Brother Christopher's Purple Marines Project

[gaurdian31]

I think gold is the right call on the sword hilt, as it is a special sword called the Black Sword like @Firedrake Cordova points out. The blade looks good, if possible could we get a shot from a little farther away to see how the blue glow looks? It looks good, but not quite like it is pulsing/flowing like you describe when this close to the model. Maybe a one more pass with a slightly lighter blue, a little closer to white might work? Also, will you be adding blood to the wound and the sword? Great work!

[BadgersinHills]

Excellent painting, great work fixing the model too. 

Edited February 7 by BadgersinHills

[The Pounder]

That mini is one of my favourites!

 

I never had a chance to paint one but it’s such a beautiful sculpt.

 

Yours is looking fantastic.

[W.A.Rorie]

Great job, @Brother Christopher

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you all for leaving a comment. And please do accept my apologies for going dark for almost two weeks. Life has its ups and downs and my active engagement with the forum sometimes takes a hit. 

 

@Firedrake Cordova and @gaurdian31 I'll be sticking to the gold, thanks. I'll make the final call regarding the blade after I get all other things done. I'm also still figuring out whether I want to attempt an OSL from the lantern; but I think I'll probably do that.

 

I returned to painting some three days ago. I managed to do some progress. Here's a list of things I consider finished:

- the Emperor's Champion, including new additions: the swords hilt and backpack (minus the potential OSL),

- the Ork's skin, leather bits, shoulder pads,

- the stones.

 

Things that are on the to-do list:

- the Ork's face,

- the power klaw,

- minor metallic bits (boots, studs, etc.)

- base.

 

Here's a current WIP/progress photo:

 

 

And some close-ups:

Ork's epic chest, wound and attempt at blood splatters:

 

 

Freehand on the seals:

 

Hilt, botched fingers (again) and tubing on the helmet:

 

Things to note: I really should buy a large painting handle. Painting the model without one is quite annoying since I found myself damaging the paintwork even though I'm trying to be careful and even though I varnished the most exposed bits of the model. 

 

One other thing to note is that I decided to use a different hue of red for the crusader seals and hilt (warmer tones, orangey highlights) than I did for the tabard (colder/more neutral, with highlights achieved by mixing red and white). I'm not sure it was smart but I don't regret that decision. I'm not sure, however, if you'll see that in the photos. Funny how camera auto settings work! I take these 'quick WIP photos' in basically identical conditions but they turn out differently. These photos turned out very contrasty - I think they are very visually appealing (more than usual) but aren't a very good for discussing colour nuances. Maybe it's the apparently small differences in the angle of the lamp. 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Love the red "ribbons" - they are wonderfully crisp and detailed, and add a nice bit of brightness to the model.

 

Personally, I think you can go heavier on the gore, so long as you think carefully about the splatter pattern and don't just go willy nilly.  As is, I think having it go towards the ork face is a good idea, I just think you could have more of it.

Edited February 24 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks like solid progress.  I like the chipping on the chequerboard on the Ork's shoulder

 

With blood, did you consider using something like Blood for the Blood God? Those products seem to have a slightly unique look to them once applied.

 

On the subject of painting handles ... do you use Liquitex mediums at all? I find their 118ml bottles work rather nicely with a blob of bluetac on the lid (if it's empty, maybe fill it with sand for ballast).

 

Hope things are going better, anyway.  

[gaurdian31]

I can see the difference in the reds and I like what you did there. Also the freehand on the seals is great! I think the level of gore you have on the chest wound is good, I am of the mind that a power weapon cauterizes the wound so there wouldn't be a whole load of blood seeping out. The fingers do look better now, though I thought they looked great to begin with.  The model is coming along very nicely, well done!

[W.A.Rorie]

Really nicely done. I think the red's have enough difference to stand out, I would damage the checkers on the claw more. 

 

I agree that the blood splatter needs to be more. 

