McDougall Designs - Strike force Leonine

[McDougall Designs]

Greetings all.

 

This will be the repository thread for all progress of powered armor wearing models in my collection. The first post may contain non-power armored themed information for context.

 

Currently, I'm faced with a conundrum. I paint a myriad of types and styles of miniatures due to my day job.

 

I need paint scheme themes to keep me organized with sci Fi and fantasy projects. Historicals are easier to manage due to..well, extant historical information.

I trialed this over the last two years with my undead, where I have used green as an overarching main color.

So I'm doing something similar now:

1. Undead: Green must be a major color

2. Imperial: blues and creams if possible. Imperial guard are an exception as they can literally be anything. But I will try to push blues and creams into those schemes.

3. Fantasy humans/guild myrmidian: yellow and red.

4. Stormcast will always be silver and purple.

 

 

Here's the issue. This is my latest power armored project prior to this update in methodology:

 

 

I'm not sure whether to continue and paint the rest as what is extant, or move to my above re-focused plan.

 

Your thoughts, friends?

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by McDougall Designs

[apologist]

Welcome to the board; looking forward to seeing more of your work – and it's worth noting that the Bolter & Chainsword is no longer power armour only :)

 

On your question, I can understand the value of having a system to help organise and provide structure, but it seems a shame to apply it so rigidly that you restrict yourself. Is there any reason you couldn't alter the value of 'Imperial' to include reds and oranges? Alternatively, perhaps you could add an additional category to account for these Space Marines.

 

Perhaps these Space Marines (and any non-blue/cream Imperial troops) could be grouped together as 'M36 Imperial', for example, with all blue/cream ones set after the opening of the Eye of Terror in M42?

 

Rather than grouping by 'state', you group by period. To put it in a familiar context, French troops of the Napoleonic period through to WWI would include blues, while post WWI French would be khaki/green.

[Urauloth]

My advice is always to go with an in-universe solution if possible. Pick a chapter you like (or make your own) and paint all your space marines in that colour scheme. If you wanted, you could go for one that makes use of blue and cream heraldry (I know the Angels Revenant and Novamarines do, off the top of my head) to tie them into your overall Imperial colour palette.

 

Of course, the more important question is whether you want to continue with your current red scheme - if you do, go for it, and treat this part of your collection like a 5th category to the four you listed.

[McDougall Designs]

17 hours ago, apologist said:

Welcome to the board; looking forward to seeing more of your work – and it's worth noting that the Bolter & Chainsword is no longer power armour only :)

 

On your question, I can understand the value of having a system to help organise and provide structure, but it seems a shame to apply it so rigidly that you restrict yourself. Is there any reason you couldn't alter the value of 'Imperial' to include reds and oranges? Alternatively, perhaps you could add an additional category to account for these Space Marines.

 

Perhaps these Space Marines (and any non-blue/cream Imperial troops) could be grouped together as 'M36 Imperial', for example, with all blue/cream ones set after the opening of the Eye of Terror in M42?

 

Rather than grouping by 'state', you group by period. To put it in a familiar context, French troops of the Napoleonic period through to WWI would include blues, while post WWI French would be khaki/green.

 

Thanks for the perspective. I think that's it. Any pre-blue white is grandfathered in as if they joined "earlier in the crusade" so to speak.

 

14 hours ago, Urauloth said:

My advice is always to go with an in-universe solution if possible. Pick a chapter you like (or make your own) and paint all your space marines in that colour scheme. If you wanted, you could go for one that makes use of blue and cream heraldry (I know the Angels Revenant and Novamarines do, off the top of my head) to tie them into your overall Imperial colour palette.

 

Of course, the more important question is whether you want to continue with your current red scheme - if you do, go for it, and treat this part of your collection like a 5th category to the four you listed.

 

It's not terrible to paint, and I'm actually curious if I could tinker with it and "remaster" it, now. I definitely want to add some blue marines though, eventually.

