Badger's Big Update - Part 3 - Relictors Space Marines

Good morning all (again).

I'm working through the chunk of content I've got stored up from a marathon Weekend painting session and today's blog post will be my first real attempt at Space Marines.

I don't see the massive appeal that others do with Space Marines, personally, I find them a bit bland and boring and would rather stick to my Xeno armies. After all, in a Universe where there are countless Alien and Mutant races, why should we stick to the poster boys of the Game?

But, I kept seeing the Assault on Black Reach Commander on eBay for 99p and eventually caved and bought one. Now my original idea was to start work on a Blood Ravens force, trying to pre-empt them releasing a Codex or even some minor rules for them.

That plan basically hinged around converting the Dawn of War 2 characters as Squad leaders, Librarian as HQ and not much else... Plus, painting them Red was just too close to Blood Angels for my liking. The paint scheme was also a deciding factor, since my Marine army was to share vehicles with my Brotherhood of the Forge Army.

Out of the blue, I recieve an email notification from a 40k Forum about a topic I had replied to a long while ago - a Background story as justification for an army of borderline Heretical marines. Then I remembered... Relictors!

I remember seeing their rules and conversions in a White Dwarf from a few years ago and the whole Anti-Hero approach they have going on, really got me wanting to paint an army of them.

On top of that, since the Relictors are semi-Heretical there is an absolute ton of options I can do with them in terms of setting up an army. One thing I'm really keen on at the moment is getting multi-Codex use out of what I buy. So as an example, I can use the Relictors as Codex Space Marines quite easily. I can convert up a Relictor equivalent to Thunderwolf Cavalry (thinking Bloodcrushers here), arm everyone with "Daemon Weapon" Frost Blades and move to Space Wolves. I can ally in some radical Daemonhunter choices and mix it up that way.... Or I can go whole hog and play a Black Crusade style Chaos army.

Anyway, I've waffled enough, here's the Marine Captain and the Rhino / Whirlwind.

Relictor Rhino, removable Top Door to trade for Whirlwind.

Relictor Captain - Name TBC

I like the Dark Grey scheme for Space Marines, with a black wash. It was something I had tried on looted Terminator Armour on my Orks and was looking to replicate if starting a Space Wolf army. Only things I need to change is the Shoulder Pads on the Captain - it's supposed to be Black background with Grey trim. Then I need to get hold of some Transfer sheets for Relictors and put some on the Captain's pads.

What do you guys reckon about the paint scheme and the overall Relictors idea?

Peace,

SB