Combat Patrol

 For my birthday last year, Greg bought me the Space Marine Combat Patrol box set for Warhammer 40k. I have finally decided to sit down and put it all together. It has been something I have worked on slowly over the course of a week or two, but am happy it is finally complete.

He bought it knowing I was quite interested in the Salamander Chapter of the XVIII Legion. I had come across them through various readings on the interwebs and they really struck me as an interesting and not too edgy or cringy Chapter. Being very new to the hobby, both myself and Greg are slowly working on our armies, as has been seen on the Blog with Greg's posts on his progress. He is working on both Space Wolves and Orkz. He has been reading on the Lore for sometime now, so has a much better grasp than I, however, reading through a book on the Salamanders has really pushed me to at the very least build the box up.

So let's have a look and see what we have.

First off, we have the Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos Armour. It looks cool, although I am not a fan of the things on the back of the backpack personally, but nevermind.. A great stance for the model and looks like he means business.

Secondly are the Infiltrators. I was really put off these at first as I do not like the antennas at all. When I think of Space Marine, I do not think of these guys. It's usually the Intercessor that comes to mind. But given they are a Recon element, it makes sense and I stuck with them. Now they are together as a Squad, they look pretty fucking cool. All the various stances are quite nice and come together really well.

First Squad of Infiltrators with the Salamander head added from the add-on sprue. I like it.

Second Squad. I really like the model tossing the Grenade. A nice little detail.

Now for the Eliminators. These guys look pretty nifty. Snipers within the 40k Universe. No idea how they play in the game or how well they do, but time will tell. They look futuristic and menacing, whilst retaining some of the traditional style of a Sniper, which works really well. They actually have a bit of a STALKER look to me, which is nice.

Now for the unit which nearly killed my motivation in completing this box.. The Suppressor.. These guys are some sort of Machinegun dudes with Jet Packs. The actual model itself wasn't too troublesome to put together, perhaps the only minor issue I had with the first model of the three was fitting the arms and gun together to align with the ammo belt, but I soon learned from my mistakes. It was the stupid stand they sit on. By the time the glue set on them, it basically melted away the plastic it was supposed to bond. The issue I found was the model is front-heavy, so it wouldn't balance well due to no counter-balance. Infuckingfuriating. It really did nearly kill my motivation, but I stuck with it..

Never again will I purchase these... And now, for the final piece of the box set. The Impulsor. As I don't have the SM Codex - and especially since 10th Ed. has just released, I have no idea what it actually is other than some sort of hover-vehicle. No idea how it functions and what it is capable of, but that's ok. We will figure all this out eventually. It looks pretty cool and it took me the better part of an afternoon to put it together.

It's fitted with some kind of Rocket mounted system and a Machinegun. I don't actually know because the box set is Japanese and I don't read Japanese, lol, but nevermind. I've actually decided to not glue it down, rather I will prime it in place so I can swap it out with some antennae part - I presume it will give some sort of Vox buff? Dunno, but it looks nice.

My thinking for this is, if it is some sort of Squad Transport, surely it might link up with the Lieutenant and give added range on an Infiltrator Squad in the Midfield? Who knows, but it is what I have decided on..

And finally, all the boys together posing..

All-in-all, a fantastic little starter box with a great range of models. Absolutely great value for what you get in the box and what you pay for it. Not really a great start for Salamanders, however, but that's fine because they can still be played. But to add on to this force, I did manage to purchase the Deathwatch box set which leans more heavily into the Salamander build and play style. Eventually I will get around to putting that together. Meanwhile, before any of this is even painted up, they can also be added onto Greg's Space Wolves army for bigger games against his ever growing Ork army.

Until next time.