ShinyRhino Posted November 24, 2011 Author Share Posted November 24, 2011 My Marine now has two arms: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01rightarm1.jpg I tried a half-dozen different right arm configurations. Holding a weapon at rest on the shoulder, high guard back, high guard front, etc. I settled on this low guard pose. To me, he looks like he's firing at an oncoming enemy and will strike with the blade against anything that gets through. Once I had the arm on and the gap filled, I added his shoulder pad. It's just the one with the fancy scroll from the Command Squad box: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01fullassemble1.jpg I think it's a nice, balanced pose. Not as forward-moving as it could be, but good considering the leg position. In terms of overall unit composition, I think I'll end up with a few "neutral" or defensive poses, and several forward-moving poses. It's hard to get a variety of poses using only Assault Marine legs (which are really the only forward-moving legs you can get). Oh, and this is the view you get if you're trying to charge him and his unit: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01fullassemble2.jpg Next will be a primer coat, and then on to painting! However, I think I'm going to convert the photo of his pose to greyscale, and have a try at coloring it in Photoshop so I can get the general color composition laid out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olis Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Looking good. :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtle Discord Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Damn, that last picture makes me want to dive out of the way yelling, "Not in the face! Please, not in the face!". Very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hytanthas Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 I like the Aux Grenade Launcher, looks good and functional for a marine (though it may need a canister for the ammo unless your going for a modern under-slung one shot launcher). Have you thought about putting laurels or any head decor? Looking forward to the rest of the squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 I like the Aux Grenade Launcher, looks good and functional for a marine (though it may need a canister for the ammo unless your going for a modern under-slung one shot launcher). Have you thought about putting laurels or any head decor? Looking forward to the rest of the squad. I was indeed aiming for an M203 style look to the aux launcher. In my head, the handgrip slides forward so the Marine can insert the next round. Don't ask me where he keeps the rounds though. I'll be using some laurels and such for other heads. This one is just too busy for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Apostle Thirst Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 I've never seen that head look good on any other model (it's slightly too big). Nicely done :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordOrdGermany Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 very nice posing! Good job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkenedsquire Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 The chapstick idea is freakin' genius I'm really going to have to try some sculpting soon as I'd quite like to make a honour guard like this but just don't have any tabarded legs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It definitely helps keep the wheels on the bus turning. lol. I sat down and did some coloration in Photoshop. Very, very rough, but here's what I came up with: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01colortest.jpg All the colors are rough approximations so you get the gist, but the bright white sections on the cables and bolter are actually supposed to be boltgun. Is it enough gold and scarlet? I felt like it was a little short on both. of course, keep inmind that he'll have his backpack behind his head with the winged cruz on it. Both the winged crux and the exhaust vents of his pack will be gold, so that should help a little. My main struggle is with the helmet. I put gold on the inner faceplate and earbuds because those are the only areas without rivets. I never liked silver-on-gold, so was trying to avoid making the riveted sections gold. Or, should I just go for the gold (haha) on the grille and simply not paint the rivets silver? Do all rivets in gold? Suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtle Discord Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I rarely pick out rivets on a Gold surface with Silver, I just like the Gold on Gold. I used to hate Gold, but since I've refined my wash technique on it, I've really grown to like it. I'd go all out, Gold face plate and ridge/vent up the back. Silver 'ear pads', all the way to the hemet and up the wire on the side, to break the Gold. Blue helmet and face plate. But that's because I like to turn to Gold to say 'He's a special miniature', and it might be too much in this case. When I do put Silver over/beside Gold, the only way I can stand it is if I give the Silver a light Devlan Mud wash (with a bit of blending) followed by a Black Wash for the rivet's ring. Then I go back and brighten the Silver rivet again. This give a nice transition from Gold to the Silver. I want to say add more Red, but I just can't say where. It just fits to stay on the cloth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Apostle Thirst Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 You did that with photoshop...? