Wednesday 1 March 2017

Space Marine 1st Edition: More Marines



Forgive the sub par photography, but I managed to get a second set of stands completed last night and was keen to share my progress. Painting the entire shoulder pad really made the difference to the 'look' of the tiny models and I adapted my original idea slightly for the Ultramarines with a white background to a red 'U'. The Thousand Sons remain unchanged with just an increase in yellow. 

Instead of repainting my first attempt at the models using my improved method, I decided to merely update the iconography and the difference, though noticeable will probably been acceptable to me when further units are completed. 

Last time we spoke on the issue of painting marines I asked for some advice on how best to approach them. Many thanks to those of you who contributed ideas here, on Facebook and via email.It was very enjoyable working through the different suggestive methods and developing something that works for me. I will share with you the recipe for success I am currently using as I will no doubt forget sometime in the future and returning to this article will help jog the memory banks. There may even be one or two painters out there who may benefit from such a guide... so here goes. 


Step 1: Undercoat the stand in white and then basecoat in chosen colour. For the Ultramarines I chose Foundry's Sky Blue A and for the Thousand Sons GW's Khorne Red.

Step 2: Wash over entire stand with black ink wash. Check coverage of underside, particularly with the centre marine. 

Step 3: Once dry, drybrush over stand with original basecoat colours. 

Step 4: Add first layer of highlights to the model. I used Foundry's Sky Blue B to do this to the Ultras and GW's Mephiston Red for the Thousand Sons. Paint the boltgun with a dark silver metallic paint. 

Step 5: Add an additional layer of highlights to the edges of the marines by mixing increasing amounts of Foundry's Boneyard C to the blue and Foundry's Yellow B to the red. Touch up the helmet, knees, hands and feet of the marines with the final layer of highlight. Paint a lighter shade of silver over the top of the boltgun. 

Step 6: Paint the shoulder pads Boneyard C for the Ultras and Yellow A for the Sons. Highlight with white and yellow C respectively. 

Step 7: Add Ultramarines symbol to shoulder pads in Khorne Red and Thousand Sons in black. Add Tactical Squad markings to other shoulder pad. 

Step 8: Base with darkbrown. Then dry brush with Foundry's Boneyard triad. paint mdf base edge black. 

Looking back, I was having difficulty create the sense of depth on these models. Using black over the top of the original base colour allowed the contrast to develop properly and really helped me pick out the details. Frustratingly, after painting tiny tactical squad markings on all of the pads I found this article in an old WD. 


The Space Marine (1989) rulebook just uses the White Scars illustration to explain the chapter markings and the reflective triangles made perfect symbols to represent tactical squads - so I painted them on all my marines. Know, I will use the Ultramarine red and yellow squares as it will add an additional layer of colour to my tiny warriors. Anyone know of the Thousand Sons had any additional fluff attributed to them back in the 1980s early 90s that I could add? 

Please let me know if you have something in mind. Right, I am going back to the painting table to try and apply my new recipe to some vehicles. 

Speak soon.

Orlygg.

8 comments:

  1. Argh! I might get infected on painting some "epic" marines myself soon, if you don't stop posting this :)

    Well, tbh, it actually feels just right. When I was a kid, all I did was puttig some base colors on the models. They looked fine to me, then, but I can imagine that nowadays just a few basic steps could make them really shiny.

    One question comes to mind: Did you test stripping painted models? Ive got huge loads of marines and orks from all three incarnations of the game, but many (and sadly most of the plastics) are painted. Does Dettol also work on such small minis?

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    1. I have just tried this out. Yes, Dettol works very well indeed. HOWEVER, you need to be extremely careful not to snap the tiny marines when cleaning with a brush. They are quite brittle at the knees. Also, do not clean them over a sink as the tiny lads can easily disappear in the depths of the warp (plughole).

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  2. Hi, I don't want to highjack the thread but for those of you that are still using detol for stripping miniatures, plastic or metal there is a better way (cheaper and less toxic):
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7SsWOYMialA
    All credits to the video maker, not me.
    Cheers

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    1. Thanks, something else to try out strippers!

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  3. Sorry to co-hijack the thread but on the subject of stripping miniatures I would advise Biostrip 20. I've recently made a post about it on my blog here: http://another-wargaming-blog.blogspot.nl/2017/03/stripping-paint-from-plastic-warhammer.html.

    Hijack completed, thank you Orlygg for the attention to epic. I vaguely recall putting an awful paint job on my brother's Space Marine set and playing epic over the course of a summer holiday. Have to say I feel the itch to get back to it (and maybe actually play some Adeptus Titanicus too). Lacking both boxes I'll probably cross fingers and hope GW re-releases both sets.

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    1. Thanks for the link Merijn. I have heard quite a few good things about Biostrip, though I have yet to find any to buy myself.

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  4. I can second Biostrip 20 for UK readers, for heavy paint jobs you may need to leave it 24 hours (or more) and sometimes give a second coat, but it does work!

    As for your efforts in Epic scale collecting Orlygg, good work mate, I had the 2nd edition of Space Marine with all it's supplements back in the early 90's (all brought during on of GW's legendary sales or with WD coupons, anyone remember those?), sadly never did get the painted up as nobody would play the game :(

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    1. You should never let the fact that there is no-one to play a game stop you from painting up miniatures. Painted models set up on an interesting battlefield have a wonderful way of encouraging others to roll dice together.

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