How long does it take to breed a Space Marine Chapter?

I've been re-reading my old Warhammer 40,000 books for some pre-heresy inspiration over the past week -- both Rogue Trader and the Compendium (pictured).

I got thinking about the progenoid glands and how they grow and are able to produce new gene-seed. As an overview (or perhaps even an introduction to the topic!), each and every space marine is implanted with a number or organs during their teenage years. These grow the person in to a full Astartes and give them abilities beyond ordinary mortals. Here's the catch though - to grow a full set of organs for this process requires a gene-seed. And the gene-seed is contained only within a mature progenoid gland. 

Every space marine is implanted with two of these: one that matures in a timespan of 5 years, and a second that is fully mature only after 10 years. These can be harvested after this time period and returned to the chapter (or legion) to grow new sets of organ, although often the 10 year maturation glad is only removed when the marine dies.

To form a new chapter, Terra grows a suite of gene-seed from a pool of vat-slaves. Each is implanted with the progenoid glands as well as the organs, and they're left to mature. Rinse and repeat lots of times, and you'll have enough for a full and new space marine chapter. The only problem is the time line involved. 

Let's start with a single (carefully selected) gene-seed. After 5 years, one of the progenoids is ready to harvest. Hence we get our gene-seed back. After 10 years, the second one is ready, and we have double the number we started with.

But suppose we implant the seed back again as soon as it is mature. After 5 years we have our original "slave" in a vat who has produced the 5 year mature seed which is then implanted in another host. After 10 years, the original slave has produced the 10 year seed, and the second slave has produced the 5 year seed. We now have two seeds and a third in progress that'll be ready in another 5 years.

After 15 years, those 2 seeds have yielded 2 lots of 5 year maturation seeds, and the second slave has produced the 10 year seed. That's 3 total, and we have another 2 on their way.

In 20 years, we have 3 lots of 5 year maturation seeds returned, 2 lots of 10 year seed returned for a total of 5. And 3 lots of 10 year seeds growing well.

It continues in this fashion:

25 years: 5 x 5yr + 3 x 10yr (total = 8), with 5 x 10yr gestating

30 years: 8 x 5yr + 5 x 10yr (total = 13), with 8 x 10yr gestating

35 years: 13 x 5yr + 8 x 10yr (total = 21), with 13 x 10yr gestating

40 years: 21 x 5yr + 13 x 10yr (total = 34), with 21 x 10yr gestating

45 years: 34 x 5yr + 21 x 10yr (total = 55), with 34 x 10yr gestating

50 years: 55 x 5yr + 34 x 10yr (total = 89), with 55 x 10yr gestating 

55 years: 89 x 5yr + 55 x 10yr (total = 144), with 89 x 10yr gestating

60 years: 144 x 5yr + 89 x 10yr (total = 233), with 144 x 10yr gestating

65 years: 233 x 5yr + 144 x 10yr (total = 377), with 233 x 10yr gestating

70 years: 377 x 5yr + 233 x 10yr (total = 610), with 377 x 10yr gestating

75 years: 610 x 5yr + 377 x 10yr (total = 987), with 610 x 10yr gestating

80 years: 987 x 5yr + 610 x 10yr (total = 1597), with 987 x 10yr gestating

Therefore after 80 years we have more than enough gene-seed to create a new chapter from scratch, with room for failure and tithing to Terran vaults / purity checks.

For something like a full legion (100,000 gene-seed), this would take an additional 45 years. Hence the Emperor must have had a strong lag time up his sleeve when he created the Astartes … or had more than one gene-seed per legion to start out with.

It also illustrates how easy it would be to suffer a huge loss (cf.: Emperor's Children early on) from a small error. And why the Raven Guard sought an accelerated process to get numbers back up after Isstvan V.

In the Warhammer Compendium, it states that it takes about 55 years time to get enough seed to produce a new chapter's worth of organs with constant reproduction. My value above is longer than this, but not outrageously so. Perhaps I've made an error? (Or they have?)  Comments welcome!

