Harbingers of Taelus: 30K Iron Hands (plus extras)

[Ascanius]

This thread will document my progress, slow as it is sure to be, towards painting up my Iron Hands Taskforce from Forge World. The project itself actually began over three months ago when my order was delivered, but I am always intermittent with any hobby project due to impairment by ADHD-PI (predominantly inattentive type) as well as the usual life factors affecting the amount of free time I have.

 

However, I do want to start this thread now that I've started to actually apply paint to plastic and resin!

 

The background for this force and its unusual colour scheme (not yet in evidence) is that I'm quite fond of the Sons of Medusa in the 40K era. While the chapter doesn't exist in the Age of Darkness, my idea is to put together these Legiones Astartes to represent an Expeditionary Fleet, with its own heraldry and variant colour scheme, as a visual gesture towards the Sons of Medusa; hence "Harbingers of Taelus", Taelus being the system used in 40K as a training and supply base by the fleet-based war clans of the Sons of Medusa.

 

My original plan for the taskforce bundle was to use the Iron Hands upgrades on all 30 Mk IV Tactical Marines in the set, but now that Burning of Prospero is also available I intend to mix various pieces in to both sets. Some will get both heads and torsos, some will get one or the other, some will get nothing except an Iron Hands shoulder pad. All of the shoulder pads supplied in the bundle are for Mk IV armour anyway, so I may as well use all of them even on regular Mk IV models and get the Mk III shoulder pad upgrades when I get around to buying Burning of Prospero.

 

The Iron Hands helmet and torso upgrades were always designed for Mk III armour, so in the end the force will actually look a bit more unified, albeit in a weird mixed-mark kind of way, than if they were just standard Mk III and Mk IV models.

 

When I ordered the taskforce bundle I also had them throw in Iron Hands Cataphractii shoulders and a transfer sheet, so I'll be able to Legion-ify those figures and the Contemptor dreadnought as well.

 

However, I'm not planning to paint the Praetor or Dark Apostle figures as part of the Iron Hands at all. I'm not confident in my ability to convert them to look appropriate for the Iron Tenth, so I'm intending to paint them up as the characters they are in the boardgame itself as a change of pace from everything else. As it happens, this goes something like quadruple for the much more specific characters in Burning of Prospero, so it'll be nice to have the leaders from both sets painted up as a separate project.

 

I don't have the paints to do an Ultramarine at the moment, but as it happens I have nearly all of the colours I'll need to paint a Word Bearer.

 

Finally, pictures! How anticlimactic. I also apologise for my bad phone camera and poor, varying lighting solutions.

 

First assembly:

 

 

Undercoated with Chaos Black spray and basecoated with Leadbelcher spray:

 

 

 

 

 

Two washes of Nuln Oil shade on the armour, avoiding the helmets and hand symbols as much as possible. I'll neaten them back up with Leadbelcher and then brighten them further later:

 

 

 

There is one more wash of Nuln Oil to come before I wash only the armour plates - not the cables or augmetics - with Biel-Tan Green shade to achieve the greenish-black colour I've settled on.

 

Finally, here's the beginning of Dark Apostle Kurtha Sedd of the Word Bearers. Undercoated with Chaos Black spray, two thin basecoats of Mephiston Red on the armour:

 

[Ascanius]

2016-11-21:

 

I've now given my first six Marines the Biel-Tan Green shade that gives their armour plates the final appearance I'm after. As always, you can click through to see these photos larger and grainier (thanks to my phone camera) and access the rest of the album.

 

 

 

 

I actually did a bit more with the heads and Legion icons than I had planned while I dithered over whether I would actually make them green, but after applying the green shade it's obvious that needs to be cleaned up again. Both the helmet and the icon will be very bright in the end; at the moment, I'm thinking of picking up Stormhost Silver to make the icons really bright and maybe edge highlight them with something white, while giving the helmet a main layer of Ironbreaker and an edge highlight of Stormhost Silver.

 

Before that, though, the next step is to take all of the non-armour parts on the body and repaint them with Leadbelcher - the exposed augmetic parts, especially, along with any armour bonding studs and rivets on the armour trim - while painting the "soft armour" at the leg joints and elsewhere with Abaddon Black. The latter may or may not get a highlight of Skavenblight Dinge (a paint I don't yet own), because I thought that looked pretty good in Duncan Rhodes's tutorial on painting the Deathwatch, where he used it on those parts as an alternative to the usual Eshin Grey highlight he uses for black armour (and did use on the Deathwatch).

