Got my first five man Combat Squad for my Salamanders all painted up.

As a salamander player i prefer a more toned down colour for my greens, but good job. All they need now are some dragon heads and flames keep up the good work and enjoy the new chapter tactics and 8th as a whole.

These are eye-searing green...holy crap. They look crisp and well painted (really need eye lenses painted), but damn I hate green minis normally - these are blindingly green!

I have to admit I do like the new models - although I wish they were normal size.

Regardless, like the guys.

They do look a little too bright - I would add a wash - it would tone them down a bit, and add some realistic shading.

While probably brighter than the average Salamander scheme, I swear they're not Quite as bright of green in person. My camera/lighting makes everything a bit brighter in pictures. The dragons and flames and such decals will be coming, but I want to get the rest of the Intercessors painted before I do that so I can better distribute the poses thru the units and get some Auxiliary Grenade Launchers added in. Unit numbers will show up on the black knee.

As for eyes, I don't really paint them ever anymore on man sized models. They're so small that if you do them well no one really notices them, if you don't do them well you get the villain from Roger Rabbit, and I don't have a steady enough hand to do them well.


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Batch two of the Salamanders Intercessors finished up. Plan is to take a break from painting the line troops next week and paint up the six Aggressors I'm picking up today to take advantage of the Konor theme bonus of Elites next weekend, as well as Company Captain King Bradley since he's wearing the same type of armor. Will likely return to finish the rest of the Intercessors week three as I won't have a tank to take advantage of that week's bonus.

Paint job looks neat, but I would recommend washing them with Athonian Camoshade

Nicely done. I quite like the green. I see you painted the skin tone brown rather than black. Has the official fluff done away with that old pigmentation? I never realy liked that. I think the brown coloration compliments the green, orange and yellow. It's a nice arrangement.

Yeah, the official fluff changed from them being black skinned, to being literally pitch black skinned, with red eyes. I don't like the look of that myself and it feels too edge lord, so I'm using the older skin tones. Also using some modified color markings and such as they don't really list much for them in the Codex.

The second batch of marines looks awesome! (I'm a huge sucker for Salamander anything)
They need some shading though, that's the big thing missing. The lines of MK X armour look awesome with a wash.

Some transfers and that wash and Vulkan would be really proud! Into the fires of battle!

First Company Captain King Bradley and his First Company Aggressors are all finished up, minus the decals still. Probably could have gotten those on since they don't need to units rearranged, but I didn't think about it so I don't have them with me.

Might have to go back later and replace Bradley's Iron Halo. When I was setting up to take this picture the big foam board piece I used to block the direct sunlight from the window fell over and snapped off his sword and three center points of the halo. I glued it back together quick but one of the points is missing and the center one's all crooked. I've got an extra Captain from the second starter's models I acquired so I may do a transplant.

Otherwise I haven't decided what I'm doing next week yet. I might get one of the new tanks because I could use its Lascannons for my own anti-tank firepower. If not I'll probably work on the rest of the Characters and/or Intercessors.

Got my Repulser painted up. Doesn't come out as nicely as the infantry due to the large flat surfaces not being as conductive to my painting method of copious amounts of wash. Still looks alright on the table though.






Got a group shot of everything I've gotten painted during the first three weeks of the Fate of Konor Campaign so far. Also played my largest game of 40k so far, putting 122 Power on the table consisting of nearly everything I've gotten assembled so far as I tried to defend the food stores of Nethamus from a Blood Angels Legion (traitorous emo vampires).

And got all the finishing touches to the characters done, sans transfers still. Chaplain Reaper, Librarian Ghazan, and Apothecary McCoy, continuing my trend of naming the characters with stupid references. McCoy there probably came out my favorite, white just makes for a good striking accent color in armor schemes.

So my plan for this week is to see about finishing up the other ten Intercessors, including the four with Auxiliary Grenade Launchers. Then if the number transfers I ordered come in I can get everyone assigned to their units and get all their markings on.

Unrelated to painting, but I managed my second win with the Primaris over the weekend. Played as the defender in the Konor campaign missing, seeing me trying to hold onto three points in my deployment zone vs a continuously refreshing assault from Tyranids. Gravis Captain King Bradley was my MVP, personally finishing off Death Leaper, a Harpy, and some Genestealer Cult Character in single combat before biffing it against another Harpy and getting one shotted. At the end of the full seven turns his Death Leaper has stolen one of my Objectives, but the Ancient managed to get to the second while the last few Intercessors held the third, giving me a two to one victory.

I realy like the color scheme on your chap/libr/apoth. I think it's good to keep some of the main color on those units. They stand out too much if you go codex. IMO. Good job.

 Jozef Godhammer wrote:
I realy like the color scheme on your chap/libr/apoth. I think it's good to keep some of the main color on those units. They stand out too much if you go codex. IMO. Good job.

Apparently this Is Codex for them? Not actually sure of the source but looking at examples of them online the one arm colored was a very prevelant theme so I went with it. Salamanders are weird and I wish there was a more detailed write up of their schemes in the Codex.