Contemptor True Claw Conversion

This is a conversion inspired by a number of Space Wolves miniatures and dreadnoughts that I've encountered over recent years.

For my Alpha Legion dreadnought, I wanted an option that looked simultaneously both deadly, and like it had been "borrowed" (ahem) from other legions, or xenos technology that has been reverse engineered. When I set eyes on the True Claws of Bjorn, I thought that I had the mark!

In the image, I've combined the fingers of the Trueclaw with the arm of a resin contemptor from Forge World. Each of the fingers had to be shaved down in terms of their sheer width to fit the slots in the contemptor's terminus, and each has been pinned in place with a paperclip wire to the knuckle of the contemptor's resin. 

The fingers are spread out to reveal a flamer head and pilot flame in their centre - an aggressive pose that combines that "flame that enemy" with "going to claw you" deadly pose that I was gunning for. What remains is to magnetise this claw and see how it looks on one of my contemptor dreadnoughts. 

Alpha Legion Sniper, with Necron Deathmark Rifle

Another day, another completed Alpha Legion sniper with a Necron Deathmark rifle. This one is mounted on one of the bases that was displayed a few days ago. I think the pose and everything else really clicks well here for me. So I won't write much more and will simply leave you with the image.

Base Making for Snipers

Four new bases for more of the growing Alpha Legion snipers (Reconnaissance squad) that I'm building.

The common theme here is one of a disarrayed battlefield - destroyed and rendered a complete mess by the Legion in their preparations for the attack. No doubt caused by the onslaught of the Alpha Legion's agents before they even got there. Moreover, it follows the precedent set by the scenic resin base that came with Armillus Dynat. 

Although I originally thought about a different thematic base for my Alpha Legion Unbroken Chain army, I can certainly dig the devastation theme. The benefit of it is that it allows a whole range of different terrain whilst simultaneously being able to cater toward different styles, such as variations in height as used in these bases. 

This is exemplified in the upper right base wherein there is a wreck of a tyre adjacent to come cork, sand, slate and a few other bits. If you examine the base closely, you will see a small paperclip pin jutting out from the top of the tyre. This is where the leg of a marine will eventually attach to the base for a running, aggressive pose. For my snipers, they will serve as a elevated levels for the marines to take their shots from. 

Completing an Alpha Legion Sniper (or perhaps Mor Deythan)

Not sure if this one is an Alpha Legion reconnaissance marine, or whether it is a Raven Guard Mor Deythan marine. Or arguably, a Mor Deythan marine that is an Alpha Legion marine in disguise. Or Alpharius himself. Yeah - infiltration. It drives you mad.

The marine follows on from my earlier concept piece with a Death Mark necron weapon. This particular variant is in a running pose and features legs and cape from Anvil Industry as well as the almost compulsory Dark Angels head. 

The base for the marine is a sliced up rhino hatch, covered and edged with some fine sand and a little bit of slate here and there. All that's lacking is the left shoulder pad which is on its way…

Assembled Armillus Dynat

After unboxing Armillus Dynat a little while ago, I finally got around to putting the final touches to the model and fitting it all together. 

There were two sources of (very minor) headaches for me.

Firstly was the scenic base. Not only does it fit very tight and snugly around the regular round playing base, but getting it to sit right against all the other scenery proved tricky. I strongly recommend that others dry fit everything to make sure its all in place. (The cape especially took me a while to get positioned well enough next to the sword). 

The second was associated with the thunder hammer. If you look closely at the model I've built and compare it to the ones available elsewhere on the internet (or indeed, on Forge World's own website) you will see that the thunder hammer in my image is positioned differently. 

The variant positioning resulted from two factors. Although the hammer was warped slightly, I managed to get out the bulk of the kink from it with hot water, but some still remained. And when I attached it to the body, I found that I had angled the shoulder a little bit too forward facing for where it should have been. 

The net result of all this is that the hammer appears to rest on Dynat's foot, rather than just in front of him. I'm actually not bothered by this at all, as it looks like a very natural pose, and one that is slightly on the edge of arrogance as well. I feel this suits the character of Dynat superlatively well: martial hubris embodied!