Brother Christopher's Purple Marines Project

[Brother Christopher]

It has been a while. I'd like to apologise to all of you for not responding sooner. As an excuse/explanation, being a real-world freelancer, I'm taking every opportunity to earn some extra money before my planned holiday. This is a bit exhausting but I'd like to believe that it'll be worth it.

 

With the additional workload, between painting miniatures, taking care of chores, doing exercise to combat the consequences of a desk job and trying to have some time for myself and my friends, I'm finding it difficult to "allocate time" to the forum at the moment. This is something that bothers me a lot but it's also a result of prioritisation and I take full responsibility for my decisions.

 

Regardless, I'm very sorry for not engaging more, especially since many of you have put in an effort to respond my my progress.

  

On 7/26/2025 at 9:01 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

The sergeant's helmet looks a lot better this time around.  Out of curiosity, what colours did you use? It's a nice green.

 

Looking at the previous pictures and comparing, I think what I didn't like about the previous iteration was that whilst the helmet wasn't darker than the armour, it read as though it were - I think this is down to the edge highlight on the lip of the chest armour being that much brighter, it created an incorrect perception (and given that the human eye is drawn to light things, you expect that to be the head). The additional edge highlights have helped lift it somewhat.

 

On 7/26/2025 at 11:58 PM, space wolf said:

Yep, nailed the green. I think it works now.

 

Looking at the previous photos, I'm glad I updated (upgraded?) the helmet highlights. I'm glad you thin the result works. 

 

@Firedrake Cordova As for the colour(s), unfortunately, I don't have anything specific. I mixed Vallejo's 70.891 Intermediate Green (a bottle of green that I've been probably using for 8-10 years) with a certain amount of black, until I felt that the shade works with the purple. I didn't bother to note the proportions since I've mixed what feels like enough of the dark green to deal with this project. I have my custom green in a separate pot for the sake of consistency. For lighter tones, I added some beige and for the extreme highlights, I mixed in some yellow. Everything was done at a "more or less" basis.

 

On 7/27/2025 at 9:39 AM, Pearson73 said:

The green is a lovely colour and works well with the rest of your scheme. I'm quite surprised, if someone said to me purple and green, I would never have expected it to work so well!

 

On 8/1/2025 at 2:29 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

I really like the green - its an unusual choice to go with purple, but it looks good. 

 

Once again, I'm super happy that it works. To be honest, the green wasn't my idea. This was something my wife suggested and I kinda dismissed this idea on the basis "she doesn't know what she's talking about.' Later, irrespective of my wife's suggestion, a friend of mine who used to be into 40k and is more art-inclined that me recommended the same. I then reconsidered and still hesitant, decided to give it a go. Mainly because I wanted to incorporate as many colours as possible. That is, without making my marines too garish (slightly garish is okay, though).

 

On 7/27/2025 at 9:39 AM, Pearson73 said:

Wow, it's been ages since I checked in on this log and it looks like I've missed a lot of cool progress.

 

The faces you did last year are great, particularly the eyes. I can echo the others in saying that a red/purple glaze helps a lot with the tongue and lips, as well as a dash of off-white for teeth. I tend to mix a bit of Screamer Pink into my standard skin tone to get the lips sorted, but Carrobourg Crimson souds good too.

 

(...) dig the pale blue stripe on the power packs, it's a really nice touch and breaks up all that purple, keeping the visual interest. Same goes for the yellow tactical marking on the leg, never thought about that kind of placing, but I like it a lot!

 

All three basing options look solid, and you've done a good job making them look realistic too.

 

Thanks for dropping in. I'm trying to keep myself motivated by posting here.

 

I'm exploring the application of glazes and learning how to use them. I will be experimenting on faces, in particular.

 

And thanks for the feedback RE: bases, too.

 

On 7/28/2025 at 3:31 PM, gaurdian31 said:

Also I think that the touch up on the eyes that you did came out well! The squad looks great together, the added details of the script and battle damage as well as the base work are all great. The power sword came out great as well. The squad came together really well. Great work!

 

Thank you! 

 

On 8/1/2025 at 2:29 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

So, something to watch out for in the future - I would try to put a bit of yellow near the helmet on all your future squad leaders as well, and if you are using the blue as squad differentiation, giving consideration to what other cool colours you might use instead of the blue that would pair well with the helmet (or, if they will all have the blue stripe, resting assured it works well).

 

I'll bear that in mind. This is very valuable - it's probably not 'colour theory' as such, but delving into custom stuff (instead of using the tried and ready-made colour scheme of the Black Templars), I'm discovering that there's A LOT to consider. And even the slightest changes or smallest additions can make a difference.

