Space Marines? ... Iron hands

[Brother Argos]

Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ... Or so I kept telling myself for the last 2-3 years.

It had been ages since I had the urge to paint one of my Salamanders, I had dabbled with the Imperial Guard, done some nice work with Battlefleet Gothic and generally mucked about without actually painting anything even vaguely Space Marine orientated.

New toys kept arriving and going into the "Space Marine" box, money spent on a pile of plastic that was getting bigger and bigger. It is disconcerting to be the owner of one of the biggest Space Marine websites in the world and not have the urge to play or paint Space Marines. You feel in some strange way disloyal, a bit of a failure, almost like living a lie. I have always liked Space Marines, loved my Salamander Marines, I created the best space marine painter program on the web ... hell my namesake even got a place in the Salamander books by Black Library. But I could not stir any interest in picking up and painting a Space Marine, "Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ..." kept going around in my head.

Maybe that is the problem, perhaps I am too hooked up "Painting Green", being THE "Salamander" player. So I am going to try and paint some other Space Marines and try not to feel oddly guilty and importantly I am not going to try and make them "works of art". The nearest I ever got to the Demons was making the cut in 2003 at Baltimore, its time to put that dream away and just enjoy painting some stuff to whatever standard takes my fancy.

So I started thinking about what I would like to paint that wasn't a "Salamander", I decided I like old Chapters as they have cool looking old armour etc.

So a founding chapter perhaps? ...

Well to cut a lot of self analysis waffling short, I decided this week to try and paint an Iron Hand Space Marine.

Here is the work in progress ... still need to work on the purity seal and I am not happy with the bolter casing either ... but its a start and my first Space Marine in over 2 yrs. I am waiting for Forgeworld to deliver the Decals for the shoulderpads!

I used a metal bolter (because of the bionics) and the surface is uneven and the white casing sure as hell shows it! not happy with that ... next one will be a Plastic bolter and should be better.

I am using the "chipped" weathering look because normally I paint "pristine" space marines and I wanted a change! (its also VERY quick)

Its taken me 2 hrs painting to get this far and that's about the fastest I have ever painted any marine, so I am quite pleased by that :)

I need to decide on some kind of basing theme next, I am tempted to go for steel plate with significant rust and oil ... but I will test that later.

Overall I am pleased with the result, its fast and a little dirty ... but its a space marine in under 3 hrs and that is unheard of for me.

Lets hope FW deliver my stuff quickly while I can maintain interest!

[Allerka]

We all get burnout on creative ventures, Argos. Sometimes you recover in a few days, sometimes it takes a couple years to get back (I've gone through multiple phases of it with my Lords of Oblivion, ranging anywhere from weeks to months). But welcome back! So to speak. I can see the one lens on the bolter, the blue one, that's exceptionally well done (I've been working on lenses/gemstones for a while now, can't say I've gotten to quite that level yet). Overall, it looks pretty good. Sometimes all you need is just a change of colors to get the juices flowing again (for me, that means I wind up bouncing between my four armies with vastly different color schemes).

 

Also, shouldn't this technically be in one of the PC&A forums? :lol:

[Brother Argos]

<laughs> its a real lens :lol:

 

Actually one is allowed to post work in one of the PCA forums and also a "chapter" specific location ;)

[Captain Juan Juarez]

Actually one is allowed to post work in one of the PCA forums and also a "chapter" specific location :lol:

 

Which is nice to know, 'cause I could have sword I'd replied to this already - without looking at the location.

[Bannus]

Indeed. I have already responded in the PC&A thread, but I'll add to this one too :P

 

 

I like to change things up at times. The more time and effort you put into an army, the more distractions you need on the side to take a break.

 

 

I must say, I can't fault you on your selections of Chapters - as I have the same armies ;)

[Obliterator]

A very promissing start to what hopefully become a fully painted Space Marine army, Brother Argos. Under 3 hours for a marine ain't bad at all... [/jealous ]

 

Still, it would've been nice if you finished those Salamanders too, mind you

 

I know how you feel about painting green, I assembled and primed my Salamanders, and got about halfway of the stuff between 80-100% done, but I'm hardly continuing them any more. I find that switching between armies helps to break up the monotony that you get easily when painting a Marine chapter, so they will get finished somewhere in the near future.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

Can I have Admin privileges if I flatter you enough?

