Brother Christopher's Purple Marines Project - A Little-Big Side Hustle, But Still Purple!

[Firedrake Cordova]

Just an FYI, the current line of Shade paints use Contrast Medium as their base (the older versions in the bigger 24ml pots used a different base). If you heavily thin a Contrast paint, it can make a good wash (Basilicanum Grey is a good candidate, thinned about ~7:1).

 

Also, some of the Contrast paints are rather flat, but heavily pigmented - Imperial Fist is a very flat yellow, that can be used to gain coverage, for example.

[space wolf]

On 10/14/2025 at 4:45 AM, Brother Christopher said:

You have my complete trust when it comes to colours: I'll go ahead with painting gold with more confidence. 

 

Also, thanks for the recommendation about contrast paints: I'm slowly dabbing into using them but don't have too much confidence yet. I think I'll go with the 'traditional' approach, i.e. regular metallic paints + washes.

Well thank you! Purple and gold is always a great combination. I agree with your assessment of contrast. I myself, primarily use them for tinting. I will "underpaint" a model, then put a contrast over it (sometimes you have to thin it...water is usually fine) and it gets me to where i want to go. Example, when i paint my leather, i use a light, almost purpleish brown. Then i take an off white and put scratches all over it. The color contrast here is unnaturally stark. Then i take some snakebite leather contrast out of the pot, and slosh it all over. Instant dark, worn leather. The contrast paint, ties everything together. Ive found contrasts are really most useful AS specialty paints as opposed to painting everything with them. Its possible to do, but you have to underpaint well, in order to do it.

 

Painting camo is hard, ive discovered the reason, is you have to intentionally paint a pattern, but make it look random...thats hard as our brains like order and symmatry (sp?). Ive found if you layer things on top of each other it works a bit better. So start out doing like a sharp angular geometic shape (like a pentagon where one corner has "caved inward") do that all over in one color. Then paint triangles in different places all over the model. Dont worry about what they cover, just space them out a bit. Then once dry, paint three dots (close together) that make a triangle shape and space them out like above. Instant urban camo. By just ignoring the previous layer youll create some natural overlap and chaos that will read correctly as camo. Hope that helps :)

Edited October 15 by space wolf
Spelling

[Firedrake Cordova]

One of the other reasons for camo being difficult is that it's purpose is to break up the outline of the thing it's on, i.e. it will make your model less "readable".

 

Darren Latham, Duncan Rhodes and The Painting Coach have good tutorials which cover it.  

[Brother Christopher]

Thanks for the resources. I feel I have had some experience with some camo cloaks for my Firstborn Scouts. However, I decided that I wanted something else. This is what I've ended up with:

 

 

With the Phobos Captain model, I'd say that the cape needs some more work but I'd say it's almost done.

 

With the sniper, well, I'm not sure here. I will add more patterns on the cape, that's for sure.

 

While doing some research, I've noticed that it's fashionable to make a camo cloak activation effect on capes. However, I figured that I didn't want to go with the most popular, textured approach (it seems that painters apply the same material on the cloak as they use for the base). 

 

The idea for my cloaking was that the cape imitates what's in front of it. Hence the green bit: I thought that it'd be a cool idea to add more colour and I planned to place a green tuft in front of the Marine. For the grey, I wanted to do a gradient from the darker greys at the bottom (i.e. the ground) to lighter tones.

 

Yeah, but at this stage, I'm not convinced I like what I have right now, nor the direction this went. Regarding the grey parts of the 'cloaking' effect, I think it's okayish. The green bit, however, makes the thing a bit too landscape-y and - dare I say - childish or cartoony. I think I'll paint it over but I'll wait for the decision till the new day. I think I should perhaps be more blurry/distorted but I'm not sure about the direction at all.

[space wolf]

Honestly...i dont know what youre talking about. That looks great to me! The camo and the cloaking affect, realy work as far as im concerned.

