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Where Candroth babbles endlessly about her custom Space Marine chapter, because blueberries aren't enough fun to paint:

For all models, I'm going to base with grey primer (pray for me, I can't find my primer can since I moved). The general scheme is purple, green, and gold, trying very very hard to stick with heraldic rules and not have the purple and green touching too much. (If I mention 'Wash with Color X', I watered down the color.)



Dreadnought 1.0, as yet un-named because I can't think of anything just yet.

Grey primer, Liche Purple everywhere, wash with same, let it dry. Washed with Chaos Black over everything, which gave it this nifty not-quite-mottled effect that I really dig and is ridiculously hard to capture on camera.

I didn't like how Dark Angels Green was turning out for any of the models I've painted so far -- it was far too dark to really be seen against the Purple/Black!wash I have. I ended up mixing DAG with Goblin Green (roughly a 50/50 mix) and got some pretty satisfactory results.

The wiring-work on the front were an experiment; I've seen a few others with the multicolored wiring I thought it was too cool to pass up (plus, it adds a bit more color). I discovered that no, I don't have any blue paint, and so they're not entirely finished. I painted some of them flat silver, but I might do a quick wash with black to darken the recesses a bit. It looks too bright. -.- Also, my cat almost got turned into a pair of mittens when she jumped up on the bed while I was working on one of the white sections.

The DCCW got drybrushed with silver whenever the paint started drying while I was working on the wiring and the legs (you can't see it very well from the front). I rather like the effect I got. I also did drybrushing on the right arm and some on the back which you can't see.

The wings are a combination of DA/GG with a Burnished Gold drybrushing. I really liked the effect when I tried it on a model a few years ago, and it's become a bit of a staple. It's not really really visible except on the lower part.

That's where I stopped today. (Tonight? This morning? Oh god, it's 6am and I haven't slept...) At some point I'm thinking of making the entire front panels of the shoulders in DA/GG and making highlights along the edges in Gold.

I think the skulls and the parchment is going to give me the most amount of trouble. I may use Fred, my oft-abused paint test model Tac Marine, and see if I can come up with a decent skull. Parchment ... meh, I have no idea what I'll do for that. The starburst behind the shoulder-skull will be Gold.

Some cables, and a bunch of stuff in the back, still needs to be worked on. I want to drill holes for the weapon-barrels, if I can ever find the frigging modeling drill I bought. The legs need work, I have NO idea what to do with the viewport, and the feet might get some treatment depending on how I futz with the base. The various sensor ports and miscellany will probably subtly not be painted until I decide on something non-sucky to do with them.

The base had several spots I could've drilled holes to anchor the feet, except they weren't -quite- even with the posts, so I cut 'em off. I'm thinking of adding some terrain-ey stuff to the base and anchoring the feet that way so he doesn't go running off anywhere. I have a Genestealer my cat found I don't know where and was carrying around in her teeth. (I'd like to point out I've never played Tyranids, and while I did paint some years ago for someone he counted them and says he got them all back. I think they started breeding while I was painting them o.O) I ripped off one hand-claw and if I like the paint job on this guy enough, I find the idea of a Dreadnought standing around with just a Genestealer claw sticking out from under his foot very entertaining.

Just a thought, but it might be worth using a white basecoat and then using washes to build up the colours

done a test model a while ago and simply used watered down DA green in layers to make it darker.
Takes a while, but gets shading and highlights in it with ease

I've found white primer to make the resulting paint colors too light for what I'm after in my Marines. If I come up with a second army I might grab some white primer, but that's a ways off.

I'm also trying to go for some simplicity. I doubt I'll have time, inclination, or skill for tournaments where an insanely painted army will make a difference. My local group is very cool about not needing paint on models to play, but half the reason I started collecting was so I could paint the bloody things. I'm not necessarily wanting to do that much detail-work on Tac Marines and the like. For HQ units, some Elites, and other specialized units I may take more time to add in additional details, shading/highlighting, blah blah.