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad you like the progress. This was a very fun model to paint. I'm surprised that it turned out the way it did. The painting process was mostly hassle-free and towards the end, I've even almost forgotten the rough patches I've hit at the beginning with all the damage and fixes. In the end, I think I did a good job repairing the model with the only slightly outstanding bit being one wonky link, the one nearest the hilt.

 

19 hours ago, W.A.Rorie said:

I think the red's have enough difference to stand out, I would damage the checkers on the claw more. 

 

Thanks for this - at the time I took the photo, the klaw was at an early stage so I have to commend you for being eagle eyed! 

 

19 hours ago, W.A.Rorie said:

I agree that the blood splatter needs to be more. 

 

On 2/25/2026 at 12:28 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Personally, I think you can go heavier on the gore, so long as you think carefully about the splatter pattern and don't just go willy nilly.  As is, I think having it go towards the ork face is a good idea, I just think you could have more of it.

 

I think that in the end, I'll leave it as-is. Suddenly, I'm feeling very apprehensive and careful not to overdo things. The same goes for the OSL from the lantern - I'll be skipping this, too.

On 2/25/2026 at 8:21 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

With blood, did you consider using something like Blood for the Blood God? Those products seem to have a slightly unique look to them once applied.

 

No, I haven't yet. So far I've painted almost all of my models clean and haven't really dabbled in 'specialist' or 'effect' paints.

 

On 2/25/2026 at 8:21 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

On the subject of painting handles ... do you use Liquitex mediums at all? I find their 118ml bottles work rather nicely with a blob of bluetac on the lid (if it's empty, maybe fill it with sand for ballast).

 

I can't say that I have, but I still have a bunch of old Citadel Paint pots. Funny enough, the model came with a extra strong magnet in the base so I used a jar lid as painting handle; I also tried blue-tacking the mini onto a 40mm base and use the standard handle from GW but all these solutions had their limits: in the end, I found myself having to adjust the mini more often that I'd like.

 

***

 

Yesterday, I painted some of the remaining bits and... I think that I'm done with the model. I'm planning to varnish him today and take some QC photos to see if whether I've missed anything significant. 

 

Also, I've taken a plunge and ordered Vallejo's 'Headband Magnifier.' I've been toying around with the idea of getting something to help me with the most extreme of details but nothing seemed right. The magnifiers I've tested either felt unwieldy or cheap (a lot of the cheaper stuff has this temu/Asian plasticky quality) and didn't work for me. To date, the best solution - as suggested by @Grotsmasha - was a pair of reading glasses but they fatigue my eyes quickly. 

 

I'm quite curious how Vallejo's invention will work for me.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Ooh ... I'd missed that Vallejo released a magnifier.  I've got one of the OptiVisors, which is great-if-expensive - the Vallejo product looks kind-of similar if you squint hard enough, so I imagine it'd work well.  

[W.A.Rorie]

Years ago, I had a cheap magnifier headband and could never get the hang of painting with it. Now if I am wearing contacts I have to wear readers to work on models and if I am wearing my prescription glasses instead, I have to take them off.  Getting old sucks...

 

 

[Brother Christopher]

@Firedrake Cordova I've been eyeing (hehe) similar professional products but since I'm too lazy to try them out, I felt like ordering a set just to test them is too much of a risk. I'm quite stingy at times. How do you like them? I've mostly been concerned about the work distance and depth of field. Also, I have prescription glasses and have been concerned with the need to juggle between using magnifiers and glasses. Hopefully this contraption by Vallejo will work just fine, as I hope it will.

 

@W.A.Rorie Luckily, it's not that I feel that my eyesight is getting worse. Subjectively, I'm not there yet. But I find myself wanting to up my painting game when it comes to the smallest of details. Before that I just didn't care that much about getting splotches of paint here or there when it came to the tiniest of things, say face details, where an error under a millimetre matters. Right now I am quite confident that I can achieve better results but to push myself and try to improve these ~1mm and smaller things, I need to see them properly.

 

But I do feel you. I'm not that old yet (36 this year) but for a couple of months, I have been feeling that something's out of the ordinary with my eyes. Working at a computer the whole day makes my eyesight feel more strained/fatigued when painting, particularly more detailed bits. Well, maybe this is the new ordinary!

