Why I Started This Army
Here is the background on my Space Marines. I typically play with 3 friends, out of which 3 have absolutely no models. We tend to play 4 players at a time, 2 on each team. The best way to do it is we have a normal 1500 point deployment on each side, and each faction is split in more-or-less 2: i.e. each player on the Marine side gets a tactical squad, a dreadnought, etc. It sounds unwieldy but in practice it works very well. The best way to make it easy to remember, I thought, would be 2 different factions within a side. So, I have a joint task force, comprised of Ultramarines (which were my first army) and Blood Ravens (which came later.
Fluffwise, I think there is even a reasonable way to make it work. During the first Dawn of War game (Winter Assault, specifically), there was a point where the Blood Ravens chapter assisted the Ultramarines with escorting a Land Raider. After the events of Dawn of War 2, when the Blood Ravens in the Aurelia system had been decimated by the Tyranid invasion, the Ultramarines repaid the debt of honor by deploying a company to assist the Blood Ravens with rebuilding, as well as helping to destroy the remanants of the now feral Tyranids... and the Orks, who were drawn to conflict... etc, etc.
Hence, the Blood Rave\Ultramarine Joint Strike Force!
Full Army Photo
My Utramarine & Blood Raven Space Marine army, as of November 2011. Not pictured: Ultramarine Drop Pod, Blood Raven Predator & Assault Terminators, Sicaran Battle Tank
Unit Photos
HQ
Captain - Terminator Armor (Blood Ravens)
The Joint Strike Force is typically led by Captain Ajax of the Blood Ravens. He is in Terminator Armor, and is armed with Lighting Claws and a Auxiliary Grenade Launcher. The model is an AOBR terminator with a random head, and a greenstuff'd mohawk.
Librarian - Power Armor (Ultramarines)
Librarian Phoibe of the Ultramarines lends his sage advice to Captain Ajax, as well as his mastery of the powers of the psyker. Here he is in Power Armor.
Librarian - Terminator Armor (Ultramarines)
Here is Librarian Phoibe again, but this time in his Terminator armor.
Chaplain - Power Armor (Ultramarines)
To lead my assault marines, I have Chaplain Perses of the Ultramarines. He is in Power Armor, and armed with a jump pack. I think I did rather a good job on him.
Chaplain - Terminator Armor (Blood Ravens)
To lead my (eventual) Assault Terminators, I have Brother-Chaplain Quintus Invisus. He has no chapter-specific iconography or colorings, but I imagine him as a Blood Raven. I'm pretty pleased with how the bone on the chest and shoulder came out.
Chaplain - Power Armor (Blood Ravens)
I really like the Chaplain from the Dark Vengeance set, so I picked one up. I don't really need another Chaplain, but eh.
Troops
Scouts with Sniper Rifles (Ultramarines)
My ultramarines have a 5 man squad of Scout-Snipers available, for long-range prosecutions. The cloaks were done with strips of burlap.
Scouts (Blood Ravens)
My scouts, I wanted to try something new with. I wanted to have almost every option available with a limited number of models. I decided to go with a total of 12 scouts, using approx 40 magnets. They are set up so that I could either do 2 squads 5 Marines + Sergeant each, armed with either Bolters, Shotguns, or CCW; or one large squad of 9 marines + Sergeant each, armed similarly. The Sergeants can be armed either as the men, or with a power sword, or power fist. I have 3 heavy weapons available; 1 missile launcher and 2 heavy bolters. One heavy bolter marine is not magnetized since he'd either be present or omitted depending on how I roll them, having him flexible is irrelevant in either config. I do have some Maxmini sniper rifles I will eventually finish and add to these guy's backs. Speaking of Maxmini, the Sergeants are using Maxmini torsos.
Tactical Marine Squad (Ultramarines)
Squad Themis are the very first models I painted. It really shows. They're pretty poor, in comparison to my later stuff. They are AOBR marines, armed with a Heavy Bolter and flamer. The flamer is on a peg, and can be swapped with a Meltagun, which I have yet to paint.
Tactical Marine Squad (Blood Ravens)
Squad Pallas are the Blood Ravens of Calderis. They were painted substantially later then the other tactical squad, and so look much better. As with the Ultramarine squad, they are AOBR marines, but armed with a flamer (which can be swapped for a Meltagun) and a Missile Launcher. I did arm Sergeant Pallas with a power fist.
Fast Attack
Land Speeder (Blood Ravens)
I only have one Land Speeder so far. All of the weapons are magnetized, and can be swapped out, as you see here. I have a pair of Typhoon launchers I haven't yet finished painting.
Assault Marines (Ultramarines)
Here is Assault Squad Perses. I did these guys (minus the chaplain) really early on, before I owned the Codex. As a result their weapons are totally screwed up: I have a dude with a powerfist who is not the sergeant, and 3 of them are equipped with Plasma Pistols. I should probably fix them, but I wound up almost never playing them anyway so it's kind of a moot point. They are wearing Games Workshop's addon Assault Squad pads as well as the addon Ultramarines pads, so it was sort of an expensive bungle to boot.