[bloodhound23]

7 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

Thanks for the resources. I feel I have had some experience with some camo cloaks for my Firstborn Scouts. However, I decided that I wanted something else. This is what I've ended up with:

 

 

With the Phobos Captain model, I'd say that the cape needs some more work but I'd say it's almost done.

 

With the sniper, well, I'm not sure here. I will add more patterns on the cape, that's for sure.

 

While doing some research, I've noticed that it's fashionable to make a camo cloak activation effect on capes. However, I figured that I didn't want to go with the most popular, textured approach (it seems that painters apply the same material on the cloak as they use for the base). 

 

The idea for my cloaking was that the cape imitates what's in front of it. Hence the green bit: I thought that it'd be a cool idea to add more colour and I planned to place a green tuft in front of the Marine. For the grey, I wanted to do a gradient from the darker greys at the bottom (i.e. the ground) to lighter tones.

 

Yeah, but at this stage, I'm not convinced I like what I have right now, nor the direction this went. Regarding the grey parts of the 'cloaking' effect, I think it's okayish. The green bit, however, makes the thing a bit too landscape-y and - dare I say - childish or cartoony. I think I'll paint it over but I'll wait for the decision till the new day. I think I should perhaps be more blurry/distorted but I'm not sure about the direction at all.

Looks amazing, respectfully you’re wrong.

[Firedrake Cordova]

The cloaks look great to me. 

 

Personally, I think the activation/deactivation effect is over-done by the community in general (I guess I always saw them more as a passive device like modern-day camouflage, rather than a Predator- or Crysis-style active suit), but yours are really nicely done.

[Brother Christopher]

Wow, thanks for the overwhelmingly positive feedback. I must've been tired yesterday  After a good night's sleep, what I pained has grown on me. I'll probably paint over some of the green part - I have a good feeling that it's the right way to go about it.

 

5 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Personally, I think the activation/deactivation effect is over-done by the community in general (I guess I always saw them more as a passive device like modern-day camouflage, rather than a Predator- or Crysis-style active suit), but yours are really nicely done.

 

I agree - I've always considered SM's camo cloaks to be basically what we have now. However, I wanted to try something new/exotic. With the extra background you provided, I'm particularly glad you like what I have.

 

I'll fundamentally keep it but will try to do some more work, while paying attention not to overdo it. I think that I will paint over the second activation point on the right side, though. 

[W.A.Rorie]

Gorgeous @Brother Christopher

[Brother Christopher]

Here's a minor update:

 

It seems that this is the final version of the "invisibility-activation" effect on the back. The second blob, on the right, will be reverted to the regular, brownish pattern, though.

 

 

And in the spirit of trying out new things, I decided to do an electronic/energy grid on the inside, too:

 

 

To achieve this, I painted the cloak with a blue-to-white gradient that I later covered with a piece of a mosquito net (it's a shame that I couldn't find a hexagon net anywhere at home) and sponged on the grey of the inside lining back.

 

I'm quite happy with the result - it's uneven, a bit blotchy but in a way I hoped to get a similar result that'd create a flickering/fluctuating feel of an energy field (or something like that). What I'm not happy about are the specks that must've fallen of the sponge and which are now welded into the inside of the cloak. Luckily, the photos make them way more apparent than they are in real life: to be honest, I noticed them only after I took the photos.

 

 

[gaurdian31]

Looks great, the camo is really well done. I do like the little lone blob of invisibility on the right, like the cloak is coming on line in several places at once. The grid on the inside looks really nice and I don't think the sponge bits will be very noticeable at all.

[Heraclite]

I'm with gaurdian31 on the subject of the second patch of activating cloak. It really sells the idea of simulateneous activation on different parts of the cloak. I kinda wish I had thought of something like that for my own eliminators on which I tried an energy effect too

[bloodhound23]

Looks great. Speaking for myself at least, it can be hard to remember here that the cloak is actually done, and it's just a few parts of REST of the model that's still in the "ugly" stage—just unfinished. To me the ugly stage really sets in when the base isn't painted but everything else is finished. And then I paint the base and it looks way more complete somehow. Who knows.