 

Seriously, that guy looks great. I love the bolter. Especially all the detail on the scopes and attachments. My only problem is that the purity seal blends in too much with the armor. Maybe use a different color?

[Race Bannon]

This is an issue I am currently struggling with. So I'm reading these posts with interest.

[Aqui]

I know what you mean about "painting too much [insert colour here]" when I decided to have the entire Space Wolf army in Epic scale. I nearly completed it, got tied up with too much other stuff and then decided to sell nearly everything I had (Epic, 40k, WFB, BB) Wish I had kept it all now.

 

I am rather jealous that you can paint to that standard in 3 hours. I can paint a mini in that time, but it wouldn't look that good though :P

 

Having said that I've only painted about 7 minis since I restarted 40k (and most of them will never be seen on here. Ever.)

 

Will be watching to see what direction you take :P

[Brother Argos]

@ bannus : Indeed ... the best chapters B)

@ Obliterator : I hope to reduce the time somewhat, down to a couple of hours each with a factory approach. I have a Salamander army painted, but its nothing great and is over a decade old.

@ Chapter Master Ignis Domus : Absolutely not, people who ask, NEVER get power here. I had in the initial post agreed with your comment regarding the purity seal, I have gone for a darkened bronze on the final version, with a minor shining gold highlight.

@ Race Bannon : Hope you find something of interest!

@ Aquilanus : Practice always helps to improve painting and modelling :lol:

Well today I have been busy at home but tried to allot an hour to painting / modelling.

First up is the test base for the Iron Hand Marine, I decided in the end to go for a "mechanical/industrial" flooring. With the monochrome of the Iron Hand colours I wanted to add some colour to the base to act as a "frame", so I decided to use an iron base with rust and stains.

First I searched for some old buried plasticard "tread-plate", which when I found I cut in a 22mm diameter circle, to fit the top of a standard 25mm base. Gluing this to the plastic base I then under-coated it black and topped it with a layer of dark brown. I then switched to Tamiya smoke to add some stains, which I left to "almost" dry and then switched to using "MiG" pigments/powders to create three layers of rust, each lighter and smaller than the previous one. The almost dry Tamiya smoke created a nice stain texture and I concentrated the darker rust there. Once finished I had a VERY rusty treadplate with no hint of iron showing anywhere, so it was time to use a very light drybrush of Boltgun metal on the areas not covered by the "stain". I did this very lightly and built it up slowly till I had the correct density of iron showing.

Overall I am very pleased with the result: -

Once the base was complete I switched to working on a Company Pad ... The three hex bolts insignia appealed the most to me and I wanted to make a pad that I could cast in resin.

To start with I grabbed a "tech-marine" shoulderpad from the vehicle sprues and filed the skull from it. This left a nice cog and I had some photo-etch hex bolts from my work on the Imperial guard tanks, using a small pin I made a minor hole in the centre of the cog. I then carefully added each hex bolt to the shoulder pad based around the pin hole evenly, I used very thin super glue to make sure no marks would be visible and the hex bolts would be flush to the surface of the pad.

You can see the final result here: -

I am pleased with how things are coming on and have a number of ideas for further bases and an urge to try and improve on the sculpting of the "Iron Hand" on the Iron Hand shoulder pad found in the IH Space Marine squad box. I am also waiting for the Space Marine Character Conversion set from Forgeworld for the bionics, and some of the older Heresy armour too.

At some point I also need to work on Bionic conversions too B)

And more importantly I need to paint more Marines!

[Brother Argos]

I have been working for up in London at the British Museum for the last 3 days and didn't have time to paint AND post about it. The good news is I have finished at the museum till monday and had the time tonight to take some pictures!

In my never ending search for decent pads / decals can I present the following: -

On the left is the Ravenwing Techmarine pad with the hooded skull removed and smoothed down in anticipation of more hex bolts! ... However the quality of the Forgeworld Decals evident on the rightmost shoulderpad may well have swayed me away from making/casting my own pads for the moment.

The middle pad is the metal Gw iron hands shoulderpad in the box set, personally I think it looks way to "chunky" to be used, while next to it lies the Forgeworld decal pad which I am very pleased with!