[McDougall Designs]

On 12/13/2022 at 4:27 AM, apologist said:

Welcome to the board; looking forward to seeing more of your work – and it's worth noting that the Bolter & Chainsword is no longer power armour only :)

 

On your question, I can understand the value of having a system to help organise and provide structure, but it seems a shame to apply it so rigidly that you restrict yourself. Is there any reason you couldn't alter the value of 'Imperial' to include reds and oranges? Alternatively, perhaps you could add an additional category to account for these Space Marines.

 

Perhaps these Space Marines (and any non-blue/cream Imperial troops) could be grouped together as 'M36 Imperial', for example, with all blue/cream ones set after the opening of the Eye of Terror in M42?

 

Rather than grouping by 'state', you group by period. To put it in a familiar context, French troops of the Napoleonic period through to WWI would include blues, while post WWI French would be khaki/green.

 

When you say that BaC is no longer power-armor only:

 

What content is now allowed? or is it generally open and I can make this a more catch-all style of blog?

[Bryan Blaire]

Warhammer 40K is the focus and allowed content on the board.

[McDougall Designs]

6 hours ago, Bryan Blaire said:

Warhammer 40K is the focus and allowed content on the board.

Alternative models, if used for 40k, are good then?

[Bryan Blaire]

As long as they are identifiably 40K, yes.  Just straight fantasy models stated to be for 40K are likely to be taken down by the Mods.  You can probably ask for more clarification/current standards from some of the active mods here (folks that don’t have “CEDO” after the name).

[McDougall Designs]

I converted 2 "primaris" neophytes (like in the black templars squad) out of Wargames Atlantic spacenam simply because I wanted to see if the conversion would look decent. It does, although I think I'm going to find more readily available shoulder pads.

I converted a Phobos pattern marine (all I had on hand) as thier "initiate" leader.

 

[madlibrarian]

Oooh lovely - how did you find the spacenam mould lines and overall casting quality? I’ve been looking at picking some up

[McDougall Designs]

On 12/22/2022 at 2:56 AM, madlibrarian said:

Oooh lovely - how did you find the spacenam mould lines and overall casting quality? I’ve been looking at picking some up

 

I sell them, so this is slightly biased.

 

As a hobbyist, they are good quality miniatures. The mold lines are not terrible at all.

 

Reigniting this blog as I've segued into a 40k mood.

 

I'm ADHD and have 5 on the go projects. They are mixed between fantasy, historical and my imperial soup 40k project.

 

I swap between them, so content may be a bit delayed but I'll try to keep updates coming.

 

-----

 

Regimental profile: 355th Murat Rifles Regiment 

 

Homeworld: Murat III

 

Segmentum: Pacificus

 

Tithe grade: Militaris Majoris

 

Combat speciality: Heavy Infantry

 

Description:

 

Dense population world with enough agriculture to support it's citizens.

 

Murat III is a a civilized military recruitment and training planet for the Astra Militarum. The world is densely forested with a species reminiscent of pine from Terra's distant past.

 

The imperial governance set up massive barracks cities where the population can live and drill before being shipped off to distant imperial warfronts.

 

The world's colors are purple and blue, so most uniforms stock to this color scheme.  

 

Regiments of men and women are separate fighting units, however they are normally quartered together to keep population levels stable for an age rotational cycle.

 

The 355th are a heavy infantry regiment specializing in forward assault over rough terrain. They normally wear a heavy duty coat fitted with armorplas plates. Head protection isn't normal, and a Beret usual for the planets troops as a whole is instead worn.

 

[McDougall Designs]

I need your help, all.

 

Creating a custom dark angels successor called the knights of midnight.

 

Started with V1 on the left, which is stormfirnd over white, with Caliban green over the shoulder pad and knee pads as a secondary color. Obviously the metallic silver I used for the aquila didn't can out, and the eye color I chose was too stark a contrast.

 

So for V2 I added a dry brush of kantor blue over the armor, and swapped green on the main part of the shoulder pad for the rim.

 

So my question to you is, does this V2 look decent? Where should I go from here in regards to improving the scheme?