[Firedrake Cordova]

I've been really happy with the OptiVisor headset - it's comfortable to wear (I also have prescription glasses - the visor doesn't interfere with them), and never seems to get too hot. Mine has the 1.75x lens, which I think is a reasonable compromise between magnification and working distance/magnification. They were certainly helpful when cleaning up and assembling my Aeronautica Imperialis models, which have some positively teeeny parts.  

 

I can't criticise the optical quality of the lenses, but I'd also add that my mum has a knock-off version from Amazon that came with a full set of glass lenses (1.5x-2.5x) - the headset isn't as comfortable (due to the plastic padding band), but I can't say I can see a difference in terms of optical quality...

[BadgersinHills]

Excellent painting!

Edited February 27 by BadgersinHills

[Brother Christopher]

Here are the final photos of my off-topic thingy:

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the new mini next to my original metal EC:

 

More photos in the gallery:

 

[Rusted Boltgun]

Fantastic work. Something new to see every time you look at the model. This time, I spotted the flame pattern on the Ork boot and the subtle glow on the lantern reliquary.

[W.A.Rorie]

Really amazing job! 

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you @Rusted Boltgun and @W.A.Rorie! And thanks to all the people who followed this and offered feedback and advice throughout the process. It means and helps a lot!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

You really knocked him out of the park - he's fantastic.  I mean, just the highlighting alone is incredible, and there is so much else that you've done so well as well.

[Brother Christopher]

@Dr_Ruminahui Thank you for the kind words and all the feedback! I'm happy others like the finished mini as much as I do.

 

Aaaand now, in the spirit of going off‑topic in my own thread (I promise I’ll get back to the purple dudes soon enough), I’ve felt something I haven’t felt in a very, very long time.

 

I’m… considering a return to Plasticard Magic™. After finishing the Thunderhawk, I swore I wouldn’t inflict that kind of misery on my free time ever again. I even have an ancient notebook with all my planned DIYs/scratchbuilds/conversions written down, thinking that putting them on paper would make them more definite. I still have a few almost‑finished plasticard projects (a custom Land Raider and two custom Rhinos) waiting for me, but I don’t feel like working on those right now.

 

What I do feel like doing is wasting time and effort on something I’m not good at (i.e., designing stuff) and something I abandoned more than 10 years ago. Thanks to this forum, I know that in 2015 I briefly restarted work on a plasticard Caestus Assault Ram (it looks like all the photos got purged; they probably were hosted on Photobucket). I actually started the project long before that, back when I still played the game and wanted one for my army. The project died. I even gave it a proper funeral: it’s listed in my notebook as “do not restart, like ever,” complete with my signature to make it official. But… I never threw the model out.

 

And here I am now, haunted by the feeling that all that work years ago is going to waste. The main structure of the prows is done, so I actually have a solid starting point. I’m sure I don’t want a Caestus in my army anymore, though. The papercraft template I used back then was overly simplified and changed the original design — that’s what discouraged me from finishing it.

 

The idea nagging me now is to build a custom SM flyer that keeps the Caestus-style dual prows but incorporates design cues from other flyers — especially bigger wings. I’m considering either the Storm Speeder/Xiphon approach (a “brick” with wings toward the back) or my own take on a Corvus Blackstar, with large wings toward the front. Given how wide the Caestus is, the Corvus route might be more reasonable; a two‑prow ram with side engines and big wings would probably end up absurdly wide. Moving the wings forward might help visually “streamline” and “slim down” the whole thing.

 

Spoiler

 

As you can see, I’ve already put way too much thought into this.

 

Please, talk me out of it. PLEASE. The reasonable thing to do is keep painting minis instead of diving into this madness. But the idea of making something original and testing my skills and stubbornness is very tempting.

 

Regardless of whether I actually go through with it, I’ll probably waste some more time doing primitive mock-ups. I really regret never learning Photoshop — it would be useful once every five years.

