The Founding

just a little progress report. i’ve finally painted my redemptor dreadnought after having it since release day, it’s been built but not painted all this time. Also i have built and painted the lieutenant from the start collect box, i really didn’t like the arm he came with with the combat knife so i had to get that swapped out for something better, luckily i have spares from of the other primaris kits i’ve built and opted for so finger pointing action. I’ve also added a few extra little antennas just to make him stand out a little and i gave him a different head as the one that came with him looks hilarious if you look at the officially painted one from GW, it has a little face on the forehead, once’s you’ve seen it you can’t unsee it.

just a quick little post. so i’ve decided that i a, going to build and paint my squads in size’s no more than 5, i think this way it will help with any hobby burn out. building 5 and painting them before doing any more will help it feel like things are getting completed instead of having a big pile of grey guys staring at me and looking like it will take an age to finish.

So i have build and painted 5 more infiltrators, this time these are the mono pose guys from the start collecting box, i was a little concerned with not having certain parts of the model separate to paint and glue on separately but my fears were for nothing as it all went to plan. i’m pleased with how these guys came out and they fit seamlessly with the others i have already painted.

So here i have built and painted the primaris eliminators from the vanguard start collecting. I love these models, there’s something about the Vanguard marines that really attracts me to them.

I tried using and airbrush and liquid mask for the camo on their camo cloaks, one of them i forgot to do so i had to do him by hand. turns out i could have just done them all by hand as you can;t see any difference. Oh well, now i know. The end result is okay, i’m happy enough with how the camo came out but i feel it could be better, but like i said i’m happy enough with it for now.

But overall i’m very pleased with how these guys turned out.

So i finally finished the entire first unit. it took me a little longer than i was expecting, but you can’t sit and paint everyday, life finds a way of ruining that. But they’re done now.

I’ve Kept everything pretty simple, mostly base colours, with the odd highlight on things such as lenses. Could i paint them to a better standard, yes, but would i ever complete an army of them, no. But for the amount of actual work put into them they look really good.

Now, onto the next unit.

So after my first failure i had to have a little think, and here is what I have come up with.

So here is a quick step by step guide.

1- Prime Grey. This is just to make the next step easier

2- Airbrush army painter brainmatter beige. the grey primer was so that the beige will stick to the model. I’ve applied this without much worry about where it’s going as i’m going to mask off what i want to stay beige.

3-Greenstuff worlds liquid mask. I applied this very carefully using a cheap fine detail brush to just he area’s i wanted to keep beige.

4- Colour spray. Here i used The Plastic soldier companies German uniform fieldgrey once the liquid mask had dried.

5- Remove masking.

6- Tidy up mask. This could be where you have accidentally masked the armour you wanted in the green, Vallejo 70.830 german fieldgrey is an exact match for the spray.

7- Armour wash. here i washed the green armour with a thinned down nuln oil using lahmian medium. using the medium helps the was flow more evenly and not pool when it dries. But it’s been thinned down quite a lot so that it doesn’t darken down the model too much.

8- Block painting. Now i just paint all the basic block colours in, flat black for the armour joints, straps, pouches, gun casing and antenna’s.

Leadbelcher for various parts of the gun, scopes, antenna’s, backpacks, some grenades.

Khorne red for the the other grenades, eye lenses and scopes sights.

9- nuln oil wash applied all of the block colours applied above.

10- highlights. Red grenades were highlighted with evil sunz scarlet.

lens effects were created using Khorne red, evil sunz scarlet fire dragon bright, flash gitz yellow and white.

Silver was highlighted with stormhost silver.

11- washing the beige. so with the beige i made a wash mix of 2 parts agrax and 3 parts lahmian medium, so it’s not too strong and just enough to add a little shade to the recesses.

12- shoulder pad trim and symbol. base with retributor gold, wash with reikland fleshshade and little highlight of retributor gold again and then a tiny bit of silver followed by a slight wash of agrax earthshade.

13- Base. The base was painted with a base colour Rhinox hide and i then applied greenstuff worlds crackle paint, once that’s dried i then layered it with XV-88, then zandri dust, followed by a dry brush of ushabti bone. Then give it a wash of agrax followed by another drybrush of ushabti bone. then slap on a tuft of static grass and some citadel texture paint valhallan blizzard, paint eh rim black and then you’re just left with one step.

14- Matt varnish and you’re done.

So i wanted to try and match my original test model by getting the block colours done and using army painter quickshade dip, but that wasn’t to be. everything came out too blotchy and uneven as you’ll see below. i tried using a liquid mask to make sure that the dip didn’t interfere with the off whites  but it made too much of a mess to make it workable. so before i even used an anti-shine matt varnish it got stripped. So on to the next idea.

