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Thanks guys! Just to clarify - 85% of the green stuff bits are made using press-moulds; this isn't something I sculpted - I'm quite useless when it comes to this. The only things that I sculpt are the chest parts of tabards and the creases and folds on capes. So my work is very derivative and based on using details on existing models that I try to put together so that they look okay!

 

This progress is looking good brother...and I agree that I'm not sold on the term "firstborn", but I guess it is the hand that GW has dealt so we will soldier on.  I still prefer them (and the heresy marines), whatever they are called.  :biggrin.:

Yeah, it's great to hear that people take issue with this term; however, I'm also quite fed up with using the generic "old marines", "classic marines", "normal marines", "squat marines" and what-not (not to mention the other, less formal names!). Oh, and  none of these would feel appropriate for the title of the thread :P I sometimes think that introduction of Primaris created more problems than it was worth it, pushing even further problems with rules, as well as "scale" of models on 40K tabletops...

 

I also made some progress and purchases for the Crusade!

 

The first batch of Terminators is undercoated:

 

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I am extremely happy with how this turned out. I mean, it's just an undercoat, but it hid the damage left from stripping paint of models and somehow improved (made crispier) the green stuff details.

 

I think that haven't mentioned this in this thread, but personally the introduction of Primaris marines helped me a lot with managing my Crusade. Paradoxically, I resisted the hype and basically stopped buying new stuff for my army, which is amazing - I used to be a hoarder and for every 5 models I assembled and painted, I probably bought 15-20 more. Needless to say, this wasn't healthy and productive - after all, what use there is of having >150 models in sprues or in other people's paintjobs when you can't use them?

 

While I remain true to my resolution not to support GW's business, at least until I find them to be more customer-friendly and sort out a couple of issues I have with their business model, on the odd occasion I buy models that I like or that I couldn't afford all those years ago on my student budget.

 

Recently, I got myself a Terminator with Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer (after assembling and reorganising my Terminators, I found that I'd need one more model to make a squad of 10 TH/SS Termies), a Finecast Marneus Calgar (I really like how angry he is!) for cheap and my old-time favourite OOP Techmarine!

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

After a month, I managed to paint five Terminators for my Crusade. I wanted to share with the community, but I'm a bit tired so I took some quick photos, but the quality isn't great. The lighting doesn't do the models justice; it's late now and the source of light was too strong - I'll need to retake the photos, but I'll probably go around doing that after I seal the models with spray-on varnish and add grass and other foliage to the bases.

 

Group photo:

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Castellan in Terminator Armour with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield
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Sword Brother Terminator Armour with Power Mace and Storm Shield
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Sword Brother with Pair of Lightning
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Sword Brother with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Storm Bolter and Chainfist

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Sword Brother Terminator Armour with Power Mace and Storm Shield

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Those termies turned out really nice.

 

Thanks, much appreciate it! To be honest, as I wrote earlier, I'm not a fan of how the photos turned out, but I also must say that the models look pretty cool from a distance. Any positive feedback only reassures me that this is the case.

 

I can't wait to get more painted up to my current game-ready standard.

 

Sweet. The Mace should be standard for Black Templars.

Oh, yes - definitely. They are a flavourful addition. Unfortunately, these will count-as Thunder Hammers. Also, as a word of explanation - after much deliberation I decided to leave some of DA iconography (especially the shields) on my planned 3 Termies with maces and shields who are going to be members of my TDA Chaplain's retinue - I think that the robed figures have a generic Imperial undertones to them (the broken swords, not so much, but well - I got a bit lazy ;))

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Welcome back! I am happy to report that I returned to my more or less regular life and am successful at finding the time to work on my collection of midget marines (and to having fun while at it!). I managed to finish 3 and 3/4 terminators, as well as two power armour Marines.

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Close-ups hidden below:

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An the newest, humble additions: a multi-melta Initiate and a model with no rules who is a Master of Ordnance for my crusade (initially, the model was supposed to be a member of 5-man proxy squad of Primaris Snipers or Intercessors with the Stalker Bolter Thingy; however, after the changes to snipers, I changed my mind about the squad and ended up with this conversion, that I felt was pretty cool (mixed and matched a couple of kits including the Heresy Chaplain guy, a pair of legs from a Devastator Squad, a custom heavy sniper rifle made out of a regular bolter, grav pistol and plasticard, a reclaimed SM Captain's helmet with the vox grille removed and a custom pose that I like, which is not something that I can often say about my conversions after a couple of months).

 

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Edited by Brother Cristopher
  • 1 month later...

