The Mentor Legion was always a Space Marine Chapter I was fond of, ever since I first saw them back in White Dwarf 98 during the late 1980’s. When Warhammer 40k 3rd edition rolled a good decade later, in 1998, I decided to start a new army for the new edition (before that was used as a marketing catchphrase) and the Mentor Legion were the ones I chose.

I never managed to completely finish any of the models, though. I had five squads partway painted (2 Tactical, 2 Assault, 1 Scout), as well as a Dreadnought, Razorback (converted from a Predator), Librarian and Chaplain. There were a bunch of models that were all but finished – just needing their chapter badge. Being more interested in the original Mentor Legion with their Owl-head icon than the retconned “Mentors” with red, raptor head icon I tried to make my own Icons via my scanner and photoshop, but the printer paper I purchased from a hobby store did not work as advertised, and the designs ran horribly. I still used the models in games with my regular opponents of the day, but that was the end of trying to finish them properly for over a decade.

Skip forward to mid-late 2017, and I found that 3D-printed icons were now a thing on Shapeways. One designer agreed to make original Mentor Legion owl-head icons, but then took months and created the new raptor-head icons. Obviously only half-remembering and half-paying attention. Another designer I found later was willing to create them, having them ready within a couple of weeks, which has led to me finally being able to complete these figures. First up was the Dreadnought, which after so many false starts, I completed as part of Dreadtober.

Also as part of completing that Dreadnought, I finally got to trying the decal sheets I purchased in 2015 or 2016, after advice from . I’ve now got nice-quality, printed chapter icon decals for my Mentor Legion, for those times when the 3D-printed icons aren’t suitable. Next up was getting some of the infantry done, so I picked out the most close-to-complete models I had from the selection I had, removed ones with metal legs that would require a bunch of cutting to mount on 32mm bases, and set to rebasing them.

This left me with 6 Marines from Tactical Squad II and 3 marines from Tactical Squad III. Naturally, 2/3 of the photos of Squad III were blurry, so I need to retake them, and they’ll be in a separate post. Just as well, I guess. Squad II (they used to have a name) was the first one I started on, and gave them all MKVI Corvus armour (but MKVII pauldrons, since it was 3rd edition – plastics were limited in the extreme, and I wanted to use the space for squad markings and chapter icons anyway!)

When I got to starting subsequent squads, I quickly realised that my initial dream of an all MKVI force (inspired by the illustrations in WD98) was probably not feasable, so they’re in the usual mix of armour types. I’ll manage to finish this squad in type, though. I was not pleased last year when I realised that the original green paints I used had been discontinued without close approximations, but I found very close matches in P3 and Vallejo, so I’m still good once my old hex-pots finish up or dry out.

This brings us to the end of Squad II. For now at least. The Mention Legion plan is to slowly go through all of the old figures, rebase and finish them off – complete with Chapter Icons, before expanding the force with some newer reinforcements. I’m not to touch any new models until the last of the old guard is brought up to modern standards and completed, so probably a few months at best, then! Also – these six don’t count towards February’s neglected mini challenges, since they were completed in January.

Yep, I’ve got a backlog to post up!