 

It will look extremely cool when finished.

[Brother Christopher]

On 10/17/2025 at 4:39 PM, gaurdian31 said:

Looks great, the camo is really well done. I do like the little lone blob of invisibility on the right, like the cloak is coming on line in several places at once. The grid on the inside looks really nice and I don't think the sponge bits will be very noticeable at all.

 

On 10/17/2025 at 9:02 PM, Heraclite said:

'm with gaurdian31 on the subject of the second patch of activating cloak. It really sells the idea of simulateneous activation on different parts of the cloak. I kinda wish I had thought of something like that for my own eliminators on which I tried an energy effect too

 

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I've also taken your feedback into consideration and kept & finished the second patch.

 

On 10/18/2025 at 5:08 PM, bloodhound23 said:

Looks great. Speaking for myself at least, it can be hard to remember here that the cloak is actually done, and it's just a few parts of REST of the model that's still in the "ugly" stage—just unfinished. To me the ugly stage really sets in when the base isn't painted but everything else is finished. And then I paint the base and it looks way more complete somehow. Who knows.

 

It will look extremely cool when finished.

 

Haha, that's very well put: I do agree about the ugly stage. I do hope that you're right, too, about it coming together in the end.

 

***

 

I feel that I'm mostly done with the models. Painting them feels like it's taking forever but I think mostly due to the perceived time I'm putting into these: over the last week I have been painting more regularly, almost every day, but in shorter-than-usual sessions. To be honest, this state of affairs is kinda affecting my morale but I'm not one to quit. I think that I'm mostly left with some cleaning up, as well as accent colours (lenses, ropes, targeters, seals, etc.). What I'm curious about now (but not curious enough to check it) is how the faces will turn out. Despite all these years in the hobby, I still struggle with painting them properly - mostly due to inadequate brush control. But I'm content with what I get - it's good enough for tabletop standards, for sure.

 

I also feel that I should impose a time limit on these: for whatever reason, it seems that they're taking up too much of my time. This boils down to these model being 'character models' with some extra stuff on them or me experimenting with the capes, though.

 

Can't wait to share the finished models with you. 

 

They will also be the first non-battleline squad with a different arm colour. As such, I'll base my decision whether to go through with the different colours for different battlefield roles for the rest of my project.

[Firedrake Cordova]

They're definitely coming out very nicely indeed.

 

7 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

Despite all these years in the hobby, I still struggle with painting [faces] properly

I'm firmly of the view that Space Marines should wear their helmets - otherwise, they're one stray/lucky autogun round away from not being able to serve the Emperor (this has nothing to do with human eyes being hard to paint  ( also have Orcs, Undead, Orks, Genestealer Cults, and Adeptus Mechanicus, who all have "odd" eyes ... totally not a trend, honest!)

 

On a more serious note, if you feel that you're unable to complete a part of the model to the standard you want, there's nothing wrong in stopping at a less highly-finished point on that part of the model, and then coming back to it when you've got a bit more recent practice in. In the case of faces - have you considered putting some spare heads on a stick, and giving them a go? That way there's no commitment to the outcome, and they can just be stripped if they don't come out to your satisfaction.

 

7 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

I also feel that I should impose a time limit on these: for whatever reason, it seems that they're taking up too much of my time.

I feel there's two ways to look at this - you can either paint to a quality level you personally find acceptable, or you can paint to a time limit. If you go with the latter, then the question is will you regret having more models painted, but potentially to a lower standard than you would otherwise, over the long term? If you go with the former, then you'll likely have fewer, but better-painted models, and the question is would you feel like you missed out by not having a few more models painted?

[Brother Christopher]

3 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I'm firmly of the view that Space Marines should wear their helmets - otherwise, they're one stray/lucky autogun round away from not being able to serve the Emperor (this has nothing to do with human eyes being hard to paint  ( also have Orcs, Undead, Orks, Genestealer Cults, and Adeptus Mechanicus, who all have "odd" eyes ... totally not a trend, honest!)