That "lava lizard" on Librarian Ghazan's base is a very cool idea!

These look neat, but I have to agree that you should paint the eyes. The face is the most important part of a model and not painting any eyes is just wrong somehow. On bare heads you might get away without elaborate eyes but power armor eyes are so easy to do it's not something you should forgo.

The easiest way to paint eyes is to just paint a narrow white line in the middle of the lense and fill the lense socket with Bloodletter (red glaze). A line is easy enough to do and the glaze fills the socket because it's like a wash anyway and you'll end up with decent looking lenses. If you prefer a different colored lenses you can use a different glaze obviously.

And finished the rest of my Intercessors, giving me two full ten man squads with Auxiliary Grenade Launchers and Power Weapons for the Sergeants. Next step is getting the transfers on all of them.

With 40k 9th Edition coming out soon with a third wave of Primaris, I’m trying to knuckle down and actually finish painting more of my First wave Primaris Salamanders. Haven’t painted in some months so I’m easing myself back into it a bit. Keep my poor arthritic hand from completely rebelling on me.

First off are one of my squads of Intercessors. These were previously finished, but I had gone thru later and cut off their ammo clips to swap their rifles into auto rifles. Just had to paint the new ammo drums silver and touch up the tops where I cut scopes off.

For a more involved project, my Hellblasters. These were already based with their greens, and the left half had the black base coat done. I got the right half’s black base coat done, and got the silver base coat on the first two. It’s not A Lot done, but it’s stage of painting I find least fun, so you know a great place to pick back up after so long. Tomorrow night I’m going to see if I can’t get the rest of the silver done and hit the black and silver with a coat of black wash.

I definitely want to have these Hellblasters finally finished before the end of the week and I expect you all to mock me relentlessly if they’re not.

Alright. Finished the silver base coat and got all of that and the black base hit with a good coat of Nuln Oil. Had that I could have started with the white base coats, but then I saw what I had left for white paint and decided I didn’t trust that to go on smooth. Gonna have to stop and grab a pot on my way home to I can continue these.

Got all the detail work done, with the exception of the yellow chest eagles on account of my yellow paint pot being dried solid. So I just need to paint and touch up their chest plates, then do the texture paint and such on their bases. Might be able to finish that tomorrow.

Got the tiny flames glued onto the right knee of half the squad, to designate which unit they belong to when they Combat Squad. The next thing I work on after these are done is going back thru my previous stuff and updating all their knees to my current unit designation scheme.

Also a note on the photo. Unfortunately the same photo editing that makes the green look less bright and more accurate, makes the bright yellow orange look like a darker orange red, so since the yellow orange is the new color, I didn’t mess with the saturation on this one, and that’s why they look more neon green this time.

Alright, the Marines themselves are done, just need to finish up their bases. Another quick coat of black wash, paint the rims black, and get the two lava streams done.

There, Hellblasters are done. Also went ahead and got the knee pads redone on previously painted models, so while I’m at it, group shot of all my painted infantry.

Last week it was Hellblasters, this week it’s Eliminators and friends. Like the Hellblasters these had been previously started so their green were already done and a couple had their black base coats on. Went ahead and got the red of the black base coats plus the silver and hit them with the Nuln Oil shade. Bit of extra time so I decided to get the Librarian’s blue on his arm and hood. Tomorrow I’ll get the whites and work on the details. Cloaks’ll be last, I’ve got something special in mind for those. I’ve talked about it in the past, but not gonna give any spoilers now about that. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

Alright. Nearly all of the detail work done.

I’d messed up the captain’s skin initially. A couple coats of shade into coloring his face and trying to determine exactly where his hairline was was beginning to frustrate me. I looked up a reference, and found out he does Have a hairline. Consequently I had to redo his skin from scratch, which means his facial details are a bit shallower and I have to be more careful with those. Couple more coats of shade’ll finish it though. Then I need to paint everyone’s hair.

I’d had trouble painting my first librarian’s force sword. While the power swords are easy thanks to the super nice yellow to orange shade GW has, there’s no similar blue to purple, or at the time even a good bright blue or bright purple. Well now Contrast exists, and I’m Way more happier with how the sword turned out this time. Coat of bright blue, and some bright purple blended in near the base of the blade gives me the kind of look I was hoping for.

Final note, their shoulders are different from the prior units I’ve done. I’ve decided all the phobos armored models (except Reivers) will be painted as seventh company, the scout company. This just inverts the black and white on their shoulders, but it’s harder to tell with these on account of their cloaks covering most of the shoulders.

So, tomorrow finish the skin and hair, touch up some blemishes, and do the basing. Then I’ll get the cloaks done on the final day.

All the detail work is done, didn’t Quite finish the bases. All I need for that is to put a bunch of yellow shade in for the three with exposed lava flows. Then finally paint the cloaks.

Also I broke the Captain‘s servo skull. I’ve tried to be careful with that but absently grabbed the model wrong. Will also try to see if that’ll glue back on tomorrow, but I may just cut the rest of the wires off since it’s just decoration with no rules to save myself the frustration of it repeatedly breaking off in the future.