 

Long-term, being nearly done with these six Marines' bodies and heads means I need to start thinking about getting their other parts sorted out. Once these six are complete, my intention is to set up more of an assembly line process in the future for the rest. I still want to paint them separately to get at all of the detail properly, since my dexterity is poor enough as it is, but there's no reason I can't have the arms and backpacks set up as part of the assembly line right from the start.

 

 

2016-12-05:

 

Here are the finished bodies. I think you can see the green-black of the armour pretty clearly in contrast to the metal parts. What might not show up quite so clearly is the fact that I have done some edge highlighting with Stormhost Silver on the helmets, but it may be more visible on the central visor ridge. As always, click to enlarge:

 

 

 

 

Last night after work and this morning I assembled the following for the next stage, with absolutely no help from my cat whose insistence on leaping up onto my desk meant the loss (for now at least) of one right arm. Fortunately it was a right arm meant for a plain bolter, so I should probably have duplicates or I'll be able to find a replacement part from the modern plastic Tactical Marines set I bought a while back to work out my colour scheme (and add the rest to my existing Sons of Medusa).

 

 

It's raining this afternoon, so I don't think I'll be able to get the spray coats done unless it dries up before it gets too dark. I will be taking each toothpick out of the foam after the initial once-from-each-direction mass spray is done, to make sure I don't miss anything!

 

One thing I can say with near certainty at this point is that, while I still think I was correct to leave the weapons off to give me better access to the torso details, for the next batch I may be better off attaching the arms from the start.

 

As you can probably tell from the picture above, it's going to be tricky painting the weapons-and-arms as one assembly. The shoulderpads and backpacks have significant sections which can remain unpainted as a contact point for my toothpick-and-Blu-Tac stands, but while the arm "sockets" can likewise remain unpainted you can see the angles of the arms themselves mean the weapons and other arm hang very close to the toothpick. For this lot, I may end up painting the arms in one process and the weapons in another, once they've been undercoated with Chaos Black and basecoated with Leadbelcher.

 

In future, though, I may be better off if I carefully attach the arms and dry-fit the weapons to make sure the pose is correct. I won't have any trouble fitting these assemblies onto the finished bodies, having tested them after assembly and corrected any potential problems, but it'll still be more practical to do it the other way, and it shouldn't restrict my access to the torso details too much. At the very least, I may try it with the plainer torsos and see how I go.

Edited December 6, 2016 by mhacdebhandia

[Kraad Belak]

Gotta love a toothpick assembly line!

Looking forward to seeing more of these mate.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Looks promising.

[Ascanius]

It's depressing how bad certain things look when photographed with my camera and lighting setup. Like bad photos from a party, you know? I can see the flaws on the models in real life but the camera makes things look a lot worse than when you are turning them in your hands.

 

All this to say these guys are mostly finished. They need to be based, and I need to A. neaten up some details and B. figure out a way to restore the proper metallic green colour the places where my hands left blotches of other paints, which for the moment I've just covered with Abaddon Black because it looks appropriately like a smear of oil or grease, but they've all been edge highlighted to the level I'm happy with.

 

One thing I did learn is that I need to be 100% sure about the fitting between the arms and the torso with the next batch, because getting everything to fit was 100%  the way I did it this time. In future I'll have to make sure I do any necessary filing or shaving of the torso or arms before I even undercoat. It all worked out in the end, more or less, but it was a tiresome process.

 

Six in a row

 

Bolter Marines, mostly finished

 

Non-bolter Marines, mostly finished

Edited December 10, 2016 by mhacdebhandia

[Anvilarium]

Very nice! I like the metallic green/black shade you have chosen for the armour, it has turned out really well, especially as you have hand painted it rather than using an airbrush.

 

I think the silver areas could do with some definition though - at the moment they just look like they have been basecoated with Leadbelcher and then left. I'd recommend a wash of Nuln Oil, or 50:50 Nuln Oil/Agrax Earthshade to give you some shadows, and then an edge highlight with a brighter silver of some kind.

