Building SM Honor Guard, looking for ideas.

For a while now I have been wanting to model up some Honor Guard and with the recent changes in 6th Ed I am thinking that may be my next project. I have several ideas of how I want to model them, but I am not sure how well they will work at the moment. I want them to be rather ornate and highly decorated as they are the veterans of the highest order in the chapter.

I would like to share some of the ideas floating around in my head. The first idea I had was just to use Gray Knight Strike Squads. They fit the bill pretty well. They have Power Weapons, different armor, and stand out a little bit. The next idea was to use the BA Sang Guard. They are along the same lines as the GK but they have IMO a little nicer armor and the wings can fit in well with the "Celestial" part of the Celestial Lions. I have also been looking at Marneus Calgar and his Honor Guard. The Honor Guard are more decorated and detailed like I would like, but I have to fill in or file off all the Ultras symbols.

Calgar and crew

The last idea I just had as I was looking at the Forge World site was to pick up Sevrin Loth and his Honor Guard. I have been wanting to use Loth in a game as he has fantastic rules and looks awesome. Not to mention the Honor Guard that comes with him looks outstanding! The weapons that they have are very unique and would give a very cool look to any army on the table. Here I will run into some of the same issue with them as I will with Calgar is that all the armor has Red Scorpion Iconography on it.

Sevrin Loth and his Honor Guard

I am also looking at some different heads then the Lion heads I have been using. I am planning on ordering some of the Black Lotus heads from Maxmini. I had seen them before and though they were cool, but then I saw them on some Celestial Lions that were featured on the GW Blog and they looked better then I though they would. They don't look like the same exact helmets but the plumes are the same.

From the GW Blog

Maxmini heads of awesome

Well I am glad I could at least get some of these ideas on paper. I would like to start on them as soon as finances allow. In the meantime I still have a Tac Squad, Terminators, Razorback, Predator, and Drop Pod that all need to be started or finished with painting.

Till next time! Happy Wargaming!