Project 20 Marines - Part IX (Showcase)

 

Survivors of the Tyranid assault on Baal.

Finally, the project of painting 20 Space Marines in one big batch has been done. Took long enough. I've mentioned before that this kind of painting simply isn't for me - I don't batch paint easily, at least not with Blood Angels. I prefer to pay attention to details, to give meaning to just about every colour used, every choice made. That kind of approach just doesn't lend well to batch painting, and is highly demotivational when thinking that there's 20 models this needs to be done on. I'd have finished them all much faster if I'd done them one at a time.

Filling the ranks of the 2nd Company.

There are some areas that worked well in batch painting. The helmets surprisingly were fine in that regard. The weapons mostly too, although that could just be because I was starting to approach the finish line by then. The general base armour worked just fine in batched mode because I don't have much time during the day and it's easy to keep two or three colours on a wet palette and just do a little bit here and there when I can. So maybe that's the better approach - do what I can in batches, then finish off models one or two at a time.

The Primaris were the easiest to go through in batch mode. They're all quite similar, and with very little embellishment on each model. The tactical squad though look much more interesting in the end, but are simply so much more difficult to do in batch mode.

I'm getting much more effective at using the decal softener. I was wiping away excess, but realised I don't need to - it will do its job just fine without that, and there's no need to push a decal onto a surface - the softener will pull it to the surface ok. On the note of decals, I'm putting most older models into 3rd Company, newer Primaris into 2nd Company. Not exclusively that way, but it let's me use more of the squad designation decals. I've also tried to paint areas on those models without knee pads so that they still indicate which squad. Don't really know why it's important, but I'm kind of just going with it now.

Oh, and keeping a sheet of "how to paint Blood Angels" really made even this slow attempt possible. I'd have been lost without that. I will keep going with squads as I can, but need a small break with other models before I start on the next.

Using my "1 model for every 2 painted" mantra, I can now permit myself to buy 7 models. I bought a few small things before the price rise, so I reset the count assuming these squads done.

-- silly painter.

 

Stormcast Sequitors - Part II

 

His friends call him Mr Tickles.

For various reasons it's been slow going of late. Kinda sucks, so when I finally found a spare moment I decided to play around with oil paints again. No white spirits this time, simply because of the smell, but I did use some Linseed Oil in very sparing amounts to thin out the paints or make them easier to work.

The photo simply does not do justice to how good oil paints can be. They are really something else when it comes to organic shapes, the blending is just on a whole other level to acrylics. I can see why they're so popular with skin tones - it's hard to describe, but it's really the tints from mixing colours on the surface that make oils so great to work with. The downside is the extended drying (or curing) time - I had to wait a full day and it still wasn't quite there.

The cloak in the picture above uses a black, magenta, and crimson. I tried to keep the crimson on the upper surfaces, magenta as a kind of mid-tone, and black in shadows. It worked so well that I never wanted to use a matt varnish over it all, but it was necessary if want to later acrylic layers to stick. I used a bit of rattle can Purity Seal with the theory that it's not water based like some of the airbrush based varnishes and so might adhere better. It worked just fine, but it's a shame to lose some of the colour vibrancy.

I've half a mind to buy a set of oils and paint the other Sequitors in different cloak colours, and there are shields to consider as well. I don't know what other models to practice on basically. The armour I'll keep as acrylics though, just because I want to.

Might be another couple of weeks before I get to another post.

-- silly painter.

Stormcast Sequitors - Part I

 I know of no words to describe what is happening, no words of comfort, and the English language contains no words sufficient for the damnation of the Russian dictator who started this war, and all those who support him.

Ukraine fights not only for their own future, but for all of ours.

Can think of someone who deserves this to go where the sun don't shine.

Some Sequitors have been boxed up for a while, and I decided to give a go with inks on them. Just to see - and excuse to start yet more models being painted basically. The initial results are less than stellar, but I think I learned a few things about the inks and how to use them.

Starting off, I actually use an airbrush primer on these models. It works, but takes so much longer than a rattle can that I'll probably just keep using that in future. I might use the primer with a brush directly in future, just when weather doesn't permit otherwise.

Next up I used black ink (and I forget the name of it, but it's acrylic and not intended for this hobby) and it...did not work. So I mixed in white and...that didn't work either. It was simply too watery, didn't dry very quickly, and did not adhere to the surface very well (more on that in a moment).

So inks are not like normal acrylic paint. They're often used to give a colour shift, and so I decided to spray some white over the model first (White Scar) and see what that might do. The white speckles a little bit, to be expected, but this is just for testing.

Next up, a purple ink. It did indeed tint where he white was, but not much. So I tried a second layer, and that ended up a bit to heavy - again, too watery, didn't apply as evenly as it should have. It's about here that I started to get a feel of inks through an airbrush - light application only, more of a mist, and really let it dry between coats. This might work well, and the black (or something mixed with it) could easily be used for "opposite zenithal" shading. Something to keep in mind anyway.

Finally, I used some red in top level areas where the purple is. Everything turned a little pink, but there is a definite colour shift. The only downside was that I didn't wait long enough for the purple to completely dry, but that's alright - it's all experience.

Still other models in the background with slight progress, and I might get more done on them soon. There are distractions other than current world events though, so not sure when I'll actually get more done.

-- silly painter.