Space Marines – Knights of Gryphonne

Posted on 6th July 2020 by Duncan

Kind of an odd chapter name for this week’s Space Marine, a member of the Knights of Gryphonne. I decided on these guys as I wanted to give orange a try, and I also had some old Bretonnian transfers, one of which looked to be a good match for this chapter’s shoulder pad decoration.

On to the photos:

So, first off, I’m really starting to like these new Space Marine models. They’re nicely detailed sculpts, and I find them more enjoyable to paint than the old ones. The dynamic poses you can get with them, like this guy’s, are also really great.

I learned quite a lot from painting this guy, but most of those lessons were ones I should have learned back on the yellow Imperial Fist I painted a while back. With this model, I decided to prime with grey. I tend to use black, white, or grey as a primer, depending. Black was clearly not a runner for this colour. I thought white would show through too strongly, so went with grey. It was a challenge to get good coverage over it, even though my base colour has 6 or 7 layers. Even still it has a dark, dirty finish to it that I couldn’t get rid of despite the extra coats.

I tried to boost things a bit with the highlights, but getting a visible lift with the mid tone was challenging. You might not even be able to see it in the photos. I took things a bit farther with the highlight, choosing a golden yellow. It looks good in some spots, but is definitely overkill in others. Part of the problem here is that the colour values are going from quite an unsaturated ‘dead’ base, to a very saturated highlight. That creates a bit of a jarring finished product – kind of like the visual equivalent of the musical flat fifth interval. That Imperial Fists marine I mentioned earlier turned up the same problem.

I did a bit of research online, and by happenstance, a Youtube mini painting channel I watch from time to time had a recent video dealing with orange. Sadly I hadn’t spotted when I started this guy. It seems using an off white like ivory or a light beige is the way forward. I’ll give both this colour scheme, and the Imperial Fist’s, another try at some point in the future.

Artistically (cough) I wanted to go for a limited palette here, so kept to orange and black. Again, looking back, I should have used more blue-greys to highlight the black, rather than flat greys, to pull in that complimentary colour contrast. Next time…

In saying all that, I don’t think he looks all that bad. He looks pretty good next to his new school pals, the Crimson Fist and Space Wolf. I’ll have to take a group shot when the box is finished! The yellow highlight is definitely a little strong in places though, particularly at the back. Also, I’m pretty sure this guy’s backpack should be black, but, hey ho! The decal went on pretty well, so I’m pleased with that. I think I’ve finally got the hang of these, which is great. Overall, this model was a good learning experience, and was a lot of fun to paint, which is the most important thing!

Space Marines – Space Wolves

Posted on 29th June 2020 by Duncan

This week’s model is the first from my box of the newly designed space marines. and I’ve painted him in the Space Wolves livery. These minis are a bit bigger than the old style, probably about 4mm taller, and they’re a bit more detailed. Overall, I think they’re a nice update (although it doesn’t make up for GW discontinuing Bretonnians!) to the space marine minis, and they’re certainly fun to paint.

Getting a good match for the Space Wolves colours was a little tricky, but I think I’ve gotten pretty close with my Vallejo paints. What do you folks think?

This is my first post-lockdown paint job, with about a 3 month break, and the time off has definitely set my progress back. My motor skills were less polished and getting neat lines was more challenging than I recall, and most of the detail work required quite a bit of cleaning up afterward.

I didn’t get a particularly good shot of the shoulder decal, but I’m happy that it seems to have gone on even better than the previous one on the Crimson Fist I painted last time (which you can find here). Hopefully I’ve got these down now, and will be able to keep getting good results with them going forward as I think they definitely add to the end result. Perhaps one day I’ll be good enough to paint these symbols on freehand, but I don’t think that’ll be any time soon!

I decided to go helmet off for this guy, as I wanted to do something a little different, and I thought the sculpt on this one was pretty cool. I’m not a 100% on the metallics approach I took on the gun, so I may go back to NMM for these on the next couple of minis.

I’ve also finally worked out how to make the images clickable and expandable, so you can now get a closer look, and even play a game of how many mistakes you can spot, if you’re really, really bored!

I haven’t quite decided what chapter colour scheme to go with next, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to drop me a line! My general approach has been to try painting each mini in a different colour scheme, or at least in a different tone. Perhaps something orange??

Space Marines – The Next Generation! Crimson Fists.

