My older daughter is getting into 40K, so we're putting together a Marine army for her. She decided on a name (Aquamarines) and a color scheme (green and blue), and we've painted some models (pics of those coming soon). She won a bunch of stuff at Counter Offensive 5, and some folks (Jen, Justy, Cuban Commissar) have generously donated some stuff, so she has a good solid core to her budding army.

Yesterday, I was at a discount store and I came across three of these Star Trek Nemesis Scorpion models:

Scorpion model

I thought that, in keeping with the "aquatic" theme of her army, they would make cool "amphibious hovercraft" that could count as Rhinos on the table. Best part: they were $5 each. Woooooooot! I bought all three.

More to come over the next few months.....

Hey, does she need any assault marines? I've got about 3500 points worth, and still more in the box. I could send a box or two.

Good idea. I should consider proxying fluffy like that.

Except I like outfitting my chaos rhinos with howling daemonic faces and chaotic symbols. Hmmmm......

Griz,

I'd love to take you up on the offer, but I can't afford to buy any more Marines right now. I just bought a whole bunch of Dwarves....

Those models look really eldarish. Then again, the intent is water craft so. I am curious and intrigued. What is your little one's fluff behind the army?

Yes, those models do look Eldarish: if she hadn't wanted them, I'd have used them for my DE.

She hasn't written out any fluff yet, but we're thinking they're based on a planet that's mostly covered with water. Hence the name and the color scheme. Would also explain my girl's fondness for Land Speeder Tornadoes (of which she has four).

Very nice.

I for some reason see images in my mind of a water world with like a floating marine citadel. Speeders, and the like being the chosen transports.

Your little one has seriously got her daddies brilliant imagination, and eye for details. I look forward to seeing some of the painted product.

Just so's Elizabeth doesn't paint 'em to look like Craig Ferguson:

TDF!

No, they're Space Wolf Grey (--or maybe Ice Blue? It's a really light blue/grey), I think, with Jade Green helmets and shoulder pads. Base is sand painted over with Bubonic Brown (which is really yellow), so that it looks like each dude is standing on a little piece of beach.

Hoping to hash out an army list with Tigger Jr. this weekend. I also need to get her on here: she has an account, and she's lurked, but she's never posted.

Well, THAT I can understand. There's mostly a bunch of jerks who hang out around here.

Yeah, I'm thinking the city of Bevelle in Spira.

Like this: Just pause the video and skip to 6:19. The rest of the video I guess might be interesting if you like ffx I guess. Not me so much though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrxE3y3eRYQ

Meh, I was more or less thinking Atlantis. Just replace the puddle jumpers with speeders. Although, this is kinda cool looking too.

So we have another lady on the gate do we? Nice. Okay boys, clean your rooms, brush your teeth, and for all that's beautiful and good..... Gobbo, take a shower already. Yeeesh !!!!!

Curious question for the Tiger. Are your little angel's marines an off shoot of your Boys from Veda?

No, the Aquamarines are not related to the Tigers.

I put together the "Scorpion" model the other day. It's a snap-together, so it was pretty easy. I didn't bother with the interior, as we'll just spraypaint the canopy. If you discount the wings, it's a very slender model, and doesn't look like it can hold 10 Marines--but it does look like it could hold 5 or 6, and it does have a gun on the back, so I'm thinking we'll make them the equivalents of Razorbacks with twin-lascannons for some much-needed anti-armor.

Don't worry, the GW Rhinos can only fit three marines belly flopped on top of each other, so it's ok if can only fit 5 or 6.

That just painted a really perverse image.

Well, that's how the Emperor's Children roll, anyway.

Didn't mean it to be that way, guys.

But it shows there's more than the lack of firing points from a rhino that cause me never to put Emperor's children in rhinos...

Sat down with Jr. Tigger yesterday and inventoried what she has and how it could be fielded using the new SM codex. Will have a list posted here soon.

Whens the little cub gonna get us some pics of painted Aquamarines ?

Probably April 1.

Okay, I'm not going to have any photos of the Aquamarines by April 1. Tigger Jr. has been busy in the high school musical lately, and I've been working on Dvergar. But after I get done with my Battlewagon, we'll start on her stuff.

We came up with an army list, using all the stuff she currently has:

*Epistolary Librarian
*Chaplain
*Two 10-man Tac Squads (melta gun, missile launcher in each)
*4 sniper Scouts + 1 ml
*4 bolter Scouts + heavy bolter
*7 Scouts w/ bp, ccw; 3 / shotguns
*3 Razors w/ twin lascannons
*Sternguard Sarge w/ power weapon; 4 Sternguard w/ bolters; 2 w/ melta guns
*2 Tornadoes
*2 Tornadoes
*10-man Dev Squad w/ 2 hb + 2 ml
*Pred w/ twin lascannons, lascannon sponsons

Total: 2155

We have a lot of painting to do. Our goal is to have it all done by CO6.

We got started painting in earnest last night. Working together, we assembled a LS Tornado and got it halfway painted, we painted a "Razorback," and we put together another one. To speed up things, we're going for a very simple paint scheme on the vehicles: all black, with her chapter colors painted on selected areas (for example, the fins of the Land Speeder).

I hope we can do some more tonight. Tigger Jr. really had a blast working last night. I think before last night, she was intimidated by the amount of painting to be done and she wasn't very confident in her painting ability, but we're approaching this as just getting something decent-looking on the table to game with, not an art exhibit.

More to come!

Basic black with highlights of something else looks good and, as you said, is pretty painless. Have you explained the three foot rule of painting yet?

Not yet, but I definitely will.

What is the three foot rule? I've probably heard of this under a different name, but maybe not.

