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Hello and welcome to my first project log!

Its my mates birthday in December and, since its also close to Christmas, I thought it'd be nice to make him a present. He collects both Space Marines (Iron hands) and Necrons, however, since he really could do with more tactical squads for the Iron hands I figured I'd leave the Necrons.
So I grabbed a load of stuff online: The iron hands tactical squad from GW, quite a few bits from Minimax and some stuff from forgeworld. The intention is to use all of this to make the best tactical squad I can for his present, with all options magnitised on. (I didnt really consider the seargent when I first thought of that... , he has a LOT of options)

So my personal deadline is 1st of December, however, this gives me some leeway with the deadline as Im not going to be seeing him until at least in the second week of december.

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I visited him last year and painted up a dreadnaught base for him in the traditional urban colours, so I figured that'd be the best place to start with the tactical marines so they link in with the theme of the rest of his army. Meaning, urban terrain with grass and rock showing through.

I've been working on this for a while already but would like something where I can get some good old constructive criticism. So please say exactly what you think about what I've done so far (constructive!!), baring in mind this is a Work in Progress.


This is the first base I made as a kind of prototype. On top of it will go;


Whom the clever of you will have noticed has a magnet imbedded in his hand so he can have melta, plasman or flamer equipped.

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The second base I've done is;

which is going to be a bit of mobile cover (always gets a 4+ ) for the marine to stand behind.
Here is the finished base



I wanted the marine who was going to be behind this barricade to be aiming down the sights of his weapon, but it turned out that, after alot of green stuff and swearing, he looks almost completely the same to a standard marine :(



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The third and last base I've completed is one that can be placed right next to the second one for a bit of continuity



put em together aaaand;



The marine to go behind that cover will be throwing a grenade, but its so damn hard to get the arms to be positioned how I want... I'd like for the arm to be going almost straight up as he throws it, but the shoulder pad always seems to get in the way...


Anyway! Thats what I have got so far, I'm doing some more bases tonight and I'll upload the photos when I get a chance (cursed work!!)

Kalaan

Cool work on the bases!

Are you going to be adding servo arms and such to make them stand out as even more Iron Hands-y?

From the look of the painting on the bases the finished product should be sweet.

hey, thanks Master! (<--- is it just me or did that sound wierd)

I ordered a load of bionic stuff from Games workshop and minimax, but I hadnt really thought about servo arms.... that would indeed be awesome.
Actually thinking about it, that would be really cool to have on the sergeant, to distinguish him from any of the others. I wouldnt have the pieces to put it on any of the others, as I'm gonna have to order/make a servo arm for the sergeant as it is.

Thanks for the idea .

update:
Worked on some stuff over the weekend and i made two new bases. The idea being I'll paint up five at a time, so that I at least have something to shwo my mate in decemember, if I get behind.

first up is a base that I tried to get to look like an impact crater, as if a drop pod had smashed down and hit the ground.




and to be honest, I'm not even sure its noticable unless you hold the base up, but its slanted downwards. Yea, It doesnt pop enough... it doesn't scream "drop pod landed here"... tell me what you guys think.
So tonight I'll try again and make it more... obvious. Or at least I hope it will be!
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second thing I did last night was a base that had an eldar head on it. Its a piece from the GW basing kit range, fairly small but I wanted to try and incorporate it into the urban landscape because I play eldar and I think it'd be cute to have his guy next to a dead guardian ( or at least its head).
unfortunately.... I havent really picked a definitive colour scheme for my eldar yet and so the end result was.. less than perfect.



and then finished:




So... really I'd love some advice on what colour schemes are going to work well with eldar! I know I'd like a scheme with white but its so hard to paint pure white!!
You either get clumpy paint that dries badly, meaning any wash will illuminate your poor work, or you have it so thin that it fills all the details... or at least thats my experiences.

BTW, this base isnt finished really... I'll chuck some static grass on there too.
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Last thing, I'd like some more advice (I'm REALLY gunning for opinions today!) about what colours to do the iron hands with.
I'd seen some stuff on the internet about someone mixing in boltgun metal with the chaos black to give it a more shiny look, perfect for the iron hands, but I havent got it down and want to know what you guys think.

phew, I'll do some more tonight and I'll wait in anticipation of all the great ideas I know you guys have.

Thanks!

Hey that piece of wall looks familiar. Looks good mate carry on with the good work.

These look really good love the bases!! Only thing is, I'm pretty sure you can't have mobile cover, think it actually says in the rule book. Not sure till I see.

@killi: Haha, I bet it does, I hope you approve of how I used it

@Remadyz: No, you can't have mobile cover.... but I can dream... I can dream.

plus it might be a cool house rule

update!: Sorry for the delays in updating, I've a had a busy couple of days, but here we are with the latest round of pictures. The first five bases are complete and all I need is to stick some gubbinz onto the 5 marines (eg. seals) and I'm ready to go!

I always take my time with the creating side of warhammer as thats the bit I enjoy the most, especially magnetising , so hopefully I wont let myself down with the painting side of things.
so without further ado...
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Noone had any ideas, so I left that eldar helmet as it was and filled in the gaps around it with static grass and blood from the wound and it seems to have come out ok. Which makes me a happy panda.



