Don't underestimate the Space Marine Scout

We’ve all been there. The GF is away for a whole weekend, leaving days (days!) stretching out in front of us like a seemingly endless amount of time to fill with hobbying, and then we’ve all been there at 8PM on that Sunday evening with no shirts washed or ironed for the week ahead, malnourished from eating beans on toast for every meal and pale from lack of sunlight, desperately trying to finish off the one squad that your overly ambitious hobby check list has been whittled down to.

In my case I am overly aware that this is a major problem that I face, one which often leads to disappointment and a sense of failure. So aware in fact that I set my short term weekend goals significantly lower. I.e. I start with only one squad on my to do list. Last weekends fully achievable target was a single squad of space marine scouts. The learning point from the weekend was that you should never ever underestimate the little buggers.

In gaming terms the effectiveness of a T4 WS4 BS4 bolter wielding 4+ dude who has the rules to be all up in the enemies face on turn one is a surprise to no one. In fact, I’m really hoping that in my 10^th company heavy battle company (maxing out the scout units as opposed to taking the min of three) the little guys will do a lot of work, and at a very cheap price point.  Obviously they will crumble under a dedicated effort to remove them (although even then, in area terrain with a camo cloak they may surprise you), but anyway… I’m straying from the point. My main issue with them at the moment is that even the humble SM scout, of which I need to paint 25, is actually quite a painting task. Particularly when you, like me, equip him for a 6 week expedition by adding every pouch in the kit, as well as all the grenades to satisfy that one WYSIWYG sadist.

Anyway my attempt at a five man squad is shown below, overall I’m quite pleased, although it annoys me that the kit doesn’t come with enough parts to build them with five bolters. Maybe I should have a squad with all CCW…

I've attempted a free hand 'X' on each shoulder pad... which I don't think looks too bad, as always work is required though!