OK so it looks like Squats don't exist any more (remember them? I used to love those bikes), so where to begin was the order of the day...
Well, back when I was a wee lad, my best mate Damian and I played orks and marines respectively, so that seemed like a nice nostalgic place to start. For a starter pack aimed at someone interested in both Orks and Marines, I guess that the Assault on Black Reach box set can't really be beaten. The core of a force for both races, plus templates and a rulebook - yay! So that was purchase number 1. I should have stopped there for a while but oh no... more about that later. Anyway, to kick things off here's a fairly crummy photo of the marine dreadnought from the AoBR box - very minimal simple sandy base and no markings yet. I've gone for the "Eagle Warriors" chapter for my marines - for gaming purposes I figured you could play it just as a generic marine force or perhaps include some converted characters from the Ultramarines, which is where this second founding chapter apparently came from. Not standard smurf-marines then, and an attractive sharp colour scheme, but at the same time they do have the advantage of having some shoulder pads available from GW with the iconography already moulded in.
The photography leaves at lot to be desired at the moment I'm afraid - waiting on a decent camera, but at least you get the idea of the "clean and shiny" look that I'm going for with this chapter - no battle-damage, no weathering just yet although I might add this later - at the moment I'm keeping it clean and simple. The blue is Mordian blue foundation paint, shaded with a leviathan purple wash, and highlighted with lightened mixtures of Mordian blue. The white is a mixture of blue and black ink wash applied over Skull white, then pale blue up to flat white highlights. Scrolls and skulls etc are a mixture of scorched brown and bleached bone tones. Hope you like...