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Lennysmash wrote:Oh so you're the reason their sold out again so quickly.

Great thread here chap, one small favour to ask really when you talk about using plasticard do you think you'd be able to give some idea of the thickness. I'm new to plasticard and still trying to figure out what each thickness is best for.

Also you keep referring to photo-etch, I was just wondering if there was another company outside of the FW stuff that you were using, for example the grating, is that from FW or another manufacturer?

Sorry for the noobish questions but like I said very new to the whole plasticard and photo-etch business.



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Loving the models so far btw, I think the greave conversion is great, simple yet effective. The bases are looking phenomenal too. Will you be casting them so you have some spares or do you plan to make each one individually?

THat would be me. I just bought 2 boxes of IH too. :-) Mine arrived a few minutes ago. Except for 1 miscast head, great looking stuff.

BrotherArgos wrote:Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ... Or so I kept telling myself for the last 2-3 years.

It had been ages since I had the urge to paint one of my Salamanders, I had dabbled with the Imperial Guard, done some nice work with Battlefleet Gothic and generally mucked about without actually painting anything even vaguely Space Marine orientated.

New toys kept arriving and going into the "Space Marine" box, money spent on a pile of plastic that was getting bigger and bigger. It is disconcerting to be the owner of one of the biggest Space Marine websites in the world and not have the urge to play or paint Space Marines. You feel in some strange way disloyal, a bit of a failure, almost like living a lie. I have always liked Space Marines, loved my Salamander Marines, I created the best space marine painter program on the web ... hell my namesake even got a place in the Salamander books by Black Library. But I could not stir any interest in picking up and painting a Space Marine, "Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ..." kept going around in my head.

Maybe that is the problem, perhaps I am too hooked up "Painting Green", being THE "Salamander" player. So I am going to try and paint some other Space Marines and try not to feel oddly guilty and importantly I am not going to try and make them "works of art". The nearest I ever got to the Demons was making the cut in 2003 at Baltimore, its time to put that dream away and just enjoy painting some stuff to whatever standard takes my fancy.

So I started thinking about what I would like to paint that wasn't a "Salamander", I decided I like old Chapters as they have cool looking old armour etc.

So a founding chapter perhaps? ...

Well to cut a lot of self analysis waffling short, I decided this week to try and paint an Iron Hand Space Marine.

Here is the work in progress ... still need to work on the purity seal and I am not happy with the bolter casing either ... but its a start and my first Space Marine in over 2 yrs. I am waiting for Forgeworld to deliver the Decals for the shoulderpads!

these guys look really good. I'm glad to see an iron hands army under way. in all the time I've played I've never seen someone actually put one on the tabletop. it will definitely be unique.

I love the work on these guys - very impressive look what can be a dull colour scheme!

Nicely done, especially as inspiration for a chapter, and 1st founding at that, which gets little if any face time let alone someone spending the time to convert and paint them. BTW, I was curious how those FW decal sheets would look, they jump right out which is nice and do not seem to dull with the back ground color.

These are really cool, deff looking forward to more. 2 questions though.
1) Have you seen the Maxmini Bionics set? Would be good to use for this for sure.
2) Why isnt this a PM Blog? Might wanna ask a mod to move it.

@ Lennysmash : The plasticard I usually use is .25mm thickness. I have a full range between 0.1 and 1mm in case but the .25mm seems the most useful to me. The photoetch in this case is from Kotobukiya in Japan who have a nice range of "mech" surface details. I might well cast the bases once I am satisfied with what I am producing.

@ Generalstoner : I think the FW decals are stunning, would definately recommend them!

@ whalemusic360 : The leg I used above is from MaxMini and the post just kind of "grew" as I got into it

Any chance of a quick step by step on how you did the cog edging on the Leg Greave?

cool thanks, I have a selection of thickness think the closest i have is a 0.3 but i'll have a little play with it.

Here are some pictures of tonight's work ... I only used a single light to take the pictures, should have used the 2-3 I normally used but its 1am and I am too tired to get them out.

