Galactic Relief Imperial Expeditionary Force (G.R.I.E.F.)

I’ve not been active on this blog for a while (18 months). There’s been a lot going on – family crises, renovating my new house, organisational restructure at work, and slow progress on my PhD. I’ve tried over the last few months to make more time for my wellbeing, and part of that means doing more artwork*. I haven’t finished any of my ongoing projects, but I have done enough to justify starting a new one. So it’s finally time to tackle Games Workshop’s flagship product. It is the year M3.025 and after more than three decades collecting and painting miniatures, I have painted my first Warhammer 40K Space Marine.

At least, I think so. I painted a few 6mm Epic Scale miniatures in the mid-90s and I owned at least one metal Space Marine Scout which I never painted. I’ve had some qualms about the new Primaris models. The more heroic designs don’t pack quite the same anarchic, satirical punch as the 40K of my youth, but that might ultimately boil down to “I feel uncomfortable with change”, and as a painter I should probably embrace the opportunity presented by these slightly larger and much more detailed miniatures.

I wanted to do something visually very distinct from any of my other projects. I’ve used a lot of purple for my genestealer cult and to a lesser extent my xenofauna, and I also seem to use quite a lot of green, so my wife suggested that I try yellow. There’s a few classic Space Marine chapters that fit the bill but the lore, and the challenge of painting checkerboard, led me to the Lamenters. They’re the humanitarians of the Warhammer 40K universe, and being an aid worker (albeit with a desk job these days) there’s an obvious appeal. So I headed down to my local Warhammer shop, stocked up on rattle cans and brushes, and picked up a free Space Marine:

I have already learned to hate painting yellow, but this is one of my all time favourite paint jobs. I’m particularly pleased with the freehand details, the shading on the gun barrel, and the fallen leaves on the base (which seemed an appropriate symbol for the dying days of the Empire). The sculpted base does pose a bit of a problem though. I’d done some experiments with basing over Christmas, but I haven’t been able to replicate the cracked concrete. I don’t want to use cork again, and anyway it wouldn’t give the same smooth effect as the plastic.

I’m planning to put together a small, eclectic collection, mostly using modern Games Workshop with probably a couple of older miniatures, representing a post-conflict reconstruction team: the Galactic Relief Imperial Expeditionary Force (G.R.I.E.F.). I’ll need a core squad of Space Marines, with medical and technical roles, a dreadnought and an ogryn for heavy lifting, some anti-warp nulls and maybe a couple of servitors. I’m not 100% sure what role the Infernus Marine plays in this, maybe he’s a new hire? But anyway, this plan should keep me busy for the rest of the year!

*I’m also slowly getting back into running after a couple of years off due to injury, and I’ll be running the Great North Run in September to raise funds for the Blue Cross. I’ve written before about how we lost our Dachshund, Loki, and without the volunteers at the Blue Cross I don’t know how I’d have got through those first weeks.