# Space Marines



## dborgeslfc (Nov 6, 2011)

Ok, so I love that I can document my progress on here, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Keep in mind, I am completely new at this, and I know I have a lot of improvement to do.

I've started with Space Marines as my very first 40k army, and so far I love it. My roommates are also getting started (you'll see a guest appearance by some Tyranids in one of the photos) and we've been having a blast painting together. I have about 1000 points from the Black Reach set and also the SM Battleforce, and I decided to go with an Ultramarines color scheme, even though in the end this army won't be Ultramarines. (Perhaps a successor chapter of theirs with many similarities, though.) I also haven't done anything with the bases yet, and I'm not sure I will. I like pretending the bases aren't there, and adding stuff to them sometimes looks cluttered. But who knows. (You can also see the progress that I have been making on painting the terrain in the attached photos.)

A few questions I have for anyone that wishes to help though: What is the best way to paint insignia? You'll notice my marines don't have any, and that's partly because I don't know what they are yet, and partly because I such at doing details freehand. Any tips on painting on squad numbers, etc would be appreciated. I'd rather not use decals.

I'm also pretty happy with the color, but it does look a little flat. (Ultramarines blue over Mordian blue) Any suggestions on washes that I can use to perhaps highlight the color and give more detail?

Also, any tips on sealing the figures somehow once they're complete? I'd like to protect them once they're finished, and I'm not sure how to do that.

I still have figures to assemble and basecoat, but I should have more pictures coming up soon. Working on a scout squad right now.

Thanks for any tips/comments, and for stopping by this thread.


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## spanner94ezekiel (Jan 6, 2011)

It looks pretty good by my books 
The one comment I'll make is that the colours look a little flat, and so would benefit from a wash or too such as Devlan Mud or Badab Black. This would give the models some tone and shadow.


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

Hi and welcome to heresy. Nice kick off to you P-log, I will try and answer some questions.

Freehand – this takes a lot of time and practice, there is no down a dirty quick way. A few tips would be to use a very fine brush and thinned paints to complete an outline then fill it in with layers.

Washing – You can use the washes as mentioned, but it will darken the models. Try using Asurmen Blue, it should give you some nice shading over what you have. You can also try to put some ice-blue edging highlights, then wash it all with the blue. (Quick, highlight/shade tip) 

Protecting your Minis – I highly recommend “Army Painter Anti-shine Mat Varnish,” in my experience it is the best and most trustworthy. I have had some bad experience with GW protecting products. 

Also, I know you don’t want to use decals, but if you do the following you will have amazing results and won’t know it was a decal. (Cut decal as close to graphic as possible.) 

1. Coat the area you want to apply the decal in “Gloss Varnish.”
2. Next spread “Testors Decal Set” on the area where the decal will be applied. 
3. Place decal on area and coat with Tesor Decal Set, and leave to completely dry.
4. Spray with anti-shine mat varnish and you will never know it was a decal. 

+ Rep for your work so far!


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I think Troy has covered pretty well any advice you might need as a beginner. By the looks of your efforts so far though, I don't think it'll take much to elevate you from beginner status. Nice neat and smooth finish on these guys so far. You're SM statue could do with a few washes of Devlan Mud though.:wink:

I will say though that leaving bases bare really makes even the best painted models look incomplete. Even if it's something as simple as painting the rim of the base brown and gluing some modelling sand to the base, the small investment in time can really help with the overall look of the army.


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## dborgeslfc (Nov 6, 2011)

Thank you all for the advice, this is the main reason I came to these boards. It's nice to get some feedback on my technique as I try new things. By all means, keep the comments coming!



troybuckle said:


> I highly recommend “Army Painter Anti-shine Mat Varnish,” in my experience it is the best and most trustworthy. I have had some bad experience with GW protecting products.


Army Painter is the brand, yes? Is it a spray or brush on? Is there a better way?



Khorne's Fist said:


> You're SM statue could do with a few washes of Devlan Mud though.:wink:


Ha, I know. It just looks SO amazing with the bronze. But yeah, I need to age it considerably. It is supposed to be a ruin, after all. (But it's shiny!)

Ok, so new pics as well. I finished my scout squad tonight, so I'm posting a pic. They've been nicknamed the "Rainbow Squad" as it is my first attempt to try different skin tones on figures. (Rainbow as in racial diversity of course!) I also have the basecoat on my assault squad, and they're ready for some more paint. I'll be working on these guys this week.


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## Minizke1 (Feb 7, 2010)

I love the political correctness of that Scout Squad. +rep for not being a racist.


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## Minizke1 (Feb 7, 2010)

Oh, and one thing. on the scouts you may want to pay attention to the pouches on the carapace armor. you painted them blue. also, the body of the chainswords may look better if you left them black and painted the teeth boltgun metal. it's a pain to paint so many different colors at times, but it's best to pay attention to smaller details.


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## OIIIIIIO (Dec 16, 2009)

I have found that Ogryn Flesh wash on Elf Flesh?!? I think it is; makes skin look very good. I personally try to stay away from skin and all of my marines wear helmets ... not much you can do with the scouts though. I like to clear coat my marines so that they look wet, but I take a huge amount of flak for it on the boards here ( look into my log and you will see ). You could use the same thing that I used on my buddies Imp. Guard. Krylon Crystal Clear Matte finish. Rather cheap at $3 a can and you can pick it up at Walmart.


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## dborgeslfc (Nov 6, 2011)

Minizke1 said:


> I love the political correctness of that Scout Squad. +rep for not being a racist.