I do like the example of that Terminator, though. I have a squad of Deathwing Terminators that I need to strip and repaint, and I'm thinking they'll be excellent models to try that out with. Assuming my cat doesn't decide to be a turd and turn into a furry, mutated-giant rampaging Carnifex, and start playing with the models while I'm trying to do dishes.

Heh, the washing method doesent really take time
Just a case of washing over and over until you have the right shade.
The pic i posted simply had 2 washes on it.
The 1st pretty much tinted it green, and that was the 2nd.
a 3rd one makes it much darker, 4th makes it salamanders type green, and around 7 or so make it slightly lighter than DA green.

If you want to get everything painte dthen just go basic with everything, then when you have time start adding detail to them slowly.
I rarely get time to paint now, so when i do its a case of paint it basic 1st, then work on details, shading, highlights and fine details afterwards.

My cats knows they will be hung for attacking models

Fred's back. He's painted, mostly, and glued together. I need to do the skull on the backpack, but I don't have the paints for it so meh.

I'm not really keen with the DA green on the legs. I might be happier with the DA/GG mix for the shoulders, and just leave it like that; Terminators, Assault Marines, and other units can probably have more intricate detail.

Poor Fred's got a fairly bland paint job, but it really helped me figure out what I want to do for the scheme. The other Marines I'll paint next will probably look a lot better.

I'm not sure what I want to finish first: A squad of Tac Marines, or my Dreadnought. Argh.

Today saw more work on the Dreadnought, and my Terminators. No pictures of the Termies; all I did was add purple paint, silver to the bolters, and wash it all in black. Okay, the sergeant got his face, but who wants to look at a Terminator hed bitz piece? (The face was a royal pain, but in the end I found a method I liked.)

The real brag tonight is the Dreadnought.



I added the green on the shoulders, then took ten minutes painting the gold lines. My eyes wanted to permanently cross when it was done, but oh my god worth it. I touched up the green on the legs a bit with the leftover green mix.

The right arm got some nifty detail work. I noticed it looked a little bland, saw the canisters, and decided to have a bit of fun with color. Two layers of Red Gore and drybrushing with just a bit of Golden Yellow. The cables are in GY too.

Earlier I'd painted the legs with Chainmail, washed it in Liche Purple, then drybrushed it with Cm again. I loved the result SO MUCH. Today I drybrushed a bit of Burnished Gold along some areas to give it a bit more interesting color.

The feet got painted Cm, then washed with Scorched Earth. (After taking the picture I drybrushed Cm again).

I had a bunch of SE left, so I grabbed a bit of RG and mixed it in before doing a wash on the DCCW with it and letting it dry while the claw was facing down. I forgot to drybrush it with Cm; next time.

The body back still looks too plain for me. It, as well as the front, still has some small-scale detail work to be done, but I'm missing colors for it (namely a blue, and bleached bone) so they can wait.

I want to do more with the left arm, but I just don't know what. I do keep forgetting about the storm bolter under the frigging DCCW, so I can fiddle with that at least.

And he still doesn't have a name. Nothing's coming to me yet and I haven't thought of any friends to name him after. Very frustrating, as I want the Dreadnoughts in my army to have some decent fluff about them. How can you write fluff about a character without a frigging name?!

Nice-purple marines FTW!
I've got some idea's for Dread names, feel free to use one-Orion, Uther, Bastelle, Antonius, Palondrius, Damiyos, Alaric, Tempetus, Ferrum (Iron in Latin), Mortalitus (Death in Latin), and my personal favourite, Iuguolo (killer in Latin).

Thanks, Faunt!

I don't think I'll use any of those specific names, but you have given me some ideas

I painted a few Tac marines last night. I'm really irritated, because this time around I didn't get the black wash thin enough and you can barely see any purple on the miniatures at all. ARGH. I don't know whether to paint over them since there's only a layer and a half of paint anyway, or try drybrushing some lighter color on and pray it doesn't suck. Or just set them aside to be converted into Chaos Marines when I'm ready...