 

Haha, that's always a solution to the problem! ;)

 

3 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

On a more serious note, if you feel that you're unable to complete a part of the model to the standard you want, there's nothing wrong in stopping at a less highly-finished point on that part of the model, and then coming back to it when you've got a bit more recent practice in. In the case of faces - have you considered putting some spare heads on a stick, and giving them a go? That way there's no commitment to the outcome, and they can just be stripped if they don't come out to your satisfaction.

 

I usually paint heads (and helmets) separate from the bodies but with these particular models (minus the sniper) that wasn't an option. I bought them second-hand and discovered that they weren't glued together, but rather moulded :D After a couple of attempts to remove bits, I decided to leave things as-is not to damage the miniatures.

 

On a more general note, with painting faces, I... feel I'm perhaps getting too old. I'm typing this jokingly but despite me dismissing this, I feel there's some truth to that. It seems that my eyes aren't good enough to actually make out the moulded details on faces (even with magnification). In addition, I don't have enough skills to do the super-prices brushwork. As such, I'll just have to live with what I do - after all, I'm not entering into any competitions. Having said that, these shortcomings (the feeling of being unfit to see and paint the finest of details) sometimes get me, especially after a long painting session.

 

3 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I feel there's two ways to look at this - you can either paint to a quality level you personally find acceptable, or you can paint to a time limit. If you go with the latter, then the question is will you regret having more models painted, but potentially to a lower standard than you would otherwise, over the long term? If you go with the former, then you'll likely have fewer, but better-painted models, and the question is would you feel like you missed out by not having a few more models painted?

 

This is my life. Usually, I'm a pretty reasonable person but when it comes to my hobbies, time is always a factor. On the one hand, I'd very much love to push myself and paint my models better. On the other hand, there's a bunch of photos I've taken recently that I should do something about, and there are some books on my reading list and there are other miniatures (who aren't sapce marines) to paint, oh and I'd like to do this and that. So I'm constantly looking for the golden mean when managing hobby time.

 

When I paint, I use the first approach you mentioned: painting to an acceptable standard. There's one caveat, though. Sometimes, when painting a miniatures, there's a point where it's painted to a satisfactory level (say, 80%-90% of what I reasonably can do). As an example, let's assume it took me 3 hours to get there. But pushing the 'standard' by another 10% will 'cost me' 2 more hours. With my backlog, I reasonably don't want to go there, especially with larger projects. But when I paint, I'm in the zone and don't feel the time passing. Hence, the time limit I've mentioned.

 

With these Phobos Marines, I just need to wrap the essentials up. 

 

 

 

And I feel that with these Phobos marines, I'm reaching a point where they're

[Valkia the Bloody]

11 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

. What I'm curious about now (but not curious enough to check it) is how the faces will turn out. Despite all these years in the hobby, I still struggle with painting them properly - mostly due to inadequate brush control. But I'm content with what I get - it's good enough for tabletop standards, for sure.

Do you have problems with face recognition in real life?

Cannot remember the faces of people you just met?

I have this issue, my face-recognition software is broken (it is called Prosopagnosia) and I have the hardest time painting faces. I am well aware that faces have eyes, mouth and nose, but my internal software which should assemble all these into a whole in my mind just does not process this. Sadly, with human wetware, no patches or updates are available. This is why I make an effort to mainly use helmets in my armies. I am slightly better with monster faces, but I still dreading painting Genestealer faces.

In real life I would probably the worst person for the job of border patrol. Even with the pictures of the terrorists right next to me, I would let them pass since I cannot recognize a face of a person with the picture right in my hand. 

 

As for spending too much time on one model- I have this issue, too. My own perfectionism can drive me insane and then things become tedious and frustrating (I have given up on projects before because of exactly this). This is why with my latest army (Tyranids) I decided on a very simple, fast and forgiving paint scheme where small imperfections just do not matter so much. I have a full time job and I decided for myself that the sense of accomplishment for finishing a model should be greater than finding every small mistake and correcting it. With my new army, I try to go with the approach of "how will it look as a whole" instead of "is every single model painted perfectly". 

