Brother Christopher's Purple Marines Project

[gaurdian31]

Missed a bunch of stuff while I have been sick. Great updates on the melta marines! I think you have differentiated the yellow and the tan enough they shouldn't look like they are blending from afar on the one you have painted a stripe on.  Also the brows on the helmetless marine look great! The new project you started on is looking good too! I am not anywhere near expert in painting but I think it looks really good. The higher up purple does look warmer to me so I think that is coming along very well! 

[Brother Christopher]

   

18 hours ago, kabaakaba said:

main boon of this approach you can make simplified version of this with less layers and harsher transition and combined with your standard approach it's give you pretty good result

 

I think you;re right. Even if it's not for the direct application of the technique/approach, trying this out gave me a better understanding of what I want from the hobby. I turns out that I was quite right in the first place: that I kind of want more of the familiar and don't really want to get outside my comfort zone. Especially since the results don't seem to justify the additional time spent.

 

***

The last thing I tried yesterday was NMM. And I now know that it's something I don't wan to do. It turned out that it's an even larger effort than I expected. Given my non-hobby obligations, I'm not certain that at this stage of my life I don't want to make this drastic jump in the approach to paining miniatures. I think it's a bit sad, really, but I'd estimate that it's only around 10-15% sad (mostly because I see this giving up as a failure of sorts). But overall, I'm sure it's for the better.

 

Regardless, I'm sorry for oversharing! 

  

14 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

Missed a bunch of stuff while I have been sick.

 

I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm assuming that you're on the mend and better now! Best wishes!

 

14 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

Great updates on the melta marines! I think you have differentiated the yellow and the tan enough they shouldn't look like they are blending from afar on the one you have painted a stripe on.  Also the brows on the helmetless marine look great! The new project you started on is looking good too! I am not anywhere near expert in painting but I think it looks really good. The higher up purple does look warmer to me so I think that is coming along very well! 

 

Thanks for watching. As always, I'm thrilled you liked the updates and hope not to disappoint with more of them.

[gaurdian31]

Thank you for the well wishes! Pretty sure it was a flu of some sort but I am feeling better. I always look forward to your updates and I don't think you'll disappoint. Sorry to hear your experiments with NMM didn't turn out but from everything I have seen that it is a very, very involved and time consuming process. You should be proud to have given it a try. Can't wait to see more!

Edited November 21, 2025 by gaurdian31
Fixed some grammar

[kabaakaba]

7 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

The last thing I tried yesterday was NMM. And I now know that it's something I don't wan to do. It turned out that it's an even larger effort than I expected. Given my non-hobby obligations, I'm not certain that at this stage of my life I don't want to make this drastic jump in the approach to paining miniatures. I think it's a bit sad, really, but I'd estimate that it's only around 10-15% sad (mostly because I see this giving up as a failure of sorts). But overall, I'm sure it's for the better.

It's matter of practice. you can get good looking NMM pretty quick and in good batch Issue with NMM and volumetric is a dry time between layers. if you painting batch of 5 for example, first one dried once you finish a 5th.  But mainly if you really like it or not. For myself i decide to invest into volumetric and NMM painting which same thing just representing different materials.

[Brother Christopher]

Here are the three finished melta marines. This time without any grass or tufts yet. At the moment it's quite cold (sub-zero temperatures) and since I'm doing all my varnishing and priming outside, I feel I don't want to risk it and will wait for better weather.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: As always, with my doubts and indecisiveness, I'm not 100% sure about the silver livery for my support squads. I think it looks okay but can't stop wondering whether I should go for a non-metallic colour for the pads, backpack and helmets. With your positive feedback, I know I haven't made a mistake. But I'll make up my mind about whether to use this scheme for future fire support squads later.

Edited November 23, 2025 by Brother Christopher

[The Pounder]

Looking good! I really like your line highlights, very neatly done!

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great. The purple really pops with those highlights, and the snicks-and-scrapes you've added really adds some subtle detail

[kabaakaba]

IMHO you make right choice, this silver don't pop and don't steal attention from markings and main colors.  my only concern is due to metallic background marks on shoulder pads looks a bit dull. I'll suggest add very thin highlight for them. lighter blue to upper line and darker do bottom. It's IMHO as always

[gaurdian31]

These guys came out great! Really like the yellow stipes on the other two's gun as well as the one you originally showed. Highlights look good, really like the rivets in the sergeant's leg. I also think the gunmetal looks nice. Nice job on the purity seals as well.

[W.A.Rorie]

I like how the Metallic heads and shoulder pads pop against the purple armor and the touch of yellow brings it together. 

[space wolf]

Looks great! Reallg like the yellow leg and melta markings. The metallics are dull enough that i dont think it distracts from the rest of the model. I think your choice of metallic color was a really good choice, had it been something brighter I think it would have made the model busier than it needed to be.

[Brother Christopher]

So, the next model I plan to paint won't be purple bu I don't feel like starting a new thread so I'll go ahead and post my Primaris Scale^TM stuff here.

