Large base - objective marker

Things have been a bit slow on the hobby front lately. One thing I managed to do though is paint up a large scenic base I had lying around. It was a nice experiment in airbrushing as I managed to do most of the basecoating, shading and weathering with an airbrush. I also found out that window cleaning fluid makes a great thinner for airbrushing GW acrylics! And while I was experimenting I added some GW watter effects tinted with paints and washes. I think it turned out ok and now I have an idea of how to improve the technique - lots of lightly tinted layers instead of a few heavily tinted layers. I'll add a mini to the base, representing a forward scout to make it an objective marker so expect an update sometime soon. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the pics:

Assault Sergeant - Final pics and CMON link

Here he is in all his varnished glory! I hope you enjoyed this WIP. Time for something new now.

In case you want to vote here is the obligatory CoolMiniOrNot link

Assault Sergant - finished

Here you go, he's finished! I hope to get him based and varnished tomorrow, shoot some better pics and post the obligatory CMON link.

Assault Sergeant - update

He's slowly starting to come together. Finished the leather parts and scrolls now. All that remains is green parts (purity seal wax and eyes) and some golden details and he'll be ready to charge into battle.

Painting quick and easy Space Marines.

As the title says I decided to make a tutorial on the method I used for painting my tabletop Space Marine army (a BA successor chapter if you haven't guessed by the paintjob so far). This technique is based on drybrushing and it also uses inks (or the new GW washes if you can't find any inks) but not as they're usually being used...

First of all however, to give credit where credit's due, here is my inspiration for the basic technique for painting the armour and metallics.

Let's take a look at the end result now. After all if you don't like the end result you can stop reading here and it will save you the chore of reading the rest of the article. I hope you'll like it and keep reading but it's up to you. There will be lots and lots of pics in order to showcase how the technique works in different minis and also because I like showing off my minis. So if you're in a hurry, just scroll down!

Tactical Marines:

Assault Marines:

 

Death Company:

Bikes:

Rhino:

 Chaplain:

I told you there will be lots of pics... If you've scrolled that far you probably like the end result so I guess we can move on to the tutorial itself. Let's start with the paint recipe for the main colours and I'll throw in a couple of comments afterwards for good measure.

Armour:
-Drybrush Tin Bitz
-Drybrush Boltgun Metal
-The red parts of the armour/weapons are painted with undiluted Red Ink (I don't wash or glaze them, I use the ink as if it was a regular paint)
-Black parts of the armour/weapons are painted with undiluted Black Ink
-Metalics are ready from the Drybrush stage so no further work here

Eyes & Purity Seal wax:
-Orkhide shade (shadow)
-Dark Angels Green (basecoat)
-Snot Green (highlight 1)
-Scorpion Green (highlight 2)

Purity Seal paper & scrolls:
-Calthan Brown (shadow)
-Talarn Flesh (basecoat)
-Bleached Bone (highlight 1)
-Scull White (highlight 2)

Yellow on bikes' headlights:
-Iyanden Darksun (basecoat)
-Brown Ink:H20 1:1 (shadow)
-Golden Yellow (highlight 1)
-Sunburst Yellow (highlight 2)
-Bad Moon Yellow (highlight 3)

Plasma gun/ pistol coils:
-One coat of dilluted Hawk Turquoise over the drybrushed metallics.


As you've seen, the paint recipe covers everything apart from little details like pouches etc. I believe you're more than capable of picking the right colour for these so there's no need for me to help you there. Something important to keep in mind is that because this technique makes the armour look quite dark, you should keep your details bright. It would be even better if some of the details are painted in a contrasting colour. In this example I painted the eye lenses and purity seals green so they'll contrast with the dark metalic red armour. What's realy nice with that technique is that, since you can have your armour and (silvery) metallics ready quickly, you can lavish some extra attention on the details. You can see that on the chaplain where I tried to put some extra effort on the scull mask and the scrolls.

To conclude this tutorial I'd like to add that you can experiment with different inks and also with the new washes to find the specific metallic colour that suits your army. You could also experiment with how many coats of ink or wash you paint over the armour. I went with one coat for a more weathered look but if you want brighter armour you could try more coats. Furthermore keep in mind that the intensity of the colour of the metalics and the armour will depend on how heavy the initial metallics drybrush is. You could experiment with that if you want a darker or brighter effect on your minis.And one last bit of advice. If you're using the old GW inks you could try adding just a tiny ammount of dishwashing liquid to break up the surface tension of the inks.

That's all folks. I hope you'll give it a try. I'll be here to answer any questions.

Assault Sergeant - relaxing, tabletop quality paintjob

After all the effort I put in Mr. Inquisitor I needed to paint something just for fun. Something easy, where I wouldn't have to ponder over each colour choice or highlight placement. And here's where this mini fits. I have a Space Marine army (a yet unnamed Blood Angel successor chapter). It's pretty much finished and I'm now at the point where I'm adding units just because they're cool or for that extra tactical flexibility that comes from being able to alter your list. One day I should write a post about my army, a post with lots and lots of pics...

Now however let's go back to the mini I'm talking about. It's quite special because it's a mix of limited edition and out of print parts. To be more specific I have used the body from the 2009 Games Day miniature and an old metal jump pack plus a few plastic components. I know you're gona hate me but I also have to tell you that I got these parts for free! I had bought the GD miniature and my games day ticket online and when it arrived the top of the thunderhammer was so miscast it was almost two-dimensional. I called GW and they sent me a replacement mini while letting me keep the problematic mini. One thanks goes to GW! The jump pack on the other hand was a gift from a friend. Another thanks goes to Geo! So in a nutshell I got to convert a limited edition mini without the "guilt" that accompanies the heresy of tampering with such rare miniatures and I did it for free. Really there's nothing to be jealous of here...

I believe I have annoyed you enough at this point so I should start talking about something else: the paintjob. Well what about it...? This paintjob is one of the best "cheats" I have discovered painting wise. It allows you to achieve a decent looking base coat and also have your metallics ready at the same time. I'll write a detailed tutorial and also give you the link of where I discovered this technique at a later post. Let's move on to the pics now:

I believe you've noticed that at this moment the paintjob probably looks too dark. To counter this I'll paint the details in bright, contrasting colours and hopefully you'll enjoy the end result. Stay tunned for the progress of this mini!