 

***

As some of you might have noticed, I took a small break and recently painted some Firstborn Templars.

 

Right now, I'm painting the newest addition to my collection: a Techmarine. The road to add a Techmarine was full of back-and-forths: I wanted one but couldn't justify the price; I wanted to wait for a Techmarien to get bundled with some other models; I convinced myself that I don't want one in my force. In the end, I got one as a bargain and decided to give painting reds a go.

 

In the new world of colours and techniques, I decided to try sponge painting (if that's what the process is called) to paint/shade the armour. I must say, the results are quite cool to the naked eye. I'm apprehensive about taking photos of the model but I like what I'm seeing so far. The only drawback is that there's a bit of a texture here and there: I'm not sure where it came from but I'm sure it's because of user error: I've either patted down pieces of sponge into the paint or I might have allowed sand/dust to mix with the paint on my palette.

 

The other criticism I have at the moment is that I definitely overestimated my skills/brush control with a freehand on the kneepad. I decided to paint a Mechanicus cog outline surrounding a Maltese cross. The idea is great but the implementation fell a bit short of the concept (probably due to the limited space). The details are there if you know what they were supposed to be but they're not as well-defined as I'd hope. The whole thing seems a bit cramped, too. However, I decided to keep the pad as-is since I spent what feels like a lot of time on doing that.

 

Regardless, if time allows, I'm planning to finish the body within the next 1-2 painting sessions and am intending to post WIP shots before moving to painting the axe arms and servo arms.

***

I'm also amused by how deeply thinking through the lens of game squads is rooted in me. I'm trying to definitively decide how to organise my purple dudes and am struggling to break away from the game-imposed limitations. I find it a bit silly how much time I'm devoting to pondering on how to organise my men.

 

Right now, I'm leaning towards trying to use a modified older structure and stick to organising units into 5-man squads. However, the second appealing option is to introduce elements of old tactical squads into the Primaris line and perhaps move to a variation on the 3-men squads that GW introduced. The problematic part boils down to two variants:

 

Variant 1

3x 5-men bolter marine squads

5-men plasma marine squad

5-men flamer marine squad

5-men melta marine squad

 

Variant 2

3x 6-men bolter marine squads + special weapons marine (a different special weapon - plasma/flamer/melta - for each squad).

6-men plasma marine squad

6-men flamer marine squad

3-men melta marine squad (to mimic the Eradicator squad)

 

I think that Variant 2 is perhaps a bit more interesting from a modelling perspective (I'm thinking of adding a melee weapon option for the sergeants in the special weapon squads) but having principles from 4/5th editions in the back of my mind, I can't stop to prefer multiples of fives for a Force Organisation. So Variant 1 would be absolutely perfect... But there's the open question of the 3 Blade Guard Veterans - I'd either have to buy another 2 to make a 5-men squad or consider them as a separate thing altogether, e.g. bodyguards.

 

While I'll probably still be pondering this, I'd better get back to work and painting my Techmarine.

Edited Thursday at 10:10 AM by Brother Christopher

[gaurdian31]

I do like variant 1 with the idea that the Blade Guard would be bodyguards. That feels like that is their role, at least to me. Excited to see your Techmarine and how you have painted the reds. The board will be here, your time won't always be. Take what time you need for yourself, we'll be here. 

[Brother Christopher]

@gaurdian31 That's very kind of you. Thanks for the support :)

 

I decided to take photos a bit sooner to benefit from the magnification. Even when I look at the models using a magnifying glass, I find myself discovering more when looking a proper photos. I don't know why, there's a bluish/purplish tint to the photos that I couldn't remove in post. Regardless, the photos below should give you a good idea of the progress I've made.

 

 

 

 

And a close-up of the knee pad. I put some more work into it since I've last mentioned (and complained about) it and I think it looks better now - the cog, as well as the cross are somewhat better-defined and I can't see myself improving this any more. 

 

I now must decide on a head. I think that I'll go with a helmetless option; however, the original one is a bit too Mad-Max-y/Mechanicus-y for my taste. I might use the one from an Indomitus Chaplain - it always felt like a nice head for a Techmarine.

 

As for the pouches included in the kit, I don't think I'll be using them - I don't want to cover up the nice backside armour (that's a combination of words I didn't expect to type in my life). 

[gaurdian31]

Excellent job on the details of the cog and cross, I wish I had brush control like that when I freehand things. I think the blue/purple tint is coming from the shadows in the background? As for the Chaplain head, what is the techmarine's other arm going to be doing? With the way the current arm/hand is I think a shouty face may not fit the pose if that makes sense. If he was pointing instead of grasping I think it would fit better, though that might be a matter of taste. Do you have the Eradicator from that set with the bionic eye? Or the assault intercessor multipart kit? That one has a good bionic head. Also for the rest of the paint job, the tubing and other details are really nice and I like the way the red looks.  The shoulder pad works really well with the red scheme as well.

