All posts tagged: Mentor Legion

Mentor Legion Painting Guide for the base colors

Painting the Mentor Legion Dreadnought Part 1

Published by Joe B

Ready to start painting your model but not sure how to begin? In todayâ€™s tutorial I will show you how to paint a Mentor Legion Dreadnought with plenty of tips and tricks that you can apply to your own models. This is part two of this six-part series for Dreadtober 2016. Last week I showed you my processes for building a custom model through kit bashing. In this post we do all the main colors, leaving the final details for another tutorial. The Mentors are a great chapter to teach a bunch of different colors as they have white (gloriously hard white!), dark green and red, and I even throw in some yellow to mark them as the second company. Add in the metallics, cabling, lenses, and later detail work I am pretty confident that there will something in here for you. Getting Started We left of last weekâ€™s tutorial with an assembled model ready for paint. So the first thing to do is give him a coat of primer. The primer does two things: …

Mentor Legion Combat Scout Squad

Published by Joe B

So the scout squad hasÂ been sitting around waiting for pictures for a few weeks now, so its about time I post them up here. I present the finished combat scout squad for my Mentor Legion, armed with bolters, bolt pistols, and of course a big-arse heavy bolter. The are meant to support the sniper squad and provide a bit more mass to an otherwise small Mentors army. You can check out the WIP shots here if you like, but since then I have managed to finish the highlights, weathering, and a good deal of gore – well more so on the combat guys further down. The first half of the squad is to add a bit of mobile fire power with their bolters and the infernal bolts blasted out by the heavy bolter. Plenty of gear for these guys, and a couple of extra ammo packs for the heavy. The combat squad received an extra bit of gore as I figured these guys would be the midst of it and haven’t showered in a few …

Mentor Legion Scout Squad WIP

Published by Joe B

As I mentioned in my last post when I finished myÂ Librarius squad, I plan to mix in ‘required’ painting with the fun projects. As the librarians were my fun conversion, I am working on finishing my Mentors Scout Squad as my required choice. I had these guys nearly base coated a long while back and decided they would be a great unit to finally finish. While scout squads are not everybody’s cup of tea, I like the diverse look they bring to the Space Marine armies, especially since I tend to always put helmets on my Mentors (they are smart guys after all). Unlike my other scout squad which was armed as snipers, this squad was built for close up action with half armed with close combat weapons and the other half with bolters. The idea was that I could combat-squad them into a ‘hold position and shot’ squad, and a ‘take out the soft targets’ squad. As with the sniper squad, I am keeping the colors a bit more muted than my traditional Mentors, …

Mentor Legion Librarius

Published by Joe B

This weekend I finished my Mentor Legion Librarius built out of converted and kit-bashed models for each Librarian. First up is Austu Jorimund, who is among the most aggressive of the Mentor Legion’s Librarians. The model is a small conversion from the Dark Angles Master,Â Balthasar from the Dark Vengence set. A simple head swap, added psychic hood, and removal of the Dark Angles symbols. The original model is such a fantastic pose that I didn’t want to change too much. The very large sword was a challenge to paint the crackling yellow power weapon look, and I’m not completely happy with it. The second Librarian,Â Inae Janykchim, is based off of the Assault on Black Reach Captain. Both arms were swapped out and I built the staff from parts from the AdMech Iron Strider’s lance and a Chaos Knight’s mace. I believe the book on the back is from the amazing Flagellants kit. The transfers were done using the Forge World Raptors sheet and painted over with the reds. Robed space marines have just a cool …

Mentor Legion Librarius WIP

Published by Joe B

So life is getting back to the new normal again, started a new job, our house sale has closed, and we can start looking for a house to buy. In the mean time I took the inspiration left in my last update post and started building out a Librarius from the new Space Marine codex. I already converted the Librarian from the Dark Vengeance kit, and while I considered buying the new models from GW, IÂ decided that it would be much more enjoyable to hack together my own from bits on hand. First up was the Dark Angels Company Master,Â Balthasar in his striking robes and huge sword. Fairly straight forward on this guy as I just removed the DA insignia from the robes and gauntlets, replaced his head, and added a Psychic Hood from the archives of From the Warp. The head is from the Centurion kit but couldn’t tell you where the back ordainment came from. Librarian number two was originally the Ultramarine captain from the Assault on Black Reach set. I didn’t like …

Tutorial: Painting Custom Space Marine Banner for Mentor Legion

Published by Joe B

Today I have a tutorial onÂ painting custom Space Marine banner, in this case for my Mentor Legion but the ideas could be easily transferred to any Space Marine chapter. Before beginning, I had to first think of a design for the banner itself. I scoured the codex for ideas and did the obligatory google searches. The general idea I decided on was similar to the Raven Guard banner in the codex: I also found a handy PDF on Bell of Lost Souls (I know…) that had real basic banner designs for each company. So with a rough idea of what I wanted, I then dug through my pile of water transfers to find the starting point of each element. Water transfers? Yeah, I am still working on my freehand so I like to use water transfers as the base idea and work off of them, kind of like coloring books 🙂 Like these sort of tutorials? Make sure to sign up for my newsletter. Not only will it keep you up to date on Broken …