[gaurdian31]

Faces are really hard to paint, skin in general can be hard to get the proper tones and then there are all the details like eyes that a face has. It is why I am like @Firedrake Cordova and believe that all marines get helmets, same with anything that is close to a human face like eldar. I'm excited to see where you are at with the models. Glad you decided to keep the second patch and hopefully you like how it has come out as that is the most important thing.

[Brother Christopher]

@Valkia the Bloody No, I am quite good with faces. However, funny you should mention this since I've been thinking prosopagnosia while typing my previous post. I'm utterly rubbish with names, though.

 

11 hours ago, Valkia the Bloody said:

As for spending too much time on one model- I have this issue, too. My own perfectionism can drive me insane and then things become tedious and frustrating (I have given up on projects before because of exactly this). This is why with my latest army (Tyranids) I decided on a very simple, fast and forgiving paint scheme where small imperfections just do not matter so much. I have a full time job and I decided for myself that the sense of accomplishment for finishing a model should be greater than finding every small mistake and correcting it. With my new army, I try to go with the approach of "how will it look as a whole" instead of "is every single model painted perfectly". 

 

Oh, I totally get what you mean. It is a struggle at times, true. But a nice mix of frustration and satisfaction is a part of my hobby experience.

 

I think you're right - especially with a larger project, it's important to focus on the whole. Particularly since - by comparison - you'll always find someone better. So it's absolutely vital to find joy in what you do. And I think organic/biological textures are somewhat more forgiving. Good luck!

 

9 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

Faces are really hard to paint, skin in general can be hard to get the proper tones and then there are all the details like eyes that a face has. It is why I am like @Firedrake Cordova and believe that all marines get helmets, same with anything that is close to a human face like eldar. I'm excited to see where you are at with the models. Glad you decided to keep the second patch and hopefully you like how it has come out as that is the most important thing.

 

Thanks! Yeah, fluff-wise I prefer helmets, too. But for whatever reason (maybe to add variety or to chastise myself, who knows*), I want some bare skin too. Oh, and I feel it's good practice for other projects where painting faces and skin tones is inevitable. 

 

I'm also happy to report that I'm almost there. I only need to touch-up the black parts of the guns, purity seals and chatper/battle role emblems and that should be it! Oh... and the bases, too...

 

Today's morale is way better: I feel like I've accomplished something. Not having taken close-up photos, I also feel that I've managed to improve the faces, which is a bonus.

 

*Yeah, I do it probably because this is how it's always been - especially considering the pewter models I have for my proper Templars.

[Brother Christopher]

Wow, you'll never guess where I've been. In purgatory. And painting these guys was my penance.

 

It feel like it's taken forever to get these done. Frankly, I can't recall painting a miniature that was dragging on as much as these three. Even today, I sat down with the intention of just doing the last bits. And after an hour and a half I still found things to do. The 'best' bit was when I realised I didn't paint the purity seal on the 'Captain' and had to finish that, too. Overall, I feel like I could do a bit more here and there but enough is enough.

 

My woes aside, I'm as happy as I can be with these phobos marines. 

 

 

 

 

Here, I've attempted a Damascus steel pattern on the knife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since my Primaris Project isn't a proper-Primaris-army but rather a custom/upscaled (old) Space Marines army, I'll let you in on the fluff for these Phobos guys. The Chapter basically uses the old company structure. However, for particularly important stealth/assassination missions, small squads or lone operatives are assigned. They use a lighter armour variant and are picked from senior quasi-veteran officers who excel in these kinds of operations. Their role is designated by the grey arms and the stripe with two 'arrows' on the shoulder pad and backpack, which replaces the ordinary battleline/fire support/assault designations.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I think you missed the opportunity to use the perfect camo pattern for these guys - slannpat.  