[space wolf]

Love it so far! The indomitus captain head with the lifting knight visor? That would be cool...especially if you subtly convert it to look like a welding mask. That would ROCK!

[Brother Christopher]

On 8/29/2025 at 9:39 PM, gaurdian31 said:

Excellent job on the details of the cog and cross, I wish I had brush control like that when I freehand things.

 

I think in my case, this boils down to a lot of practice with script on purity seals and freehand crosses plus a 1/3 of luck. For whatever reason, some days are good for painting details while on other days I somehow can't get the paint to flow properly off the brush. The details on the knee pad are a combination of these two days: on the first day, I did an okay job buc couldn't nail the 'sharpening' or 'refining' that I somehow seemingly effortlessly achieved on the second day. 

 

On 8/29/2025 at 9:39 PM, gaurdian31 said:

Also for the rest of the paint job, the tubing and other details are really nice and I like the way the red looks.  The shoulder pad works really well with the red scheme as well.

 

Regarding the pad, that's very interesting. I somehow feel that my chapter purple doesn't work well with the red of the Techmarine. That's why I decided to keep it to a minimum, i.e. the should pad. But what you said is reassuring.

 

On 8/29/2025 at 9:39 PM, gaurdian31 said:

As for the Chaplain head, what is the techmarine's other arm going to be doing? With the way the current arm/hand is I think a shouty face may not fit the pose if that makes sense. If he was pointing instead of grasping I think it would fit better, though that might be a matter of taste. Do you have the Eradicator from that set with the bionic eye? Or the assault intercessor multipart kit? That one has a good bionic head.

 

You know what, you're probably right. I checked the head and it's too shouty. Thanks for pointing this out. I might have misremembered the mental note that I made: I've been quite positive I liked the head for a Techmarine but the 'note' was probably taken when I intended to kitbash a Techmarine.

 

I don't have an eradicator kit but I do have some assault intercessors and I think I know which particular head you have in mind. Also, I might consider getting either a face with a rebreather or even scour my Firstborn leftover bits box to see if I have something suitable.

 

On 8/30/2025 at 12:01 AM, space wolf said:

The indomitus captain head with the lifting knight visor? That would be cool...especially if you subtly convert it to look like a welding mask. That would ROCK!

 

That's some out of the box thinking. I have to take a look whether I have that head. I used to remember everything I bought for 40k. Now this isn't the case: I know I bought the Captain second hand but don't remember whether he had that head or not. Also, if I have it I just might push it a bit further and perhaps even incorporate some design cues from the face mask from Dead Space - I have very fond memories of the series.

 

***

 

I've been away for the weekend on a family occasion. Regrettably that is, since I got bored out of my mind and haven't had the time to paint more Warhammer :P

 

Things were even worse, though. My hobby progress got ravaged by some assembly issues: annoyingly, I couldn’t get the axe arm and shoulder pad fit properly. The effort of gluing, removing, re-gluing, removing, scraping and filing took a long time. However, I think I succeeded... sort of. I think that the shaft isn't supposed to touch the base and mine does, which causes the thing to bend... I'll live with this, though.

 

I also made some more painting progress not yet documented photographically.

 

I'll have to reiterate what I posted above: I still need 1-2 painting sessions to get the model done. It seems, however, that I won't make it in time for the 12 Months in the Hobby Challenge.

 

Here are two photos taken in some better lighting than those above:

 

 

In addition to having an arm attached, I updated the edge highlights. In the previous photos, they didn't seem contrasty enough. I attempted to add another layer of warm highlights to the most prominent and edges and I think it worked quite well. You know that I'm not one for overestimating my work so please take my word for it: the reds/highlights look pretty cool in real life. Perhaps I'll manage to reproduce the real-life look of the model when I take the final photos.

[space wolf]

15 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

I think that the shaft isn't supposed to touch the base and mine does, which causes the thing to bend... I'll live with this, though.

We are our own worst critic. Wouldnt have noticed if you hadnt said anything.

[bloodhound23]

Dang. Making me want to take on a Primaris-sized project. 

[gaurdian31]

I think the updated edge highlights make the red pop in a real nice way. As for the bend like @space wolf noted I don't think I would have even seen it had you not mentioned it, which is good as well. The Indominitus captain head would look pretty cool and yeah I have a feeling we are both thinking of the stoic marine with a plate in his head shown built  throwing grenades.