Posted on 22nd June 2020 by Duncan

With lockdown easing, it’s time to get back to something we haven’t seen here for a while – badly painted Space Marines! Having finished the previous box up, this time they’re the new generation models, starting with an easy build one I got with a painting guide.

This space marine is painted in the livery of the Crimson Fists. I particularly like the colour scheme for this chapter of marines. I’d been playing around with the GW approach of edge highlighting a bit in the previous batch of old school marines, and wanted to follow that approach completely here. I was pretty surprised and pleased with the end result.

On to the photos:

I’m not sure why clicking on the images doesn’t allow them to be enlarged any more, but I’ll look into it and hopefully get that fixed for my next post.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way this turned out, and am going to apply myself to this method for the next few models in the regular box of this guys that I got. In the interests of full disclosure, I painted this before lockdown, so don’t remember any of the issues I might have had while painting it (it’s been 3 months – I’m lucky if I can remember what I did 3 minutes ago…).

Looking it over, I’m impressed by how quick this approach is (mainly in removing the time I spend agonising over where to place the highlights…), and how effective it looks. I think it’s definitely one worth practising and having in your toolkit of techniques. It involves 6 steps in its basic form:

Laying down a base colour.
Shading the recesses with a carefully applied wash.
Painting in any details like symbols, equipment etc.
Touching up the base layer for any mess made shading or detailing.
A thicker mid shade edge highlight over all the edges.
A thinner light shade edge highlight over the upper/light catching edges.

I also started using decals here, something I’ve never had much success with before. With the help of some youtube videos and a bottle of micro-set, I actually managed to get it on, pretty contoured to the surface, and not torn anywhere. Still far from perfect, but this is the best result I’ve had with a should pad transfer to date, so I’m hopeful I can get better again with the next one.

Next week will have a post-lockdown painted Space Wolf, and sadly 3 months away from the painting table have taken their toll. Hand steadiness and ability to be neat has definitely declined, but hopefully that’ll come back to its usually high (cough) standard quickly!

Space Marines 10 – Relictors

Posted on 7th April 2020 by Duncan

The final Space Marine in my box is painted in the colour scheme of the Relictors. This is the second time in a row I’ve thrown my reluctance to use true metallic paints to the wind, this time with a silver colour scheme. Once again, these Vallejo paints are a joy to use, although need to be treated a little different to regular acrylics, something I’m still practising with.

I’ve not got a whole lot to say about this guy. He was fun to paint, and admittedly looks a little bit like a Cylon! On to the photos!

I didn’t mess around too much with this guy. I stuck to black for the recess shading, which looks solid, the eyes are good – I’ve kinda got these down now, at least when I have a steady enough hand to get them right – and the little go-fasta stripes on his chainsaw look pretty nicely highlighted too!

All tips, trick, hints, and constructive criticism is appreciated, so feel free to message me in the comments, or over on Facebook. If you want to take a look at the previous parts of this series, you can find them at these links: Part 1 – Ultramarines, Part 2 – Blood Angels, Part 3 – Imperial Fists, Part 4 – Salamanders, Part 5 – Dark Angels, Part 6 – White Scars, Part 7 – Hawk Lords, Part 8 – Iron Hands, Part 9 – Golden Gryphons.

This will be my last painting post for a few weeks, as we’re in lockdown at the moment, and I don’t have my painting stuff with me at the moment. I’ve a couple more marines from the newer style set painted and ready for photos, and a selection of other chapter colours to finish out that box with. After that, I hope to move on to some fantasy minis!

As lockdown continues, hopefully we’re starting to turn the corner here, and life will be able to get back to normal in the not too distant future for us and everyone else. I hope everyone is well, taking care of themselves, and sticking to the rules to keep themselves healthy. It’s tough, but I think the light is starting to appear at the end of the tunnel!

Space Marines 9 – Golden Gryphons

Posted on 30th March 2020 by Duncan

The ninth part of this series, and penultimate model in this box, is a member of the Golden Gryphons chapter of Space marines. I’m doing something a bit different with this guy. I’ve mentioned before how I don’t really like true metallic paints on this type of model, but decided to try them.

I came across a series of Vallejo true metallic paints that really produce a great result. I can never get the end result I want from the regular acrylic ones. The Golden Gryphon’s name gives away the colour scheme, which is of course gold. It’s the largest amount of true metallic painting I’ve done in a long time, so was a bit of trial and error. On to the photos!

