Hobby Friday- What are you building all this for?

Welcome back scratch-builders and enthusiasts alike.  Today's post won't be a tutorial post (we'll finish up that Mk 1 Land Raider next week), but will cover my own hobby progress and the direction I am heading with it.

When I began the Scratchbuilt 40k site roughly 4 months ago, I was just beginning to make vehicles for a Death Guard style army.  "Stick to Chaos, my good man!" I would say to myself.  Over time, however, I began to get a sense that what I was building wasn't truly mine.  There was so much potential in the 40k universe to create something uniquely my own which I hadn't even begun to discover.  As I delved into the building aspect I kept getting this nagging feeling that I would need an army which was unique to me.  It then dawned on me that in order to get the most out of the hobby I would have to create my own Space Marine Chapter.

This was somewhat tough for me.  I don't typically concern myself with fluff in the way others might.  I mean, I like it just fine as a way to tell an overall story, but I don't usually have to know that so-and-so defeated the hive fleet on the moon of that planet.  I've never felt the need to tell a battle report in the form of a fiction told from the point of view of the commander.

Additionally, I was never big on Space Marines.  They always seemed so... static.  Everyone had a Space Marine army in my area and I was always concerned with how boring mirror matches would be.  I didn't see the conversion potential and none of the current crop of Marines really interested me.

As I was building the Mk1 Land Raider, however, I started to feel that it wouldn't fit well within the current crop of Death Guard.  I wondered how I could best utilize a slew of Land Raiders and then it dawned on me- Blood Angels codex.  The only problem was I didn't care much to become yet another Blood Angels player.  The only option was to create my own chapter.

After perusing Cool Mini or Not's store I came across these Lion shoulder pads.

After looking these over other aspects of the chapter started to gel within my mind.  As someone who used to play Legend of the Five Rings, I decided the basic colors would be a golden yellow and a brown trim, much like the Lion clan of that game.  Other bits could be a gray to make them stand out.  Using Bolter and Chainsword's marine painter program, this is what I came up with.

With a color scheme and fancy new shoulder pads decided upon, It was time to come up with a name.  I did some searching and found a few lion themed Space Marine chapters already in use.  After about an hour I had chosen a name which didn't garner a first page Google search- The Pride of the Emperor.

So that is my journey so far. While I have a lot of fluff to write yet for the chapter, I believe this is a good start and leaves me with a lot of options for the future.