Tactical squad Sergeant

Time for my second squad fifth company Imperial Fists chapter tactical sergeant. That's quite a mouthful:) It's quite a quick and dirty tutorial but I hope it can be inspiration rather than a step by step professional tutorial. It's the first time I've leaned a bit more towards a tutorial format rather than a series of WIPs. So, let's get started!

This is the victim. Magnetized banner and armed with a power sword. I've got one power fist sergeant as well (not fully painted though) and I am entertaining the idea of have a PF for each squad if I want to go that route at some point. I'm also considering painting up all special weapon options I have models for. But that is for later. Onwards with the plastic!

After a white basecoat (black works too. I prefer to paint on white, but I must say that black is better for when you can't reach/miss something. It is far more forgiving.) I paint the marine Tausept Ochre, the eyes Blood Red, the Aquila, banner, and "loin-cloth" orange, sword handle Vermin Brown, the metal parts Boltgun Metal, skulls and seals Dheneb Stone, and finally the weapon black and the soft parts of the armor. I used to always paint the black parts late but it was a pretty good idea getting it done early. Made things easier and cleaner:)

Time to go nuts with the washes. Blue Asurmen for sword. Gryphonne Sepia for armor, skulls, and seals, Baal Red for everything orange, Badab Black for the bolter, and Ogryn Flesh for the sword handle.

Now we clean up the armor with. Iyanden Darksun? Nope! See that cap of that foundation pot is painted. That's my 50/50 Golden Yellow / Iyanden Darksun mix. I did my best not to get any paint in recesses and such to keep the darker color there to give the model some more depth.

Here things went wrong wrong wrong. But it ended up not being too bad. I grabbed the wrong yellow and painted along happy and woah, what did I just do? If you want to go with my "normal" recipe go for Golden Yellow, or if you want it brighter go for Sunburst Yellow. Paint just about the same as the 50/50 mix before but leave a little extra at strategic places if possible. Also note that the shoulder guards are now glued on.

Highlighting with Necron Abyss on black (hard to see, but gives kind of a neat highlight for black, try it out and see what you think), Bleached Bone on the yellow (or sunburst if you can separate your paint pots), some cleanup with black, drybrush of Bleach Bone on bone details. I think I used some red or orange (my mind is foggy) as well to spiffy things up:)

Gluing the loin-cloth and extra purity seal on. I don't have any pictures after this, but I've added some minor things like Mithril Silver on the studs on the weapon and based the guy. I also painted a black pointing upwards Arrow on the whole squad, plus squad markings, plus transfers (which I still suck at!). I will take a group photo with both tactical squads soon to give you all an idea of what they look like as an army.

That's it! Not really a fully fledged tutorial but I did get the question if I could make one :) Now we know. If there is an interest/I do it anyways there might be something similar but more detailed in the future. If you can't wait or want other views on how to paint an Imperial Fist check these out:

Games Workshop

CB Studios

Awesome Painting Job

...and to round it off a guy who writes *awesome* tutorials you always should read!

Master Darksol

Hope you all enjoyed this post. If you really super enjoyed it send me an Eldar Nightspinner (because I want that kit but I can't motivate it to the wife:)).

50th post and Gretchin Marine

I just noticed before I started to write the post that this will be my 50th post. I am a bit impressed by myself and quite happy that I am staying with this blog even if the frequency sometimes are quite uneven. The time for hobby related activities vary quite a bit but I hope I will get more time over at the end of next month when my wife and I move. I will live closer to work which will shave off my commuting time. Fifty miles a day has been exhausting!

My Gretchin konversion begun with a post by Woroxon (http://bit.ly/azEnDi). If you don't follow his blog I recommend taking a peak at it. I have seldom had the pleasure to read a blog by a guy who loves the hobby more than him and approach it with more joy and glee, or should I say WAAAGH! :) His awesome Ork konversions are more than worth checking out. Oh, and that contest, you'd be a fool not to enter it. I have:)

The konversation started out with some choppin' of the hand and gun and some good old glueing. Later the hand holding the sword fell off and I ended up pulling on my Dok gloves and pinned it. Should hold better after that! I also gave the backpack and shoulder pad some battle damage courtesy of a file. I wanted to have two shoulder pads but there was no way I could get it on the little bugger:)

And here we have him all painted up. With quite a light toned skin. I wanted him to stand out among the Orks and Nobz. I also painted the Imperial Fists colors far brighter than what I normally do (the second squad Sergeant is just about done and stage by stage pictures should come up soon) just for fun. It turned out quite well and it was quite quick.