 

The bionics would also look much better if you picked them out in a different colour, even if it is just a different shade of silver, or brass. And a cool tip for bionic eye lenses - paint them with the brightest silver you have, and then put a tiny blob of a GW 'clear' paint over it (such as Spiritstone Red) to make it look like a camera lens.

[Ascanius]

Thanks for your comments, Urza! The process for the armour is a little time-consuming - and, as I noted, hard to neaten up if you make mistakes later - but I really like the effect. It has a kind of dull sheen in person that was basically exactly what I had in mind.

 

The helmets were actually basecoated in Leadbelcher, given a recess shade with Nuln Oil (i.e. in the face grilles and along the pipes), layered with Ironbreaker, then given an edge highlight of Stormhost Silver.

 

The metal on the shoulders and guns was basecoated Leadbelcher, shaded with Nuln Oil, then highlighted with Ironbreaker.

 

The Legion symbols are Leadbelcher > Ironbreaker > Stormhost Silver, with no shade or highlight.

 

The bionics - more the parts on the torso than the extra bits on the helmets - were basecoated with Leadbelcher, shaded all over with Nuln Oil, then had just the highest bits re-lightened with Leadbelcher. I may redo the bionics on the head this way to set them off from the helmets.

 

Since I took those photos, I actually have given the eye lenses a blob of Guilliman Blue glaze. I learned that trick back when I was painting my Agripinaa Skitarii, and I agree it looks really cool.

 

I will try to take some photos closer in to show the differences.

 

I'm also close to finished with a sergeant.

[Ascanius]

No pictures at the moment, but I've made several steps forward and one step back. I messed up the shoulderpads on all seven Marines pretty badly, and my attempt to match the colour without actually repeating the five-step process* wasn't that successful . . . so I've repainted them with a thin coat of Leadbelcher to begin the five-step process again.

 

There are other parts of the armour here and there which are similarly not quite right, but they're generally not very noticeable so I won't bother redoing them. Since the shoulderpads need to be redone, I'm actually thinking I might set off the rims of each shoulderpad by giving them the same process as the armour but leaving off the green shade, so that they become a kind of muted metallic black; there's a lot of silver going on with these guys and the shoulderpad rims probably need something to properly distinguish them from the helmets, the Legion icons, and so on.

 

In more positive news, all the guns' casings have been repainted with Abaddon Black and a better highlight of Eshin Grey, so they look a bit nicer now.

 

I used a standard MkIV sergeant's helm off the Betrayal at Calth sprue, and I think I've done an OK job giving it a black crest. Basecoated Abaddon Black, layered Eshin Grey everywhere except the recesses, washed it with Nuln Oil, then edge highlighted Eshin Grey. That said, I'm not sure about his power claws; I'll be happy with the same process on his plasma pistol that I used on the plasma gun, but it doesn't work very well on the flatter claws. I might have to abandon that arm and salvage the pad for a replacement, give him a chainsword instead.

 

* Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil x 3, Biel-Tan Green.

[Ascanius]

I have reached at least a temporary stopping point with the first 10 Space Marines. There are some splotches and errors to clean up and neaten here and there, and the sergeant is missing a shoulderpad, but for now I'm going to leave them alone and work on another part of the taskforce.

 

Hopefully you'll notice the quality of my photos has improved; I have a slightly better setup for photography now, though I'm still using my terrible Samsung S5 smartphone camera and only one light source, and the automatic white balance feature in GIMP is really helpful.

 

As always, you can click to enlarge.

 

 

 

 

A couple of notes:

 

It's usual for Space Marines in MkIV helmets to be painted with coloured eye lenses, but since the MkIII helmets have such deep eyeslits and can't be coloured without going in for heavy object source lighting (which I strongly dislike), I've chosen to just darken the MkIV eyes down with several shades of Nuln Oil. I think filling them in with plain black or even dark grey paint would look odd, and I kind of like the shadowed look they have. You can see what I mean on the sergeant, although the hidden side of the rocket launcher Marine is the same.

 

Speaking of the sergeant, I have a painted shoulderpad ready and waiting for him, except that it's glued to a different arm with a power claw. I need to figure out what solvent I can use to dissolve the superglue without damaging the resin; if I melt the plastic arm, that doesn't really matter. Likewise, if the paint also comes off, that's fine, but it's not important per se. I have tried the freezer trick, but with the way the pads attach to the arms there's just no real way to get leverage to pop it off.