Eliminators and Co are all finished. The camo works about as well as I’d expected, though not as good as I’d originally hoped when I’d initially backed the paint. It’s that Blackest Black 3.0 from a bit back. Not a miniature paint, so it goes on a bit rougher and thicker, but it does give a really nice deep matte black so long as you don’t touch it, just not quite the featureless black mass you get in photographs of it.

Next week, Invictor Warsuit. Can’t have such a nice flamethrower wielding model go unpainted in my Salamanders army.

I like the way you painted them. Reads very well, good contrast!
Green gray yellow and white.

 Mothsniper wrote:
I like the way you painted them. Reads very well, good contrast!
Green gray yellow and white.

Thanks!

Alright, started on the Invictor Tactical Warsuit. Didn’t have the “advantage” of it being a previously slacked off project, so I had to paint in all the green to start this time. Not as mottled at the tanks given it had more panels and details breaking it up instead of just huge flat surfaces. Will work on the black and silver tomorrow, and oh man is this one gonna have a lot of silver I think.

Got the black basecoat on and started on the silver. So much silver...

Still hoping my youngest will let me paint the marines from the Indomitus box as Salamanders, but he's hell-bent on blue at the moment...

Totally slacked off yesterday and didn’t paint at all, but got a fair good bit done tonight. Got all the black and silver done and washed. Did the white base coats for the red to go over. Still need a coat of two on all the shoulders to get those a nice crisp white, then I’ll paint the icons black. Need to wash the purity seals and the pilot’s skin. Obviously haven’t even started the base. Might get this done this week yet, but yesterday probably cost me. Darn new comic day.

As I expected, I didn’t get the base on this finished, but the Warsuit itself is all done. That texture paint can just take so long to properly dry. Will have to go back next week and hit the base with a black wash, paint in the lava, and blacken the rim.

The black you used for the camo, is this the one by Stuart Semple / Culturehustle? Looks interesting!! I've been thinking about getting some of this and other of his stuff for ages - have you tried mixing it with other acrylics, or medium or something? Just wondering how this might be used apart from covering larger surfaces to make them soak up all available light ^^

 MobileSuitRandom wrote:
The black you used for the camo, is this the one by Stuart Semple / Culturehustle? Looks interesting!! I've been thinking about getting some of this and other of his stuff for ages - have you tried mixing it with other acrylics, or medium or something? Just wondering how this might be used apart from covering larger surfaces to make them soak up all available light ^^

That’s the stuff. This is the first thing I’ve really used it for so I haven’t experimented with mixing it with anything else yet. Not sure what effects that would have on the color as it’s the special matte finish that gives it its super blackest black thing. Like you want to try and not even touch it or the oils on your skin will kind of highlight it in grey.

Looking very nice!

Related question to painting Salamanders... Looks like my son has finally consented to 'his' marines from the new starter box being painted as Salamanders. I'm after a quick and easy speed-paint that will look half decent, and am planning on using Contrast paints where possible. So... what sort of colour should I use as an airbrush pre-shade under the Warp Lightning Green?

Happy to go through some trial and error closer to the time, but if anyone has any useful tips please hit me up...

Just gave this blog a quick read-through. I really like your take on the apothecary. Also that you don't adhere to that whole jet-black skin and red eyes nonsense that came out of fifth edition. Never liked that. Excited to see what you do next!

Completely finished the Invictus Tactical Warsuit. I’d done a bit of work on the base yesterday but was slowed by a need to seal a slight gap in the rim so it didn’t leak Casandra Yellow all over my desk when I filled the lava in, and that wasn’t worth a photo update. But it’s done now, and ready to purge heretics by flame!

Redid the icons on the front of my Repulsor. Originally had the chapter symbol where the number is, but moved that to add the number in there for consistency of location across the army. Also numbered my Impulsors but those aren’t painted so you don’t need to see them. Need to make a few little trays with numbers that match the transports to set the guys they’re transporting on to readily distinguish who’s in what.

Resumed work on painting one of my units of Reivers. They are the last of the models I had at one point or another started but never finished. Been painting a bunch lately, and it’s a full ten man unit, so I’m approaching it casually and just painting the black base coats on pairs of guys at a time in between reading comics. I don’t expect they’ll get finished till next week.


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Crispy78 wrote:Looking very nice!

Related question to painting Salamanders... Looks like my son has finally consented to 'his' marines from the new starter box being painted as Salamanders. I'm after a quick and easy speed-paint that will look half decent, and am planning on using Contrast paints where possible. So... what sort of colour should I use as an airbrush pre-shade under the Warp Lightning Green?

Happy to go through some trial and error closer to the time, but if anyone has any useful tips please hit me up...

I find the Wraithbone tends to give better color to the various Contrast paints myself, though I’ve not done a lot with them to definitive answer.

brushcommando wrote:Just gave this blog a quick read-through. I really like your take on the apothecary. Also that you don't adhere to that whole jet-black skin and red eyes nonsense that came out of fifth edition. Never liked that. Excited to see what you do next!

