June is the slowest month in American Football. The Draft is over, and training camps won't begin until July. Since Football is the only sporting event I actually watch and can get into... this saddens me. Basketball's done, Hockey is done... and Baseball is just boring, unless you're there in person.
On the Bolter and Chainsword Space Marine forum, a discussion came up about wacky and silly conversions. Realizing that I didn't have any "silly" Space Marines, and thinking about the old plastic Blood Bowl football I had in my bitz box, I decided I would help bridge the football gap by working on the Philadelphia Eagles Marine I had wanted to do for quite some time.
The model practically built itself -- Plastic Assault Marine legs, a plain torso from the Marine Vehicle sprue, missile launcher left arm, and a normal boltgun-holding right arm, with a hand added from a bike rider. Standard backpack (with a plasticard name plate) and shoulder pads. The head is from a Cadian Imperial Guardsman, with the boxlike bitz removed from it, and a guard made from a length of thin plastic rod (I drilled holes into the helmet on either side of the jaw line, and just bent it over to fit). And the old, spiky, Blood Bowl football, of course.
Unfortunately, I don't have a paint that matches Eagles green very well. The closest was Games Workshop's "Scaly Green," so I used that as a base, with some Dark Angels Green for some shading in the recesses. I added Hawk Turquoise to it for highlights, and eventually added Bleached Bone to the Turquoise for further highlights. The kicker (pun most definitely intended) was the glaze - About 5 parts Dark Green Ink to 1 part Blue Ink, thinned down with Future Mix to the consistency of dirty water. Two or three glazes of this really turned the green parts into that most beautiful of colors, Eagles Green!
There was really only one choice for who this Eagle would represent. Number 5, Donovan McNabb. I resisted the urge to add a can of Chunky Soup to the base, but should have taken care of the model's pointy, Anglo nose before I painted it.
There are, of course, no 28mm-Scale Philadelphia Eagles transfers, so the logos had to be hand painted. I didn't do so well with the wings on the helmet, but I'm pretty pleased with the Eagle heads on the shoulders. You'll also notice no number on his chest... Yet another lesson in planning. I should have left the arms and head separate for painting, but instead had the whole thing assembled first. Thus, no chest number, and a lousy job of the wings on the helmet.
Still, this Space Marine version of McNabb was an absolute blast to model and paint, taking only about 4 days at about 2 hours per day. So until Training camp gets underway at Lehigh University and the new season begins -- Go Eagles!
I just hope our new acquisition learns to tone down his show-boating and becomes part of our team concept. Sharpie in his sock... Jerk.
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