 

The bases were done with Agrellan Earth texture paint, applied liberally; the Citadel texture tool was actually quite useful, certainly better than the old brush I used the first time I tried the same texture paint out on my Skitarii. I didn't intend to get so much on the feet and greaves, really, but it's more hassle than it's worth getting it off. Once it dried and cracked properly, I gave them an Agrax Earthshade wash and painted the base rims with Mournfang Brown; I'd intended to use a colour closer to Agrellan Earth, but it turns out I don't really have one, and I think the brown harmonises a bit better with the tone of the wash.

 

The next phase of the project is going to be painting the five Cataphractii Terminators with Legion shoulderpads. My overnight week at work has come around again, beginning tomorrow night, so it's going to be a good opportunity since I will have plenty of time on my hands. I undercoated them with Chaos Black spray today; if the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'll basecoat them with Leadbelcher spray before I go in to the office.

Edited December 31, 2016 by mhacdebhandia

[Ascanius]

So far, I've done a fair bit of work on the Cataphractii Terminators. They've been washed three times with Nuln Oil, and given an edge highlight of Ironbreaker on every surface I thought was appropriate. I'm a bit sleep-deprived, so some of the highlights are super-neat (even a bit too subtle) and others are sloppy, but overall I'm OK with them.

 

Apologies for the photo quality; I only had the overhead fluorescent strip lights in the office to work with.

 

 

I suspect, however, that I was too cautious with the Nuln Oil and that they need another coat of that, based on how the sergeant looks after even a generous shade with Biel-Tan Green:

 

 

On the other hand, it's possible I'm reacting too much to the unfamiliar look of the Ironbreaker highlights under the shade. I'll compare the colour of the plainer armour parts to the Tactical Marines at home in a couple of hours, and determine the best course of action then.

 

If it does need darkening, I'll test out whether the best option would be another coat of Biel-Tan Green or a coat of Nuln Oil over the top. There are some inconspicuous parts around the back of these models where I can experiment.

[Ascanius]

The Terminator sergeant was too bright, but fortunately it was as simple as giving him a wash of Nuln Oil - now his shade of green, at least on the plates without highlights, looks just like the green of the Tactical Marines.

 

Overnight, I therefore also washed each of the other four Terminators with Nuln Oil, and I really like the effect it's had on the Ironbreaker highlights. They were too sharp previously, but now they've been muted and look much better. In future, I think I'll stick to using Leadbelcher for highlights on such dark metal.

 

That said, the decorative metal trim on the sergeant's torso and legs really doesn't stand out enough against the green after that Nuln Oil wash. I'll try highlights to make them pop, see how I do.

 

Funnily enough, the latest Warhammer TV painting video I watched was for "dark metal armour". I was interested to maybe learn a new technique I hadn't considered, but nope, Duncan's recommendation was "Leadbelcher basecoat and three washes of Nuln Oil" . . .

 

The other thing I did was start basecoating the pteruges with Celestra Grey. Once I've done a second thin coat in honour of St Duncan, I'll wash them with Agrax Earthshade and layer them with Ushabti Bone (avoiding the recesses). That may be too light, we'll see. I have Tallarn Sand available as an alternative, if so.

[Ascanius]

Entirely by accident, I managed to take a photo of the sergeant in almost exactly the same pose, so this is a fine way to see (modulo my poor photography setup) the changes I made:

 

 

I have actually almost finished the entire squad now, although I'm waiting until I've based them to take more photographs.

 

Putting off the final touches and basing, I glued together another 10 Tactical Marines sans arms and weapons this morning. Here's the sergeant, the only one that's a little different from the initial assembly photos in my first post:

 

 

I've used the transverse crest from a Skitarii Vanguard Alpha helmet I recently realised I had spare, so for the next sergeant I can just use the MkIV crest on another resin helmet and they'll each look distinct. If you click through, you can probably see the dried superglue messing up the detail where I fumbled while glueing it in place, but I'll try to clean that up with my scalpel once I'm sure it's fully dried.

