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 August 28 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. 

[The Pounder]

Fantastic work on the purple, very crisp lines.

[Brother Christopher]

On 9/1/2025 at 7:53 PM, bloodhound23 said:

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

 

Nah, don't do that ;) Unless it's a small project! 

 

***

 

As always, thank you for the positive feedback. The last week has been an absolute roller-coaster of emotions, chores, work and stuff so progress has been slow. I have to get the Techmarine done till the end of the week - that's my no. 1 priority now.

 

I italicised 'now' because I managed to get two cheap phobos characters and spent the better part of my hobby time over the last 2 days trying to fix the leg armour. However, ultimately, the only thing I objectively managed to achieve is slightly damage the models. It turns out that I can't sculpt the added armour on the greaves (to hide the silly recessed bit) and my attempts at making green stuff press-moulded plates also failed. With the latter, the biggest issue - as it turns out - are the shoes. I can't make the armour work in a satisfactory way in all three vital points: connection with the knee pad, the connection with the ankle ball-thingy and to work well with the armour on the shoe (the added greaves cover almost entirely the elevated part of the shoe and make the feet look goofy). 

 

Genuinely, it's a pitty. Not only have I wasted time but I also damaged relatively expensive models and failed. Having said that, I must admit that subjectively, I have no real regrets - I had an idea that I wanted to try out and now I know that it's unattainable within a reasonable time frame. If I hadn't tried, I probably would have pondered this on numerous occasions. And now this uncertainty is gone. This is what I call added value.

 

An important part of this entire project is to keep it attainable, entertaining and under control. And knowing when to stop and admit defeat is a part of that philosophy. Trying to remedy the existence armour-shorts was definitely not entertaining and given the time the attempts took and the skills that I don't have - it's clearly not attainable.

 

Getting back to the Techmarine, I found what I consider to be a matching firstborn helmet (I think it might have been a pilot's helmet but am not sure). I'm planning to use it since it's got loads more character than the original Primaris one. The only concern that I have that somehow it looks a bit too big...

 

I'll also give it a shot and try and paint it black for no reason. It should look cool and should make the model more interesting. Also, I decided to pick black as a secondary colour (e.g. for the bolter casing, the servo arm) so it should work fine. If it doesn't, I can always repaint it red.

 

... Now come to think of it, I could have primed it white and go with that.

[Firedrake Cordova]

That must be very frustrating with the Phobos models  

 

11 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

I'll also give it a shot and try and paint it black for no reason.

Is there a chance you've heard some Rolling Stones recently?  

[MoriyaSchism]

14 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

Getting back to the Techmarine, I found what I consider to be a matching firstborn helmet (I think it might have been a pilot's helmet but am not sure). I'm planning to use it since it's got loads more character than the original Primaris one. The only concern that I have that somehow it looks a bit too big...

 

Which helmet? If you're having issue with the Primaris gorget being in the way a bit of elevation on the neck joint should fix that. In terms of size the old helmets should be about the same size. Classic Mark 7 and 8 helmets have a slightly more pronounced "snout" in comparison to the Primaris helmets and the Mark 7 helmets from the new kits, but the difference in size isn't that drastic. 

[gaurdian31]

Yeah, the design choices on the phobos marines is a bit odd. I don't mind them, but I can see why people do. For the Techmarine, is it the head from the Stormraven gunship? If so, that's a good head and should work rather well for the primaris version. A black helmet is an interesting idea, I am guessing you will giving any helmeted character a different colored helmet like you did with the sergeant?

[Brother Christopher]

13 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

That must be very frustrating with the Phobos models  

 

I delt with it surprisingly well, to be honest. I'm quite surprised how easily I conceded, after exhausting reasonable measures to make the idea work.

 

13 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Is there a chance you've heard some Rolling Stones recently?  

 

Not this time! But old habits die hard: with my Oldmarine Templars, I've almost always used mixed paint schemes, incorporating the Martian reds and Templar blacks. With this chapter, I felt the purple doesn't work so I turned to the familiar.

 

10 hours ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Which helmet? If you're having issue with the Primaris gorget being in the way a bit of elevation on the neck joint should fix that. In terms of size the old helmets should be about the same size. Classic Mark 7 and 8 helmets have a slightly more pronounced "snout" in comparison to the Primaris helmets and the Mark 7 helmets from the new kits, but the difference in size isn't that drastic. 

 

The issue is that it's a bit bulky/wide and takes too much of the gorget but, despite that, I decided to go with this option. 

 

9 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

Yeah, the design choices on the phobos marines is a bit odd. I don't mind them, but I can see why people do.