Mentor Legion Company Command Squad for the Second Company

Published by Joe B

I have completed my Mentor Legion Company Command Squad led by the Master of the Watch, CaptainÂ Rothn Ryn. At one point Games Workshop released a four-pack of the ‘masters,’ four metal space marine captains that created an Apocalypse formation (before the current formation styles). This is the Captain of the Second Company, the Master of the Watch with subtle conversions such as the helmeted head and winged skull on the backpack. The Master of the Watch is responsible for the protection of the Fortress MonasteryÂ and the chapter’s relics. As such he is armed for defense with his storm shield and symbolic key to the keep. There is just something about Space Marines with capes. One of the cool things about the Mentor Legion is their vague background and history of working with other chapters. So when I was reading through the Space Marine codex for ideas on how to build out my chapter, I liked the idea of using the different chapter characters as baselines for each captain. Being armed with a storm shield and …

Mentor Legion Command Squad WIP

Published by Joe B

I normally don’t like posting work in progress shots as the in between steps can be a bit embarrassing for me. After watching prodigious posters such as Moridan7th or Greggles share every step, it made me more confident to go ahead with my own. So after unpacking the first project I threw my self into was finally working on my Mentor Legion Command Squad. I built these guys up a few years back to leadÂ my ‘side project’ of Mentors into a full blown company. Step One – Primer The models were primed black with white over spray. I have found this to be the best balance between creating deep shadows and being able to paint lighter colors. Step Two – Base Colors Next up all the base colors were blocked in. I like the block-in, wash, highlight steps as they help me see where the model is going and provide nice incentive to finish the model once the wash is in place. The colors I used for each block: Green: Caliban Green White: Pallid Wych …

Mentor Legion Stormtalon

Published by Joe B

Another model sitting on my shelf for way too long. Last year when flyers were the big hot thing, GW had a air force kit for the Space Marines with two Stormtalons and a Stormraven, I quickly built them up and started painting but got distracted with so many things in life. So here is my Mentor Legion Stormtalon. I also got a set of bases fromÂ Secret Weapon Miniatures Secret Weapon Miniatures to add interest on the large, nearly empty base. The junkyard base had a downed plane reckage that I painted up to look like a Ork flyer, a bit of internal competition. The base colors were done using an airbrush and painters tape to mask the other areas.Â I then used washes to mark the panel lines and shade the green areas. The green was then highlighted and weathering done. The biggest issue I had with the original model was the nose weapon, so before building I did a search for other conversions and found Hand of Junk andÂ Excommunicate Traitoris that both had …

Mentor Legion Scout Squad with Sniper Rifles

Mentor Legion Scouts with Snipers

Published by Joe B

Finally finished off another Mentor Legion squad – holidays were a bit busy! This time it is a scout squad equipped with sniper rifles and camo cloaks. These were a good diversion from full power armour; the cloth and flesh were a nice change up. I kept the colors a bit more muted than their full brethren figuring they wouldn’t want to stick out too much as they did their scout thing. They followed my normal painting flow: base coat, devlan mud everything, highlight. The Mentor Legionnaires I do two layers of green and three white, but to keep the scouts muted I did a single highlight. The “white” comes out more tan colored, but still fitting with the rest of the army. To add a bit more interest to the large cloaks I did a simple camo pattern using the stippling brush. It consisted of light green, light ochre, and off white, finished off with another layer of devlan mud wash. I’m happy with how they turned out – especially with how simple it …

Mentor Legion Drop Pods

Published by Joe B

So I intend to build out the whole second company’s troop squads with drop pods, and since I have two squads done, it is only fitting I finish two drop pods. When I built them I did it in three pieces: the bottom with the doors, the fins connected to the top engine, and the center comms/seats. This allowed the center section to attach to the fins and all drop into the base when I wanted, or to take apart to paint. This was also my first attempt at airbrushing and while it gave me a cleaner white blend, I feel like I spent a great deal of time applying masking tape and then peeling it off. The first is Triumph armed with the simple bolter. For the army badges I used the ones that came with the kit and just cut off the existing mold. Since these are issued to the second company, I needed some yellow somewhere so went for the badge/button on each restraint. The second drop pod is Exultant with the …

Mentor Legion Space Marine Centurions

Published by Joe B

OK so when I first saw these guys in the White Dwarf, I pretty much hated how the Space Marine Centurion models looked. They wereÂ awkward and too busy, but after visiting my local GW and saw the manager’s assembled unit I was able to gain a whole new appreciation for the models. Is is silly for a marine in armour to wear amour? yes, but mechanics have a realm of feasibility. The exception to this for me is the under-hung guns on the assault version, I get that they are taking the same look from the Ironclad, but they look way too fragile down there. Any way, I picked up a kit and built out a devastator unit for my Mentors. I present Squad 3 of the 9th Company lead by Brother-SergeantÂ Koninmund. I did a bit of small adjustments to the model, most noticeable was switching out a few heads. I also cut apart the most static of the leg poses to give more of a walking motion (more on that below). I’m …