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 I rarely pick out rivets on a Gold surface with Silver, I just like the Gold on Gold. I used to hate Gold, but since I've refined my wash technique on it, I've really grown to like it. I'd go all out, Gold face plate and ridge/vent up the back. Silver 'ear pads', all the way to the hemet and up the wire on the side, to break the Gold. Blue helmet and face plate. But that's because I like to turn to Gold to say 'He's a special miniature', and it might be too much in this case. When I do put Silver over/beside Gold, the only way I can stand it is if I give the Silver a light Devlan Mud wash (with a bit of blending) followed by a Black Wash for the rivet's ring. Then I go back and brighten the Silver rivet again. This give a nice transition from Gold to the Silver. I want to say add more Red, but I just can't say where. It just fits to stay on the cloth. I think I'm going to go with gold rivets all over and a gold faceplate at minimum. They'll be the only models in my entire army with gold helmets, so it'll be fitting. The GW stock models also have lots of gold on their helmets, so the kitbashed ones will fit right in. I can't figure out where to add more red either. I thought about adding more cloth to him, but can't see a logical place for it. We'll just say he's the leat experienced member of the unit for now, and doesn't have as expansive a wardrobe. lol. You did that with photoshop...? :blink: Yep. It's a matter of using the Quick Mask tool, adding a new adjustment layer (color balance), and then selecting the color with the RGB sliders. Took me about an hour and a half all told. There's a great tutorial here: http://emptyeasel.com/2008/04/29/how-to-ad...s-in-photoshop/ I think it's a technique I'll be using extensively on my non-standard models (honour guard, veterans, HQs, etc) from now on. It lets me play with color schemes without ever messing up the model. I actually first saw it used here on B&C in someone's WIP log. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtle Discord Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Looking again with some sleep, the only think I can say for Red might be the toe-caps, and/or elbow pads, and/or wrist bands. Just a little, to break up all the Blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biohazard Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Im not 100% sure of all the fluff behind the honour guard but Im assuming they're Veterans. If thats the case why not maybe have the top half of the helmet White with the lower visor type part in gold? Or even painting the whole helmet white? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted November 30, 2011 Author Share Posted November 30, 2011 Again, thanks for the feedback everyone. I added another bit of gear to his belt behind the grenades; one of those Scout kit grenade/pouch combos to take up a little more space. At the urging of one of the players at my FLGS, I'm thinking about trying to sculpt something on his right shin. If you look at the GW models, they all have some sort of gold item sculpted on their legs. I'm trying to think of something I can reasonably sculpt on this model with a minimum of hassle in order to beef up the details a bit. I haven't thought of anything yet, except maybe some rope to match the ones on the GW models, and the details on some of the Dark Angel and Death Company parts I'm using on other members of the squad. I'm also thinking about basing. My entire army is based on painted sand, like this: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/ironcladfinal.jpg It unifies the force and matches the display board I made a couple years ago. Simple, easy, and it doesn't distract the eye from the models. However, I am considering altering the theme a bit for this unit. I'm thinking I might want them to be on ruined marble floor, instead of open sand. The story behind it would be that they're the last defenders of whatever small shrine or building their bases represent. I had my eye on this set of Dragon Forge bases: LINK Dragon Forge makes some top-notch stuff, but my main concern is unit cohesion. If I have the majority of my army on sand bases with scattered bits of detail (skulls, discarded weapons, etc) and a single unit on tile, will it alter my unit cohesion radically? Has anyone else tried this approach? I do have plans to make another display board to replace the one I have now and had wanted to include small sections of ruined tile peeking out from under the sand. I could simply stand the Honour Guard on those sections during display, but what about on the gaming table? What do you folks think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 I've started painting the first model, but don't have any progress that is worth showing off (just primer and a shade coat, largely uninteresting). I did make some color scheme changes. His entire helmet will now be gold, as will the entirety of his studded shoulder pad. I didn't want to attempt to paint those studs gold, as they're oddly shaped near the edges. So, all gold now. I think it'll look very interesting. I tried several times to sculpt some sort of decoration on his right shin, but just couldn't pull it off. So before i ruined the model, I stopped trying. I'm better at freehand than sculpting, so I'll fill in the large blank area with freehand work. I also started work on the second model in the unit. Here's his power weapon/relic blade and the assembled legs and torso: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/02parts1.jpg I decided a basic torso would look good on the running Death Company legs. I shaved off all the dangly blood drop bits, except the ones on the tabard. Those would just be too damaging to remove. I'll paint them gold and they'll look nice. I replaced the larger blood drop on his right leg with a small crux terminatus from the Terminator kits. The axe was the result of wanting him to have a nice, large weapon that I could call a relic blade when needed, but that was simple enough to still be usable as a basic power weapon. Originally I was going to use the bearded axe I had from the old Space Wolf kit, but I messed up the conversion with some odd cuts. Oops! I kept the pommel of that axe, and extended the haft with thick paperclip wire. I then rolled out a long, thin ribbon of Greenstuff and wrapped the wire to look like leather. I think it came out nicely. There is some Liquid Greenstuff on the haft just above the hand that was curing when I took the shot. The purity seal is there to cover some of the seam where the haft meets the bottom of the hand, as it was incredibly hard to get it snug and seamless. it also gives a little visual interest to the long unadorned axe haft. I know there's a slight off-center alignment between the end of the haft and the pommel. I tried and tried to get it perfect, but the small size of the pommel just wasn't cooperating with my pin vice drill bits. Once the axe was cured, I assembled the Marine: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/02assembled1.jpg http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/02assembled2.jpg http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/02assembled3.jpg He's 100% WYSIWYG with his holstered bolter, bolt pistol, and power weapon. I had room to add a sheathed combat blade (from the Catachan plastics), and his backpack is blu-tacked in place for the picture. The bolt pistol is from the Scout