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I'm sure that the airbrushing technique will speed things up, if nothing else, doing more than 1 base and highlight at once, once you get the hang of it. It wont take a lot longer to do 5 marines than 1.

Looking good.

Is the backpack staying green, or is that going to b painted another color?

Git, never feel bad about posting multiple pictures of an awesome looking mini.

wolfshadow wrote:Is the backpack staying green, or is that going to b painted another color?

I think it's going to stay green. I need to differentiate them from the Salamanders who kind of define "green marine" in 40k & am afraid doing something like black would confuse the issue. I suppose I could do the same kind of purple I have in the shoulder pad (not painted yet... take a look at my MW gallery if you want to see what I'm talking about) or yellow... but I don't want to confuse the figure too much by adding major color elements. My idea is that these guys are supposed to look like traditional, green preying mantises (thus the custom helmets & wings from Blackhand)... so for now they get green backpacks. That's not to say I won't experiment later with special color combos for sergeants, tech marines, characters, etc... but at the moment I'm following the KISS principle.

@Heff: Got it bud, thanks!

Keep it simple stupid. the green looks good, as soon as my IA 10 arrives I'll try and get some photos up for you.

Lining looks great on the helmet! I would've watered it down a tad for the shoulder, but maybe that's just personal preference. Nice job!

I'm still learning how to paint in the lining... I'm usually a "dump it on and let it settle" kind of a wash guy... so the idea of spot-applying my washes is new. Maybe a few pointers from those folks who do this regularly would be helpful?? Please?

Use a fine detail brush! Think of it like blacklining only with a wash instead of paint.

Blacklining?

Painting the gaps black. Eg on a tau you usually get the armour plates separated by a dark colour on the armour plate lines. Essentially doing a very thin line in the shadows or between separate areas, micron pens are often used for this.

I woud say just use a smaller brush and less wash on it, then experiment until it looks right!!

edit: At least, thats my interpretation, i dont pretend to be an expert! Sorry for lecturing you

Got it. I've got 10 "greens" to paint for Adepticon so I think I'll get lots of reps. Granted they're all recycled original plastic beakies... but the paint scheme I'm pioneering here with Ice's MW will be applied to the rest of them... as well as the Vanguard I make with Blackhand's wings. So I'll get a lot of practice.

How soon is adepticon? How much more do you have to complete by then?

Don't get me started....

April 1st.

Need to finish:
2 sternguard (highly converted, tranquility camo)
MoTF (highly converted, tranquility camo)
10 tac marines (thank God Whalemusic360 is building these, green)
Mk-4 Iron Clad (tranquility camo)
3 dop pods (tranquility camo)
2 Mk-1 razorbacks (green)


I'm a bit burnt out on the tranquility pattern so I'm going to get the two razorbacks done next, followed by the Iron Clad. At that point I'll have enough painted that I can start practicing with the army.

Okay, thats a fair bit but you've got time, you can do it Gits!!

The airbrush should make the Razorbacks quick and easy to paint, hand painting tanks sucks. (The pods should also be simple, camo may take a while though i spose)

Jealous that you got the FW 'clad, love that model!

I hope we're going to get a tourney report as well, pretty please!!

There's no way the army would get painted without the airbrush... that's why it's materialized recently in the painting of my kid's necrons and nids & Ice's Mantis Warrior. I'm still trying to work out the bugs so I can do a decent job with it. Once I get into the groove of the camo it actually goes quite quickly... it's all the fiddly crap that goes along with the blending and shading that takes me forever. That's where the airbrush comes in. Now the two sternguard and the MoTF will be done the old fashioned way using wet-blending... but for everything else the airbrush will be used to apply the basic color, shading and any zenithal (sp?) lighting effects that I think I can pull off.

Yes, I will give a full accounting of the event with hopefully some photos to boot.

Looking forward to seeing some airbrushed vehickes Gits.

Airbrushes really shine on the bigger surfaces that a vehicle offers.

I like how your tranquility sergeant is a lefty. There aren't enough south paws in 40k.

have you been able to send the marine for our trade yet!

I cant wait to see your green model done!

My goal is to have squad one done this weekend. I can send it back before the second if you want.

@wolf: Yeah, I like to mix it up... though mostly it's just a matter of what arms I have and what pose I want to try... but still... one of my son's is a southpaw so why not my marine sergeant?

@Sage: actually I have a couple of things to send out... so I'll get yours out too. Just wanted to get a group shot of him with the sergeant before I ship him out to you.

@WM: Yes please... that way I can get a start on the rest of my infantry early on.


And for your entertainment... tonight's progress...



So far, so good. Got a number of the details finished and a number of others on their way. Hand-eye coordination isn't very good tonight so I'm leaving the eyes on the helmet and shoulder pad for tomorrow. The shoulder pad is actually a reddish purple... not red, but for some reason all the camera sees is the red color. I decided to paint the katana as a regular sword rather than a power weapon... I did do the traditional temper line on the though so maybe that's where the real "power" lies. Anyway... just screamed at me to paint it as a normal sword rather than electric blue or some such. I like him. He's really green... but will look more balanced when the base is painted.

Think I'll go work on Thing 2's second zoanthrope... something with no fiddly details at all!

no rush, just came to mind!

that model is looking great, the mantis warrior shoulder pad looks great. what color is the plasma going to be?

I haven't decided... that's one reason it's not painted yet. The core will be blue... I'm thinking either standard metal color or maybe black for the pistol.

He is going to look bulk brilliant, uber-tastic and super-nice. The kindof thing you can spend ages staring at

samwellfrm wrote:I like how your tranquility sergeant is a lefty. There aren't enough south paws in 40k.

QFT! They should bring at least one set of a lefty Marine in their tactical kit, it'd help to add variety...

As for the current PIP, I love how the red / purple shoulder pad stands out, it's really nice!!!

In case you don't have IA10 yet, here's a few more bits of information for you on how they see the Mantis Warriors working. I've only had a brief flick through, but so far it's great.

They were (At the time of the Badab War) from warrior tribes on a death world. The death world background has tempered the White Scar's ferocity, giving them a much more focused approach.

They have the standard organisational structure, but because they lack resources they are constantly fighting under strength; particularly in relation to heavy vehicles. Continuous attrition has led them to concentrate on wargear that fits their tactics and that they can maintain themselves. One of the things they always keep a large number of are Thunderhawks.

The Mantis warrior librarians use their arts to aid ambushes and sowing confusion amongst the enemies. Their special character (Ahazra Redth, chief librarian) swaps Combat Tactics for any units that don't have dedicated transports, or terminator armour for the Infiltratiors USR.

So all in all... this all fits your background nicely. You're going to enjoy the read

Man would it be cool if the FW interpretation flowed naturally into my own. Really looking forward to seeing what they've done now and excited about where it may lead me & my army.

Thanks my friend, I'll put that IA on my "to buy" list!

Looks great. I really love the different shades of green. brilliant. Just give the eyes a gloss coat. that'd look good. Or the old gw black ink would work, it has a nice gloss finish...

Imp. Monkey

Maybe you could try purple, since green and purple are at opposite ends of the color wheel.

EDIT: Realising my lack of bieng specific I was referring to the plasma in the plasma gun.

I don't think he wants him to look like the Hulk.

LOL MasterSlowPoke !!!

I think red is on the opposite of the color wheel from green. Yellow is opposite to purple.