Thanks! Been a fan of the Salamander since the Armageddon book, and never did like that change to skin tone. Plus it’s less interesting to me to paint.

Finished up the black base coats on the last two pairs, and got the silver base coat on the first two pairs. Should get the silvers done tomorrow, and then I want to try and get their hire skull faces done as well, so I can use the black shade on all of them the next night.

Random test torso to mess around with the Black 3.0 paint. Definitely less kind to details than the smooth cloaks I did before. This is with no watering down of the paint or anything, just straight out of the bottle. Mostly want to see what happens to it if I varnish it.

Great work on these mate! Love the strong green as opposed to what you see generally on Salamanders, which is a muted, toned down dark green. Subbed!

 ciuncky wrote:
Great work on these mate! Love the strong green as opposed to what you see generally on Salamanders, which is a muted, toned down dark green. Subbed!

Thanks! Someone called it Noble Bright once I like that. May have been earlier in this thread.

Got the black wash done, regreened the knees on the first half from where I’d glued the little flames on since they first had their armor done, and then got a first coat of white on the first half. The knee and shoulder icons will need another coat to get them whiter, but the rest is just an under coat for reds and yellows and the one is enough for that.

Extra half day of overtime at work so y’all get a bonus update this week. Finished all the whites and second coated the faces and icons. Little bit of extra time so I also basecoated the yellow. Yellow is such a light color it’s gonna want a quick second coat yet as well before I wash it.

Also the sun isn’t up yet, so this is one of the more color accurate photos without that giant flaming ball of death making everything appear so much brighter than it actually is.

Also also I need to go back and look at my previously painted stuff because I think I washed the yellows on the Eliminators & Co the wrong color...

Got all the detail work and touch ups finished on the Reivers. Just need to do their bases. Maybe have those done tomorrow, but likely take two nights just for how long everything has to dry between stages on that.

Also I had washed the yellows on the Eliminators and Co the wrong color and I went back and fixed that but it’s not worth new photos.

Reivers are completely finished and ready to go. Hopefully they have a niche in 9th and don’t get too overshadowed by Assault Intercessors.

Since painting bases is mostly putting down coats of stuff that take extra long to dry (some of that lava still isn’t dry) I used that spare time to get a head start on the Inceptors. Base coat of green on all, second coat of green on the first pair.

You're making good progress! Nice work on the reivers.

Got all the green second coated and washed. First pair have their black base coats on.

I didn’t make an update yesterday since I’d only gotten one additional pair’s black basecoat done, but I got the third pair’s done tonight and I figured a full unit with black basecoats done is good enough for one. Next week do the silver, then a second coat of the black, some blue wires, then wash all that with black.

Really slacked off this week on the painting, thus the lack of daily wip updates, but I wanted to get an end of week one posted still just to show I’ve accomplished Something on these guys. Merely gotten the silver done on the first four. Try and get the last two done beginning of next week to clear this most tedious stage of the painting so I can get back into it more and finish these guys up. There’s one other specific thing I want to try and have done yet before Indomitus comes out.

Looking good, as always. I like the black-helm/ black stripe you've got going. Is that to denote sgt and combat squad leader?

 brushcommando wrote:
Looking good, as always. I like the black-helm/ black stripe you've got going. Is that to denote sgt and combat squad leader?

Indeed!

Finished the silver, got the second coat of black on, and painted all the wires blue. Will get the black wash over all of that tonight and start working on the whites.

Black wash, whites, and reds all done. Tomorrow do the yellows and finish the purity seals, some touch ups, and try to get the texture paint down on the base. If I can get the texture down I may yet finish these this week.

Also, to expand on the above answer about unit leader helmet colors, my color scheme is more strongly based on Salamanders than being actual Salamanders. I like most everything about the chapter other than their tendency to avoid squad and rank markings. I added the black left knee pad with number to designate their squad within their company. Right knee pad bears a flame for the top half of combat squad if they utilize that. Sergeant gets the black helmet, and the other half of the unit is led by a Corporal who has a black stripe. I also added gold stripe to the Captain, and gold stripe bordered by black for Lieutenants. The characters who normal have odd colored armor have most of their armor still green, and just their helmet and right arm/shoulder painted in the odd color. Most of them also have robes in a different shade of the odd color as well. All in all it makes for a distinctly Salamanders army still, while letting me play with more of the heraldry and markings of a more typical Codex Chapter.

This site was an early inspiration for the alterations;
http://vulkansforgeblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/thougts-on-salamanders-heraldry.html

Nearly done. Inceptors themselves are finished baring just a couple spots I need to touch up on the gun shields I didn’t notice till I was putting them away. Got the texture paint on the base, and first coats of black on the rim and flight stand. Try and get the black wash on the texture right away tonight so it can dry and I can get the white down for the lava. If I don’t get them finished tonight all they’ll be missing is the final yellow lava wash.

Making good progress! I dion't think I noticed all the sculpted detail before. Was that something you sculpted yourself or did you find somewhere else?

 brushcommando wrote:
Making good progress! I dion't think I noticed all the sculpted detail before. Was that something you sculpted yourself or did you find somewhere else?