With regard to the Decals, they take some significant time to deform to the curve of the shoulder pad. I use Microscale Industries "Micro Sol" to soften and deform decals and normally its fairly easy work, but for the FW decals I had to leave the decal on the pad and soaked in "Micro Sol" on top of it for a few minutes before it would start to deform sufficiently. Having said that the FW Decal sheet has a lot of excellent decals just right for the Iron Hands and I would definately recommend it to anyone with experience in using Decals. Beginners might find them a little annoying!

In addition to preparing and painting pads, I have begun work on the second base, I wanted something a bit more complex this time and used some of the small scale photo-etched eagles from Forgeworld to create the following look: -

I was looking to create the feeling of a recessed track on my "Tech" flooring, and the eagle "embossed" rail next to it worked for me!

Up next is the first space marine I worked on with finished pads! ... from this angle a couple of interesting things are visible, firstly the company shoulderpad from the FW IH decal set, which I loved the look of! ... and in addition some my old stock of bolter shells, the shells I use are no longer available and I was lucky to buy a stock of them. They are made of aluminum tube on a microscale lathe and are actually hollow! I use them sparingly and only have about 40 or so left, but they do look good on Marine bases! Annoyingly the "metallic highlights" on the treadplate don't show from this angle in either picture so they look overly "rusty" .. however if you look at my previous post you can see what it looks like!

The next picture shows the other shoulder pad and the iron hands tactical designation on the lower leg armour (as per the IA : IH) ... I think personally its a little too large, but thats the size supplied on the FW Decal sheet for the leg. In tomorrows post you should be able to see my next marine and he has a different insignia on the leg which I think I prefer.

You should also be able to see the "bronze" purity seal ... its possible to use wax as a carrier for metal filings and I thought this colour would look good for my purity seals. Sometime at the weekend I will be doing the Decals for the text on the purity seals!

More pictures tomorrow of the second painted space marine ...

[Brother Argos]

As promised here are a few more shots showing the next marine in progress!

The white bolter casing on the plastic bolter worked well for me and I refined the technique using an undercoat of the GW Ice Blue .. then the white .. then a very fine filter wash of the ice blue to finish.

I darkened the eyes on the second marine .. as I found the bright orange/red of the first marines eyes a little too bold.

From this final angle you can see the two tactical emblems on the legs ... the one on the left is the "offical" leg sized emblem, the one on the right is supposedly the "knee" emblem. I found the official one a little too large for my liking, however the question I have is ... which do you think looks best .. Large or small ?

As with all my work I am trying to think of a thematic location for my units and so far my favourite is on a Tech recovery mission for the Adeptus Mechanicus in a Space Hulk. This fits with the rusty tech flooring I chose and lets me do some interesting things with floor panels in the future.

Lastly I will have to think of names for my squad/squad members ... I am just about to re-read HH:Fulgrim again for the Iron hands info ... will pick up the naming scheme from there!

Anyway the question is tactical emblem on the leg .. which do you think looks best .. Large or small ?

[Bannus]

Looking good so far, Argos. I'm glad to see the FW decals working out. I may have to add a few to my own Marines.

 

 

I found the official one a little too large for my liking, however the question I have is ... which do you think looks best .. Large or small ?

From the sounds of it, I think you have already made up your mind. But if you are looking for votes, I'd say mix it up. Use both, even place the badge on the knee or other leg on some. I think it would give each Marine a bit more character. But as I said, it is just my vote.

[Badaboom]

Simple and good looking! Awesome for an army!

[Wysten]

Fantastic progress so far, your work looks quite stunning. ^^

[Allerka]

Honestly, I think the large one looks fine.

 

How do FW decals compare to the GW ones? I've usually had nothing but problems with GW ones on the shoulderpads, no matter which ones I'm using, even with copious amounts of Micro Sol or Set. Though if that's just a fluke of the GW ones, I wouldn't mind making some for my Chapter to use instead of hand-painting the symbol dozens of times. Though the question becomes how one can print white decals...

[Bannus]

Though the question becomes how one can print white decals...

I don't want to derail the thread, but a quick answer:

 

Use white decal paper. BoLS has a sheet that prints the black "negative space" around the emblems.

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.....

[Brother Argos]

@ Bannus : you know as I keep looking at it I do actually prefer the larger scale tactical emblem.

@ Alerka : You need to let the micro-sol sit for a while on the transfer when it is in place ... eventually the Fw ones deform correctly and the result I think is worth it.

