For starters I thought I would talk a bit about how the Sons of Dorn came about. I believe it was back in December 2005 that I entered an online painting contest on Librarium Online to paint up a retinue. It had to consist of a commander and 5 other figures to represent the rest of the "command" group.

I had been toying around with doing a Space marine chapter and didn't really want to paint up the figures in a standard  color scheme. Initially I was planning on a split color pattern but wasn't really excited about the extra work to pull it off well. I had been struggling for months beforehand trying to decide on a color pattern. Ultimately I really enjoyed the look of the Knights of Dorn in the back of the "How to Paint Space Marines" and not really wanting to do a split color scheme decided to create a "successor" chapter to them called the Sons of Dorn.

I decided to keep the majority of the body bone, use the tin for shoulderpads, helmet, and backpack, and add decorative trim in reds and checkered pattern. I kept the same chapter symbol of the skull in a black circle. I also decided long ago that i wanted to have them based on an Urban Rubble theme.

My biggest problem to date is that I am not very familiar with the rules and so far having painted up the HQ and also an Elite squad of Terminators I have found that I may not have them modeled 100% accurate to the rules!

Since I am starting this Blog after I have already started forming them I will recap briefly the 2 squads I have finished and fill you in on what I am currently working on.

First completed was the Command Squad which consists of: Captain Mycaelis, a standard bearer, veteran sergeant, champion, plasma gun wielding marine, and a standard boltgun wielding marine.

Next I worked on my newly aquired Terminator Squad - a gift for winning the Retinue painting contest. I was eager to get these guys painted up as a Games Day entry. It was started rather late but I think the details are very crisp and they look great. They were finished in the beginning of April. The big problem with them I found out is that I have some "illegal" weapon choices in that the terminator with the cyclone missile launcher can not also have the heavy flamer. Oh well - I guess he will be either or depending on how I decide to field them then...

Currently I am scrambling to assemble 2 tactical squads so that I can have the basics of a playable army. Here is a sneak peak test fitting to give you an idea of their style.

I will add more updates as I can. I have already basecoated all the tactical squad (which consists of marines from the battle for macragge boxed set as well as a standard tactical unit) and should have some more pictures ready in the next few days. They are temporarily glued to pieces of board until I assemble their bases (I was waiting until the Urban Basing Kits came out which I just recently got).

Cheers,

-Mike

Nice color scheme. Space Marines usually look really corny, but these are handsome models. Starting a Marine army myself w/ a similar process. Got a Chaplin and command squad (all with jumppacks) w/ 2 10man tactical squads. I did mine sprayed white, with thinned purple paint washes and layers of desert yellow with yellow/bone highlights. The result is kind of like a gross version of your marines :) Keep posting pictures!