Here is the current work on the new base ... still need to work on the rust and blood (from the wounded marine) ...



Once again I am pleased with the look of the Forgeworld Decals .. and with the shadows the bionic leg looks a little dark (needed more lights), but you can see further down its is quite bright.



The bionic leg is now not shaded and you can see the "pistons" etc that make up the Maxmini.eu bionic leg, it was too dark with just boltgun, so I added some brass and mithril silver.



In this picture if you look carefully you can see the bones protruding from the remains of the arm ... Once the figure is glued to the base, I will deal with the blood pattern on the floor.



Lastly the view from behind ... the Tactical decal felt so start I ran a dark "filter" over it and added some scratches running it down it ..



I like all the results, but this figure is pushing 5hrs now and beyond the limits of what I wanted to spend on a rank and file figure, so I need to finish it off quickly and move on.

The good news is that I have a handle on painting bionics now and should be able to do them quickly next time.

Well it was quite a good weekend

On Saturday morning I got the following two deliveries: -



There should be enough bits for me to make some very interesting pre-heresy armour Iron hands and plenty of Bionic parts for hands/arms



The brushes are for the Holidays ... luckily I am not working after the 24th ... till the 4th of January, so I wanted to get some new brushes for a good 10 days of fun during the holidays.

You might be surprised to note the size if you can make it out ... I paint with size 2 brushes, most people use size 1 or 0 ... but the important thing to note is that you paint with the "tip" of the brush and the Series 7 brushes have the finest "tips" of any brushes I have tried (sadly thats a lot of brushes). The heft of the size 2 brush fits my hand nicely and I can paint detail just as well as I can with a 000 size brush from any other brush maker.

If you haven't tried Windsor & Newton Series 7 "Miniature" brushes ... I recommend them completely, I first used one years ago when Bobby Wong and I met up in New York to do some painting together. Once I had used them I never looked back!

I also did some work on my breastplate and a new Shoulderpad ... both of which I hope to get moulded after the holidays



I need to put an "end" on the new cable I ran on the breastplate ... but thats just minor greenstuff work and should take minutes.

Which Forgeworld packs did you get? I see some preheresey armour and what looks to be a Special Weapon pack and some sort of Charachter pack?

One thing that would be kinda cool, is to have either a genestealer face looking up out of the vent, or maybe a skull....

You've inspired me to do iron hands now damn you!!

Very nice stuff as usual dammit! would everyone stop being better at evrerything than me!

Sunday was quite a productive day ... I finished the base for my wounded marine, added the blood effects I wanted to try with Tamiya Clear Red, started work on a new marine and a new base.

First off here is the finished base / blood effects top shot: -



and a more normal shot ... but this time with some underlighting to try and bring the weathering / metallics out a little more: -



My feeling after the shot was that it was too "harsh/garish" and I need to diffuse the light source to get the effect I wanted ... we live and learn!

I thought it was about time for a small group shot to show progress ... one of the things I like seeing most in other peoples blogs is a "group shot / progress shot" ... it gives the feeling of moving forward, so here is mine: -



There is definitely a rewarding feeling to seeing the progress one has made ... that warm glow of achievement, I know a lot of people finish armies quickly, but I always make slow progress normally and this is a good pace for me.

Lastly the base for the next marine was created, the marine has the claw foot from the IH box set of bionics and I wanted to try and emphasise that. I came to the conclusion that while crossing some pipes the marine had stood on them with his claw foot and started crushing them while stepping over. I also wanted to "wrap" the claws around the pipes to emphasise the foot more.

So I started by choosing the square tiles plasticard and building the pipe work on it, I used tubes of plastic 2mm in diameter, with a strip of plasticard over the top to "bind" them together. It took a couple of wasted attempts to work out how to deform them well ...



In the end I used another set of legs, held them with snub nosed pliers and heated them with a lighter till they were "hot". The first attempt failed as they were not hot enough (trial and error), so I heated them more till I got the imprint I wanted as can be seen above.

