Today I present both group shots and individual pictures of my recently finished bike squad from my 2nd company Ultramarines army. I tried to spice up those venerable models with all sorts of pieces from my bits box, so hopefully you’ll enjoy taking a closer look.
The Veteran Sergeant has legs from the Ravenwing command squad set, which I needed to shave a bit down at the inside to make them fit the old bikes. The shoulder guards are from Forgeworld’s MkII marine kit, the head comes from Sanguinary Guard and the power sword is from the Dark Angels veteran sprue.
There are two plasma gunners in the unit, one of them has a MkIV torso and head from the Black Templar upgrade sprue while the shoulder guards are from Forgeworld. The other one has a head from the BT sprue as well, the right shoulder guard is from the Death Company sprue with the Blood Angels symbol shaved off. Unfortunately I didn’t notice that this shoulder pad has a much thinner trim as the regular one on the other shoulder until the model was painted. Stupid oversight. If I had the new codex when I built those models maybe I would have given them gravguns instead, I heard they are quite good on bikes. But the good old plasma will do the job, too.
The last two bikes aren’t very special, on the guy with the MkVI helmet I used Forgeworld MkVI shoulder guards. The torso is MkV, thankfully the new tactical squad kit comes with proper MkVI breast plates, it always bugged me that it was missing in the old kit. I always try to keep my armours as complete as possible.
So this is it. I still have one unbuilt bike model, so at some point in the future I would like to convert a Captain on bike so I can have the bikes as a troop choice, too. Could be quite cool kitbash with the plethora of bitz you can find in the Sternguard and Vanguard kits.
How do you like my bike squad? Please tell me in the comments!
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Very nice Stahly. What colors are you using from the new Citadel range?
Zounds! Some excellent mix-matching of parts from various kits as well for your own take – love it.
I feel bad about my Space Marines now…
I know exactly what you mean. But don't feel bad, feel inspired. Stahly's neatness and attention to detail is really rubbing off on to my own painting. I love his bright and meticulous painting. He inspires my own painting.
The sergeant is the bomb. The red helmet is great.
As usual, an outstanding work !
Being and old Ultramarines player and collecter, il really love your way of painting blue armors. And you managed with all your bits to give these bikers a new youth !
The only grief (but it is only a matter of personal taste) is the full blue paint of the bikes. It might have been less linear with some gold or trim. A French fan
Wow! They look great. I actually like the solid blue on the bikes. I though it might be a bit boring, but it's very striking.
Skillfully done!
I really like the veteran.
One more step you could do is highlight the edges of the paint chips – not necessary as these are awesome.
Insanely crisp, as usual! Beautiful. The only complaint I have are the – unbored – bolter muzzles. It's a pain in the a§§ to paint those black dots on them and much easier when they have been drilled out. Yet in the end it's a matter of taste, I guess.
The squad's a beauty, nonetheless!
to find matching mkvi or mkiv legs for bike squads is a pain … the only possibility I see is from the new legion jetbikes in HH FW …