Over the last couple of weeks, I managed to paint a squad of five botler marines. I will be using them as Intercessors in my potential games. I usually don't paint my miniatures on a per-squad basis, but I wanted to make these guys uniform, hence the white helmets, bone-and-black tabards, white helmets and silver backpack exhausts.

 

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I'm particularly happy with this one; he seems... more neat than the others:


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An old, updated model:


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I must say that painting these took me more time than I'd feel comfortable to admit; still, I'm quite pleased with the results - especially the helmets; I still don't have too much experience with painting white.

 

On the downside, these Sternguard bolters look a bit clumsy on these squat marines. Or rather these marines look quite clumsy with these bolters; I think it's the extra bulk - there isn't much, but that's enough to tip the scales.

 

Well, this is something one has to live with if one bought the gross majority of his army in advance... I mean, I could sell parts of my collection but then collecting them in the first place would be kind of pointless, that's why I soldier on through my backlog of clearly inferior models, as Ishagu would put it ;)

 

Next up on my painting list are some metal Veterans and a metal Captain with a Thudner Hammer. Painting metal models is a pain in the neck, but I must say - there is something cool about the old pewter designs.

  • 2 weeks later...

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working on a couple of metal models, including a Games Day 2008 Captain. The process was fun since the models have a fair bit of interesting details; on the downside, the old sculpts aren't as crisp and technically advanced as the recent plastic kits, which required more effort on my part - I had to get back to the old way I approached painting minis - my usual shortcuts don't work well on metal sculpts.

 


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Now, I only need to add some backpacks and add another layer of varnish to remove some of the gloss. Since these are metal models, I decided not to wait and applied a hefty layer of satin varnish to protect the paint.

 

I should get around to buying or making a light box to take proper photos of my models. The way I keep on taking photos now (which are basically just snapshots taken in a dark room with almost direct light from a lamp) doesn't do these models justice. Alas, one either has to remember to make a purchase or to take 20 minutes of one's time to make said light box...

 

Regardless, I simply wanted to share my progress with the community, largely probably due to selfish reasons - because I need a motivation boost. I find something very reassuring about being able to showcase my finished or half-finished models on the forum - it gives a nice sense of comradery and helps alleviate some of the opposite - a sense of loneliness inherent in the way I approach painting miniatures (this loneliness or solitude isn't necessary a bad thing, since I often listen to audiobooks, podcasts or video-essays while I paint).

 

I pledge to take proper photos once I get start taking "official" photos of completely finished* models that'll go to the showcase section.

 

*While "completely finished" is a tautology, I'd like to differentiate between the stages of finishedness that I use. I usually consider a model "finished" when it's painted; however, this often does not include a finished base (at least sand, though, I plan to also add some grass and bushes) or the final coat of varnish.

Edited by Brother Cristopher
  • 3 weeks later...

For those of you who don't follow my thread in the Black Templars subforum, a couple of months ago I bought an Emperor of Mankind Celestial Knight model - apparently - by Kabuki models. This week, once I got a couople of spare moments after a truly hectict period in my life, I started painting him up. Here's my today's progress.

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And below are photos of earlier stages; frankly, when looking at the photos, I prefer the flat Gehenna Gold look. I must note that this is my first attempt at painting gold armour; my earlier experiences were limited to details on miniatures. I hope that the difference is due to the pictures that were taken on auto settings at different times (with random white balance and overexposure):


Before painting:

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Copper base coat:

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Gehenna gold layer; not highlighting:

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You are definitely too kind, Brother Carpenter, for putting your faith into me and my skills! Still, the model is pretty fun to paint - I started doing his cape today and feel that I'm doing way better, having way more experience with red cloth.

Smoke Frog, thank you for browsing this thread and leaving a comment! I really appreciate it :) I still have this childish sense that each and every Space Marine, especially a Black Templar, is a unique warrior and a veteran of many conflicts; that's why, I like to take my time and put some old-school scribbles and crusade badges, on top of your ordinary purity and/or crusader seals, to make them at least a bit special, even though they often are just rank-and-file troop/heavy support choices, so basically ~15-30 point dudes who easily die on the tabletop.

Over the weekend, I finally had some time to play video games. Over an online session of Civilization VI, I managed to do some work on the Emperor. I updated the armour by warming it by adding a thinned-down, almost wash-like layer of Gehenna Gold (that was a beer-induced idea, but it worked!), painted the burning blade and the cape.

