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I will be nipping that beaky marine's pose on the right for my Blood Angels Tactical Squad in the near future. Love it!

Great work sir. I'm debating doing something similar for my Tactical Squads but using running legs for half the squad, and standing legs for the other half so that if they pile out of a drop pod & combat squad split into two squads I'll be able to tell at a glance which members of the squad go in which demi-squad.

Great work so far. Hopefully in time my Blood Angels will look this good.

Keep sharing your stuff and take it easy for now LDP

-Red__Thirst-

Nice idea giving the whole squad a thematic pose.

I find batch painting less tedious in batches of 3 or 4. For a 10 man squad I usually do 3,3,4 then you at least get small doses of completed models to keep you motivated.

EDC

Really nice posing there! I'm always impressed when people go the extra mile on Tactical Marines, and this certainly qualifies.

That posing is great. Really good stuff. Did you buy the legs on their own, or do you have a few boxes of Assault marines who are going to get static legs now?

Patience is a virtue, and a who squad at the same standard as your characters would look great. Just hang in there!

Great squad man! Batch painting, great to see you getting into painting more of the meat to your army, I'm doing a 3,3,3,2 for my henchmen groups as I couldn't stomach a 11, 11, 11

I'll be watching with great interest

The models you make/paint look so cool :O the power fist sergeant's pose looks so very badass *o*

Thanks everybody for your words and the overwhelming feedback

I finally have an update on the tactical squad, albeit a boring one. I finally completed the mundane phases of painting on all of them, and it took so much longer than I thought it would. Base blue colour is done, details based black and model washed with blue. Was a very repetitive and boring process, but thankfully, it only gets better from here.



Now, over the past week i've been formulating plans for my next captain and command squad. The inspiration is very much derived from a sort of cities of death, raven guardy/crimson fist style conflict, meaning the aesthetic would be gritty, would include cloaks, and would include a bunch of lads all posed as if they're planning to get the job done. I'm not sure about their weapons loadouts and am open to ideas from others. I went on a colossal inspiration spree as far as bits are concerned, but kept hitting multiple minor walls that left me annoyed as the realism of creating this project to a detail level that I desire was beginning to wane. Hence is why i've decided to share a phase of my P&M that I don't usually with you guys - the planning. I'm not sure what my intention is with this, perhaps getting it out to you guys will help inspire me to address these walls or get ideas and inspirations to overcome the problems that this project would entail.

The parts I planned to use for the bodies mostly centres around the Mor Deythan bodies, with Recon squad bodies as backups if certain ones are too difficult to incorporate as Ultramarines and not be too 'Raven Guardy'.





The first problem with this is the fact that attached to the bodies is that right arm bit, more specifically the Raven Guard-ass shoulder pad. Now, looking at the 360 degree images of the Mor Deythan on FW, it looks easy enough to cut off and tidy, but it may ruin some of the minor details such as the grenades and that. Next is the fact that the torso bit is a very plain and unappealing design to me. That bit has 3 copies on even the SM Tactical sprue, and I don't want my Finest 2nd Company Veterans having that rubbish adorning their torsos. The perfect bits would be these UM torsos from FW:



This however is overly ambitious, as this, with my modelling experience, which goes very little beyond simple kitbashing, is almost impossible to incorporate into the Deythan body pieces, which apart from the aforementioned problems are perfect for the job.

Next is an element that is problem free, and relatively simple. I'd want them to have these shoulders, as they're so bulky and cool, and simply gorgeous . The other side would have some form of Ultramarines inconography.



As far as helmets are concerned, they are also problem free, but i'm having trouble going about deciding what to do. I love this mk. III Iron command helmet so it'll definately feature (if only once, then probably on the captain, or his praetor [Roman Historian meddling with 40k company structure :p]):



Question is though, do I use these helmets for every member of the squad, and then a unique one for the captain? Or this one only on the captain, and then mundane regular Mk. III helmets on the others? Or do I embark on a quest to find the 6 coolest, unique helmets from across the 30 and 40k galaxy?

As far as the captain goes, I'm looking at Shadow Captain Solaq. I'd almost certainly do a helmet swap, because I like his one, but something about just isn't quiiiiite right there. In all honesty, again, Solaq is just another case of having the near perfect legs/body specifications for my project. Dynamic, unique and has a cloak moulded cloak



The last, and furthest from least speed bump, is cost. I'd have to independently acquire the bits from various ebay sources, which is fine, but Solaq costs no less than $85NZD on his own on ebay because of the stupid way GW decided to sell him and try to boost their land speeder sales. I don't have a problem with the costs of bits, but shipping to New Zealand effectively doubles and occasionally triples costs, which is unacceptable.

Sorry that this post is coated in a musk of frustrated annoyance, but just know that its for an ambitious and badass cause. If I could find a way to overcome all the problems associated in a satisfactory manner, I would deliver what would hopefully be the best looking miniatures that I have ever made. And I need you guys' brainpower to help me find ways to overcome the problems/decision make with me

Thanks for taking the time to see me situation, and thanks for checking in as always peoples!
Promise the next update will have more paint!


LDP

Interesting seeing your planning side. Ambiguous indeed!

EDC

Yeah, I sort of had an epiphany about how much goes into that process and thought people may be interested in it.