No pictures of them because they suck and I don't want to embarrass myself.

If I wanted to make a large-scale homebrew batch of black wash, would it be reasonable to use one of those teeny miniature jelly jars to store it in? I don't have an empty paint pot. Maybe I'll try it out anyway and see how it goes...

I still can't find my primer. This is very upsetting. I have about 20 figures I can't work on because I can't prime them and I can't afford a new can of primer!

Of course, now that I'm looking at it I'm thinking of completely changing the color scheme to be easier to paint. I won't, because my Dreadnought looks far too cool to repaint; I'll save it for the Chaos Marines.

Lol, Faunt-I like that name.

Little lord Fauntleroy wrote:Lol, Faunt-I like that name.

Borne of laziness in not wanting to type out the whole thing. 'Little' and 'Lord' are a bit too generic, sooo ...

Gladjalikeit! (:

Yeah, purple definitely rocks!!!!

Keep on splashing purple all over the place, that's a nice colour scheme indeed!!!

(EDIT: It snowed outside this morning, so I decided to do an outdoor photo shoot on the front porch. Just enough snow to make it look neat without obscuring everything but the feet. Yay creativity and snow!)



I went on another painting bender last night and got a lot of detail work done on Fornax here as well as the Terminators.

Despite my liking the mottled effect of Liche Purple with a black wash, I decided to go with a solid color because I like the solid green so much. I'll at least keep it this way for all the Dreadnoughts, and I'm leaning toward switching to that for the rest of the units as well. That should make you happy, Ygg! (:

The paint ratio for the DA/GG green is officially 3 Dark Angels Green to 1 Goblin Green, with a nice batch in a jar.
The paint ratio for the purple is 5 Liche Purple to 1 Chaos Black.
The paint ratio for the Chaos Black wash is ... written down somewhere, plus a drop of dish soap. Mmmm, lavender. It's in a jar too.

As far as I can tell, there is NO place on the armor where purple and green touch anymore. I spent about an hour completing the gold trimming on just about every surface (well, except the left arm, which still needs a bit of work).

Excuse me while I nerd squee. The parchment on the seals and nameplates came out SO PERFECT it's ridiculous. I started out with a solid layer of Snakebite Leather, then mixed in a bit of Bleached Bone and did a thorough semi-drybrush. Added more BB, drybrushed. Added more BB, drybrushed again. Straight BB, and painted along the edges. I did the same thing for the Terminator purity seals as well. The purity seals just got a layer of Red Gore without any fancywork. All I have to do is doodle in some squiggly marks on the purity seals -- which I'm going to take my sweet time with; I do NOT want to screw it up -- and I'll be one happy happy nerd.

The only things left are the left arm, some details on the instrumentation, cleaning up the rest of the purple, adding some chapter/company symbols, and other minor details/cleanup. I want to drill barrel holes, but my pinning set is apparently lost in the abyss (or my ex's house, which may as well be the abyss) so it'll have to wait. Easy enough to add later on. Then I actually GLUE IT TOGETHER (though it's staying quite well as is), possibly keeping the arms unglued so I can swap them if need be.

I am so ridiculously happy at how he's turned out. Happies come very few and far between for me right now, and this is, I think, something I can REALLY genuinely be proud of.

The Terminators got their armor-skulls and the arms pretty well finished. Once I make a big batch of purple I can redo the armor and see how that turns out. There don't seem to be a lot of places to add green to the armor, so I'm not going to worry too much about it. Shoulders and specific armor patches will probably do me well enough.

... Did I mention I love the Dreadnought? <.<

Sure he's nice!

Now you should try and highlight more all the edges on the mini, plus the "details" (wires, etc...)

With only a bit of work it should look even greater!