 

 

I managed to buy the model from the secondary market. It turns out that the previous owner didn't assemble the mini properly and tried to fix that not by trying to readjust the mistakes but by cutting off parts of the model to 'forcefully' make it fit. The problematic parts are the foot placed on the power claw (there's a huge gap), the head and part of the chain missing, as well as - !!most importantly!! - the left hand, i.e. the one that pushes the sword down. I'd say that 1/4 of original hand is missing, including the wrist. In theory it's not much, probably 1 mm of plastic, but this makes the arm and wrist connect at an odd angle, with a visible, awkward gap between them. The reasonable part in me realises that it's a minor thing. So minor that I didn't notice it in the photos the previous owner posted. So avoiding the issues is just a matter of avoiding to look at the model from specific angles. However, this realisation bummed me out a bit. I don't think that I'll be able recreate it properly and this will take some time, as well as affect the quality of a model that I intended to paint for fun, to a higher standard. But well: that's life. At least the model was cheap. And there's a part of me that hopes that I'll make it work.

[gaurdian31]

Sorry to hear that, but glad you got it on the cheap. I know that kit is really pricey on the second hand market. I hope you can make it work as well, since your black templars always look lovely.

[Grotsmasha]

How extensive is your bits box? With precision and care, I'm 100% you could replace the hand with one of the old firstborn bolter supporting hands, there's a specific one I'm thinking of that held the bolter WAY low. Flipping this piece should give the correct angle on the wrist, and individually separating the fingers, and warming the hand in hot water will allow you to reposition the fingers pretty easily.

[Brother Christopher]

I plan to move to making the wrist work after I'm done with painting the ork and front of the marine - I don't want the sword to get into the way when I paint.

 

Thanks Grot for suggesting using plastic bits - I'll look into it. To be honest, I haven't thought about it and decided that I'll have to make do with green stuff. I'm not sure what I have in my bits box at the moment but I'll also postpone all planning till the time I'm comfortable with gluing the sword back on. The bulk of the damage is the armour plate on the back of the hand and wrist ribbing. What worries me is the 'structural' gap that the previous owner created. Worst case scenario: I'll have a minor, anatomically-incorrect bit. Best case scenario: I'll be able to rebuild most of the damage.

 

I'm not sure whether you'll see anything in the photos, though - at this stage, everything is a mess (painting in progress + paint and primer torn by my fiddling with the sword)

 

 

 

 

14 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

Sorry to hear that, but glad you got it on the cheap. I know that kit is really pricey on the second hand market. I hope you can make it work as well, since your black templars always look lovely.

 

Thanks for the kind words! I hope to paint him quite differently than my regular guys. I'm excited to see where I end up with. And I managed to get him for an equivalent of 12 Euros, so even considering the damage - that's not bad.

 

And I've got to admit this: the model is extremely cool. It looks and feels way better in person than I imagined. I like it so much that I must admit regretting not buying the mini when it was available.

[Grotsmasha]

I see it more clearly now, and I think it may be even easier than I was thinking. I would take any Primaris hand, and trim it to shape of the back-of-the-hand armour square. Then slowy, with test fits, cut the ends out of the meat part of the hand, leaving a shaped wedge underneath with an almost complete armour top, which should then slide / sit over the fingers. It would then be just a small amount of GS for the wrist ribbing.

[Brother Christopher]

@Grotsmasha Brother, once again, thank you for the suggestion to try and use an actual plastic part for this. That was a lifesaver, truly. I wouldn't have been able to get anything near as good as this with my poor handing of putties.

 

I've managed to get the second best thing using some GS to fix the plate and wedge in a piece from an Intercessor kit. It's a bit messy in the photo but I'm quite confident that after applying some primer and paint, it's going to look nearly as good as if it weren't damaged:

 

 

I've also added a missing piece of armour on the fingers of the second hand:

 

Right now, the biggest problem is with the chain where the links probably will look off.

 

And I've also developed a new problem, namely with the ork's wound. It seems that the previous owner, for whatever reason, cut off the tip of the sword. According to the assembly instructions, the sword shouldn't be glued to the wound and should go in deeper than it does no my copy of the mini. Unfortunately, after I fixed it in the 'optimal' position for reconstructing the arms, I found the tip of the sword barely going into the ork's chest. To fix this and prevent the sword from wobbling out of it's meaty slot, I decided to glue it in place and fill the wound with GS. I'm not sure that I'm happy with this but that's a problem that I'll solve another day.

 

Overall, I'm quite content with the fixes. I do hope that after I paint the problematic parts and get rid of the now terrible mix of colours (some parts are painted, some primed, some stripped to naked plastic due to handling, some green), everything's going to be satisfactory. Now I'm mostly concerned with the chain; but if I find it subpar, I might try and look for a fix.

 

While the process is somewhat annoying and time consuming (and overall probably not worth the savings from getting the model cheap), it reminded me about an aspect of the hobby that I used to enjoy but vowed not to engage in. Despite the annoyances, I have to admit that there is something deeply satisfying in 'rescue' projects. 