Assuming you mean the shoulder and knee icons, they’re from Pop Goes The Monkey, printed via Shapeways. He’s got a good variety of stuff over there and I’ve found it quite convenient.

Finished Inceptors! I had the big brain idea that if it was going to be a case of one quickly applied wash that had to dry for awhile that might set me back, I could just do that at home, so all I needed to do was paint that lava at work.

Plans for next week are see if I can’t get my Dreadnought built, and also work on the unit trays to designate who’s in which transport vehicle. Any painting will just be on the shoulders of my Aggressors and Gravis Captain to change which company they are assigned to, they’re all get demoted.

They look great! That flame work really makes them pop.

 brushcommando wrote:
They look great! That flame work really makes them pop.

You barely even notice I paint them inside out!

Finally getting around to building my Redemptor Dreadnought for my Salamanders. Building it as a Bray’arth Ashmantle conversion. It’s been long procrastinated as I worked out how to do his twin fists, which was complicated by the Redemptor’s non-symmetrical hand. Hat is printing me off a nice right handed power fist for him though, so it’s finally coming together. Won’t have the hands till this weekend, so I’m doing the body work in the meantime. I plan to try and sculpt his special fancy shoulder pad bass relief tonight.

Too lazy to set up my little photo booth rig for the modicum of progress made. Got a couple armor plates attached to the legs I missed yesterday, attached him to the base, got the lava trench cut into it, and put on his shoulders and upper arms. I tried my hand at sculpting his fancy bas-relief work on the shoulder, but my skills aren’t up to snuff for that kind of intricate detail work.

Got a few more models from Indomitus built, namely the three Eradicators and the Outrider Sergeant. Going to put some Aggressor heads onto the Eradicators, but I didn’t bring them with me.

Got all the Flamers for Ashmantle courtesy of Lance and Holt so he’s all ready to burninate the countryside. Started getting all his iconography on him, and sculpted a large flame for the right shoulder. Will need to go back over that with a file to flatten and smooth it. He’s going to have his genestealer skull trophies adorning that side as well I believe, though I might put those on the left in lieu of his fancy thing there. Still need to find a good sized Iron Halo for him.

Very cool dreadnought conversion. Is that a game legal piece or just something for fun?

 brushcommando wrote:
Very cool dreadnought conversion. Is that a game legal piece or just something for fun?

It’s a conversion/proxy of a Forgeworld special character, Bray’arth Ashmantle, so as legal as that entails. His issue there is he’s bigger and on a bigger base due to being built out of a Redemptor instead of the classic Dreadnought chassis. There’s a bunch of locals who’ve built various FW dreads out of Redemptors so that’s not much of an issue though.

Finished the other two Outriders, got the new heads on the Eradicators, and built an old Captain kit I’ve had laying around.

Didn’t get as much built, and one of them was that old Captain, because I spent a chunk of the time cleaning off old sprues and sorting the bits down into boxes. The sprue pile was getting too cumbersome.

Got all the Assault Intercessors built. First five are done as per instructions. Second five I cut the pegs off the shoulders and swapped their arms around for a bit of variety.

Got most of the iconography on everyone done. Just missing their squad numbers, which I need to go thru everyone I’ve done so far and see who’s assigned what and where and plot this out a bit.

Chaplain and Judiciar got new Reiver heads, and the Judiciar and Ancient got right side pauldrons.

I forgot about the Outriders on the bottom tray. Will get to get their iconography done tonight.

All of the Indomitus Marines are built. Now I just need to do their bases, which should be an easy enough project for tonight.

Keep up the great pace! Can't wait to see you paint these.

Also, your sprue cleaning has put me to shame. I need to do that as well.

Definitely looking forward to painting the Bladeguard. That’s my plan for next week.

Ssssssoooooo... I didn’t get the bases done on Friday. I slacked off and just watched shows, figuring I’d do it over the weekend at home. Then over the weekend at home I just played more Final Fantasy Online... I got them done today though! Man those lava bases are tedious to put together though, especially this many at one time. And oh the mess it makes. So much dust and plastic slag and crumbled cork everywhere. Probably better I don’t do it at home actually.

Anyways here’s some of the fancy bases. The Captain comes standing on such a perfectly shaped rock, I decided to just use that as a peninsula, and he’ll have more lava on his base than any model prior. It’s definite overkill but it amuses me.

The other notable one is the bike jumping over a lava pool. More overkill, but also amusing.

The fissure that's in the base is going to be filled with lava? Like in the other dreadnought few posts above? That's super cool, what is your process for the base?

EDIT: uh btw, congrats on clearing the sprue pile!!!!

 Findarfin wrote:
The fissure that's in the base is going to be filled with lava? Like in the other dreadnought few posts above? That's super cool, what is your process for the base?

EDIT: uh btw, congrats on clearing the sprue pile!!!!