The edges that aren't getting highlighted in gold will get a lighter purple color (probably just straight Liche Purple) and the rest of the wiring will be done eventually. Right now, though, it's much less a priority because it's gaming quality now as far as I'm concerned. I'll keep him around, and if I'm working on other miniatures with the same color as I need to work on him, I'll do so. (:

I'm no good at sculpting or I'd try futzing with the base to make something nifty; instead I'll probably just toss some terrain bitz down, base it with sand and tiny rocks, and throw some static grass in.

Nice & unusual colour scheme - solid paint jobs too! Look forward to seeing more!

Since it's come up from a couple folks now, I'm going to explain the reason for the paint scheme and the somewhat odd method of painting.

In heraldic terms, there are two different types of 'tinctures' -- colors, and metals. With any heraldry, a color should not be placed against another color, nor should a metal be placed against another metal. This is to help distinguish different colors on a battlefield, among other things. Any heraldic device (banner, flag, symbol) should follow these rules; this means if you have a red chapter marking on black armor, technically the two should be separated by a metal ('Or' - gold/yellow, or 'Argent' - silver/white).

The two 'colors' I use are purpure (purple) and vert (green). Since they are not allowed to touch, I decided to use gold as the 'metal'. For any portion of a model that would be considered armor I'm sticking to that rule and painting the edges in gold. Things like wiring, cables, and etc are rather exempt from that rule, because that would just be silly.

I know it's not a required thing for playing 40k (it would probably make a lot of people tear their hair out if it was, which would be amusing to watch...) but I decided I did want to stick with heraldic rules for my chapter. The rules didn't historically always have to apply to armor, mostly because soldiers didn't paint their armor, but then historically there weren't any twenty-foot walking crypts either. For the infantry-types, I'm sticking with mostly purple and leaving green as the background for placing chapter, company, and unit designations (which, shockingly, will likely be gold).

Also known as: I spent a LOT of time learning heraldic rules, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to use that knowledge. So there.

try to paint on chipps on the edges of the dready, check out my AOBR dreadnought conversion in my gallery, the black shoulderpart is what i mean...but still nice work!

Looks very good, colour scheme is very different, my only suggestion is that the red/blue/yellow rectangles on the body need something.

oh and I hope your going to drill out the melta barrel...

Leigen_Zero wrote:oh and I hope your going to drill out the melta barrel...

Candroth wrote:I want to drill barrel holes, but my pinning set is apparently lost in the abyss (or my ex's house, which may as well be the abyss) so it'll have to wait.

Buy me a new drill/pinning set and I will. My ex may have decided to steal it along with a bunch of other supplies while I was packing up all my stuff.

The metals against colours bit about heraldry is a rather interesting idea. Kinda reminds me of how, in true kosher, if I remember right, he dairies have to be separated even on the plate. I'm digging the colour scheme, but it kinda reminds me of the Emperor's Children's colours.

Anyway, carry on with the good work. The dread in snow is a fun little bit

I noticed that myself recently. With the number of chapters out there, there's BOUND to be some similar color schemes (just as there are in heraldry, which is where the College of Heralds comes in) so as long as I try to make it different enough it shouldn't be a problem. The Emperor's Children have a brighter color of purple and no green that I can really see, so I think I'm safe.

The snow photo shoot was a riot. I doubt I'll get everything painted before springtime, but once I do I've got this fun little idea of outdoor photo shoots in the backyard and playing around with perspective and such.

Candroth wrote:
I want to drill barrel holes, but my pinning set is apparently lost in the abyss (or my ex's house, which may as well be the abyss) so it'll have to wait.

I really shoud read all posts thoroughly before posting lol. I've done drilling before using just a drill bit, for a large barrel like the multi melta (in my case it was a heavy bolter) I used a 2mm non-modelling drill bit which i got for <£1 (not sure of $ equiv) at a hardware store and a thimble, painful, ponderous but effective nonetheless...