[Firedrake Cordova]

39 minutes ago, Brother Christopher said:

Please, talk me out of it. PLEASE.

No.  Given your plasticard skills, I wanna see it.  

 

39 minutes ago, Brother Christopher said:

The reasonable thing to do is keep painting minis instead of diving into this madness. But the idea of making something original and testing my skills and stubbornness is very tempting.

OK ... trying to be more helpful.  Really, only you can work out whether it's worth the effort an opportunity cost (in terms of the models you could have painted whilst you were building the plasticard model) relative to your final army plan. 

 

What I would say is that custom(ised) models are cool and can really make an army feel "one's own", instead of "yet another Space Marine army".

 

I don't know if that helps or not ...

Edited March 4 by Firedrake Cordova

[W.A.Rorie]

1 hour ago, Brother Christopher said:

@Dr_Ruminahui Thank you for the kind words and all the feedback! I'm happy others like the finished mini as much as I do.

 

Aaaand now, in the spirit of going off‑topic in my own thread (I promise I’ll get back to the purple dudes soon enough), I’ve felt something I haven’t felt in a very, very long time.

 

I’m… considering a return to Plasticard Magic™. After finishing the Thunderhawk, I swore I wouldn’t inflict that kind of misery on my free time ever again. I even have an ancient notebook with all my planned DIYs/scratchbuilds/conversions written down, thinking that putting them on paper would make them more definite. I still have a few almost‑finished plasticard projects (a custom Land Raider and two custom Rhinos) waiting for me, but I don’t feel like working on those right now.

 

What I do feel like doing is wasting time and effort on something I’m not good at (i.e., designing stuff) and something I abandoned more than 10 years ago. Thanks to this forum, I know that in 2015 I briefly restarted work on a plasticard Caestus Assault Ram (it looks like all the photos got purged; they probably were hosted on Photobucket). I actually started the project long before that, back when I still played the game and wanted one for my army. The project died. I even gave it a proper funeral: it’s listed in my notebook as “do not restart, like ever,” complete with my signature to make it official. But… I never threw the model out.

 

And here I am now, haunted by the feeling that all that work years ago is going to waste. The main structure of the prows is done, so I actually have a solid starting point. I’m sure I don’t want a Caestus in my army anymore, though. The papercraft template I used back then was overly simplified and changed the original design — that’s what discouraged me from finishing it.

 

The idea nagging me now is to build a custom SM flyer that keeps the Caestus-style dual prows but incorporates design cues from other flyers — especially bigger wings. I’m considering either the Storm Speeder/Xiphon approach (a “brick” with wings toward the back) or my own take on a Corvus Blackstar, with large wings toward the front. Given how wide the Caestus is, the Corvus route might be more reasonable; a two‑prow ram with side engines and big wings would probably end up absurdly wide. Moving the wings forward might help visually “streamline” and “slim down” the whole thing.

 

  Hide contents

 

As you can see, I’ve already put way too much thought into this.

 

Please, talk me out of it. PLEASE. The reasonable thing to do is keep painting minis instead of diving into this madness. But the idea of making something original and testing my skills and stubbornness is very tempting.

 

Regardless of whether I actually go through with it, I’ll probably waste some more time doing primitive mock-ups. I really regret never learning Photoshop — it would be useful once every five years.

 

This can not be unseen. It is now forever seen on the intrawebs, so it must be done in the name of the Primarch- Progenitor Rogal Dorn, For the Founding Father Sigsmund and for the honour of the Black Templars Chapter, you, Techmarine @Brother Christopher of the Hallowed Forges of the Black Templars Aeronauctica Divisio must complete this.....or face the wraith of the =][=

 

That would be an awesome project. If you were to do it. Not saying you should. Also not saying you should not.

[Rusted Boltgun]

Wow. You have my wholehearted support and sympathies as I also have notebooks detailing my own crazy schemes. Not sure I have the courage to embark on a quest to realise one of them (and way too many unpainted minis to complete first).

Edited March 4 by Rusted Boltgun
Wordage

[Tallarn Commander]

Life is short Do it!