To do the lava fissure bases, I first dremel out the top flat of the base so its just the rim left (black plastic slag everywhere). Then I trace the inside onto a sheet of cork, glue the rim to a sheet of plasticard, cut out the cork circle, and glue that to the plasticard inside the base. Cut that off the sheet, dremel the plasticard down flush to the rim (white plastic slag everywhere), dremel the cork which is a bit thicker than the bases are deep down level with the top of the rim of the base (cork dust everywhere), and finally scrap the flat of the knife blade around the edge of the base to smooth that off better (black and white plastic shavings everywhere). Depending on the model and my mood, sometimes I pin them to the base before the next step, sometimes after, but once I decide how I want the fissure to look I’ve got a right handle hook tool that was originally some sort of sewing tool that I used to rip out a good crevice. You don’t wanna cut it, you wanna rip it so you’ve got good rough jagged sides. You’ve also got bits of cork still glued to the base to give some texture.

Paint the base dark grey (Eshin iirc), cover the top with astrogranite/debris, then a good coat or two of Nuln oil shade. Paint the bottom of the fissure white, two coats, make it a strong solid white, then put a whole bunch of Cassandra yellow shade down there, like you want that stuff to pool, maybe two coats if it’s too thin and yellow.

And that’s how I do my lava. It’s super tedious but I like having the fissures cut into the base instead of being something that sits on top of it. The downside being the plasticard makes the bases slightly taller, and the flat underside is not great for some terrain.

AduroT, I don't think I've seen you describe what you're going to such green Salamanders - care to share, dude?

 Dysartes wrote:
AduroT, I don't think I've seen you describe what you're going to such green Salamanders - care to share, dude?

It’s a very simple Moot Green with a Beil Tan Green shade. I don’t find it’s That bright in person, but the green really loves the lighting in the guard shack where I work and photographs super bright.

Oh wow, you are really plowing on through. I am still too busy painting oldmarines for upcoming Badab Campaign weekends to even desprue any of my 130 Numarines!

 Fifty wrote:
Oh wow, you are really plowing on through. I am still too busy painting oldmarines for upcoming Badab Campaign weekends to even desprue any of my 130 Numarines!

I abandoned my old marines. Had stopped playing for awhile (might have missed all of seventh?) and just got back into it at the start of eighth with the Primaris. Originally did Dark Angels, did a counts as for awhile, switched to Salamander rules when Armageddon came out because Two Flamers! Done counts as Salamanders since, and figured with the restart, just do actual Salamanders.

 AduroT wrote:

 Fifty wrote:
Oh wow, you are really plowing on through. I am still too busy painting oldmarines for upcoming Badab Campaign weekends to even desprue any of my 130 Numarines!

I abandoned my old marines. Had stopped playing for awhile (might have missed all of seventh?) and just got back into it at the start of eighth with the Primaris. Originally did Dark Angels, did a counts as for awhile, switched to Salamander rules when Armageddon came out because Two Flamers! Done counts as Salamanders since, and figured with the restart, just do actual Salamanders.

They'd served you faithfully for that long, and you abandoned them? You... monster...

 Dysartes wrote:

 AduroT wrote:

 Fifty wrote:
Oh wow, you are really plowing on through. I am still too busy painting oldmarines for upcoming Badab Campaign weekends to even desprue any of my 130 Numarines!

I abandoned my old marines. Had stopped playing for awhile (might have missed all of seventh?) and just got back into it at the start of eighth with the Primaris. Originally did Dark Angels, did a counts as for awhile, switched to Salamander rules when Armageddon came out because Two Flamers! Done counts as Salamanders since, and figured with the restart, just do actual Salamanders.

They'd served you faithfully for that long, and you abandoned them? You... monster...

Well, that sounds familiar. Get ready for another Horus Heresy everyone...

I like the fact you stuck with older skin tones. Not so sure about the bright blue cables/lights. Feels like it clashes a bit with the bright green. Then again, you say everything is less bright in person, so pinch of salt.

 Ketara wrote:
I like the fact you stuck with older skin tones. Not so sure about the bright blue cables/lights. Feels like it clashes a bit with the bright green. Then again, you say everything is less bright in person, so pinch of salt.

Blue cables are a weird quirk of mine. Traditionally, regardless of the model’s color, I would paint smooth cables blue, and ribbed cables green, then black wash em all. With the Salamanders, due to their armor being green, I’ve opted to paint all the cables blue. It’s just kind of a thing.

Finally back to painting again! Got the green armor done, and started on the black base coats of my Bladeguard.

Been slacking off on my painting for the last month, but with the new Codex release imminent I’m trying to get back to finishing my Bladeguard. I’ve gotten the black basecoat done on all of them, and have done the base silver on the unit. Silver the characters tomorrow and get the black touched up and second coated where needed.

Finished the basecoats of the blacks and the silvers and got the black wash over all that. Tomorrow I start redoing the white and bone basecoats. Other assorted detail work as well, but these guys will need a lot of white and bone.

Base whites and bones done and second coated where needed. I need to get in there and do a few dark yellow ropes and the Mohawk, plus red purity seals, then hit a bunch of that with brown and sepia washes. Start working on the golden yellows and flames after that.

