Emperor's Spears
For my space marine army, I have chosen the Emperor's Spears after reading the aptly named "Spears of the Emperor" by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. They're marines cut off from the rest of the Imperium by the Great Rift and have been holding their own since the Rift opened. They fight an unwinnable war against the forces of chaos that leak from the Rift and turn the unguarded worlds against them in this damned part of the Empire of Man. I realized as I got deeper into the hobby that established chapters are way more interesting than homebrew chapters. Which is part of why I've been falling out of love with 40k but I'll save that for a blog post.
The first models I painted for the army were a lieutenant- because I don't like the model and wanted to do a character up front- and a unit of heavy intercessors- because do I like them.
Next I knocked out my phobos units, as this is my least favorite armor pattern. At this time I began really refining the colors of my Spears.
In my hubris, I next painted most of the characters of the army, the Druids who don't lead troops to battle. They wear black to distinguish themselves. I may go back and redo some parts here as I'm not the happiest with them.
Because I wanted to get back to power armor, and my favorite variant of it, I completed two more units of heavy intercessors.
Next I was back to the rank and file to paint some normal intercessors, and their melee counterparts- the Spears are known for their melee brutality, after all.
And to round off my army thus far, I have the first half of my bladeguard veterans. I'll probably start with the other half of these when I get myself settled in the painting chair again.
Sardar
I saw the Sorcerer Kings Sardar for Conquest and knew I had to get him, and paint him this way. Free Palestine.
Castellan
This model I was very happy to paint and wanted to follow John Blanche's artwork closely, so I only used five paints on it: Paynes Gray, Black, Pyrrol Red, Titanium White, and I think Mars Yellow Deep but it could be Naples Yellow Deep. Regardless, it's all from Golden paint's SoFlat range which I do most of my work with because I really enjoy it. I think the axe edge is the best silver NMM I've ever done (I suck at it, as evidenced everywhere else on the model) and the chest vent may be the best gold NMM I've done. Sometimes I want to go back and touch up elements like the black armor and silvers but I'm more scared of messing up a piece I see as "good".