I thought it'd be cool if the man I'm going to stick to this base was reloading his bolter (not that the standard marine ever visibly carries ammo around with him). I've currently drilled out the bottom of the bolter magazine entrance and I'm trying to jimmy together a "clip" for him to load. So far, I haven't got very far.

excuse the poor image. If wanted I can get a better one, and one of the bolter + clip.

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Next up was that tricky drop-pod crater base, I went with what I'd created, even though I wasnt sure about it. I added some small flakes of slate and painted it up and I don't think its that bad a look. The red from the drop pods engine flare definitely helps.



With guy to be mounted ontop



Theres nothing really special about the guy ontop, apart from custom Iron Hand bits and some bionics, but I figured that if everyone was uniquely posed then it would lessen the impact of those I'd already done.

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And so finally I've got a picture of the whole ensemble almost ready to be primed and painted.


Give it to me straight, what do you think??
Are they going to look good painted? Only time will tell! (that and my ability to undo mistakes...)

Opinions and advice always accepted, oh and if anyone knows a good way to do an oil spill please pm me

thanks!


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Oh... and if the person I intend to give this to finds this project log then...

well... surprise!

Awesome basing working; I like the detailing and love the barrack idea.

@ Grasshopper: thanks! I assume by barrack idea you mean the barricade. I'm really happy with that actually, its one of the things that convinced me to do this for my mate, just to see how it would turn out!

Hopefully will update tonight, the guys should have a primer on them, however no painting until I do a test colour scheme

Update: Quick update, just about to shoot off for work.
Life got in the way last night and I didnt manage to prime the guys, but thinking about it I need to know they look good first... thats where you guys come in
Will still paint the test guy so my colour scheme isnt untested.

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First guy.




He does have a second arm, but its a GW metal arm thats connected to his gun. I'm therefore not attaching it just yet for ease of painting. Same goes for the backpack.
What do you think? Any criticisms?

Second guy




This guy is the one most fleshed out, reloading whilst having a servo skull pet plus other gubbinz attached to him... tell me what you think! What works and what doesn't?
I realise its not that easy without them being painted yet.

Third guy




This guy I'm most worried about... I kinda just stuck a dagger to his leg, I was thinking of greenstuffing a scabbard or holder... what do you think?

Fourth guy




Aaah the grenade thrower, that arm is almost completely greenstuffed as space marine sprues just dont come with straight arms... I know the green stuff wont look spectacular when painted, but I can live with that as it was a first for me and I'm pretty proud I got it that far!
C+C please!

Fifth Guy




The last guy is the one I'm most comfortable with, the stuff I attached to him seems reasonably placed and not too much... let me know.

Many thanks guys, If you could give me some hints/tips that would be great!
Kalaan

Have you thought about adding a few cables hanging down from their back? Basicly mechadendrites but only connective ones, no assault capable mechadendrites. Something like one of the torsos that comes with a SM tank or some other vehicle. It would be an easy additional detail for the third guy to give him some meatier background. They are Iron Hand, so a bit of mechanicus here and there wouldn't hurt... right?

I like how your bases tie in together and tell a bit of the squads story (with the drop pod base and the two guys "teamed up" behind the wall). I always like a servo skull, so that's bonus points.

You might want to think about switching the two behind the wall, by the way. Having the grenade thrower with is throwing arm on the outside of the pair, while the shooter isn't aiming across the others chest. Just a thought. I haven't seen them on their bases yet, so you may have the right pose, and I can't see it yet

I like what I see mate

Doing the same kinda thing for my friend too, just on the painting side, it's a lot of fun and it's a great present idea, I'm sure your friend will love the outcome

Hey guys!

@The Good Green. Brilliant suggestion, just swapped the guys over, behind the barricades, and it looks a lot better. Just have to reposition the guy aiming down his sights torso. Unfortunately in trying to do this I seem to have completely dismantled him... More super glue needed!
Re your other idea, the mechandrites (or however they are spelt)... I was thinking about it and thought it would be cool, but it just doesnt fit the fluff. Space marines who become tech marines go to study on Mars and receive implants etc, but even they dont generally get mechandrites. So my normal tacticals definitely wouldnt get any, fluff wise.
That being said I've already ordered a techmarine part for the sergeant, so he could have some...

@Scotti Thanks! If you have a blog please link it and I'll give it a thorough going over. Yeah, my mate better like it...

Thanks for the comments, keep em coming. I'm busy tonight but before I go out I'll try to get a picture up of the two guys behind the wall actually on their bases.

kalaan

Update time: stiiiill need to work on the painting, but to keep you guys happy I've taken pictures with the 5 marines on their bases.
Must do the test model tomorrow....

the five guys!














the extra image of the last guy I took was awful, but hopefully you get the picture (haha...ha.)

Ok so I know these are just redo's of what I've posted, but I was asked to put them onto their bases and I have had to redo one of them almost completely. The guy aiming down his sights swapped bases with someone and it looked like he was trying to shoot the sky.
Tried to remove the pieces from him without damaging him but it turned out to be in vain, so I've redone him.