I’ll use some of the step by step photo’s i took for this to show how i am doing my next variant.

should pad chapter symbols arrived from pop goes the monkey. they look good so far but until there is any paint on then they are really hard to see.

Firstly my new airbrush world has just arrived so this means i can finally make a start on painting! very excited indeed!

So reinforcements! I managed to pick up 10 unbuilt Intercessor on Ebay for £18, but they will have to wait, i am waiting on some parts to arrive to make these guys look different but cool. I don’t want to spoil the surprise (i hope it works as good as it did on a test mini i have done)

I also decided to buy the start collecting Vanguard box from the OnTableTop store. I’ve been eyeing it up for a while. it’s exactly what i need. I have been wanting another unit of infiltrators and a unit of those eliminators for a while but it works out a hell of a lot cheaper to buy the start collect set than to buy them separate, plus you get some extra models, so it was a no brainier really. The only element of that box set i’m not 100% sold on are the Suppressors. it’s the lack of an actual jet pack that i don’t like, they look a bit stupid, so i might have to have a look around the internet for something more fitting.

Well that’s 10 hellblasters built. Again, nice models. Not so much in the way of being able to customise them, but i don’t think i would want to. The sergeant had a little bit of converting, not much, just added a MKIV helmets, the communication arm from the infiltrators i had left over and a few antenna’s again left over from the infiltrators, just enough to make him look a little bit unique.

I would love to get some paint on these guys but until the shoulder pad symbols arrive from shapeways and my new airbrush turns up they’ll have to wait.

So the first unit has been built and wow these were a joy to build. They have the exact look iwas going for. I can’t wait to get some paint on these!

For the theme of the chapter I am looking to go for a force that likes to use a lot of recon esq elements, so the new vanguard primaris marines are great for this. They have that look of a force that strike strategically and don’t just storm into a fight out in the open in big battle lines, but still have the capabilities to do so if push comes to shove, so my first purchase was of a box of the new primaris infiltrators, these models look great in my opinion and have the exact look i was going for. I’ll definitely be adding at least another unit of these to the force as it grows.

I also brought a box of the Hellblasters, i had some cash from xmas left over and it needed spending and the shop i was in didn’t have any of the standard primaris intercessors left which i would have prefered as i have an amazing conversion for them which works so well but i won’t show that until i have a whole unit done because i don’t want anyone stealing my idea before i get mine finished first! So the hellblasters fill in a nice slot of if it needs to die then shot the hellblasters at it.

I’m considering on making this an entirely primaris force. A brand new chapter formed by Golden boy Bobby G as he stormed his way across the galaxy trying to hold the imperium together when the great rift split the galaxy in half. Or i have it that it’s a chapter that was saved from complete destruction by having a large amounts of primaris reinforcements arrive with only a small remnant of normal space marines left. All things that will work themselves out as I get a feel for the force as i go along.

This is something i still can’t decide on. it’s proving to very tricky. Some idea’s I’ve had are:

Halo Exorcists

Terran Hawks

Sol Justicars

Terran Fists

Rift Scions

The list could go on and on, but these are just some I like, mostly found on a space marine chapter name generator website i found on the internet.

https://www.battle-brothers.co.uk/space-marine-chapter-name-generator/

I found a nice chapter symbol from Pop goes the monkey on shapeways that I like. I wanted to find a set that had the options for adding to shoulder pads, vehicles, boarding shields ect and this was perfect. They are called Storm fists if you search them up on shapeways. So I’ve ordered a set of the symbols you add to shoulder pads to start.

I want a colour scheme that is very easy to do and still looks good. but i don’t want to be spending my time painting all the little details. I have a habit of spending far too long when painting, being a bit of a perfectionist, If i ever want to complete an army i have to learn when the right time is to do all the fine details.

So a couple of months ago I was thinking of an idea for a colour scheme for marines that you don’t often see. I wanted something that was more muted in tone but still bold, since these are space marines. So I went to my favourite colour to paint with, german field uniform grey from vallejo, it’s more green in colour than grey. I always try to find a way to use it, it’s just a great colour. So that’s my muted colour sorted, that will be the base colour for the power armour. I then decided I wanted an off white colour for shoulder pads and the odd knee pad, its bright enough to stand out but doesn’t look stupid with the greeny/grey for the armour.

Now to try and make this as quick and easy as possible I have used army painter dark tone dip to give the armour it’s shades and highlights with minimal effort. In the future I will use a spray can of german field uniform grey from the plastic solider company to make the process even faster than airbrushing, and the shoulder pads will be painted separately then glued after the power armour has been dipped.

I’ll attach a photo or two bellow of the test model, it’s very rough and ready and there are improvements to be made but for a proof of concept it’s got the ball rolling.