Spartember - Relictors Relic Spartan Heavy Assault Tank

Howdy All, thanks for clicking and having a look-see. So, after a few torturous weeks of track link hell, I managed to pull the Spartember challenge out of the bag! Albeit, right up to the line, I messaged Turkadactyl at 1hr to midnight on Sept 30th that I had just the green power cables of the left sponson left to go! Ha Ha - finished at 23:55 with only spray varnishing and photographing to do the next day.

Firstly, I'd like to thank Turkadactyl and NafNaf for putting together this hobby challenge and inviting other bloggers, through our mutual support and encouragement I feel we get more done and I have a fine Spartan that would have otherwise stayed languishing in the pile of To-Do for another few years... and I would consider them both Blogger Buddies :)

So on to my latest addition to the rather huge Relictors Battle Company transport pool, a Relic Spartan Assault Tank. This was scavenged from the battlefields of Thetus VI, a long lost Dark Angels Spartan, restored and sanctified by the Relictor Techmarines and passed through the Rites of Colour with some of the Heresy Era Dark Angels livery restored out of respect to their fore-bearers - Relictors are gene-breed from Dark Angel and Ultramarine geneseed.

From the front you'd be forgiven thinking it was a Heresy DA tank still, but the bone colour muzzles and grey shielded targeters hint to something else. The skull emblem is what I use for the Relictors Chapter Badge throughout their build, my freehand was not up to doing a side skull in 2009.

Only from the sides the true Relictor qualities start to show, the familiar Relictor Grey (Army Painter Uniform Grey/Codex Grey/Dawnstone washed Nuln Oil and highlighted Administratum Grey). I drybrushed the tracks last with Leadbelcher, Mournfang Brown and Agrax Wash stippled. The black areas were drybrushed Eshin Grey and Dawnstone.

The normal white Relictors badge was replaced with the black version from the FW SM Decal Sheet to link the black sections with the sides. The numeral 5 shows this vehicle is attached to the 5th Battle Company, the Company codex colour is also Black.

A rear shot showing the mighty engine reactor and exhaust towers. Every Space Marine backpack has two lights/sensors/nodes behind the head, I have always painted these red and blue, so the to sensors on the bottom of the engine got the same treatment, this is a nice addition to the tank, to link again to the force. I painted the exhaust stacks separately and attached once painted.

The hard work I went through with all the tracks really paid off and they look great IMHO. I am very pleased with my results. This is a great addition to my Relictors Armour pool, speaking of which...

Here are my Land Raider heavy support tanks and the Spartan - a nice dose of Heresy-Era relic to the motor pool. Thanks for following my Spartember progress and thanks for dropping in. Cheers, Siph.

Now i'm free to start my Dreadtober Dreadnought hobby challenge :)