Why the Red Scorpions?
Well, it's been ages since I did anything with Astartes (my last attempt was a half-hearted treatment of pre-Heresy Thousand Sons, but painting so much red proved to be surprisingly dull...) and while I've been aware of a little voice somewhere in my head urging me to throw together a few of humanity's finest, I've struggled to find a chapter that's caught my imagination sufficiently to make me go for it. Then, a couple of weeks ago I was flicking through Imperial Armour 4: The Anphelion Project and found myself spending an uncommonly long time on the colour pics of the Scorps. Coupled with the fact that I knew someone at The Great Crusade had a fare few Forge World Scorpion pads available at a reasonable price, and a skim through the Forge World site to check out the rest of the available range, and I was sold!
Their appeal for me is a combination of things. The colour scheme is good, particulary when the grey and yellow are combined with the white veterans helmets - often a factor in chapter choice for anyone, I'm sure. They are very much a Codex chapter, but with a slightly rough edge: nothing too wild about them, but at the same time not quite as straight-laced as the Fists or Ultramarines. Their puritanical hatred of the enemies of mankind has obvious parallels with the Witch Hunters and Ministorum (so they mesh well with some of my other projects), whilst at the same time considering themselves vastly superior to many of their would-be allies, and therefore often nwilling to lower themselves to work with lowly Guard regiments and the like. They consider themselves to be strictly Codex as they see it, giving them a slightly contradictory character - they've effectively read the Astartes' bible and then proceeded to translate it in terms that are appropriate to their own ethos. They disdain camouflage (which should prove interesting if I have to paint any scout cloaks), and are proud of their own genetic purity (whilst at the same time being rather secretive about any genetic testing results that the chapter undergoes...). And for 300 years they effectively dropped out of the galaxy, and no-one knows what they did during this time.
So, Red Scorpions it is, and the first model to get more than a slap of grey paint is a commander conversion I picked up that uses Kantor's head. Initial work on the grey armour is done (with plenty still to be done) but the main aim of tonights brush session was to see if I can paint white to a decent standard. I'll let the results speak for themselves, and if anyone has any constructive crit to offer, I'm all ears! I should point out that the white areas are the only bits close to finished - the rest (laurels, eyes etc.) are still to be done. Seeing the pics has also shown me a spot of red near the right eye that needs sorting, and the camera flash has made the grey area across his forehead look rediculously stark, when in reality I think you'd struggle to even spot it, but them's the joys of digicam pics! Personally I'm really very happy with how its come out, and while he should probably have a yellow stripe running across his head, I'm inclined to leave this guy with a plain white helmet.
Until next time.
-Anodyr
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