The three foot rule is simple.

Paint a mini, then stand up (most tables will keep the mini 3 feet away from your eyeball). If the mini looks ok, then it's a good paint job.

It's mainly there to keep all us non-golden daemon winners (and 'army dip' monkeys like myself) happy with our painting ability.

Wandering1 (a former Gater) used to call that "Bette Midler painting", in homage to her hit song, "From a Distance." And iffn you don't know who the Divine Ms. M is, you need to wiki her.

I worked on the Tornado tonight, just need to do some detailing on it tomorrow when I have natural light.

The nice thing about the 3' rule is that you don't have to muck around with inking, drybrushing, wet blending, dry blending, mixing shades ad nauseum all while making the base look like a little diarama. Three footers won't win any Golden Daemons but honestly, neither will 99% of us. As long as you're making the attempt, you're doing just fine. Any of the other stuff is pure gravy.

I explained the 3-foot rule to her today. We had a very productive evening: I finished detailing the Tornado; Beth painted another Razorback, and we put together and primed the third. I also primed all of her troops except the Devastators. Tigger Jr. is still loving it.

What? Girls don't play warhammer!

All lies!

Just kidding. There are so few girls that play at our store, but I can hardly blame them, the kind of people that come in sometimes... Anyways, please post pictures, I can't wait to see how the new 'rhinos' look.

Tigger Jr. and I have been in Florida for the past two weeks, and strangely enough, we didn't take her minis with us to paint. But now that we're back, I started painting up 5 guys with bolters to fill out a Tac squad.

Cool. You've got about 15 days to finish them, take some pics, and post an article about the Aquamarines. No pressure.

Have we figured out when CO6 is going to be, exactly?

My goal is to have an "Army of the Jungle" article on the Aquamarines for the June update. The army is small enough that together, Beth and I can have it completely painted by CO6 (which is the 2nd weekend in August, IIRC).

Yesterday, we finished the first full Tactical Squad, and the third Razorback. Next, I'll probably finish the other Tactical Squad and ask Tigger Jr. to put together the Devastators.

It is kinda heart warming to read about how you and the cub are having so much family time with this. Makes me kinda get teary eyed at the fact that I don't have any little Psimander's to corrupt in such a loving way. Much jealousy in a happy way for ya Tigger.

As for that rule of 3. I like it. Granted it's not much my style. I still trouble myself with buttons and belt buckles. Inking and shading. Yeah, the full mile long list of stress. Then again, considering all teh annoying ribbing I get from Magick as he's trying to the 3 centimeter rule. It's kinda hard to just relax and practice such a relaxed rule for painting.

I agree with Psi that it is heart warming and good family time that you and the cub are sharing. I am looking forward to the day when one of mine are interested in it or at least want to know more. One time, my daughter found the Chaos Marine codex in the back of my car and was flipping through it. Lots of questions were answered that day, and I told her about the Sisters of Battle. She seemed interested in it all together. She is 7 now, so maybe she might want to get more involved with it later on. She is a very creative and artistic girl.

I can't help myself when it comes to painting. I had the old WH40k painting guide by McVey and it spoiled me. I try to paint every buckle, highlight every grenade. It takes way too much time, but it is the only result that I can be comfortable with. Until I get to vehicles...then it all goes out the window. Those are my weak spot.

Enjoy your time Tiger!

We decided to add some muscle to her army, so yesterday, I bought a box of Sternguard. We'll use the one with the power fist as the Sergeant for one Tac Squad, build another Sarge w/ a power fist and put him in charge of the other Tac Squad, and fill out her Sternguard unit to a full 10.

Why no fists in the Sternguard unit?

Sternguard are expensive enough, and her army is very much "stand-back-and-shoot" w/ counterassault.

Those Sternguard minis have ridiculous amounts of flash on them....

So I started basecoating the other Tac Squad yesterday, while Tigger Jr. started building the Devastators. Getting the ammo and the arms of the heavy bolter dudes to line up properly was a pain in the butt.

You'd think they could build an "easy" to assemble model with how much they charge for them...

Did some accent painting on the Tac Squad: shoulder pads and helmets. Slowly but surely, we're getting there.

Finished the Tac Squad, need to build the Devastator Squad (10 guys, 2 missile launchers, 2 heavy bolters).

Why missile launchers? Aren't they pretty useless at effectively killing anything?

Well, they'll penetrate a Rhino half the time, and usually an immobilized Rhino is as good as a dead Rhino. As long as the Rhino doesn't have cover, you've got a good chance of doing some damage. Against things like DE Raiders and Sentinals, they're pretty much the best weapon a squad can use against these targets... And they can blast infantry along with the Heavy Bolters.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess those were the models Kenton had laying around, looking for a better home.

I personally like the flexibility they provide (krak vs power armor and up, frag on low armored stuff) , but I gotta call 'em "rocket" launchers.

Are you high? Missile launchers are one of the best weapons Marines can have. In addition to what 'jak and Cambonio mentioned, they're FREE to Tactical Squads and only 15 points a pop in Devastator Squads. Missile launchers ROCK.

Built the Devastators, got halfway through priming them before running out of spray paint. Will go to the store and get more today. Started painting the "assault" Scouts (Sarge w/ power weapon, 3 shotguns, 6 bp/ccw).

Previously, Beth would paint everything on a squad and I would paint everything on another squad, but that wasn't much fun for her. From here on out, Beth will do the basecoating and I'll do those details and clean-up....

I have the armor, the shoulder pads, the hair, and the bases done on the Scouts, and I've basecoated their weapons black for some Boltgun Metal drybrushing. All the detail on the Scouts is slowing me down....