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think v2 looks better than v1.  With regards to v2, I think I might lighten the shoulder pad trims a bit, to give a bit more contrast.

[Brother Cambrius]

V2 looks vastly better to V1 imho due to the blotchy-ness on the armour of the other.

I've been painting a midnight blue colour for a very very long time now and I can definitely recommend the Kantor Blue base as the start. Give it a blue or black wash and then highlight with Alaitoc Blue via light drybrushing or edge highlighting. As Firedrake Cordova advises, I'd certainly recommend a lighter shoulder-pad trim if possible, again this could just be done via highlighting through a paler edge highlight or faint drybrush just to help pick out the edges more. 

If you're looking for a good muted contrast with the aquila, try a deep bronze using Warplock Bronze and highlighting with Balthasar Gold. It's the main colours for my DIY Sons of Doom army and can look really good for muted yet distinctive colouration.

 

Cambrius

[McDougall Designs]

On 4/18/2023 at 3:25 PM, Brother Cambrius said:

V2 looks vastly better to V1 imho due to the blotchy-ness on the armour of the other.

I've been painting a midnight blue colour for a very very long time now and I can definitely recommend the Kantor Blue base as the start. Give it a blue or black wash and then highlight with Alaitoc Blue via light drybrushing or edge highlighting. As Firedrake Cordova advises, I'd certainly recommend a lighter shoulder-pad trim if possible, again this could just be done via highlighting through a paler edge highlight or faint drybrush just to help pick out the edges more. 

If you're looking for a good muted contrast with the aquila, try a deep bronze using Warplock Bronze and highlighting with Balthasar Gold. It's the main colours for my DIY Sons of Doom army and can look really good for muted yet distinctive colouration.

 

Cambrius

I didn't even think of bronze.

 

Are we talking church bell or brass trumpet?

 

Also

 

Tropaion 43rd infantry regiment. 

Mordian successors.

 

 

[McDougall Designs]

A Venerable order of sisters militant is undergoing rearmament. Let this post stand testament to thier original scheme (not my work.)

 

I was gifted an old full metal sisters of battle Army that was full metal and 100% infantry and jump Infantry, with no tanks. 

 

I was gifted them 2 years ago and these have sat on the shelf in the to do pile since. 

 

They will sit in a cleaning solution for about a week before I start repainting them after clearing off what remains.

 

I'm going to go for a very similar scheme just updated.

 

This isn't everything. There's another canister full that has already been stripped for early next week's painting schedule.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Always nice to see some classic models getting some love  

[McDougall Designs]

On 4/22/2023 at 7:29 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

Always nice to see some classic models getting some love  

I had prior plans out of the office this weekend, so no further love till I get back.

[McDougall Designs]

Test model for the sisters In progress on the far right.

[McDougall Designs]

Test scheme WIP. Unsure on bolter casing color. Thoughts?

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

For me, I think the bolter casing is too close to the colour of the armour, and blends into their torso a bit. If you used a lighter colour like an ochre or red, that would help, but it would likely "steal focus" from the helmet, although that could be solved by using a lighter silver for the main part of the helmet (i.e. the non-gold bit), perhaps?

[McDougall Designs]

15 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

For me, I think the bolter casing is too close to the colour of the armour, and blends into their torso a bit. If you used a lighter colour like an ochre or red, that would help, but it would likely "steal focus" from the helmet, although that could be solved by using a lighter silver for the main part of the helmet (i.e. the non-gold bit), perhaps?

So, I've settled on:

 

Red bolter casings.

 

Celestians and equivalents get swapped secondary colors. So red robes, and bone colored bolter casings.

 

Next batch is primed. This does not include the partial squad on my painting desk.

 

[McDougall Designs]

I had a rather banner evening.

 

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Firedrake Cordova
Non Warhammer 40,000 universe content

[McDougall Designs]

32mm slottas bases came in.

 

[ZeroWolf]

Love the Sisters' blue armour! Nice work