Prime white, add watered down bubonic brown, then sunburst yellow and highlight with bleached bone. Mordian blue gave me the blue trims and blood red + wash the reds. The green I did with a bright green sprayed on with my airbrush (first use of it) and then added Thrakka Green.

The blue trim was chosen to represent the 9th Reserve Company that consists of devastators, hence the devastator symbol as well. I also chose a plastic looking color instead of metal for the battle damage. Does a space marine's armor really have a metal color? Thought I'd play around and try something else :)

Click on this one to make it WAAAGH! sized and get a look from different sides. Also note the base, painted in Warboss Woroxon style with brown and dark green. It was a lot harder getting straight triangles than I thought. Live and learn!

And until next time, and another 50th posts, WAAAGH!

Terminators and seer councils.

First, if you have ever thought of getting a seer council, check this out: http://www.thehogsofwar.com/2010/05/eldar-seer-council-jetbike-conversion.html

I might just go that route and screw the hard to do conversions. Just make some small stuff :)

Here's a new revision of the test terminator, plus an older model I painted some time ago that I repainted parts of (and forgot a black wash on the red! Gotta do that!). I painted the Iyanden Darksun / Golden Yellow - 50/50 mix directly on the shoulderpad and, lo and behold, it looked great from the get go. I might just change the formula to white, the mix, wash, highlight. That will make my painting far faster. Maybe I'll give the model a good black wash before the mix tough. Damn, I feel another test coming up :)

The white shield is done with Necronomican Grey, a watery wash of Chardonite Granite, followed by a N. Grey and a Skull White drybrush. Good bad? Let me know!

Don't know if it shows up but the "bumps" on the powerfist have little gold "blobs" on them. Just like you would do rivets on a weapon with mithril I thought gold would look interesting on an Imperial Fist. YMMV.

The old model also have a different paint scheme for the crux terminatus. My personal preference is the newer one :)

I decided to paint hard edges in white on the shoulder pads only. Brightens them up a bit :) Also the side guards are grey with white edges. I am still unsure about that. Maybe I should go red to really light it up?

The shoulder pads also needs a good old black fist, to look the part.

Shows how different the helmet looks in yellow vs white, and also how the black wash helps the red looks better (remember, I forgot...). They sure look like they mean business :)

If there is a reader out there that has a right shoulder pad for a terminator and wants to donate it to me, well, let me know :) I am one short for an assault cannon terminator. I wouldn't mind a "shoulder rocket launcher thing" as well. Yes, got an empty head and am too lazy to go check the Space Marine codex:)

Terminator test

As I have previously mentioned I have 5 assault terminators primed and ready to be painted. I wanted to paint a test terminator first though, to figure out what works and doesn't work. I did want to work in white somewhere as the first company's color is white but I think that the shoulders guards in white, well, that is too much white and white is quite hard to paint well it seems. At least for me:)

I do like how the white helmet turned out though. More rough and grimy. I did all the red details with foundation red and a black wash. Darker than what the rest of the army has, but it sets them apart which was the point.

I also tried an Ogryn Flesh wash instead of my usual Gryphonne Sepia which looked good. I do think that the legs turned out a smidge too dark though, so I am thinking of lightening it up with some yellow before I wash it next time.

Here's the guy, let me know what you think!

Oh, and I experimented with a "light box" which was just a box with the sides covered in aluminum foil and two pieces of white papers. I took more pictures but the two first I took with the flash on, and lo and behold, it was actually a lot better *with* the flash! Who would have known? We'll see what the future holds! Again, all and any suggestions are welcome. One day I will have to test a red wash on yellow to see how it turns out.