, but close. 

The Terminators represent the elite shock troops of a Space Marine chapter. The armour is very, very tough and reinforced, allowing the Marines to carry heavy weapons into firefights. They are also equipped with "power fists", heavy armoured gloves sheathed in a power field that allow the Marines to shatter armour, bulkheads and other enemies of the Emperor.

There are enough Terminators here to form a five-man squad, with an option of a heavy flamethrower or rotary-barrelled cannon as a squad support weapon. There is one sergeant figure (the fellow with the sword) and three regular grunts. The shoulder insignia were hand painted once again - mixed results, but not terrible.

These models are long out of production, and were acquired in bits and bobs over Ebay. These days GW has very nice plastic Terminator models. They are quite beautiful - bigger, more action-oriented and they have all sorts of extras to choose from. But these old Rogue Trader models are beauties. 

This represents the end of my Crimson Fist build up for now - my collection has gone from 20 assorted infantry models to almost 60 marines complete with command, vehicles and support. How fun! That is why these painting challenges are great - they get you moving in a direction, and off you go!

Wowza, that is a heap of Space Marines Greg! These guys look brilliant (I think those hand-painted shoulder insignias look ace). I like that in your text you describe their functions and roles - for the uninitiated it gives a bit of context to the various figures and models. Well done. 

This wide selection of marines and their vehicles will give Greg 120 points.