[gaurdian31]

Is the issue with the chain the connection to the sword hilt? It looks fine on the arm to me and I think some paint will help it with the hilt connection. Great work on fixing his arms/hands!

[Brother Christopher]

On 2/2/2026 at 6:35 PM, gaurdian31 said:

Is the issue with the chain the connection to the sword hilt?

Yep, there's one problematic link. But it's a minor thing and difficult to see in the photos.

 

Speaking of photos, as a motivation-boost, I decided to share some WIP shots of a more-or-less completed stage. I think I managed to paint most of the black armour. After inspecting the photos, I see a couple of things I'd like to fix, but this doesn't change the fact that it's almost done.

 

 

So, from a distance, I think I did a good job. This time, I decided to try something else and go with some highlights on the actual armour plates, instead of focusing solely on edge highlighting. Overeall, I decided that I want to 'wing it' and paint the model as my gut tells me, based on what I've learnt when painting my Purple dudes and Legio Terminators, without really worrying too much about trying to recreate other people's aesthetic (be it 'Eavy Metal or Golden Deamon style, or the other pro-level influencers whose reels have been plaguing my social media feeds ever since I accidentally let the algorithm know that I know about Warhammer).

 

In a way this is very liberating: I accepted my skills, limitations and decided to focus on vibes instead of pursuing an unattainable level.

 

Okay, so when looking at the model from a distance, I think, the vibes are there. Overall, I'm quite happy with almost everything. The exception being the fingers: 

 

 

I can't get them right. I think it's because of the maltreatment they suffered. Or I've hit a limit of my brush control when it comes to painting tiny lines along tiny sections of tiny fingers. Regardless, I want to believe that this won't detract from the rest of the model. Even though, I think, the hands pressing onto the sword are one of the more important focus points of the miniatures.

 

With the most embarrassing part out of the way, here are some photos from different angles. Please note the skull on the Ork's belt.

 

 

 

Also, I though I painted most of the ork's skin but I'll try and redo it with a warmer green.

 

I do hope that you'll like the model so far! 

[gaurdian31]

He's coming along great! I really like the highlighting/reflection on the knee. It is really striking to me for some reason. Also. for it it is worth, I think you did a great job on the hands. Keep up the great work!

[Rusted Boltgun]

Great skull work on that Ork plate! Though my favourite element are the leather straps that hold up the breeches.

It might be the photo lighting but the Ork chest area near the sword has some nice yellow tones while the rest of the Ork fades into darker tones. I like it and wouldn't want to lose that if you went with a warmer skin tone overall ( though the last two photos do show quite a dark skin tone). 

I guess natural light will be your guide!

Edited February 4 by Rusted Boltgun
r

[Firedrake Cordova]

You've done a great job restoring the mini

[W.A.Rorie]

Great Job, @Brother Christopher!

[Brother Christopher]

Thank you all for leaving a comment. I appreciate it and am - as always - glad you liked it.

 

@Rusted Boltgun You're right, parts of the ork's skin are painted with a warmer green; it's a custom mix of green and yellow (I only have one generic, green-green, paint!) but I think I'd maybe prefer a more muted, green+sand mix.

 

*** 

 

In terms of progress, I managed some work on the metallic.

 

 

... and I've rediscovered that I have OCD tendencies and sometimes fixate on minor things. In the photo above, you can notice that the sword gets narrower towards the chest of the ork. That's because the previous owner, as I've mentioned earlier, chopped off the tip. The shortened blade sat awkwardly in the wound, as if it barely touched the ork. Also, I figured there was something off about the shape of the blade.

 

I decided to fix it this most minor of things:

 

 

 

Now the blade is almost as-intended.

 

And here's the painted sword (at least the metallic bits):

 

 

This is the first time I've tried this 'fancy' method of painting edges, where bits are darker and other bits are lighter. I think it turned out pretty well. I've also opted to add some glow: effect unevenly, to parts of the inscription (to show that energy flows or pulsates through the blade), just ever slightly towards the hilt and more aggressively, towards the tip of the tip. It's due to fluff reasons (I'd like to imagine that the power weapon effect is more apparent at the point of contact between the sword and whatever it's cutting into) and pragmatic reasons, to mask the damage and/or GS work.

 

Do you think I should go for a uniform glow in the inscription?

 

I also wanted to add some gold, for variety, to the sword. But looking at a photo from an earlier stage, I think I liked the more austere silver better. But I don't think I should redo it, wouldn't you agree?

[Firedrake Cordova]

Colour-wise, I think the gold hilt looks great. From what I remember of the background, the blade wielded by the Emperor's Champion is not a regular blade, so a little bit of gold seems to be correct (GW use gold on the Sword Brethren box art, so it might feel off if it were less "showy" than that?).

 

I quite like the "patchy blue" effect on the writing. Doing the whole text in a glowing blue would also work, though.