Edited January 8, 2017 by mhacdebhandia

[Ascanius]

I still need to neaten the rims of the bases, but I'm otherwise calling these Cataphractii Terminators done:

 

 

 

[Ascanius]

Since the weather and my work schedule this week hasn't been conducive to getting started with painting, but I've had a fair bit of time at home, I've over-prepared for the next lot of ten Tactical Marines:

 

 

It's not just BluTac holding those pieces on their toothpicks; excepting the backpacks, which already have a recess I've just filled with BluTac as a seat for the stick, I've drilled a short distance into each piece with the smallest bit in the Citadel hand drill kit so I could insert the pointy end of a toothpick and make them a little less likely to flop around when sprayed and painted. I only accidentally broke through to the other side on one of the left arms, and the shoulderpad covers that anyway.

 

Every surface intended to take glue has been masked with a very thin layer of BluTac - the "armpits" of the torsos, the shoulders and wrists of the arms, the wrists of the gun hands, even the knob on the back of the torsos that fits into the hollow on the backpacks. I had some tricky, paint-affecting problems with the first set, so I figured I'd be thorough about it this time around.

 

(Writing this, I've just realised I haven't masked the palm of the left hand that holds the gun and the part of the gun it holds, so that's a job for tonight or tomorrow morning.)

 

I've also used BluTac to attach the feet to the bases. Once they're undercoated and basecoated with the sprays, I'll use the negative space left by the BluTac footprints to mask it again with sturdier blobs while I paint the bases with Mournfang Brown. The endgame of all of this is that I want to paint the Agrellan Earth texture paint onto the bases without having to fiddle around glued-on models; ironically, this isn't even about keeping the paint off the legs, since I don't mind a bit of "mud" clinging to the boots and greaves, but more about just being better able to get the right amount of thickness everywhere without being hampered by the legs.

[Ascanius]

I've nearly finished the next squad of 10 Tactical Marines:

 

 

This is the sergeant from post #63:

 

 

I included the flamer, the only special weapon that I didn't include in the first 10 models I built:

 

 

My favourite part of this round is the contrast between the helmet visors and the darker "body":

 

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to bother highlighting the bolter cases when I clean them up and wash the metal:

 

 

There are obviously lots of little details I need to clean up, like splotches of paint, although let's pretend that the tiny flecks of silver here and there are deliberate weathering and not errors I can't see very well in the light I'm working with:

 

 

Augmetic lenses need to be coloured, too, but overall I'm happy with them in terms of both what I was going for and how I'm progressing:

 

 

The over-preparation I described in my previous post definitely worked as intended, but I definitely learned a few things.

 

Blu-Tac is great as a masking agent, but not so great for holding things up or in place while they're being painted.

 

Glueing shoulderpads, especially the resin ones, onto their corresponding arms is a terrible :cussing idea. I had so much trouble getting the arms attached last night because of the relationship of the contact point of the arms to the contact point of the torso and the rim of the shoulderpads, and then how the two arms and the bolter come together. If you look at the photos, anytime you see a bolter held up unusually high, that's because it's basically the only pose I could get the arms to stay in. This was exacerbated by my bad decision to glue the gun hand to its arm before glueing the arms to the torso.

 

So, I will investigate the option of making short pins out of sturdy paperclip wire and using them to make sure the arms pose correctly, as well as filing down the contact surfaces to improve the fit, and the option of gluing the "bare" arms in place and then attaching the shoulderpads over them in whatever manner looks best. I'll try to take proper photographs of this stage, too.

 

I also intend to look at the holstered pistols and combat blades that I didn't bother with on these first two squads, and see if I can come up with a way to satisfactorily include them. Adding them to the originally painted models probably just means filing a tiny contact point off on the legs or belt, but I'll see what I learn from trying to include them from the get-go. The grenades and pouches probably won't get a look-in, though. I think they make models look too busy.

 

It's looking like our interstate relocation will finally happen next month, fingers crossed, so I may not get that much more done until that's over beyond finishing up the details on this second squad.

 

Looking past that, the only thing I "have" to paint to complete the force is the Contemptor Dreadnought. At that stage I will probably break out the transfer sheet and see what I can learn on the bigger model before trying to go back and decorate the shoulderpads of the Tactical Marines with clan or squad markings. Once I'm done with the Iron Hands, I do intend to finish off the Word Bearers Dark Apostle and Ultramarines Terminator Captain in the correct colours - and the latter will give me a chance to stock up on blue paints I might need for Thousand Sons in the future . . .