I also cut out a panel and did the same trick as I had on the last base, but this time with a panel being unscrewed and just not returned to its original position. I was going to have to find some small screws to finish the base properly

Here you can see all the assembled pieces with the claw foot in place, note the claws on the marines foot had been bent to wrap around the pipes: -



Now I just needed to find some small screws!

@ wolfshadow : You named them all correctly ... Some of the pieces are slightly mis-cast .. hopefully nothing too bad though! Typical forgeworld!

@ Tekeino : Nice idea ... too late for that base but consider it banked

@ mullet_steve : Practice Steve ... that and an open mind is all it takes!

These are just wonderful!

I'm amazed at the sum of details you manage to mark out on those minis...

And I love your bases!!!

Will follow this thread with attention...

These are some stunning miniatures! Very nicely done!

I am going to pick up a series 7 size 2 brush now Really trying to improve my painting at the moment, so I hope this will help me along the way!

The Fourth Marine finished and I went and got my lamps from the loft to take some better photos

Here is a group shot ... the eyes on the very first marine I did still bug me .. compare them to the left most marine and they appear "flat" .... I am going to go back and shade them as I did on the remainder. Apart from that I am very pleased with the way they are looking ... the blue lenses, rusty bases, the FW decals and the weather technique are working well together!



Here is the fourth Marine most probably in terms of painting the one I am most pleased with ... all the experiences from the previous three came together for him.



The minor bolter modification also worked nicely too .. its almost subtle, feels like it was part of the original model which is the usually a sign of success.



The weathering is possibly too subtle ... I might go back and add a little more .. especially on the legs.

Finally here are the current items for moulding, I have added a new breastplate and finished the old one with greenstuff and a small rivet. I decided to use a hex nut as a belt emblem as it felt appropriate given the company clan emblem.



With the lighting set up correctly, I got much clearer photo's, my only problem is no place to keep the lights outside of the loft ... going to have to think about that one as I definitely prefer the pictures taken with them.

Edit : oops ... forgot to mention ... did you notice the tiny rusty screws next to the open panel ? <grins>

Amazing work, the blue lens really make the whole thing pop.

I really like these alot. I am quite fond of your bases and I think I might have to borrow your idea of the diamond plated plastic-card. How difficult is it to cut that stuff?

Excellent work.

I particularly liked the idea of the wounded marine, although I would imagine even an Astartes would lose more blood than that to loss of limb.

I want one. The marines, the bases, the paint, all awesome!

Coming along beautifully! Love all those characterful rim additions. That bionic leg rocks!

How many and what sort of lamps do you use? I'm currently on the hunt for some good ones!

Are you going to paint an entire army or just a few marines?

Looks incredible so far, keep it up.

This is great. Only loyalist chapter I have any interest in. Good to see your doing them justice. Keep up the good work.

wow .. lots of comments ... thanks guys

@ Grass4hopper : Yes I love the blue lenses too .. they "pop" against the models nicely and break the monochromatic feel (as the base does too)

@ Synister_Intent : Your welcome to borrow the idea, and either sharp scissors or GW clippers cut it with ease .. simply file smooth after.

@ VenerableBrotherPelinore : I did think about that quite a bit, I had envisaged him advancing slowly towards the threat and therefore this is not the location he was shot in. Second when I checked the fluff in detail supposedly the Larraman's Organ starts a space marine clotting almost immediately ... which could also arrest the bloodflow quickly.

@ whalemusic360 & iior : <smiles> Thank you

@ wickedcarrot : I got mine from an online-reseller ... Here Very strong, I recommend using a diffusion / light tent.

@ Smitty0305 : No idea to be honest ... the shameful admittance is that I am painting till I run out of enthusiasm. However with the holidays coming up I should keep going till the end of the year at least I actually would like to finish at least a basic army with them if possible.

Beautiful work. As a bit of a base obsessive, I must ask: have you considered casting and selling bases? Seriously impressive stuff.

Loving the attention to detail her both with your building and painting.

Keep it going. you're on a roll!