 

I've grown to like it (thanks to GW's best advertising device: Space Marine 2 where I enjoy Vanguard and Sniper!). My only criticism is the weird greaves but I definitely don't hate them. I just think that the heavier, standard armour would work better. 

 

9 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

For the Techmarine, is it the head from the Stormraven gunship? If so, that's a good head and should work rather well for the primaris version. A black helmet is an interesting idea, I am guessing you will giving any helmeted character a different colored helmet like you did with the sergeant?

 

It's either from a Stormtalon or Stormraven - or maybe some Dark Angels bike squad upgrade? My best guess is that it's from the Stormraven kit.

 

Regarding what you said about the colours: oh, that's a great idea - I could go with it. To be honest, the main motivation was what I mentioned above. But you've pointed out something that opens more possibilities - thanks!

 

***

 

I feel I'm very close to finishing the model. I took some quick photos to inspect the work. While the compressed photos are enough to give an overview, the full versions helped me assess what I did... and it appears that the model passed the inspection. The only faults I can see is some superglue frosting around the base of the thin servo arm and some areas where the reds are a bit too flat/undefined. But I don't feel like redoing them again so I'll just fix the frosting, finish the base, make an attempt at taking better photos and call it a day.

 

I'm particularly curious about what you think about the helmet. I'd be leaning towards saying the black is fine (it works well with the black shaft of the axe, bolter case and servo arm) and the random (intuitive?) decision to paint the camera/targeter thingy red was good. However, I'm still open to repainting it red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[space wolf]

Dude! Love the helmet. The choice of helmet, the color, everything. Have you considered adding in a bit more of that pale blue, since its a strong secondary color in you color scheme?

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks! No, I haven't - old habits die hard. As such, I haven't considered getting outside of the yellow, green, (standard) blue palette for details on a Techmarine.

 

And here are some photos of the finished model:

 

 

 

 

And some close-ups:

 

 

 

As always, close-ups reveal some things that I could improve but not this time - I'm calling it done, as part on my journey to learn to let things go.

 

Overall, I'm very happy with this one. It was quite fun to paint (although it has taken me a long time to get him done) and the result is very nice. I've even limited the amount of battle damage to a minium.

[gaurdian31]

Black was definitely the right choice. Looking at it, I think they used the same pilot helmet for both marine flyers so it could have been either kit, great choice either way! The Techmarine came out looking awesome!

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you for the reaffirming post! I also think that I was lucky to have that helmet. It doesn't seem bulky any more - maybe I got accustomed to looking at it or maybe it felt bulky by comparison. I'm also pretty happy to have the spare Primaris Techmarine helmet that I'm intending to use for a searge in my heat weapon squad (not sure whether I'll use it for the flamer or the melta squad).

 

Next week I'm taking a holiday so no hobby time. Having said that, I'll have some time to waste and ponder what to do with my Bladeguard Squad.

 

Right now, I have the possibility and idea to organise them into a 5-man squad consisting of 1 Bladeguard Captain (I think I'll swap his relic shield for a regular one, though), 1 Champion model (I will need to shorten his sword and attach a shield onto his backpack) and 3 regular Bladeguards.

 

The decision I'm forcing myself into taking is this: should I consider them veterans and paint them in the Veterans scheme (i.e. white helmets and arms) or should I consider them something else and go with a different colour scheme. The initial plan was to go with the Veteran route but things have changed a bit since then: I got some new models and reorganised things. I could use the white arms and helmets as designators for the 1st company (and paint Sternguards, Terminators and the eventual Vanguards this way).

 

Right now, I'm leaning towards doing something different with the Bladeguards and treat them as a retinue or honour guard unit - a squad who supports the commanders in the Company. This would mean that I'll get to avoid painting white (I love the look but I hate painting it!) and even potentially try out something new. As I'm typing this, I realise that this new-devised conundrum could be a great opportunity to use some of the visualisation @space wolf suggested way back. Another idea would be to incorporate more of the custom sergeants' green.

 

It seems that in this post I'm basically spitballing - but that's also good for me since writing things helps me organise my thoughts and ideas.

[gaurdian31]

I think option 2 (they are acting as a support or bodyguard unit to a commander) is a cooler idea. Also, like you said, it will allow you to try something new and maybe get away with not painting too much white. Maybe they take the color scheme of the commander they are guarding/supporting?

[space wolf]

I agree with guardian...if youre only going to have the small unit. Makes sense they are like a vixtrix guard!

 

As for your concerns with painting white, i totally get it. The trick is to base coat over white a medium grey, then highlight up to white. Just make sure you either match warm greys with warm whites or cool greys with cool whites otherwise it will look off.

[bloodhound23]

Dude! Techmarine looks amazing. Helmet is nicely done.