box, and it's so much cooler than the boxy standard pistol. Sleek and powerful looking. I just wish I had more of them. his pistol hand does still need some sanding to fix the gouges left from the file. He had a brutal mould line on the arm I used (which used to be the pilot arm from a Landspeeder) that just wouldn't go away. He also needs some Greenstuff to fill the gaps at his wrist. What do we think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 I've gotten the painting of the first member of the unit underway. I took a brief detour to finish a Rhino I'd allowed to languish on my desk for too long, but now have some paint on this guy. Here's his midcoat: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01paint1.jpg And then his topcoat: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01paint2.jpg You'll notice my Ultramarines are a tad lighter than GW's, which I like. It ensures my Marines never look the same as anyone else's. The next step that really makes the blue pop is the edge highlighting. I abandoned the blue helmet. It will be all gold instead, along with the studded pad and possibly the skull piece in the center of his chest (with the cables done in silver). He'll get a freehand insignia on his gutplate and shinguards. Scarlet cloth. What color eye lenses would you put in a gold helmet? My blue-helmed Marines all have red lenses, and white-helmed Marines have green. I'm leaning toward green with the gold. Paint work should progress at a rapid pace from here on out. The biggest hurdle for me is the tedium of puttig the mid and top coats of blue. Once I get over that hump, I tend to finish models in a night or two of painting. This guy should be done by the end of the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Loken Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Looking good ShinyRhino, definitely got a proper Honour Guard feel to them.Glad to hear you're going gold for the helm, I think it'll really help the models pop on the gamig board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olis Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Good start to the paintjob, brother. I'd go with green for the eye lenses on the gold helms, personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d Karma b Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Halberds are bad-ass. Relic blade halberds even more so! I prefer claymores meself, but its just a matter of personal preference. The color is very clean and smooth. Thumbs up for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted December 15, 2011 Author Share Posted December 15, 2011 Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. It's definitely a motivator. This update has the first Marine with his gold trimmings applied. I need one additional level of highlights (gold+silver mixed) on the gold parts and it'll be done. Before I paint gold, I go over the areas with Reaper Master Series "Ruddy Leather." I learned this tip from The Painting Corps. The brown base layer essentially "Warms" the overlaying gold and allows you to use less paint to achieve the same effect. Great for those who struggle with getting good coverage with thinned metallics. If you use black, the overlaying gold retains too dark a tone and requires a few more layers to cover the area. Here's what the brown looks like: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01paint3.jpg Pretty simple, just be sure to use a couple thin coats so you don't create rough blobs or obscure detail. After that I apply a coat of RMS Antique Gold. Two or three thin coats to cover completely. Then it's a heavy wash of Gryphonne Sepia. Or two coats of regular strength wash . Once that dries, I add a layer of RMS New Gold. That's the point the pics below are at: http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01paint4.jpg http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01paint5.jpg Sadly, my OttLite is washing out the contrast in the shots. There is actually far less brightness to the gold. While there is some, the final silver/gold line highlights I'll be adding, along with a coat of Testor's Dullcote will blend it all together. Dullcote has this property where it smooths together some of the contrasting areas. It's hard to describe. One thing I'm thinking of doing is getting a small bottle of brush-on gloss or semi-gloss sealer and using it on the gold parts after I'm all Dullcote'd up and done. One thing Dullcote does do is kill the shine of your metallics. That's fine for gunmetal parts and such, but I'm trying to decide if glossing or smei-glossing the gold parts on the unit would help them "glow" a little. Does anyone use this technique? Does it work, or does the gold just look "wet"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha PTP Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Nice clean and crisp blue. The gold as it is right now just looks like a thin coat of Shining Gold over a white base coat and it conflicts with the cleanliness of the blue that you have painted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 Another small update. I finished off the gold and moved on to the reds (cloth, purity seals, and gems). http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01paint6.jpg http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z43/goalie20/Warhammer%2040K/Project%20Honour%20Guard/01paint7.jpg Just a simple red blend. No freehand or anything, as there's not really room for it. Next up are the greens (eye lenses and grenades). I haven't decided if I'm going to attempt to paint color on the cables on his helmet. One one hand, I would like the additional detail they'd provide. On the other, I'm not sure that adding color to the middle of the gold would look odd abd break up the value of the metallics. What do you folks think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olis Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 That red looks good but the gold looks kinda unfinished. Maybe it's the other details that need to be completed that's giving off that vibe, I dunno. I'd say do the eyes first before deciding to do the cables - if the eyes add that extra something you might not need to do the cables. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShinyRhino Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 Yeah, I think the eyes will help give some depth to the "face" of the model. We'll see how it turns out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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