[Ascanius]

I haven't updated this for a while, so now that we've moved and have been settled in for a few months, it's time for an image dump.

 

As always, click through for a larger image on Flickr.

 

 

I assembled five Legionaries from the third squad, including their Sergeant. I note in the last post I'd said I wouldn't use the pouches and grenades, but I obviously forgot I'd been thinking that way by the time it came to assemble them because I gave them everything - holstered pistols, swords, pouches, and grenades. I found that you really have to put most of these hidden away around the back when you're trying to put them on the Iron Hands upgrade torsos, because there's no belt space at the front.

 

On the Legionary immediately to the right of the Sergeant, you can see I also added a scope from a current Space Marine Tactical Squad kit to the top of the bolter. It doesn't look perfect, but I've aligned it and the sightline of the helmet's augmetics to suggest he's a marksman lining up a shot via a link between the scope and his enhanced ocular implants.

 

 

The Sergeant's crest was cut from a MkIV helmet. I had to smooth out the top of the resin helmet a little, and the join isn't perfect, but when painted it came out fine.

 

Each of the Sergeants in my collection has a different helmet:

 

 

 

I have some blue paints now, so I tried a variation of Duncan's method for plasma weapons: Macragge Blue, Calgar Blue on the ridges, White Scar on the corners, and Guilliman Blue glaze to finish. The plasma worked better on the next model, but I'm very happy with the leather on the Sergeant's holster and pouches: Gorthor Brown, highlighted in a kind of semi-drybrush way with Tallarn Sand, then washed with Agrax Earthshade. I really like the result.

 

 

The pouches didn't come out as well on this Legionary, probably because I was a bit heavy-handed with the Agrax Earthshade and it dried with a shiny look, but the plasma coils look better. I'm not entirely happy with the bronze of the gun, but I'm calling him finished for now.

 

The other three Legionaries I built are well on their way. The main armour colour on each is finished, and all the base colours at least have been blocked in for everything else.

 

It took me quite a while to get my miniatures unpacked from the move, but here's a photo of almost everything I own:

 

 

• Space Marines and Orks from Assault on Black Reach
• A box of Skitarii built as half Rangers and half Vanguard for no reason other than wanting some variety
• The Sorcerer from the old Thousand Sons upgrade kit (very graciously provided by abadizzle for only the cost of shipping just over two years ago!)
• The Captain and Dark Apostle from Betrayal at Calth

Plus, of course, everything I've already completed from this project, plus the work-in-progress Contemptor which I basecoated and started shading down with Nuln Oil very early on before deciding to leave it to last.

 

What got me back on this project's horse was the release of 8th Edition. Inspired by an Iron Hands Captain in Gravis armour from the Dark Imperium boxed set painted by Graham Smith from the Miniatures Monthly podcast, I experimented a little with some of the Primaris Intercessors.

 

  

 

I'm happy with the way the edge highlights are done: it's just Dawnstone straight over the Abaddon Black main armour colour, then muted down with an all-over wash of Nuln Oil. The first one here was done with Nuln Oil Gloss as an experiment, but I didn't really care for it, so the other two are done with the regular flavour.

 

I also tried my hand at white gun casings again, using Duncan's method for White Scars power armour: Celestra Grey, Ulthuan Grey, a recess wash with Agrax Earthshade, and an edge highlight of White Scar. I tried to make the gun look more cohesive and distinct from the silver parts of the armour (which were shaded with Nuln Oil along with the black parts) by also washing them with Agrax Earthshade, and I think they look OK. My favourite is the raised gun of the second one.

 

There's a fourth Intercessor from the Get Started With Warhammer 40,000 magazine that I painted as an Ultramarine and used to experiment with drybrushing. I actually achieved a pretty cool marble-like effect that looks very nice, but also very wrong for the way I want power armour to look. I do think soft edge highlights with a drybrush look better than stark line highlights done in the normal way, but I need to practice my technique and work out how to do it when I don't have room to move the brush the way you normally do.