I've honestly never seen any black/brown Space Marines, and that makes me sad. Flipping through the codex, they're all white dudes. And I've done some research, and I understand that one of their special implants allows them to alter their skin tone to fight off radiation, but still, I thought my Marines should be a group that is selected from a world that is as diverse as our own. (Still don't know what this chapter will be called, or what their background will be, however.) Plus, it did give me the opportunity to try out different skin tones rather than just paint them all Elf Flesh and be done with it.



Minizke1 said:


> Oh, and one thing. on the scouts you may want to pay attention to the pouches on the carapace armor. you painted them blue. also, the body of the chainswords may look better if you left them black and painted the teeth boltgun metal. it's a pain to paint so many different colors at times, but it's best to pay attention to smaller details.


For the chainswords, I wanted the swords/weapons of squad leaders (like the Scout Sergeant) to stand out a bit. So he gets a weapon that looks a little bit more like it belongs in the hands of a leader. When it comes to others, I do the weapons a little more "basic" if you will. For example, when I move on to the Assault Squad, they all have chainswords, and will likely be painted black/boltgun as you've described. I just wanted to add a little something extra to those in a position of leadership.

For the pouches, I liked the blue for more of a "uniform" look. (See what I did there? :grin I did paint the sidearm holsters to look leather, so they do stand out a bit. But the other pouches I wanted to match the upper armor.


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## Greenskin (Oct 13, 2011)

excellent work for a first army! I love seeing cleanly painted Utramarines successors. I agree with Troybuckle's advice on techniques to take your painting to the next level if you want to. washes and drybrushing are very effective when done right.

is that a citadel gaming mat you've used as a game surface?
what are you thinking of naming your chapter?


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## Edges (Aug 26, 2010)

Great start! I wish my earliest models were as clean as yours are. Heck, I wish some of my more recent models were as clean as your are...


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## Edges (Aug 26, 2010)

Great start! I wish my earliest models were as clean as yours are. Heck, I wish some of my more recent models were as clean as your are...


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## dborgeslfc (Nov 6, 2011)

Greenskin said:


> is that a citadel gaming mat you've used as a game surface?
> what are you thinking of naming your chapter?


It is a citadel gaming mat. Picked it up at my local hobby shop. It's a very good quality product, and it's also really big! (Which is fine, we have a massive dining room table that we game on at our house.)

I'm still not sure what the name of this chapter will be. I'm reading through several of the 40k novels, and hopefully as I get a better feel for the universe as a whole, I'll have some inspiration for a name. But don't worry, as soon as I know, I'll post it here in this log, so check back often! :biggrin:


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## dborgeslfc (Nov 6, 2011)

Edges said:


> Great start! I wish my earliest models were as clean as yours are. Heck, I wish some of my more recent models were as clean as your are...


Thank you! It has been a challenge, that's for sure. What you see in the initial photos as the beginning of this log took me several months of work. It's hard to find the time you need to really put into paining each and every little detail, but I tried to make them as neat as possible. Plus, never having done this before, it does take a bit of trial and errors. There are some parts on that SM Captain that I must have repainted 100 times because I kept screwing it up.


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

The more you paint the faster you become, however I still can’t go that fast lol.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

ironically i think that the custodes would be the only selection of these super humans that would 99% have different skin tones as it wouldnt be too hard to believe that they are selected from folks from Sol/Terra. 

I have however just decided that some of my IG will be of a darker persuasion, i have seen a few inquisitors are black....

PS love the models mate, honestly splash a load of wash on them


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## dborgeslfc (Nov 6, 2011)

Ok, so I took some advice and did a layer of Badab Black wash over a marine just to see the difference, and I agree it looks much better. It really pulls out the small details, especially on the boltgun. Overall, it gives him a "covered in soot because I've been in a battle look" that I'm pretty pleased with as well. I want to give it some more, but I'm afraid it will start to drown out the Ultramarines Blue, and I'm very fond of the color. Especially on our battlefield at home. Both of my roommates have started armies (Tau and Tyranid) and their colors are more subdued and dark, while the blue armor of my guys really POPS out.

Also, because of our discussion of race and skin color on here, I went back and looked through the SM codex. It does mention the "jet-black" skin color of the Salamanders, but that is due to the high radiation on their homeworld. Other than that, there isn't much mention of the skin color of marines as a whole.

Ok, pic of the Badab Black wash I did. The marine on the left is without, the marine on the right is the one who got the wash. Still trying to figure out if I want to do another coat, or if that will drown out the blue too much.


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

Go ahead with another coat if you want try concentrating it into the recess of the mini.


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Very good work for your first army! That's so much better than my first one.


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## CMDR_VELIK (May 20, 2009)

nice job for an first army.


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## rich11762 (Jul 18, 2010)

Looks really tidy neat work doin a great job I also do ultra marines so if I can help you in anyway just ask.


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## dborgeslfc (Nov 6, 2011)

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement! Sorry it has been a couple of weeks since my last update. (I've been spending my free time playing Skyrim. I'm sure many of you can relate! :wink My next step was going to be painting my assault squad, but I realized today that I have run out of Mordian Blue! Need to go pick up some more this weekend as well as some more Ultramarines blue. However, I did get my last tactical squad glued together today, and I also had enough Chaos black to be able to basecoat the entire squad. So now they're ready for some color too! They're a pretty standard squad, but I did make one change from my other 10 man tac squad, and that was the replacement of the flamer with a meltagun.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! (If you're in the US, anyway. If you're Canadian, I hope it was nice back when you had it! If "none of the above" then go eat more food than you can handle, argue with your relatives, and watch a sporting event you don't care about. That's pretty much what we do.)


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

Lol nice Thanksgiving analysis. I check back when these guys are finished.


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