Good to see you're progressing with them, AduroT.

Alright, the Marines themselves are done I do believe. Managed to get thru all the details and washes and touch ups tonight. Got the first basecoat for the base down. I have very nearly gotten my desk at home all cleaned off and set up for use, so I’ll finish that up and then put down the texture on the bases so that can dry for some hours and be ready for washing tonight. Should have them totally finished this time tomorrow and ready to wreck Judy’s Sisters on Sunday.

“Finished” the Bladeguard. I think I’m going to try and go back and redo the eyes. These alternate heads don’t have as defined of lenses as the originals, and I did a poor job picking out where paint should go. My new desk lamp has a magnifying glass built into it though so I’m gonna give that a shot and see how bad I can stress cramp my hand with teeny detail work. Regardless, these chaps are all psyched up to put Judy’s Sisters to the blade tomorrow!

Great looking units mate. The rich green armour, the bases and the power swords are just lovely. Smart tertiary colour choices in the black/silver/bone too.

Nice to see the process of the painting and good luck in the game v sisters!

 tzurk wrote:
Great looking units mate. The rich green armour, the bases and the power swords are just lovely. Smart tertiary colour choices in the black/silver/bone too.

Nice to see the process of the painting and good luck in the game v sisters!

Thanks! Also, I crushed the Sisters. 72-58 iirc.


Back to building models this week, namely some Salamanders characters.

Bray’arth, the Dreadnought, got a couple small details on the top. Namely just a brazier to cover up where the rocket pods normally go, and imitate the official model’s flame. Small Iron Halo for similar reasons of evoking the original model. All he really needs left is for me to drill out and hang some genestealer skulls on his left shoulder.

Built Adrax (on the right). Swapped his right shoulder out for a more plain one so I could adorn it with the standard flame I put on my guys. Do more care for his little shield thing, Too baroque, so I took that off. Lastly slapped a couple of the knee pad icons I use on him.

The model on the left is going to be my Vulkan He’stan. Want a Primaris version of him to match everyone else in my army. Built the main body of the model, and rigged up a Gauntlet of the Forge out of a Hand Flamer. Need to sculp the back of that, and the scales of his salamander hide mantle next, but forgot my sculpting tools at home so I’ll have to do that tonight.

First layer down on Vulkan’s Kesare’s Mantle. Rough kind of diamond hex pattern for lizard scales. Next go back thru and raise up the central columns into more of a ridge. Will also go back later and widen it out on the right side once that arm and shoulder pauldron are in place.

Nice work on the scales, AduroT

My Primaris Vulkan He’stan is more or less finished. I do want to go back and tidy up a couple spots around the cloak, and make him a base, but otherwise this is what he’s gonna look like.

Here’s something a little different today, Rocket trails. Liked these when I saw them made for a unit of Warmachine some year/s back, and just recently found out they’ve since made ones designed for Primaris jump packs as well, so I grabbed enough for all my guys.

Primed them white. Two good coats of Casandra Yellow Shade. Dry brushed on Ulthuan Grey on the lower two thirds. Second coat of Ulthuan Grey dry brushed over the bottom third. Thought they grey looked a bit flat, so hit it with a good coat of Apothecary White Contrast over the bottom half. Probably should have gone a bit lighter with the contrast, but it still looks good. The top tips were painted white and hit with a coat of Hydromiel Yellow Intensity Ink. I got the ink a good awhile ago and it’s gone kind of bad in the bottle, but enough stirring and shaking and digging out the clogged tip and it gave the results I wanted from it.

So yeah, shave the paint off the ends, pop the Inceptors off their current flight stands, patch the holes, and glue em onto these. I might give them new bases as well. The big smoke clouds will cover up most of their lava cracks and kind of waste the work I put into those, so I may save them for future units.

Got a new can of primer yesterday and was able to get these guys sprayed, so I may begin the week’s actual painting goal in earnest, with bonus product placement!

So yeah, half a dozen various recent characters for my Salamanders. Gotta make sure the leadership sets the proper example for their troops. Base green armor done and hit with the green shade. Had a bit of extra time and got the base black done on the Master of Sanctity for bonus. Not much else to say at this stage.

Onto the product placement! I’d grabbed one of the citadel painting handles over a year ago, figuring it would be nice to use for sculpting to help prevent me from grabbing the model by some soft bit I had just worked one. And then I didn’t sculpt anything for over a year. Last week I finally did the Salamander Hide Mantles for Vulkan and the other captain here, and remember I had and used that handle. I indeed found it very useful, and thus promptly bought out the half dozen we had on the shelf for painting. Will let me do a grip of models at a time without having to keep swapping who’s in the handle. They were indeed nice to use last night working on these guys. Something I would recommend if you can get your hands on one (I say right after mentioning I’d already emptied our current inventory of them).

Got the first three Inceptors mounted on their new rocket trail flight stands. I’m redoing their basing entirely, since the large flat bottoms of the smoke would cover up the custom lava cracks, and sit weird on the already textured bases. So I scraped the texture paint off the trio of lavaless bases, glued em down, and retextured and washed the surface. Presto.