 

Finally, I've been painting the Captain from Betrayal at Calth as an Ultramarine for some variety, while also using him as a testbed for my Thousand Sons scheme in the future. I think I've established that Balthasar Gold is a good base colour for the aged Egyptian funerary treasure look I want, but none of the other colours I have are a suitable highlight. I thought Hashut Copper would work, but it definitely comes out looking more like brass than gold. Good to know if I ever want to do Khorne miniatures! I'll probably try Auric Armour Gold as a highlight, maybe with Gehenna's Gold as a layer if it looks too dark straight over Balthasar Gold.

 

I don't have any photos of these miniatures, but I should be able to take some for next time.

Edited September 10, 2017 by mhacdebhandia

[Ascanius]

Quick update:

 

I have just about finished the other three Legionaries, so the next step after that will be to assemble and paint the remaining five. Fortunately, the weather is warming up so, if the rain stays away, I'll be able to undercoat them outside. That said, it is spring now, and I live in Melbourne, so "the rain stays away" is a very big "if".

 

I have also finished (excepting maybe some transfers in the future) Steloc Aethon, "the White Spider", Captain of the 19th Company, XIII Legion Ultramarines:

 

 

The aged leather cloak is sort of an extension of the way I used washes on the armour of the Iron Hands. The base colour is Tallarn Sand, much of it except for the deeper recesses is Ushabti Bone, then the highlight is Screaming Skull. I then washed the whole thing with Agrax Earthshade: once all over, once again for the bottom two-thirds, once again for the bottom third, and then I think all over a further three times until a) I was happy with the colour and b) the too-straight lines I used when dividing it into thirds became hard enough to see that I was satisfied. You can still see them on the left side if you know what to look for (and realise that "thirds" is an overstatement).

[Ascanius]

The final three Legionaries from this batch are finished:
 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2017 by mhacdebhandia

[Ascanius]

Three pictures of the same work-in-progress figure:

 

 

For the final five Legionaries, I'm going back to building them without heads, arms or backpacks - mostly because I want to try some more drybrushing on the leather and the metal, but it's not really practical with the brushes I have if everything's built.

 

i do also want to do better on the detail that's visible on the assembled model, but really hard for me to access with even my smallest brush.

 

Fortunately, the weather is warming up so I may be able to actually use my spraypaints outside!

[Ascanius]

The last five Legionaries are complete. Click through to enlarge:

 

 

I haven't decided what to write on the banner - various candidates such as MEDUSA, FERRUS, or TAELUS might fit the bill, or the name of a captain if I add one in the future.

 

I'm also working on the final model from the Taskforce, and thus this project:

 

 

Apart from an errant drill bit that broke one of the gun barrels inside the power fist, I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. This guy will get a proper name for his scrollwork, but I'll come up with that later when the model is otherwise complete.

[Dragonlover]

I'm not sure if you've refined your assembly for basic marines, but here's roughly how I do mine:

 

1) Glue torso to legs

2) Glue legs to base

3) Glue gun to hand/arm depending on kit

4) Glue gun arm to torso

5) Glue flat hand arm to torso, once the gun arm is fully secure

6) Glue on shoulder pads, heads and backpacks.

 

Occasionally I end up with a wonky pose, but it's generally fine. Any plans to expand the army outside of what comes in Betrayal at Calth? Some tanks would look sweet in your scheme.

 

Dragonlover

[Ascanius]

That's basically what I did, except in between steps 2 and 3 I painted everything except the final highlights on the metal of the guns.

 

I'm not sure what my next step will be. I have thought about a Predator, but I think I need a break from the scheme - and I'm not so sure the wash-based process will work all that well on larger, flatter surfaces. Still, it would be nice to at least cap it off with something like that.

 

I also probably need a break from Space Marines - or at least loyalists, since I've wanted to do Thousand Sons since well before the new kits were released. Alternatively, I might do something with Adeptus Mechanicus.

 

I also have vague plans for a custom Primaris Space Marines chapter.

[Dragonlover]

Maybe for the tanks look into oil paint washes?

 

I like the idea of a custom Primaris chapter, I've got the ones from the starter sitting unpainted until inspiration strikes.

 

Dragonlover

[Ascanius]

I kicked this scheme around:

 

 

That's a starting point, anyway.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The colors look great! What do they represent? Is green for courage (see the Green Lanterns, from DC Comics), rage (see Jet Li's 2002 film 'Hero'), disease (see Nurgle), or...?