Friday, May 28, 2010

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:


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


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:)).