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At the insistance of my darling wife, I am going to document the progress of my new BA army here on Dakka.

Right out of the gate, I had to decide how I was going to paint them. Not what color scheme, mind you, but the step by step process that will be used to complete 3000+ points of red/black wonderfulness!! So, after spending a few hours doing test marines (which all came out nice but all have distinctive differences when it comes to the finished product), I have decided that my best bet is going to be to CHEAT!!! I'll be mixing up a jar of a dark brownish/red and airbrushing the lot of them with it so that I'll have a nice dark color to highlight off of. I've also decided that this is going to be a 'show' army (translate that to taking at least twice as long to complete), which means a 5 up highlight - minimum, hand painted squad markings & shoulder pads, etc..

Once I get the mix down for the basecoat, I'll post the mix (for those of you that like the finished results and don't feel like spending hours trying to figure out how to get the color 'just right'), as well as the breakdown used on the rest of the minis.

As soon as I get the camera out, I'll start slapping pics up for your enjoyment/critism! Questions/comments are welcome!

I have settled on the color progression that I'll be using and I am quite happy with the results.

Primer black, basecoat with dark flesh. Red gore to a 50/50 read gore/blood red mix, adding progressively more blood red for highlights. For the final highlight, just the slightest amount of fire orange here and there. It takes some time, but I really think the results are worth it.





I'm not really happy with the way the pics turned out. A lot of the blending is lost. As soon as I have more time I'll set up a light box and take some better pics.

Looking good man l understand the camera situation. I'm in the middle of painting the same SH termies and I know they can be a pain in the butt.

Hey Khan,

First model is looking good and glad to hear your wife is supporting your BA and the progress log. Did you end up using your airbrush on the terminator? I've got a progress log going as well for Blood Angels and am using an airbrush on the models too. Look forward to seeing more of your updates. Do you have a list of models you plan on painting up?

LOL!! My army building skills have always leaned more toward the 'WOW, I have to paint up a unit of tose!' more than the the 'This army will kick butt", if you know what I mean. That said, I've got a Baal Pred, Sanginary Guard (NMM maybe) & a box of Death Company, which I plan on mixing with regular marines to get a couple of tac squads going, Scouts (that I got from my SW battle force box, since I have 20+ metal SW scouts already!), Lemartes and one of the other winged characters. I've also have the SH Termies.

I've nixed airbrushing, for base coat, on the infantry figs, although I am planning on doing some really neat stuff on the vehicles with one! I can't justify the time and mess involved just for a base coat.

I think these show the blends a bit better.





I am going to attempt to bust out a little of this army every day, just to see how long something of this standard will take (Termie took me the better part of 5 hours!). This is the goal, but probably won't be the reality, as my new tattoo shop opens Monday! We'll see how it all rolls out! Wish me luck!

Looking good so far, the tactical marine looks like he needs a wash of baal red to make the sunk in areas stand out a bit more. Good luck with the rest of the army! Also, if you have not yet painted the dead termie from the SH set, check my blog (in my sig) the conversion was great fun and really easy to do!

Actually, I'd say give the tac marine a badab black wash

Black is too harsh a contrast for the red imo, I start with 1-2 washes of ogryn flesh as a base because I contains a red/brown hue that allows for a more natural shadow. After the final highlight apply baal red to tie all of the elements together.

Lennysmash wrote:Black is too harsh a contrast for the red imo, I start with 1-2 washes of ogryn flesh as a base because I contains a red/brown hue that allows for a more natural shadow. After the final highlight apply baal red to tie all of the elements together.

I will try that on my next BA I paint, thanks.

The tac marine actually has the same deep shadows that the termie has. I have NO IDEA why it looks like that in the pics. Hoefully when I set up my light box and get some shots, you'll be able to see the differences.

Working on the Termie Librarian today! Pics as soon as he's finished.

After a hiatus from my Blood Angel adventure (I had to take a break and buy a tattoo studio), I finallly got to sit down and finish up my Librarian. Here's a pic.......

The Librarian is sweet.
How did you do the power weapon effect?

I like it! Where did you get the skull steps for the librarian? I might have to use those...

Looking good, you certainly have a high standard

The force weapon effect was done using a base of black and then layering a dark turquoise over it, adding progressively more white to it. After it was done, a wash of the mid-tone turquoise was applied. It is a long process, but worth it to get the effect achieved. I did something similar in the power cables, so that they appear to have energy pulsing into the axe.

The steps are part of the mini, which came out of the Space Hulk box, but if you' d like to make some, I can't imagine that it would be to difficult to produce with some plasti-card and a handful of skulls.

Sorry about the delay, but getting a tattoo studio up and running is a bit time consuming! Here are a few of my latest Termies.


Just finished up the base on this one


Once again, Thanks for looking!

these are great! ill watch this a ton!

J'santai Khan wrote:LOL!! My army building skills have always leaned more toward the 'WOW, I have to paint up a unit of tose!' more than the the 'This army will kick butt", if you know what I mean. That said,

Yea right!! I have had my butt handed to me more times by you then I care to count but it was always fun when you did. But its a great looking army so far as I know it would be. And best of luck with the shop we might have to go down your way for a game and tattoo.