Surodai Ha Space Marines (Hinted Japanese Theme)

[emcee temper]

Hey everyone, this is going to be my first project log that I've put up on warseer, after a few years of lurking and admiring peoples work, learning what I can from the criticism and knowledge on these forums, I've decided to make my own! The name of my chapter is the "Surodai Ha", which is a literal translation in Japanese of "Sharp Blades". I started the army with a slight theme of Japan and Japanese culture in mind, using colours and iconography that is associated with Japan! I'm currently working towards a 1500 point army, at an alarming slow rate due to my exams taking priority over painting sadly :c However, this is a project log so I'll post up the first three models that I've worked on recently!
Sorry in advance for the poor photography skills, still new to that :P
Also none of the models have a chapter badge or any squad markings, but that will be added once the whole squad is finished

"Test model" Plasma Gun Marine



2nd Company Captain




1st Company Chaplain



So thats all for now! Comments and criticism's are highly welcomed. Thanks for reading!

[Rinak]

If it's a standard Captain in the vanilla army list then you can have Termie armour with power weapon, in fact its the basic wargear with the Terminator Armour. You swap power armour, bolt pistol, chainsword, and grenades for Termie armour, storm bolter and power weapon.

[nebulushoax]

These are really nice! Good job with the colourchoices!

[emcee temper]

@Rinak, haha! Just goes to show I can't actually read the codex at all properly :P Thanks for that clarification ;D

@nebulushoax, thanks a lot!

[Student]

Looks cool. I like the freehand on the captain. Does it say something?

[Rinak]

No worries, also forgot to say, nice painting, the colour scheme seems a little clashing to me but I like that for Space Marines. Makes them seem more terrifying somehow.

[emcee temper]

@Student, as far as I'm aware it doesn't lol. I just took random kanji (japanese letters/words) that looked cool :P Thanks for the compliments!

@Rinak, I re read it, and I cant have a storm shield on it with a power sword, the sword is replaced by the shield :c Not a big deal anyway, I just like the model for the aesthetics. Thanks for the kind words, I normally choose a clashing scheme because it somehow manages to work out fine! On my last marine army I had Blue and White half and half armour, with bright green as a spot colour, and I managed to pull it off somehow lol :P

[Hadriel Caine]

I meant to comment the other evening but my iPhone decided it didn't want to find my WiFi... I really like your painting style and I think the Japanese influence is shining through very well. The second company captain looks fantastic in particular. I love the pink glow, pale skin and the subtlety of the scroll work and the fact that although converted he has very clean lines and looks like a production miniature could. The shoulders tie in much better than on a lot of similar conversions I see on Warseer- the muted tone looks great next to the strong yellow. The battle damage is done well too. Nice job- I'll be watching.

[Rinak]

Call it a Lightning Claw XD, Though tbh, shields aren't a great idea for captains anyway, you're paying a lot of points to only increase their save by 1, they already have a 4++ due to their Iron Halo, and shields don't seem a very Japanese item anyway. I'd perhaps give him two 'swords' and call it counts as Lightning Claws? Maybe a large and a small in the style of a Katana and Wakizashi.

[Drazhk]

Liking what you're doing there, you don't see too many 'japanese' themed SM chapters around. Colours clash slightly, as previously stated, but hey, Samurai were not exactly known for their fashion sense. (cobalt blue on bright red with yellow lacing in their armour, c'mon :P) I'll definitely be watching this. Do you have an idea for chapter badges yet?

[andyg2006]

Really good work and a unique style, too. Would you have any with samurai helmets with crests and crescents etc?
I'd like to see someone make a marine with a power-katana...nice!

[emcee temper]

@Rinak, yeah i was thinking about the katana style, its hard to get the right kind of angle or shape for the sword for it to look good. I may make some tweaks to it at some point, but I'm not gonna use it in games anyway :P

@Drazhk, Still thinking on the chapter badge at the moment... thinking either normal japanese lettering OR a japanese mon!

@andyg2006, Thanks a lot I have some space samurai helmets from Kromlech mini's which I'll be using on the more "grandiose" models. As with the katana, as mentioned above, I'll try to get round to it, might take a while and a few trys, but I will

On the other hand, will have an update tommorow hopefully with a finished sergeant and some pics of the models I have ready to paint/finish!

[Drazhk]

I'd say go for a mon. The Daimyo's personal heraldry and all, reaaly fits in well here.

[emcee temper]

As promised an update! Starting with my Tactical Squad Sergeant!



And now for the WIP's

1st Co Librarian and an Emperor's Champion (just because I love the model)



And the 1st Tactical Squad



AND the Sternguard Squad (with 5 plastic kitbashed sternguard )



Thats all for now folks!

[emcee temper]

Progress on the Librarian, hes completely done now!





And a very much WIP of my Land Raider, assigned to Chapter Master Hokusai, with an appropriate painting by Hokusai freehanded on the side of the tank! Looking forward to painting this beasty up, but would like to finish some of the foot troops first before embarking upon that crusade!




Until next time!

[emcee temper]

Hey everyone, LONG time no update, college exams are over and I'm raring to go...on holiday

Will be trying to get some painting done over the summer before uni. But heres my freehand on my Raider

[Student]

Nice free hand. You've captured the Japanese style perfectly.

[RunepriestRidcully]

Wow, I love that artstyle, and it's nice to see it on some models, are you going to have any banners/dreads with similar scenes on?

[emcee temper]

Cheers Student and RunepriestRidcully! I may have to trawl the internet for famous art pieces by japanese artists to do it, but it may be an idea I have to look into!

[emcee temper]

Hello everyone, haven't updated this in half a year... WOW! How time flies when you're extremely busy...

As a small catch up I moved out of my parents house in August and moved to my accommodation at University! The problem with this is that my apartment is very small, so painting space is pretty much out of the question. Along with this, taking a whole bunch of 40k related stuff is a hassle to transport, especially when having to move in suitcases, televisions and an xbox amongst other things. In case anybody is wondering, I'm taking a degree in Computing, and this also limits my time even more! HOWEVER, I'm at my parents house right now, and will be back for another 12 days or so...

So I'll be able to update! YAY! I've already painted some stuff, but I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow for pictures unfortunately, because I forgot my camera (DOH!) and I'll have to try and use my Mums iPad >.> Also going to my local GW and buying a special something that I'll be wanting to complete!

Until tomorrow, faretheewell! Temper!
P.S. Merry Christmas to all!