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I have been painting the Leviathan box set like a madman, which is great because it got me out of the funk that I was in with a dwindling #hobbystreak. (I’ll write more about the poor hobby streak in the future.) But I was EXCITED for this boxed set, not the least of which because it contained Sternguard and Terminators, but also because it contained interesting new Space Marine characters, and I am absolutely a sucker for Space Marine character models.

These Space Marines are being painted up in the Order of the Golden Crows, a custom Space Marine chapter that I created. The basic premise of the Order of the Golden Crows is that they are Space Marines who come from a noble and great homeworld–or it WAS noble and great, but it has fallen on hard times. They still cling to their regalia and finery, but they have a lot of notable heraldry, but they have fallen into disrepair and bankruptcy.

So, there is still much conversion to be done to reflect all of this. I’ve scuffed up some of the models to reflect old and damaged armor, but not nearly as much as I’d like to.

ANYWAY, I’m absolutely loving painting the Leviathan boxed set.

This Leviathan Librarian is definitely my favorite model out of the bunch. I love all of the detail that he has in his armor, with the runic and magical symbols. And he just turned out really well, of all the models I painted.

I decided to go in a somewhat Dark Angels route, and to paint all of the Terminators (and Terminator characters) in a bone color, just offset by the blue and red shoulders and iconography. All of the Marines in the Order of the Golden Crows have white helmets and chest aquilas, and they all use the Raven Guard’s raven symbol on their pauldron.

And man, I forgot how much I loved Terminators until I had an actual upscaled set of semi-Primarisized Terminators. I know that Games Workshop is being cagey about whether or not they’re actually Primaris or not, and I don’t care a whole ton about the lore in that respect, but these are simply nicer models, at a better scale, and with less of the squat-legged constipated look of the old Terminators.

These Sternguard Veterans give a much clearer view of what the Order of the Golden Crows will look like. They are blue–I haven’t decided who they’re a successor chapter of, but I’m leaning toward Raven Guard, even though when I started the set I was sure they were going to be an offshoot of the Ultramarines. If you can see, these Leviathan Sternguard Veterans don’t have their pauldron decals on them yet–that’s just because I finished the unit last night and didn’t have time to add the decals before I took pictures.

This is the only model in the Space Marine side of the Leviathan box that I’m not entirely sold on, and I think it’s because he looks so big and bulky, but his legs are spindly. Don’t get me wrong–he’s still cool. He just seems to be out of proportion.

Still, you can see the paint scheme carried forward into this Leviathan Dreadnought, with the crimson left pauldron, and the Raven Guard decals.

(And I shouldn’t say that he’s the only model I’m not entirely sold on, because I think the Infernus models are boring and I haven’t even put them together yet,)

The Leviathan Apothecary turned out really well. I swear, I have given up on Apothecary White when it comes to white armor and almost exclusively go with Soulblight Grey. But this is just a cool model all around, with lots of neat details and opportunities for little pops of color. Now that I look at the picture of him I realize that I need to paint the eye lenses. Oh well.

The Leviathan Captain in Terminator Armor is really cool, but not as cool as the Terminator Librarian. One of the biggest problems that I had with these bone-colored Terminators is to find a different color scheme for their purity seals (because I would normally do them in all the same colors–Zandri Dust, Ushabti Bone, and Screaming Skull). So with all of the models in the Order of the Golden Crows I have done them in black, Eshin Grey, Dawnstone, and Celestra Gray.

You’ll also see a hint in this model what the Tyranid models are going to look like. They’ll be more detailed than this, but I quite like the look of Mortarion Grime on the skin and Terradon Turquoise on the carapace.