Finished Squad #2 and the problem of Squad #3.

Got squad #2 put together. Sadly, doing so used all the hammers I had save for 2. Also, I ran out of meltaguns when I finished squad #1. So... since all of Squad #2 has hammers except for the two flamers (which truthfully I will only rarely ever use), and the Sergeant who has a powerfist, I think I need to make two more marines for that squad, and I probably should get around to making an extra guy or two for squad #1. Also, the squad #3, which was supposed to be nearly identical to squad #2 will now not be identical, because I am out of hammers.

So, I think since I have a lot of regular swords from the Chaos Warriors box, I will use those. I also have a number of axes left over, and if needed, I can start popping those onto the guys for Squad 3, that way we have some type of variety. Squad 4 will probably end up with chain weapons. Squad 5 will be the Forgeworld non assault squad, armed with... I don't know yet, probably a mix of weapons. Squad 6 will be the Forgeworld assault guys, with magnetized backpacks so that they can pull duty as jumpers as needed. Axes, Hammers, Cloaks, Swords. That's pretty much the delineation for the squads planned.

Sadly, I also ran out of cloaks for squad #1 when I finished squad #1 so I can't put together two flamer guys that would be able to go with squad #1. Which isn't that big of a loss honestly, as I said, rarely ever do I use a flamer when a meltagun is an option. But, in going through my stuff that I have to put these guys together, another slight issue came to light. Sure I have torsos, not the ones that I want, and honestly not enough that will work for me, but I have some, I also have lots of backpacks and heads, which is awesome. What do I not have?

Lots of bolt pistols. Lots of arms that can be sliced and repositioned to hold some hand weapons, and most important of all, legs. In fact, I think I have somewhere around 4 legs left. Total. Which yes, that will give me a start on putting together the next squad, but uh... that sucks, because it means I probably won't get the guys all assembled for this squad before I go back to work on Tuesday. (I had 5 days off, tomorrow is day #4. Yes, it was glorious, and my god, did I ever need the break.)

So, on the to do list...
#1. Acquire meltaguns. 5 squads. 2 meltaguns per squad, that's 10 meltaguns needed. At the current rate on the interwebz, I am looking at something like... hell, I dunno, anywhere between 30 and 60 bucks before delivery.

 #2. Acquire legs, because honestly, while the one image I saw a while back of a marine made out of shoulder pads and nothing else was cool, I don't wanna go that route. Just to complete the next squad, I need at least 10 legs. That makes the 4 legs I have left become 2 for Squad 2's meltaguns, and 12 for Squad 3. Now, I could go out and buy just 10 tactical marine legs from the Battlewagon Bitz or somewhere like that, or I can get legs that look good. Besides, the 10 tactical legs are either $16 just for those, of $20 depending on the legs, and they are all bland and boring. I want spice, I want awesome, and those legs do not need to apply. Which probably puts me with either Chaos Marine legs, or Khornate Berzerker legs. Both of which need just a bit of work to make them nearly perfect. The Khornate ones need the Khorne symbol carved off, which isn't exactly hard, but the regular Chaos marine legs need to have those fucking chaos stars shaved away. Which is a pain in my nuts to do. So... fuck those legs, more than likely going to go with the Khornate legs. $8 for 6 legs, which makes it $16 for 12. Not quite a $1.20 per leg, but not a bad price at that. That is what I will most likely go with.

#3. Torso's. Yeah, the ones with the Imperial eagle and winged skull are great for space marines. This is preheresy, the Imperial Eagle was not allowed to be worn yet, that was for special units as a decoration. So, once again we have to back to getting different torso's. Now, what I have been doing so far is taking whatever torso I have and shaving off whatever logo existed there at first. The ones that worked best for me were the Assault Marine torso's, as those required a lot less work and looked better. But I ran out of those. I have lots of torso's with Blood Angels or Space Wolves regalia on them, but that's a lot of effort that I can better use elsewhere, and I could trade those bits or use them later. I've looked at a lot of torso's so far, both from GW and from the various other people online. Truthfully? The best looking torso for what I am working on is really the Berzerker body set. Sure all of them have the Khornate icon that's gotta go, but they all also have decent bits of fiddlery on them that look nice. 8 of those? $4. May as well grab two of them since I need enough for at least 1 squad.

#4. Shoulder pads. Damn this part sucks. Now, I've got the guys I already made, and I kinda wish I had held off on making them because of two reasons. #1, Maxmini is in two months time, making Preheresy power armor shoulder pads. #2, I found a site online that will do up custom pads with whatever design I want on them for about $1.25 per shoulder pad after a $25 set up fee. Now, that's still almost a hundred bucks for 60 total shoulder pads if I go with the custom ones. Or about $70 if I go with Maxmini if I like their pads depending on their price. Also, I'm going to have to pop off 20 shoulder pads (or 40) on the two completed squads. Personally, I'm thinking I'll hold off on the shoulder pads for now until I see what Maxmini has to offer. They haven't failed me yet, so I think I can wait just a bit.

#5. Weapons/bolt pistols/meltaguns. Now, hand weapons, I can get piecemeal from friends who are doing stuff with chaos warriors. Bolt pistols however... those I need to get. Nope, not going for the Berzerkers on this as their pistols are fucking ugly and huge when compared to the rest. 5 Chaos Bolt pistols are $3.5, and Assault marine pistols are $4.50 for 5. I'll probably go with a mix, which comes out to $8 for 10 total. Meltaguns however... well I talked about them earlier, $5-9 per meltagun is the average.

So, let's see here... Ignoring the shoulder pads for right now... $46 to put together squad #3. Considering that a base tactical squad from GW costs $37.50 right now, or a squad of 5 assault marines for $33.00 that price isn't to bad. Less than $10 more than a vanilla tactical squad, and that's counting two meltaguns. The only thing it doesn't count is shoulder pads, which I will deal with later.

That said... I guess I better find about $50 for this squad.

Guess I won't be getting them done tomorrow.