Novamarines

army value: 2,600 points max
background: Index Astartes: Novamarines
condition: 70/72 models complete tabletop standard (97%)
record: overall 5/1/10 w/d/l

• To2G 2/1/4 w/d/l 1st
• Astronomi-con 2011 2/0/4 w/d/l 33rd
• Astronomi-mini-con 2012 1/0/2 w/d/l 10th

awards;

• 1st place, To2G @ Two Headed Dragon.
  

related links;

• Novamarines blog posts.

army development;
This project was my first 40K army since getting back into the hobby.  A lot of the inspiration for my Space Marines came from thinking about deathwatch in Kill-Team.  I built a little matrix that made sure I had original or successor chapters from each "loyal" legion, and I especially chose several chapters involved in the Badab War (based on the original Badab War:A Dark Stars Campaign - big ups to Gadge the writer as it inspired me a lot to give character to my marines through their chapters) as I already knew Marine vs. Marine battles were common (my bro and I used to play my SW against his DA) and picking some from each side would ensure I could explain the battle in fluff terms more easily.  After getting a bit of painting practice under my belt, I began looking around for hobby stores to play and meet other gamers.  This was back when GW still had grey knights - I found a store near my old neighborhood (two headed dragon) where the local grey knight was beginning a "tale of four gamers" style competition - called "Tale of 2HD Gamers" aka To2G, requiring a portion painted every month, and playing games got you points.  Being able to be a part of something similar to possibly the most inspiring set of articles ever to grace white dwarf was a real motivator, I joined in time and selected the Novamarines as the quartered pattern is striking even without much highlights and I had the bits to make their deathwatch marine (even back then I knew I would paint multiple chapters and tie them together through deathwatch).  Turns out I ended up winning the competition (you can read all about it using this label link) taking home some loot and gaining a huge amount of motivation, which ended up being applied to other chapters as I had a small usable force painted.  Now with some newer Badab related supplements out, these guys are likely to see some new lovin' - I especially wanna get the rest of the scouts painted up as well as building a land speeder storm to carry them around.


army composition (italics to acquire);
(195) Chapter Master w artificier armour/primarch's wrath/relic blade *HQ1
(195) Captain in Terminator Armour w storm bolter/chainfist OR counts as Mordaci Blaylock *HQ2
(165) Librarian w bolt pistol/force weapon or counts as Tigurius *HQ3
(190) Librarian in Terminator Armour w storm bolter/force weapon OR counts as Mahabala Durja *HQ4
(14) Tactical Sergeant w bolt pistol/chainsword
(39) Veteran Tactical Sergeant w bolter/power sword *T1
(24) Tactical Sergeant w combi-melta/bolt pistol
(59) Veteran Tactical Sergeant w combi-melta/power fist
(19) Marine w flamer
(48) 2 Marines w meltagun
(14+) Marine w ?
(58) 2 Marines w missile launcher
(210) 15 Marines w bolter *T2
(70) 2 Drop Pods
(40) Terminator Sergeant w storm bolter/power sword
(45) Terminator (Sergeant) w storm bolter & magnetized options (power sword, power fist, chainfist)
(45) Terminator Sergeant w thunderhammer/storm shield
(240) 6 Terminators w storm bolter/power fist
(180) 4 Terminators w thunderhammer/storm shield
(50) Terminator w heavy flamer/power fist
(60) Terminator w assault cannon/power fist
(65) 2 Terminators w storm bolter/cyclone missile launcher/power fist
(23) Scout Sergeant w Combi-Flamer/chainsword *S1
(61) 1 Scout w bolter OR counts as Telion *S2
(18) 1 Scout w bolter OR Sergeant w Melta Bomb
(39) 3 Scouts w camo cloaks & shotgun
(65) 5 Scouts w camo cloaks & bolters *S3
(42) 3 Scouts w camo cloaks & sniper rifles
(26) Scout w camo cloaks & heavy bolter/hellfire
(56) 2 Scouts w camo cloaks & missile launcher
(45) Land Speeder Storm
(45) Land Speeder Storm
(100) Dreadnought w multi-melta/dreadnought ccw
(35) Dreadnought Drop Pod (scratch built)
Terminator Helmet Objective
Wounded Marine Objective *O1
Hidden Ammo Stash Objective