Heyo
So i've decided to take Knightley's advice and split the painting from here, im going to finish these 3 first, then 4, and then the final 3 which includes the grav cannon guy. To paint them all at once beyond the point i'd gotten them to would be to send myself into a spiralling vortex of unending agony! Ahahaha not sure what I have against batch painting so much, but I just need a little variety, so that's what i've decided. The armour is fully finished now on these boys, just have to do the details and bases, and then i'll be moving on to the next batch.

Also, for those following Paradigm's 10th painting comp, you may/may not have noticed that I'll be painting some DKOK for it. I want them to look withered and gritty, which goes against every learned painting fibre in my body. Suffice to say, its not exactly my style, but i'd love for it to be on my palette, because that, realistic and battle hardened aesthetic is one of my favourites, but I just find clean and crisp paint jobs easier to perfect So any general advice on painting gritty would be much appreciated

LDP

Wrong as it seems to be giving advice to a painter of your calibre, but as gritty is kind of my 'thing' I figured I ought to share some advice.

Highlighting, or lack of it, is the key. You don't really want to be going higher than a mid-tone, and use washes to tie everything together. In general, you want to be using a wash as the last layer on any given surface.

As for adding weathering, sponge weathering is worth looking up for chipped armour panels and such, and for mud and such, there's plenty of good tutorials out there that are all slightly different. Just experiment on space parts before you commit to a method on a mini, as weathering should be the last thing you do.

Look good, man! Out of curiousity, what colors do you use for the armor? Macragge blue highlighted with calgar blue?

Love the fact you compiled a rough draft like concept artists due except instead of thumbnails and reference you used bits.

I am excited for your conversions.

Those Tactical Marines are gorgeous! I'm jealous.

@Paradigm cheers for the tips buddy. Yeah, i've watched a tutorial or two, and will be doing some chipping and will have to highlight more subtly with realistic blends instead of the edge majority that I do on the SMs. The mud bases are daunting me most. I want it to look gruelling and effective but not OTT, you know? Going to be tough to perfect, as I'm not sure how to amass a good amount of volume on a base. Also the question of whether to put basing material on their clothing - will have to decide on the night I suppose :0

@TheCustomLine Thanks mate. For armour I base with Macragge blue, and wash with drakenhoff nightshade. Following this, I layer Macragge blue again, leaving the recesses showing. The armour is then highlighted with altdorf guard blue, a 50/50 mix of altdorf guard and space wolves grey, 25/75 mix of the same and finally a pure space wolves grey dot in corners and certain edges. Sometimes I glaze Guilliman over it all to bring it together, but it depends.

@Stormwall Ah yes, that's a good way of looking at it. I've actually done some concept sketches :0. Haha, here's to hoping they happen

@War Kitten Thanks bud, hope this next update maintains the standards for you

Made progress today. Put in quite a bit of time, but the progress looks little. However, i'm quite chuffed with it if I don't say so myself
Will do more tonight, more to look forward to for the next update I suppose - these 3 will likely be finished by then. Stay tuned! More on the way.

Excellent progress on the Ultras.

I really like the way your red helmets turn out.

EDC

Great progress, LDP!

Looking SWEET! I love the VI on that one guy's helmet. Also the writing looks amazing as well. Keep up the great work!

Squiggles, This makes me happy to no end!

@Knightley I'm glad you showed me ways of the squiggle and I get to experience them first hand my minis wouldn't be the same without your influence

The first bunch is finished. Pleased with the result but god does it take a long time for me to paint these days.

Very nice tacticals you've got going there... and the army shots earlier were awesome.

great work.

Super work! I wouldn't worry about the speed, it's the quality that matters!

I suppose so, Paradigm. Thanks a bunch Mad Appreciate your kind words.

Fantastic. Although you say it takes along time you've churned this out is a couple of days. Which is a much faster pace than me!

EDC

Very Nice!

Looks great!
A squad of them will be excellent!

Cheers guys

What’s on the back of the sarge’s pointing hand? Or is it just a built up gauntlet?

Excellent work as always. And you might be slower then you used to be, but you are still faster then me. And better. So keep on keeping on, you’ve got the rest of the squad to finish!

Good evening all
Made good progress today. Not a lot of interesting or cool looking progress, but blasted out a lot of the mundane stuff, like the macragge blue layer on all of their armour, as well as the initial highlight on two. Also set up a shelf, and put the finished models that I feel proud of up there. Completely finished the highlights of Tacitus between groups of the tactical marines as well. Assembled a praetor as well, and am looking forward to painting him up. He's going to serve as a championesque marine - I'm not familiar with praetor rules in FW but I just call him a praetor and part of my Roman-ass hierarchy that i've interwoven into the chapter. OOI if anyone knows praetor rules i'd love to know them

Nice builds as usual!

Praetors are basically 30k version of Chapter Masters stat-wise, the major difference being that they also unlock Rites of War which open up new options for the list at the expense of others, meaning you can tailor the force. For example, one allows you Drop Pods as DTs (30k Marines don't normally get that) and grants DS to Terminators (again, that doesn't come as standard) on the condition that everything in your army deploys via deep strike in one way or another. There's similar ones for tanks and for flyers, as well as several Legion-specific ones.

In 40k, though, I'd just run him with cap/CM stats.