 

Joking aside, I think they all look great - I think the black of the camo cloaks goes well with the black of the armour, and the red brown provides a really nice colour contrast to the purple and blue.  Basically, your camo ticks all the right boxes, in that it provides a ncie contrast, is visually intersting, is realistic looking yet doesn't actually hide or distort the lines and details of the model.

[space wolf]

Bro, those phobos came out sooo good! Loce the final camo pattern and effects! Whats next?

[TheArtilleryman]

17 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

Wow, you'll never guess where I've been. In purgatory. And painting these guys was my penance.

 

It feel like it's taken forever to get these done. Frankly, I can't recall painting a miniature that was dragging on as much as these three. Even today, I sat down with the intention of just doing the last bits. And after an hour and a half I still found things to do. The 'best' bit was when I realised I didn't paint the purity seal on the 'Captain' and had to finish that, too. Overall, I feel like I could do a bit more here and there but enough is enough.

 

My woes aside, I'm as happy as I can be with these phobos marines. 

 

 

 

 

Here, I've attempted a Damascus steel pattern on the knife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since my Primaris Project isn't a proper-Primaris-army but rather a custom/upscaled (old) Space Marines army, I'll let you in on the fluff for these Phobos guys. The Chapter basically uses the old company structure. However, for particularly important stealth/assassination missions, small squads or lone operatives are assigned. They use a lighter armour variant and are picked from senior quasi-veteran officers who excel in these kinds of operations. Their role is designated by the grey arms and the stripe with two 'arrows' on the shoulder pad and backpack, which replaces the ordinary battleline/fire support/assault designations.

Awesome work! That extra “blob” looks really good with the electrical effects added. Good choice to keep it. Excellent as usual.

[gaurdian31]

These came out great! The extra camo blob looks wonderful! Love the helmet on the captain. Really like the arm color choice, helps them feel more sneaky. Great job all around!

[Brother Christopher]

All around, thank you for all the positivity. I'm super glad you're taking your time to follow what I'm doing.

 

Regarding the second patch of camo  turning on, it's all thanks to you! I was set on painting it over. In the end, I'm glad I left it.

 

On 10/26/2025 at 6:23 PM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

I think you missed the opportunity to use the perfect camo pattern for these guys - slannpat.  

 

Yeah, I noticed that just a bit too late. But I've already seen it in your thread (and been meaning to comment but life got in the way) and thought to myself two things: the Slaanesh camo is pretty cool AND it can't be a coincidence that two purple-coloured Marine forces in this forum do some sneakier boys. I sense heresy seeping into my Chapter :P

 

18 hours ago, space wolf said:

Whats next?

 

This guy.

 

 

 

Initially, he was supposed to be a Lieutenant in a 5-man BladeGuard squad. I've even arranged for However a matching Iron Halo.

 

However, me being me and obsessing about unimportant things (i.e. Chapter and company structure, as well as 'fluff' regarding organisation) I decided to call him a Company Champion - mostly because of the emblem on the chest, as well as the laurel wreath. The change of rank also followed in me removing the Iron Halo, as well as modifying the backpack-mounted Storm Shield (inspired by @Knightsword's work) - I figured I'd prefer to keep true to the old ways and since Champions always used Combat Shields, a smaller Storm Shield should be distinct enough visually to justify using the old name.

 

Following the theme of unimportant things, I think that I'll reserve the gold arms for Champions and/or Honour Guard units. Since I wanted this project to be quite vanilla and want my Chapter to focus more on 'practical' aspects of combat, I think that the gold arms are just a bit too much for ordinary commanders and Command Squads. However, I think it's cool enough to slap it on the more 'ceremonial' roles. After all, if I recall, Champions are supposed to be eye-catching and are supposed to seek combat.

 

I'm not yet sure what to do with the shoulder pads; I think I'm glad I haven't painted them gold yet. I suppose I'll go with either the base purple or maybe a black.