I started painting this Tactical Squad of Celestial Lions on Christmas Day, and was originally on track to finish them before the end of 2017, but then it didn’t work out that way as I ended up busy with a bunch of other things. Still, I managed to complete the squad towards the end of January.
The main reason it took so long was actually this pair – the Sergeant and Missile Launcher guy. Compared to the rest of the squad which I was able to pretty much batch paint, these two ended up being much more slowly painted individuals, due to the amount of individual fiddly bits between the pair of them. I also decided to paint the Sergeant’s right Pauldron with Imperial Fists livery – as a heirloom item from their primogenitors. In slightly battered condition.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed by now that these guys lack a squad badge on their tactical arrow. This is by design. My cunning plan is to paint another Lions Tactical squad worth of figures at some stage in the not-too-distant future, and then mix the two sets of figures together.
The next 10 marines will be made of a mixture of 2nd Ed metals, multipose plastics, and maybe some FW resin/Calth plastics to give a variety of poses and armour types. I’m using 3-d printed icons throughout.
When the two sets of figures are mixed together, it will remove a lot of the repetitive redundancy that they have at the moment, all being monopose push-fit figures from the Assault on Black Reach starter set. (40k 5th Edition starter, 2008). At that point I’ll either organise them into numbered squads or decide to paint a third set of 10 tacticals and really mix things up once they’re completed.
Here’s the completed squad alongside the two Primaris Lieutentants from Dark Imperium (40k 8th Edition starter, 2017). I’ll have to do some character models and probably a Dreadnought and vehicle – which will then place them firmly in “small playable faction” territory. I’ve got some other marines I want to finish off before I start to do that, though…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
They’re really impressive man. I’m not usually a fan of all gold minis but these work for me. Seeing the group shot confirms that even more for me. The blue gives them a nice pop. Great work Mr A
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Thanks IRO. I guess the question (later) will be whether I paint my Stormcast in a similar tone. It’s been pointed out that the GW-standard scheme for them is almost identical to these guys, though the gold’s a bit brighter and the helms are also gold.
…and then there’s the Custodes…
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Well, if it were me I wouldn’t follow the rules AT ALL!!! Haha but you’re not me and I’m not you. Luckily you have a knack to make standard look ultra cool so you have my backing either way you go.
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It’s notsomuch about “rules”, it’s about me seeing those schemes and thinking on one hand about how I enjoy painting models in original or at least non-standard schemes vs ALSO thinking “damn, they look bloody good like that!”.
I suspect that my Stormcast will have some (uniform) variations, since I like painting a variety of schemes, and it keeps me from getting bored too quickly.
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That’s fair sir
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Great work. The shading is spot on.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thank you, Pete!
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Awesome – loving the blue with gold, and the IF pad on the Sgt. is a great little detail. Bravo mate!
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Thanks Alex. I intend to have little references to the IF and other key descendants (BT, CF) on the more important Lion models.
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I must confess, I am jealous of that Lion Head shoulder pad. I had to resort to doing mine by hand and the results are mixed at best.
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Yeah, I can freehand pretty well, but for uniform stuff like marine chapter badges and such I get very OCD about as much uniformity as possible. I got them from here. Probably need to grab some vehicle icons from him now, too…
https://www.shapeways.com/product/MZX45UQN2/celestial-lions-shoulder-pad-icons-x20?optionId=63377376&li=marketplace
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Looking great, especially like your group shot!
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Thanks AK – Glad you like it!
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Lovely stuff! You must get a fabulous sense of ownership painting such an obscure chapter. Never knew they were Fist successors.
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Thanks Curis. There’s enough background out there for them that I can use, but enough obscurity so that (when I get to more interesting units) I can “write” my own fluff/head-canon for them. I won’t lie though – I chose them because of their scheme, and then they got bumped to the front of the queue because of their Chapter name.
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The gold is fantastic, how do you paint it?
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It’s actually quite easy, though probably a little harder to replicate. I spray-prime black, then a spray a coat of silver, then spray a coat of gold that I got a local paint shop to custom make for me (from their big book of colours). After that, wash with erm.. It’s either Agrax Earthshade Gloss or Reikland Fleshshade Gloss. I think it’s the Fleshshade. Then a subtle/careful drybrush/edging in spots with Vallejo Model Air Gold.
It gives it a rich colour but a kind of “plasticky” finish, that I think works well with Marine Armour. I wanted it to look quite distinct from the light, brassy look that the Minotaurs have.
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Really like the colour scheme. Awesome painting as usual. You should have a sizable collection of Space Marines by now.
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I’m getting there but they still pale compared to the unpainted ones. I just want to knock out the half painted ones and the others I’ve started over the years. At that point I will have the royal sampler.
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