Starting Point

My most recent venture into my painting hobby has been fairly minimal to be quite frank. I\'ve been to busy building the first 30 Salamanders Space Marines from the Horus Heresy era. The army is fairly small as it stands, but it will still be a lengthy process to actually get the painting process correct on test models before starting on the beautiful (and very expensive) Forge World Mark II Crusade Armour models. I have an idea as of how I want to paint them, but haven\\\'t been able to find the time as I\\\'ve just spent my first residential week away for my Diploma, and on arriving home last night I\\\'ve indulged myself in building a Legion Praetor with a Power Fist and Plasma Pistol and Legion Heavy Support Squad with Missile Launchers over the course of today.

At the moment my army consists of two Legion Tactical Squads of 10, and Legion Support Squad with Flamers and Combi-Flamer and a second Legion Support Squad armed with four meltaguns and and a Close Combat weapon and Bolt Pistol. I also have a Land Raider Achilles to add into the army if the points allow me to. With the addition of the Legion Praetor and Heavy Support Squad, the army ranges around the 1200 points mark, which for a start isn\\\'t too shabby as everyone I play with have little to none of a Heresy Army at the moment.

Before I went away for my residential week I was able to find on eBay, from Russia, a set of three Forge World Apothecaries for no more than £26! Not to mention this is cheaper than buying two from Forge World directly, and this group are all wearing Mark II Armour, rather than the Mark II and IV that I\\\'d receive from Forge World. I couldn\\\'t miss the opportunity to add a unit of Apothecaries to my army, just because it brings more of a Heresy feel to the army.

Lastly but not least, I received an email from my Uncle on Friday, saying that he had a friend at work who had three Contemptor Pattern Dreadnaughts that they were looking to sell of fairly quickly. To my luck they were all unassembled and he\\\'d bought the combination of weapons that I would in most likelihood have bought myself if I\\\'d ever bought them at the full price. I sent an email back straight away asking my uncle how much is friend wanted for the models. I had an email back during the afternoon, saying that he\\\'d be happy to have £70 for them, and I said that was more than a fair price, as it is half of the current value of all the components. My uncle then very kindly offered to buy them for my as a present to say congratulations for getting onto my Diploma course after a tough year working out what my next move was. The even better news was that my uncle was coming up to London today for a business trip so he could drop them around earlier this evening. As I write this, all the different parts are soaking in soapy water so I can try and build them before I next meet with a group of friends for a game or two next week.

There will be a selection of photos uploaded in the next couple of days of the models before priming and some mid construction. I will also throw in some of test models if I find time to start the painting between work and essay writing.