The photos are still over-exposed, but at least I had some degree of manual control over the white balance; that's why the tint of the armour corresponds better to what it is in the "real life". The actual colour, when not exposed to a direct source of light from my desk lamp, is a bit warmer and deeper; however, I figured that since this is a WIP photo, I can't bother with using a tripod and prefer to show you a sharp photo whose colours a bit off to a blurry one, with better reproduction. I really need to get around  to doing or buying a light box for my photos.

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The Burning Blade. This is my first warhammer-related effort when it comes to painting a flame effect (the first one was for a board game and it didn't turn out great) and I must say, I'm quite pleased with it! Since I don't have a proper orange paint, I used a mix of red, white, black and yellow for this. My idea was to have a bright-yellow, almost white, blade and a mix of reds and orange for the flame bits.

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And finally, the cape. At least with reds, I have had some experience and felt quire comfortable painting these. I added more layers of shading than I normally do with my Firstborn marines, and I think it turned out and well. Also, after some deliberation, I figured I'll go with metallic details (I considered going for non-metallic yellow, but gold and silver worked out just fine).


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Let me know what you think!

I must also admit, that painting this model - while playing Civ VI - was a blast. The quality of the sculpt, paired with my amateur, self-taught and - probably - outdated painting techniques makes me feel that the model virtually paints itself. It takes far less time, concentration and effort than painting my Black Templars and - I feel - that the results are very satisfying and adequate. Can't wait to finish the whole mini.

Update on the Emperor of Mankind!

 

This time I made sure not to over-expose the photos, to better show the work and details:

I wanted to say that the armour is done, but it isn't - after taking the photos, I realised that I didn't paint the exposed chain mail which shows right above the knee pads; I think I'll go with non-metallic black or nearly-black grey metallic colour for that bit.


Body / armour without the cape:

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Some details: the inside of the lightning claw:

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Filigree on the outside:

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Yeah, a freehand chicken "eagle" bust:

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Leather straps, front and back:

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And the assembled model - work completed so far:

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So, I still need to paint the chain mail bits, the head and the two-headed eagle (which makes a total of three heads, I suppose).

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  • 2 weeks later...

TDA reinforcements incoming


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Firstly, a very introspective part. I'd like to share some of my thoughts with you. I worked on these models for, I think, about two weeks and I had a real blast painting the little details. As always - I know that this isn't pro-level painting, but I found myself in the zone while working on these and I'm pretty happy with the overall aesthetic of this "squad". I finally developed a way of painting black that brings good table-top results, but is not as tedious as normal highlighting (albeit, it probably takes a similar amount of time). I must also finally admit that the reds I'm producing work very well, as well as my quick way of doing metallics. I also made some progress with whites - they are serviceable from a distance, but still don't look great in the close-up photos.

Secondly, since I finished these models on my birthday, I decided to leave a little reminder of that - every Terminator has a number "31" somewhere on their armour to show how old their Marshal was. I must admit, I could've planned this ahead and chosen better models. I'm not a fan of the LC Terminators sculpts - I feel it's difficult to assemble them so that they're not in repetitive or awkward poses. To combat the repetitiveness, I've blinged these guys up with custom-made stuff - I think that the lanterns turned out half-decently! Still, the guy on the right... well, suffice to say that I could have done better. He looks a bit like he wants to kill a moth or like he's startled. Luckily, these are some of the last 'standard' Terminators I have to paint. I still have a couple of models based on the old TDA kit (my TDA Marshal and Ancient, maybe something more), but they're going to be extensively customised so I hope that they won't haunt me as much as this current batch of Termies! Apart from that, I'll be working on the Space Hulk squad - which seems pretty fun, as well as other 'character' models: Lysander, Calgar (who doesn't like a Templar with two power fists, right?) and the BA Captain

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On the matter of Primaris (if you're interested in what I intend to do):

 

Regarding the BT release and associated craze and commotion, I must report that I will not getting any BT Primaris reinforcements. In short, I don't feel like repeating my mistakes of the past and getting new models before going through my backlog. I know that this can quickly spiral out of control and result in me getting all the new kits and adding another 30-40 models to what I already need (and want!) to go through, i.e. around 100 models. In addition to this, luckily I'm not too crazy about the new models: they are definitely alright, but overall I'm not blown away by the design. I mean, sure: I'd love to work on some modern sculpts, but then again - stuff for other factions or some of the wacky AoS models seem way more fun than more black, mostly cookie cutter, marines. Also, I don't feel like endorsing GW - between the non-gaming controversies, the bloated state of the game and their mistreatment of non-Primaris (not to mention other factions), I think I'll waste my hobby money on something else.

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