The glaring issue with this Golden Gryphon is that I started off the recess shading with a brown ink. I think it looked, well, completely crap, but it was too late to change it. I should have overpainted it with gold again, but I hoped the black ink I switched to would cover it. It didn’t, hence the brown, uh, rust stains…

Other than that, I’m pretty happy with this guy. The gold metallic paint was a joy to work with. I usually find metallics a frustrating misery of too gloopy or too thinned down meaning poor metallic consistency. The contrast on the eyes is nice and the green works well against the gold. Were it not for the shading error, I think this Golden Gryphon would look pretty good.

I still need to practice with these new metallic paints, as they behave a bit differently to regular acrylics. They really don’t seem to like a wet palette, and the ropey paint job on the gun is my fault rather than the paint’s. I like these paints, so will start to use true metallics a bit more than I have in the past.

I hope everyone is keeping well, and doing their best to keep busy if they’re on lockdown! We were on a limited one for two weeks, but are now on day 3 of a full one!

Space Marines 8 – Iron Hands

Posted on 23rd March 2020 by Duncan

First, I hope everyone is healthy, and following all the guidelines on how to remain so! Space Marine Number 8 is a member of the Iron Hands, which means the colour of the week is black.

There are a number of different approaches to shading and highlighting black, with greys and blues being two of the most popular. I’ve also seen purple used to good effect. The main danger that I’ve encountered with black is how to highlight it without it ending up looking like it’s grey. I’ve never been a fan of the blue highlighting approach, so I went with grey.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out. He still looks like his armour is black, but the highlights have worked reasonably well at the same time.

The photos:

One of the changes to my approach on this member of the Iron Hands is how I approached highlighting the pauldrons. I went for a circular highlight on the top part, treating it as a sphere, and left it at that. I think looks far better than the approach I was taking of treating it like a combined sphere and cylinder.

Again, I’ve started to do a little more edge highlighting on this guy. This is a technique I’m liking more and more on these models. It’s also one I’m using exclusively on my next set of marines. It’ll be interesting to compare the two approaches!

As always, all tips, trick, hints, and constructive criticism is appreciated, so feel free to message me in the comments below, or over on Facebook. If you want to take a look at the previous parts of this series, you can find them at these links: Part 1 – Ultramarines, Part 2 – Blood Angels, Part 3 – Imperial Fists, Part 4 – Salamanders, Part 5 – Dark Angels, Part 6 – White Scars, Part 7 – Hawk Lords.

As a final note, for the quarantine, I made The First Blade of Ostia free for a few days. Today is the last day of the free run, so make sure you grab a copy while you can! Take care of yourselves!

Amazon US

Space Marines 7 – Hawk Lords

Posted on 17th March 2020 by Duncan

Part 7 of my Space Marines painting series is a member of the Hawk Lords. Purple is the colour of the day, along with a bit of non-metallic metallic gold for the shoulder edges.

This is one that didn’t photograph quite so well as it looks in the plastic, so overall I was quite happy with the colour selection for the shades and highlights, which are guess work on my part, because I don’t use Games Workshop paints.

Time for the photos:

I seem to have forgotten to take a rear view shot of this guy, but you get the idea!

Overall, I’m quite happy with him. The old chestnut of where to highlight, and how much, remains something of a challenge, but I’ve started doing a little more edge highlighting, and am seeing how effective it is on this type of mini.

Done over, I think the eyes need a little more contrast, and look a bit flatter than my better efforts in this regard. Also, purely for the sake of photography, I think a lighter top highlight would be good. Other than that, I don’t think this guy looks at all bad, although this chapter is a bit dull looking without the golden hawk emblems on the pauldrons. I’m not sure I’m ready to take on that level of freehand fine detail work just yet though!

As always, all tips, trick, hints, and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, so feel free to hit me up in the comments below, or over on Facebook. If you want to take a look at the previous parts of this series, you can find them at these links: Part 1 – Ultramarines, Part 2 – Blood Angels, Part 3 – Imperial Fists, Part 4 – Salamanders, Part 5 – Dark Angels, Part 6 – White Scars.

Finally, in the current crazy times, I hope everyone and those they care about are safe and healthy, and continue to remain so! Take care of yourselves!