*HQ1 - The captain from the AoBR set was the first character to get painted.  His power sword has broken so many times it's probably had three or four paint schemes too.
*HQ2 - Blaylock is a recent addition, from IA9: Badab War, I kit bashed this model from just standard terminator bits, but used a chainsword and lightning claw to build his master crafted chainfist.  He still needs some freehand on his black shoulderpad.
*HQ3 - This is my favourite model from my Novamarines, I converted his force axe into a staff and used a bit from the empire wizards kit to have the circulating heavens.  Before FW came out with anything new about the Novamarines, I had written my own Index Astartes (also linked above!) where I had based them on the Babylonians due to their association with astrology/prediction - a reason I developed for their icon having changed from the sun/12 point circlet surrounded by stars to a skull/12 point circlet with no stars.  It fit in well since they had some drastic change and then had never fought together as a chapter much after a certain point.  I've had further ideas to implement in IA:Novamarines and will probably try to give it a much needed update once another big chunk of them are complete.
*HQ4 - Also a newer addition, I started building a terminator librarian when the Badab War playaid developed by FLoT (6 months after the To2G competition) came out to use as the special character Mahabala Durja.  IIRC RealGenius from FLoT was influenced by my IA in naming this character (le woot)
*T1 - Part of what really sparked my love of Space Marines again, and gave me the answer to tie all my different chapters together is the deathwatch.  The Novamarines got the first one due to a perfect bit (Asmodai's power sword) having the logo sculpted into a shoulder pad.  Like every deathwatch marine I build, he has a back banner that just uses a simple pin to attach or detach from his backpack.
*T2 - Due to the "gradual build" idea behind the competition, I needed to have two troop choices for my first game (to have a legal list) so to give me some flexibility and make use of my deathwatch marine, I also included a spare bolter armed marine in the painted squad so I could actually use two plain 5 man tactical squads.
*S1 - This sergeant will be getting a bit of an update at some point, I built him with a chainsword before I'd started playing the new edition and didn't realize the chainsword with a combi-weapon gave no benefit.  he will get either a bolt pistol, power fist or power sword (unlikely) - any suggestions there I'd be all ears.  This is done - he has a bolt pistol.

*S2 - I just used a boltgun on one of the cloaked scout bodies with a piece of sprue for a silencer.  He can fit in with the boltguns if I want to skip the heavy weapon or be used as Telion or just a sniper sergeant.

*S3 - I originally planned to keep this army fairly small as the quartered scheme isn't the quickest or easiest - so during the competition I was trying to stretch out every available resource (my plan at the time was a set of AoBR, a box of each type of scout, a librarian and home-made drop pods - only ever built one) I made an extra boltgun armed scout using the additional torso from the snipers box and a small GW palm tree, sculpting his cloak over some sprue where his legs would be.

*O1 - The competition gave bonus points for building objectives and terrain for the store (I also built a small bunker which remains at the store, but got pretty beat up as it was based off the old card one in white dwarf) My favourite is the wounded marine, missing an arm and using a grenade in a last ditch effort to take as many enemies with him as he can. I got asked if he was break-dancing the other day which was pretty funny!

to-do;

paint alternate special weapon
get & paint second land speeder storm

painting chart;

01-04-2016

photos;

CLICK HERE FOR LIGHTBOX PHOTO ALBUM

6/11/2011

2/25/2011 (no flash)

2/25/2011 (with flash)

2/24/2009

bulked up tactical squad

captain avra

deathwatch sergeant

dreadnought

torso scout, counts as telion, missile launcher

librarian

heavy flamer aobr terminator conversion

wounded marine objective

badab war characters

tactical squad 2 - combat squad 1

tactical squad 2 - combat squad 2

drop pod