Black Dragons – Space Marines? On MY Blog?

My hopes for continuing to spam Death Guard content were somewhat dashed when my preordered codex was delayed, and I wasn’t able to get a hold of it at my FLGS this past weekend. But worry not, I have something to fill the Plague-Marine shaped hole in all of our hearts, and it’s a pretty big departure from my usual work on this site. Space Marines. ACTUAL Space Marines. Black Dragons to be more specific – three Primaris Aggressors, a Primaris Apothecary, and a Primaris Captain in Gravis armor!

Pictured: A Primaris Apothecary, right, and a Gravis Captain from the Know No Fear / Dark Imperium boxset.

Space Marines were always just outside of my wheelhouse, and I thought it would be a fun time painting them, so when my roommate’s brother was talking about the Black Dragons chapter over the summer and how he thought they were pretty swell, nature took its course (and so did my Blood Ravens-esque knack for hoarding models). I decided to do with a deeper green for the capes and knee-guards, with while on the edges of the pauldrons, the Aquilas, and other assorted details. I thought this would be easy – after all, the base colors are the same as my Ulthwe guardians, what could go wrong?

Pictured: The punchiest of the Punchy Bois.

While I wouldn’t say anything went “wrong” as such, I definitely underestimated how detailed these punchy bois were. Even with having the Sector Imperialis bases done as part of my previous Death Guard batch, and doubling up some of the batch painting with Eldar reinforcements, I found that the sheer amount of detail that needed attention on each Gravis marine was more than I’d expected. It was a nice challenge though, and let me try a few new things as opposed to painting Eldar Guardians which at this point I’ve kind of boiled down to a process.

Pictured: 330 points worth of Punchy Bois and their healer, on fancy Sector Imperialis bases.

With this being a gift “starter” for an army, I’ve left the pauldrons bare so that my roommate’s brother can do whatever he wants with these from here – though I’ll probably slip in a few decal contenders when I pass them off to him. Overall I’m quite happy with how these turned out for being my first Space Marines, and I feel like I’ve cleared a sort of 40K rite of passage. I still think I like my Death Guard and Eldar better, but I have a new appreciation for all the work that goes into painting and fielding Primaris Space Marines.