Tomorrow a test figure.

They're looking good. I do like they way the two look now that they are switched. I can't really see too many of the detail on the metal bits, still, but that will change with paint.

Thanks, yeah the metal bits are just from GW so they are as they are.
I'm working on the paint test subject now and will post a picture when its done, for your consideration

Update: soo I've finally had the time to do my paint test! I can never be fully bothered to make the painting perfect on a model I knwo I'm not actually going to use, but I've done the best I can to illustrate how I feel the marines should look.

I wanted him to be metallic black... so kinda shiny. et voila!




what do you think? Yes I know its not the most exciting of models and it has no bionics, but its the black I really want to be different.

Kalaan

Have you considered a lighter undercoat to bring out the shininess? I'm a big fan of metalic washes after the first coat of black/boltgun is dry too.

Update: Heyo, been busy but managed to get a good looong slot in of painting tonight... needed it too, I'm so slow :(

I managed to work on, and finish, the heads of the three guys who have no helmet. I feel these guys are up to the standard I want them to be at, but it might look worse under close examination, let me know what you think.





The first guy was kinda fun to do because this face is one I dont think I've used before and its one I really like the look of... I tried to go for a kind of old flesh feel to this, as he is the marine with the most bionics in the group and therefore probably the marine with the least amount of blood+ most amount of experience.
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Second!



This guy was alright to paint, he was a metal piece from the iron hands set and, therefore, not too difficult.
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Third




Ok this guy was the hardest of the bunch. It was a head from minimax.eu and made of resin. The angle he is positioned at was really a pain, but necessary for the look I wanted. I also tried to do a bit of "gemming" on the eye peice to make ti seem like it is glass. However being such a small lense I'm not sure it came off right. I originally had a crosshair on it, let me know if you think that would be better


Ok thanks for your time, please leave all comments and criticism below! Have a nice day

Kalaan



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Note: The first guy looks better in real life, and his head isnt so shiny... damn camera!

Like it! The third guy's wires look really great. I feel like the left cheek of the first guy is a bit pale though.

The first guy looks very... Chaotic... The fact that the halo round the servo skull has 8 points on it doesn't help!

Second guy looks great, and for the last one, I'd say stick with the gemming, I don't like crosshairs on eyepieces personally...

Thanks guys!
@Thakil, yea I think you mean the right cheek and I agree it is very pale, but although I'm sorely tempted to give it another wash of ogryn flesh I like it mostly as it is and dont want to ruin it

@Detestai, heh.... could be the start of a chaos iron hands.... that'd be cool.
cool, I'm glad theres consensus to stick with the gemming as it took along time to do... and an abnormally steady hand for me!

I've changed my mind, do a crosshair.

...funny

Very nice, loving the Servo skulls. Consider that Ctrl+C over to my IH force. My Devastator Sgt, needs a Signum Backpack, maybe a Servo Skull over the shoulder attached to a backpack...Yeah that sounds cool.

The white skin and red eyes is a really nice touch too.

Update! I know, I'm a ridiculously slow painter, call it perfectionism, call it laziness.... it amounts to the same.

Sooo.... Without further ado I'll showcase the five guys with a series of pics (of dubious quality)

Model number one, the magnitised special weapons guy.






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Model number two, the cyborg reloading guy with the servo skull (needs a better name....)




with servo skull!

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Model number three, the second guy behind a barricade. (the first guy went to a painting competition, he'll be shown later)



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Model number four, the guy walking across the droppod impact crater





ok, and marine number five is at my FLGS for now, it was involved in a painting comp.


So, there you have it. I've worked quite hard on these, trying to make them wholly unique, etc. Please give feedback, vote on the models and tell me how I can make them even better!!
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Ok, so news. I've been working on these alot and figured I wouldn't update until I had something concrete to show, I'd been updating with nothing a few times and it didnt feel right.
I have the next five planned and I've taken (well... stolen really) 'TheGoodGreen's idea of a story and will show the marines advancing into a mechanicus area/building with obvious signs of battle. These will include bullet holes, weaponry lodged in the marines and an oil leak from a severed bionic part.

I hope to have the bases done in relatively short order, as I think I have a handle on these now. I'll post the pre painted versions when they are complete.

Thanks for the comments Mwnciboo, definitely steal as much as you'd like from what I have done. I'm certainly going to be taking your ideas when I can

I should be updating a bit more frequently now, or at least until I get to the second batch of marine painting.


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Oh also, forgot to mention, I didn't get any prizes from the painting comp, but hopefully will get some good criticism when I go visit my FLGS tomorrow.

I'll have that model up asap.

Nice, I like the attention to detail.
Is the flames of fire on the flaming flamer a little embellishment by the marine in question?

I would like to think that the fire is being pressurised and will burst forth at a extremely high temperature... however I realise that thats not how flamers work. so yes, we shall call it an embellishment.

Kalaan "Call it laziness, call it perfectionism. it's the same thing".

NO WAY. Your models are stunning, and it's the whole presentation including the base. This is what raises the bar, the completeness of the model.