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I have not painted miniatures in over 14 years. I did minor in fine art though, So I figure that can help me out here somewhere. I had a Salamander SM army when I was a kid, and they are more popular then ever, so I thought to stick with them. This time however I wanted to re imagine the look and feel of the Salamanders. Over the last month or so I have been stripping the paint on all my old minis using Dawn Power Dissolver.
Here is a pick of my old army.
Now I am starting to paint and build the minis.
Doing new things I never even heard of before on minis- like drilling out the gun barrels, using washes, and painting the base. I never even considered these things before!




Unfortunately I am a bit of a perfectionist, and my ambition is far greater than my talent. (at least for now) I decided to paint everything separately so I could have no problem with the chest eagle and soft armor. I am now running into problems for the arms, and weapons.

It also doesn't help that I am trying to paint 80 marines at once. 14 years and I still can't paint eyes! I am much less patient than I previously thought.

Here are the color schemes I came up with.

Sweet spider marines

Some of your pics are upside down

Its looking good.

I personally cant stand the overly green green of regular sali but i like your toned down ones.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Desubot wrote:
Sweet spider marines

Some of your pics are upside down

Its looking good.

I personally cant stand the overly green green of regular sali but i like your toned down ones.

Not sure I know what you mean by spider marines?

I think I was able to fix the images. Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for the feedback. I am happy with the toned down green too.

I finished lining this model. Working on lots of marines at once.

Doing that many marines in one lot strikes me as madness. But your army will be very consistent, and done all at once, so there are some high points. Looking good so far.

I Spent a good amount of time yesterday working on my Land Raider. The guns are all glued in place, and I am prepping the marine in the for airbrushing. This is my first time working with this specific model, and It was pretty fun build. There is still lots of work to do., but I believe it is coming along nicely. If you look closely, you can also spot the progress I have made on my Sgts and Vet marines. I need to get the decals going already to start polishing off the army. More posts to come on this!

I am not too sure how to paint the gunner at the top actually. With the color scheme I have made up for my marines, I am not sure if the gunner should look like a regular marine, or a special "pilot" theme.

Need some help: I am trying to build out a custom Chapter Master Tu'Shan model. I want him to be as fluffy / reliable as possible.

I'd like for him to have Stormbearer - his thunder hammer.

Can I equip him with a storm shield (thematically as the Firedrake Mantle) AND use a combi-flamer for Prometheus? Or does the storm shield eliminate a weapons slot?

You should be fine. The CM can just take a SS in addition to his gear, he doesn’t need to swap something for it. TH/SS/c-flamer is a legal gear loadout.

They look awesome, just one thing: Do you highlight?

Excellent! Thanks Nevelon.

I appreciate it, Matthew. So far, I have not added a highlight to anything but the SGT Helmets. I have used the base after the wash, but currently I am in the process of glossing everything over so I can add the wash. Lots of minis to work with!

I understand, keep up the good work!

I had some spare bits and wanted to make a Tu'Shan model to lead my army. Check out that Torch Hammer! I got the idea from CasaHouse http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/user/profile/37318.page

Looks suitably epic to be a chapter master. Nice work.

Sorry for not posting on here in a while, but I have made a ton of progress and have a new direction for my marines. I was becoming increasingly unhappy with how my 'realistic' marines were turning out. I fell in love with 40k and the hobby based on the sheer ridiculousness of the world. My models weren't doing it for me. They didn't have any heart and soul, they were too dark, no feeling. Moving forward, I opted to go for a much brighter / graphical representation of the Salamander Space Marines. As an added bonus to myself, I have dropped all metallic paints from the scheme, and am going for a very literal approach.

For example- instead of VGC Burnished Gold for the chest plate, I am now using VGC Golden Yellow.

The results so far: every time I field my troops, I am getting tons of compliments. More importantly however, I am super happy and excited to paint my army. Good things all around

I have decided to match the codex astartes as far as squad marking for the salamanders. Fore more stage presence, I gave the Red Helmets for Sgts (White stripe for Vet Sgt), White Helmets for Vets etc. (I know it goes against the fluff, but technically the fluff hasn't happened yet)

Other than that I am kit bashing a Tu'Shan in Terminator armor, but I am still figuring him out. I will post more on that after I finish up my sternguard. Lots of detailing to do!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nevelon wrote:
Looks suitably epic to be a chapter master. Nice work.

Thanks Nevelon! I am still working on his flamer weapon hand attachment, not sure what to do next!

Looking great so far! Can't wait to see more of these lovely Salamanders of yours