It was my birthday this weekend, so I got some modelling done :angry:

First off I finished the 2nd of my rusty floor bases. I am pleased with the result, especially the oil leak and the "eagle" strip.

I got some work done on an Iron Hands chest plate as well ... I used plasticard strip to add a cog pattern around the top and used photoetch circles and washers to create a "valve" on the left. I am hoping when painted black and white it will "pop" quite nicely.

In addition two more marines have been prepared for painting ... first off is a simple head and bolter swap. The head is from the IH boxed set and I need to think a bit about painting it before I get started. The bolter is from Forgeworlds new Bolter variants, it looked quite a nice piece so I decided he would have a valuable older model bolter. In addition you can see the shoulder pad I made earlier.

This model is a good bit more ambitious, the idea behind him is the "wounded marine" fights on. With his left hand and forarm blown off he can be seen favouring right hand as he tries to fire the bolter with one hand. The shot up from the base (on the right) shows the inside of the blown forearm and you can see the Ulna and Radius bones projecting down, I plan to green stuff up into the socket to show flesh around the bones. This gives me an opportunity to have some blood effects on the base and down the armoured leg, and I am hoping it should look good. His other leg is from the Maxmini.eu bionic set and needs some more work, namely the "shoe" needs extending forward another 1.5mm and I think I am going to use plasticard to make a greave plate which matches the other leg and will go in front of the bionics.

As it was my birthday I was lucky to get some Forgeworld Iron hand loot ... so I am looking forward to fiddling around, seeing what I can made using it!

[Machine God]

Hail Brother Argos!

 

Great mini's and pics.

 

Ref: Wounded IH. It is quite evident from his Bionics that he is a devout follower of the Primarch and Iron Father Blantar.

 

You have cut his arm off about half-way between wrist and elbow to show the bones and skin/muscles but due to his obvious bionification the wound should perhaps leak oil or a synthetic blood analogue (White Android Blood Ref: Aliens, methinks).

 

It is the Left Hand that has gone after all!

 

Huzzah, 100th Post!

Edited December 11, 2010 by Scion of Ferrus

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

I like these! My only criticism is that the second one seems a bit unbalanced towards the left from his perspective. I know he should be tilted a bit, but he seems a tad too tilted. Oh, and happy birthday!

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Really nice work: exellent modelling skills and a brill paintjob, its nice to see both.

This is how I see IH in my mind's eye, so greeat work :D

[Brother Caedrius]

Superb work! Love all the minor details and etchings - where do you get the small circle and washers? What do you use for the rivets on your bases? Will be following this topic with much anticipation!

[Brother Argos]

@ Chapter Master Ignis Domus : hopefully the picture below will show that the marine is actually balanced and the "leaning" was mainly the result of the camera angle.

@ Brother Caedrius : The small photoetch parts are made by MiG productions .. and useful for so many modelling things!

The more I looked at the bionic leg I wasn't happy with it ... it took me a while to figure it out, but in the end I decided it was the lack of "armour/40k-ishness". With the help of some plasticard and photoetch I set out to remedy the situation.

The final result was more pleasing to the eye .. and as an unexpected bonus it hid the stubiness of the foot nicely too. To join the "greave" together at the back I glued into place some plastic rod and used two of my photoetch hex bolts to "tie" it all together and keep the IH theme.

I finally got round to finishing my first marine, I had needed to do the purity seal and here it is: -

You can also see some of the "Rust" pigment used on the boots to blend the model into the base. It was nice to note with a detail shot that the decal arrow and the "chipping" hold up well even at this level of detail.

Next up we have a modified bolter where I added a rangefinder attachment to the side using plastic rod, ribbed cabling and some green stuff. The "lens" will go onto the end of the attachment when its been painted. Sharing the photo is the next marine due for painting, made using the bionic legs from the iron hands tactical box set.

Finally we have the next finished Iron Hands marine: -

Considering the speed of painting they are coming out better than I had hoped ;)

[Brother Caedrius]

Groove on, thanks for the link :(

[Brother Argos]

"the damned artificer" over on Warseer suggested something I had missed ... while working on the plasticard greave on the bionic leg I had neglected to add the all important COG edging ... all I can say is that it was late at night!

Here is the new greave with the appropriate edging!

In addition there was a request for a picture of the IH brass etch I got at the weekend with a scale reference. I took this quickly as I am about to head off for work!

There is a higher resolution version here->