Elites
Brother Uriel, Dreadnought (Ultramarines)
Brother Uriel is an ancient Dreadnought from the Ultramarines Chapter. He was selected for this mission as his diplomacy is second to none. His recall, perception, and cognition are rare for Dreadnoughts of any type, let alone one as old as he. Nonetheless, he retains nearly his full faculties from the days he lived as a man. All of his loadout is swappable, and his legs magnetize to the base so the base can be used as rubble in the unlikely event Uriel is laid low.
Brother Ares, Ironclad Dreadnought (Blood Ravens)
Brother-Dreadnought Ares is the hammer of any assault. He is a Ironclad Dreadnought of great reknown - a living relic to the Blood Ravens. His weapons are swappable between Hurricane Bolters, Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon with Storm Bolter, Chainfist, or a Seismic Hammer with Meltagun. He also has a pair of Hunter\Killer missiles and Ironclad Assault Launchers. He also has an internal LED with a switch in the rear, and the battery can be replaced.
Brother Thanos, Multipurpose Dreadnought (Blood Ravens)
Brother Thanos is geared to many different battlefield roles. While his versatile, modular Dreadnought chassis can be deployed at a moments notice from a vehicle-crushing Ironclad configuration to a troop-melting plasma cannon platform, his preferred configuration is with a set of Twin-Linked Autocannons, dealing death from afar with pinpoint accuracy.
Terminator Squad (Ultramarines)
Squad Apone is a 5 man Terminator squad, led by the indomitable Sergeant Apone of the Ultramarines.
Terminator Squad (Ultramarines)
Squad Titus is a 5 man Terminator squad, led by the fearsome Sergeant Titus of the Ultramarines. Fresh from a tour of the space hulk [i]Heresy of Purgation[/i], he requested the honor of assisting the Blood Ravens chapter personally, after they rescued a squad of his many decades previously. His knowledge of urban combat and other short-ranged combats are unmatched. This was the second set of models I painted, which were mostly used to play Space Hulk (before it was re-released). The assault cannon terminator is magnetized and can swap to a heavy flamer.
Assault Terminators (Blood Ravens)
Squad Thexa is a 10 man squad of Assault Terminators. They relish getting in the thick of battle and laying down the hammer. Although not pictured, I also have bits to run them as storm bolters & power fists; though my Ultramarine Terminators really have this adequately covered. They are mostly made from random bits I got in Warstore Black Friday grab bags. You'll notice some AOBR bodies, some Space Wolves lighting claws (some of which I could remove the iconography from, one of which I could not and did not), and all of my storm shields are scratchbuilds. I made 3 styene shapes and then recast them to make the shields. For both the shields and the Blood Raven logos, I pulled them from the mold a little early, when they were still a tiny bit soft, and wrapped them around a spray can to curve them.
Heavy Support
Devastators (Ultramarines)
Squad Antaeus is a 5 man Devastator squad, ably led by Sergeant Antaeus of the Ultramarines. The talents of Sergeant Antaeus's squad are rarely called upon in whole. In practice, members of the squad are assigned temporary duty to the tactical squads in a heavy weapons role, depending on which weapon platform is called for. I hope in future editions, Devastators squads are not quite as overpriced as they currently are.
Thunderfire Cannon & Techmarine (Ultramarines)
Thunderfire Cannon "Skybreaker" is driven by Techmarine Poseidon of the Ultramarines. Ironically, the TFC is one of my earliest models, while the Techmarine is one of my most recent. I'd guess I finished the TFC in mid-2008 and the techmarine was done in February 2011. If I was smarter, I would have reversed the order of that so I could have been using the Techmarine as a HQ unit: I've left out the shell speedloader so it looks less TFC-specific. As you can see from that last shot of the TFC, it's from before I has learned of decal solution. Ugh.
Predator Annihilator (Blood Ravens)
My first piece of armor is Predator "Emperor's Vexation". It's in the Annihilator pattern, since my feeling is if this is going on the table it's going to be dealing with armor; I've got plenty of stuff equipped to handle everything else. Everything is magnetized: the main gun, the turret, the sponson weapons, and also the sponsons themselves. I have the side doors also magentized so I could also field it as a Razorback if I get the rest of the bits painted up. That's a pretty low priority to me since, as I said, it's probably doing anti-armor work anyway.
Sicaran Battle Tank (Blood Ravens)
I'm not really into the Horus Heresy lore very much but I thought this was one of the coolest looking tanks ever and I had to have it. I was tempted to go with the Iron Warriors scheme but decided that the Blood Ravens could just steal one from them, as is their wont. This is the first model I painted via Badger Minitaire airbrush paint, and it has a decidedly lighter hue than the rest of the army. Since it's from a whole other era, I think it's probably OK.
Dedicated Transports
Drop Pod (Ultramarines)
The Ultramarines possess a drop pod for use in the Aurelia system. They won't get more, as I found it to be the least fun model to paint, ever. Nonetheless I think I did a fairly good job for what I considered an unpleasant chore, complete with iconography Hudson would be proud of.
Each side of the ramp has a little inspirational saying on it. The last pic is a closeup.
Rhino (Blood Ravens)
The Blood Ravens currently have a single Rhino, the Emperor's Irritation. It's lighted with LED's as a test balloon to a far more ambitious lighted Ultramarine Rhino, which is below.
Rhino (Ultramarines)
The Ultramarines also currently have a single Rhino, the Emperor's Divine Annoyance. It has it's own gallery, with many more pictures, which can be found here
