Friday 8 January 2016

My first painted miniature of 2016

...is a Space Marine. Bit of a departure for me, since most of the stuff I've painted so far has been fantasy rather scifi. I've never painted a Space Marine before, but I have boxes and boxes of them, and they kept looking at me. I'd also been investigating the latest Games Workshop paint ranges and I noticed there were some recommendations for painting an Ultramarine, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Here he is:


The figure in question is what has been labelled a "Transition Marine". They are composed of a bunch of armour mark variants and were sculpted in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

I decided on the following colour scheme for the armour, following GW's recommendation: Macragge Blue base, Altdorf Guard Blue layer, Calgar Blue layer and edge highlight, with a very slight edge highlight of some GW grey that I forget (I think it was Astronomican Grey?). I glazed with a few layers of Guilliman Blue. I used this neat, but a chap working at GW Nottingham suggested I should mix it 1:1 with Lahmian Medium, and about 7 parts of water. Or was it 4 parts? I forget. Anyway, I'll give that a bash next time.

I went for a very retro look on the chainsword. All in all I'm pleased with how he's turned out, and I thimk I'll be painted more of these intergalactic peace-keepers...(!)

Blood Angel next!

12 comments:

  1. He looks splendid really, highlighting those marines till very light colours as the grey you used is tricky on those soft edged models but it looks fab ! The zenithal lighting is briliant and really works.
    The blue is rich and vibrant and the glaze was a good thing (7 times water seems more like a recipe for a wash, 4 times seems better to me ).
    MOAR of those please !

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    1. Thanks for clarifying the glaze proportions JB - now that you mention it he also talked about diluting for washes, so I do believe you are right! :-)

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    2. to be honest I think Guilliman blue is already light enough, I'd rather use blue ink to make washes (8 to 1 ratio seems fine with either medium or a little bit of PVA to kil the shine and make the pigments go into the recesses) some people also like to add a little dish soap to their glazes so that they cover surfaces a little more evenly (as opposed to making patches).

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  2. Hello Steve !! Good start, you already have decided what's Chapter for these blue chap?

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    1. I don't know a great deal about the individual chapters Nico - I will need to do some research!

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  3. Mate this guy looks great; really great! You've captured that retro look with modern techniques.... And achieved something that is far better than what we saw back in the day!! More of these guys please!!

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    1. Cheers, you've made my day! My long-term aim is to emulate the amazing painted stuff turned out by the Eavy Metal guys from the late 80's/early 90's.

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  4. I really like the shadow of blue you got on this guy. I find Ultramarine figures can look a bit "flat" and dull but you've got a certain brightness, almost a sheen to the armour which sells me on the idea of it being ceramite power armour. I think it's the glaze which is doing that.

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  5. Brilliant work - I am surprised it is your first, you paint like a seasoned veteran!

    Warburton

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  6. Superb work Steve - your technique improves with each new model you post. Now paint a unit of Space Marines and include a few of those snazzy old fashioned heavy weapons!

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