Saturday 40K: Axolotls

Yes, it's a terrible joke; I don't care. This is also a day late for its traditional slot, but I didn't have time to write anything sensible today. Thus I shamefully fall back once more on pictures of tiny figures daubed with paint.

This week: my first Salamanders squad.

There's something about Space Marine armies that I just can't shake. Of the three completed armies I own, two are loyalist chapters. Of my two half-finished forces (well, one is 60% finished, the other around 15%), one is a rebel chapter, and Red Corsairs to boot, a chapter I specifically chose to minimise the amount of chaos influence involved (there was also the desire to paint cultists which the original background encouraged, back in the days when such things existed). And now, to keep me busy in-between painting Tau and Corsairs (along with space cruisers and the occasional Riverland knight), I've started up another three Space Marine forces. The Space Squids have already been featured on the blog (and have yet to grow from the two marines I had painted at the time), and the Ultramarines will be along fairly soon, but for now the Salamanders are the only force that can legally field a squad, let alone an entire force.

The veteran sergeant, armed with a power fist. Also a goddamn knife, because the accompanying plastic sprue (which has been unchanged for around 15 years now, IIRC) forces one to choose between the bolt pistol OR the right shoulder pad. Still, he clearly loves his knife, given how fixated he is on it. I should probably worry.

I've tried to make these miniatures a step-up in my painting techniques. There's more coherent highlighting this time around, but I'm most proud of the gradiated flame icons on each marine's right shoulder, shown below.