Space Marines 6 – White Scar

Posted on 9th March 2020 by Duncan

Today’s Space Marine, a White Scar, tackles a particularly tricky colour to get right – white! I used an old white paint set for this, that to be honest, I really didn’t get along with. The shades go from cream to a sort of dirty grey for the shadows. I couldn’t get the hang of the set, so the end result is a bit muddy looking.

I want to have another go at white, perhaps using grey scale shading, or blue as a shade, which seems to work pretty well. Going for warm, brownish shades just hasn’t worked all that well for me here. In places it looks ok, in others, not so much!

So, to the pictures!

I think this is a really nice looking chapter with a great colour scheme when painted well, so I’ll most likely revisit it at a later stage. My original plan was to paint 2-3 in each of the chapters I chose so I could apply the lessons I learned with each one, although I expanded the number of chapters I decided to paint, so 2 is probably more likely!

If you’ve any hints or tips for painting white, please feel free to share them, and likewise any other mini painting tips or experiences!

You can find the other parts of this series here: Part 1 – Ultramarine, Part 2 – Blood Angel, Part 3 – Imperial Fist, Part 4 – Salamander, Part 5 – Dark Angels.

Space Marines 5 – Dark Angels

Posted on 2nd March 2020 by Duncan

We’re now halfway through my first box of Space Marines of the old school variety. This time around I went with a Dark Angel’s colour scheme. As always, I use Vallejo Paints, not GW ones, so I have to come up with an approximate colour match.

In terms of colour scheme, I think I got the colour values for the highlights and shades to a pretty good place, but as usual the photos really show up my clumsy highlight transitions. As I’m moving into my next models, I’ll be paying a lot of attention to improving on this. The shoulder pads continue to be an issue. I think I’ll switch to a round highlight on the top for this in future, as I don’t think the approach I’ve been taking really works, and that’s particularly apparent on this model.

The black wash I used to darken the recesses are a bit shiny in places, and caught some reflection from my flash in the photos, so there appear to be some white spots in them that aren’t actually there. I might try finishing with a matte varnish in future to prevent this.

I’m particularly happy with the lens on the gun on this one – it worked out particularly nicely, so this approach is one I’ll use from now on. It’s 4 tones, with a white spot, rather than the 3 I usually use, and I think that darker to lighter transition really improves the effect.

So, to the photos!

Finally, the sharper eyed may notice I’ve changed my approach a little on this guy, using metallic metal paint for the first time in the series so far, with the gun barrel and clip painted in it.

As always, if you’ve got any hints or tips for painting Space Marines, or minis in general, please feel free to leave a comment below, or send me a mail via my contact page.

You can find the other parts of this series at these links: Part 1- Ultramarine, Part 2 – Blood Angel, Part 3 – Imperial Fist, Part 4 – Salamander.

Space Marines 4 – Salamanders

Posted on 25th February 2020 by Duncan

Space Marine Number 4 is a Salamander, which is a light green colour scheme. Overall this wasn’t a difficult colour to work with, and I’m pretty happy with the tonal range I had – as a reminder, I don’t use GW paints as I don’t own any, so have to work out an approximate paint recipe from the range I do have.

The main issue with this guy is that the photos really expose how rough my blends are, not just in transition but also in shape and smoothness. This is something I really have to work on, but I think brush control is a large part of this, and it only improves with a lot more practise!

The other thing I didn’t get right here, which I usually make a reasonable job of, is the eye lenses. I don’t have a strong enough transition of colours here, and they’re too light as a result. It was the first yellow lens I’ve painted, so live and learn!

The weapon and chest logo are non metallic metal. The barrel of the flame thrower was a bit of a challenge, and to be honest I think it looks slightly better in the photo than in reality. I get the idea behind how reflections should work on NMM objects, but I can never seem to get them to look quite as good as they do on Youtube videos!

Time for photos!

I still struggle a bit to work out where to highlight, and in my next batch will focus on the edge highlighting technique. It kind of defeats the purpose of using these as a practise vehicle for highlighting, but I want to see what type of a result I can get with the edge highlighting!

You can find the other parts ofthis blog series here: Part 1 – Ultramarine, Part 2 – Blood Angel, Part 3 – Imperial Fist.

As always, feel free to send any hints or tips you might have, they’re always appreciated! Also, if anyone has any suggestions on chapter colour schemes for my next box of marines, let me know!

Duncan M. Hamilton

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