Generic SWAT

I've had the GW Primaris Reivers for a while now, with the vague plan of using their stripped-down Marine look for more generic SF troops. The UK has recently had a spate of snow, and I spent a weekend ensconced with various TV boxed sets and a pile of sprues. The Expanse, Killjoys, and Altered Carbon, especially, have a lot to answer for, and I decided to build a few generic SF SWAT-type guys using the long-ignored Reivers.

First decision was easy - lose the classic Marine look supplied by the backpacks and shoulder-pads and carve off the skulls on their chest armour. I did toy with keeping the helmets, with their new skull-like masks, but I wanted something more generic than that! Fortunately, I had a pile of bits from the GW Tempestus Scions, and grabbed a few of their helmets. This also had the effect of making the large Reivers (those are 40mm bases!) look more like guys in bulky suits rather than immense super-soldiers.

Outside of a choice of pistol and sword or bolt-carbine, I didn't have much to think about - the kit goes together really nicely. The most work I had to do was filling a hole in the back of the torso that would normally be covered by the backpack with a mix of sprue shavings and polystyrene cement.

Painting was, deliberately, simple. I wanted a classic dark, plain, look with just the eyes as a spot colour, so out came the greys. I picked out a few details (belt clips, magazines, gun barrels etc.) with silver and diverged from the original plan a little by painting their webbing dark brown rather than black. Final touch was the eyes - red touched up with orange for a nice Helghast effect.

Well-camouflaged against the local terrain...

I rather enjoyed doing these guys. Whatever else they do, GW make some nice toys. I have another 4 still on the sprues (there are 5 per sprue, but I really dislike one of the poses), and might see if I can find some bitz from other Primaris kits to allow me to give them some heavier weaponry.

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