On Your Bike! Refurbishing Space Marine Bikers Part One

 As part of my Budget Blood Angels challenge (1500 points of Blood Angels army for £50 by end of year) I bought some Space Marine Bikers. Having never played Space Marines before I don't know if the Bikers are good. I have bought them purely because I like the look of them.

I bought a total of 9 bikers and 1 attack bike for a total of £20.98 and spent a further £3.98 on ten resin bases. I intend to break them down into two squads, one of five bike and the other of four and an attack bike. Squad one with one marine upgraded with a plasma gun costs around 155 points. Squad two consists of four bikers and an attack bike upgraded with a multi-melta costing around  180 points. The sergeant of the second squad will also have a power weapon upgrade.

This was fairly straight forward as the sidecar is attached by a metal plate on the underside which 'popped' off cleanly with a bit of encouragement.

In order to get the two squads I had to separate the attack bike as the previous owner had put both a multi-melta upgrade and a plasma gun upgrade.

Many of bikes has the old square bases, possibly explaining why I got them at such a reasonable price. I bought the resin bases off Ebay from a seller whose name escapes me at the moment for 5 @£2. If you're really interested drop me a comment and I'll search my history.

On these bases in order to get a good fix I feel pinning is essential. I pinned the back wheel which enabled me to pose the figures in more dynamic poses.

A simple undercoat of Scarlett red from the Vallejo Model Air range before painting.  

The painting took quite a while. So far I have painted 5 and I would say that it has taken me in the range of 7-8 hours so far including the modelling.

Squad One.

It is quite easy to see the screens of the bikers from above so I added suitable detail on the screens.

Not all of the bikes were assembled to the standards that I would like. I tidied the bikes up as much as I had time for before painting. Any blemishes and imperfections that could be seen after painting I have disguised as battle damage to the paint work.

I simply painted the area black and then went over with gun metal to give the appearance of paint being removed during battle.

Decals added to shoulder pads and tufts of grass to the bases.

The Blood Angels fast attack marines have yellow helmets and of course red everywhere else!

Budget Blood Angels Challenge So Far

Points for 5 Terminators, including one sergeant and a heavy flamer, 205.  £4.99.
Points for 10 bikes including an attack bike and upgrades, 335. £24.97
Total Points 540, Total Cost £29.96