Nicely rounding out third platoon and taking my total force to a healthy 3500 points worth before any fleet assets is the M8 Marauder of my NCO. I knew before I started putting the last M8 together that I wanted it to look different from the other Marauders reflecting its status as a ‘command’ suit.  I began by mounting the NCO onto a rocky base made from outcroppings I cast in Lightweight Hydrocal. Because the cast rocks are very brittle and soft compared to resin, I couldn’t just glue the Marauder straight onto them. Instead I drilled out a couple of holes into the marauders feet and inserted a length of 2mm diameter brass rod. These rods were then slid into matching holes drilled all the way through the rocks and out of the bottom of the base itself to give the pins a very safe and solid foundation to be glued into. Once the model was set in place the bottom of the pins extruding from underneath the base were then clipped flush. The other advantage of using reinforcing pins right the way through the model and base was they gave me a very robust point of contact allowing me to position the model a little more dramatically without worrying about having only a small area of contact with the base. This is demonstrated by the right leg, which is positioned with only a single front toe in contact with the base. In reality this toe is firmly attached with a solid length of brass rod all the way down making the connection far stronger than it may otherwise appear.

Once the legs were in position I set about finishing the rest of the model. I wanted to change the look of the front hip armour to set the model apart from the others and give me a place to paint the squad marking in full. As this didn’t fit very well onto the front of the hip I simply reversed it to give me a better purchase for the front plate which was taken from a GW Space Marine Landspeeder stowage hatch cover.

Similar to the other two ‘Apes’ in the platoon I replaced the Morita Specials with lengths of aluminium tube, opened the hands more and replaced the front cage with a new one made from aluminium tubing and plastic rod. In addition to the others I added an extra transponder receiver to the right of the cockpit from my bits box as a final nod to the command aspect of the suit.

Painting.

The NCO was painted no differently to the other two Marauders I recently did with the exception of the shoulder armour which I picked out in red to give me a nice contrast against the desert yellow suit and match the same markings on the two CHAS. The base was painted in my usual sequence of dry brushes of flat earth, desert yellow and beige to which I will add a few spots of static grass and lichen at a later date once it is varnished.  Job done. With a decent sized platoon of five Marauder suits, my Cap Trooper platoon and support CHAS, the Mobile Infantry are starting to shape up nicely. A few more heavy weapons in the form of Reliants, specialist K-9 Corps and of course Fleet Assets and my MI will be ready for anything the bugs can throw their way.

Next Up: 'McBride's Madcats' all together. Do you want to know more?