As for why only three, turns out I only have a single spare 40mm base I’m aware of. Two of the characters I’m working on painting base plain bases, I figure I’ll move them to a pair of the lava bases once the models are painted and before I do the basing.

Oh, and I didn’t mention where I got these in the first post. They’re from FigurePainters.com.

Those are very cool, I am very into those

Slacked off most of last week and didn’t get much done on these, but I made up for it a bit by painting at home over the weekend, and kept at it today. Got all their base blacks and silvers done and washed those with black. Went back thru and got the white base coats done. Will start getting the details in tomorrow.

I do believe I got the flats on all the various details done. Next step is to go thru all of them with a few different Shades. Probably go ahead and get the Judiciar and Captain off these bases and onto the Inceptors’ old lava bases.

Very nearly done, just need to finish their bases and paint eyes. Get home and do eyes under the magnifying glass, put the texture paint down to sit and dry all day, then wash it in the evening. Probably prime the next six I wanna do and get them started tomorrow night.

Got the character bases nearly finished up yesterday at home, just need one more coat on their lava. Will get that when I’m off here shortly and get some completed glamour shots posted a bit later.

In the meantime I got the next batch started up, a unit of Eradicators and a unit of Suppressors. Got all their greens done, and the black base coat on the Eradicators. Also painted up the Suppressors’ rocket trails.

Alright, pack of six characters all finished up. Phobos Lieutenant, Master of Sanctity, Judiciar, Captain, Primaris Vulkan He’stan, and Adrax Agatone.

Flames looking great, both in braziers and coming out of backpacks! You've really nailed the orange mate, well done!

latest pics are upside down for me...I'll be sending you my chiropractic bill

 tzurk wrote:
Flames looking great, both in braziers and coming out of backpacks! You've really nailed the orange mate, well done!

latest pics are upside down for me...I'll be sending you my chiropractic bill

Yeah, Dakka is weird sometimes like that. Only the thumbnails are upside down, if you click thru the full size images are right side up.

I was hoping to have these guys done already, but alas I hit a lull and slacked off. Got the blacks and silvers done and shaded though. They don’t have Nearly the amount of details the characters did so the whites and colors should go pretty quick. Will still have the Eradicators done before I unleash them on Judy’s Sisters this weekend.

And the Suppressors and Eradicators themselves are done, just need their bases while I’ll do at home today and tomorrow. Note their shoulders! I’m branching out into more Companies, with the Eradicators being done in 3rd Company colors, and the Suppressors in 5th. I plan to go back and redo the shoulders on my Aggressors to move them to 3rd Company as well.

Got the shoulder on the Aggressors redone real quick to move them to the 3rd Company to keep my Eradicators company. Note quite finished with those guys bases yet, just waiting on the one with lava really. Get that done later this morning at home.

In the mean time I got started on the next batch, and a high speed start it is. Assault Intercessors, the Other new unit I’m adding to my Crusade Force to face off against Judy this weekend. The five of them plus the bonus Lt will be my first units of the 4th Company. Probably go back and move the Captain and the Judicator I just finished recently to the 4th as well. No way these’ll be completely finished though, the basing takes too long, but at the rate I’m going they should still be looking good in time for the Saturday throw down.

The lava on the one Eradicator is drying still, but otherwise these two units are fully finished.

The rocket trails for the Suppressors aren’t quite as good as the Inceptor ones, the lower set of exhausts didn’t line up as well on a couple of them. Still pretty good though.

Managed to get these to my nearly finished goal. Just missing eyes and base texture, both which I prefer to do at home now. Crazy painting speed though to get them to this stage in just two days, course now I’m behind on both this weeks comics and tv shows.

Painting goal for the week: First half of my unit of Infiltrators, the new Primaris Techmarine, and a casualty Objective Marker for a Crusade Agenda. Got the full week and not rushing like I did with the Assault Intercessors end of last week, so a bit more leisurely pace, just got the base green armor done and washed.

I don't think I've said it before, but these are possibly my favorite Salamanders . The Green color is just glowing. I also like how you did green and black for the Chaplain.

Thanks! The Apothecary, Librarians, and soon Techmarine follow a similar scheme to the Chaplains. It’s an office alt coloring that some chapters use, and I adopted before the Salamander Supplement came out and contradicted it. Right arm and helmet in the odd color, with the rest in chapter color. Additional I’ve colored job specific wargear like the psychic hood and narthesium in the odd color as well.

Been getting my Salamander back out after so long and working on some additions. I of course had to get an Infurnus Squad, and the Combi-Weapon Lt is just an auto-include, though I did de-Nid him. Got myself a Sternguard squad once I saw they could take a Pyre Cannon, and the rest Combi-Weapons because it looks fluffy. Lastly working on more Impulsors, adding 3 & 4 to my collection. Still need to get their bases done, they’re borrowing 1 & 2’s spare turret upgrades, and it turns out I didn’t have enough large Salamander icons for 4’s sides, but I would call them table ready for a casual game tomorrow.