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So I have a rather large space marine force (over a company worth) and have been painting them for a couple months now. Now, my paint skills are not great but I think it is table top standard. Here is what they currently look like.



Here is another thing, I play both out of the SM codex and the BA codex. My Codex Marines are a Vulkan Mech list and BA are a DOA list but would like to paint them all up as one chapter and come up with some fluff for them.

It is worth saying I use flat black Krylon to primer my models.
Last night I was practicing painting wings with one of the Sanguinary Guard models I have. While paint was drying on the wings I started highlighting the model with fortress grey and was loving the effects I was getting. I went on to do gold laurels on the model and did a few of the purity seals.

While I did put some time into doing my red models, I think they will look better in black (and would also be faster to paint!). Now I know there are tons of people with black space marines but in my area there is only 1 other.

So, here is the general scheme I want to try on a few models.



Any thoughts?

Looking good, if you use a light spray of Dullcote it will take the shine off the models and they will look awesome.

Gryphonne Sepia Wash on any silver paint gives a good gold effect, you will need a couple of layers and it gives a good layered gold.

Really like the Blue Purity Seals as well, might have to steal that!

Here is a test model I did quickly last night.


Picture is a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea of where I might want to go color wise.

mwnciboo, I did the 3 sepia washed over chainmail for the aquila. IMO it turned out great!

Opinions on the new scheme? Keep in mind he is not based so I find it hard to compare to the old marines pictured above.


Could a mod move this to the appropriate P&M forum, I was originally going to discuss some background for the army, but decided not to right now.

Thanks!

They definately have a Deathwatch thing going on. Paint your models whatever colors satisfy you. Players paint their models diffferent colors for various reasons, some for visual aesthetics, some for speed, some just basecoat them. If black is what your into, go for it! The prototype looks great.

The black looks good but I would suggest toning the hard lining down a bit. When it comes to black even a dark grey hardline is going to pop so you don't need to do the over the top codex grey.

Wow, I like sharing little tips and to be honest I am probably at a similiar level of painting to yourself so I could probably learn a thing or to from your highlighting.

I found a good way of doing plasma coils, paint the whole coil white. Then mix some ice blue with a bit of white and a dab of water and paint it on the lower half. So it is top half white bottom half Ice blue. I then got some Asuryen Blue Wash and thinned it slightly before running it gently along the ridges. Do this several times and you get a nice crisp clean effect that mimics a glowing coil...

Washes are great, if thinned and don't drown a mini in them just do small areas with the relevant wash if you do the whole mini you just make it look "Muddy!"...

Try using a wash of Badab Black just over your highlights to tone them down a bit. I've found that a very light hardline of boltgun metal or codex gray followed by a black wash makes for a very nice and not-too-dramatic highlight.

mwnciboo's plasma coils are almost exactly how I do mine, but mine are green: goblin for the base, highlighted with scorpion, and the "corner edges" of the coils are done in skull white. Then I wash with thraka green 2-3 times and it looks very nice.

I like the color scheme, but can't tell if the pauldron is brown, red, or orange. Can we get a better shot of that or enlighten us as to what you painted it with?

Thanks for the comments guys! As for the plasma coils, I will have to give that a try sometime. This mini was just a test. Personally I like extreme highlights, but will try to tone them down and see how it looks. Still can't make up my mind if I like this scheme better than my original. Later I will put up a comparison shot with this mini and one of my older ones.

Next thing is if I do decide to repaint, I am going to scrap my current homemade chapter and redo the fluff and everything. This time I would do a BA successor. As I said, I do have Vulkan mech list that I play out of the SM codex. But that is a fight for another day.

One thing, I am not a great painter and am not looking to paint to a golden daemon level, but I do appreciate all of the advice and will try it.

@Gavin,

The pauldrons are blood red over brown.

I agree with element, i have mentioned in another topic that i get a bit OCD with my Cadians, however my Marines i just want quick tabletop, if you ever want to remove paint here is something i was looking into that may be of interest.
http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/product_info.php?products_id=17270

Hey guys,

Here are some side by side shots of my old scheme vs. this experimental one.






I know you are not supposed to use flash for pics of minis, but the lighting here in my apartment is rather pathetic.

I know that ultimately I should choose what I do according to my own preference, but I really don't know what I want to do which is why I am asking for input.

At first glance upon my newly painted marine, I was not terribly impressed, but now that I can see it side by side with an older one I must say I rather like this new scheme. But if I do decide to repaint, the marines in my Vulkan force go last. This at least keeps me at a fully painted tournament sized army. I also think that with the new scheme, they will look nice beside a GK force in an apocalypse game!

Thoughts?

Wow, the funny thing is I've been painting my Blood Angels successors in a similar scheme for years. (go figure, black Blood Angels aren't unique) and I've been considering an army repaint for them.
I realize my simple black scheme looks a little er, simple? I've tried the gray highlighting but I can't get that to work out well at all. I used to think of painting them standard BA red but I like to stand out from the crowd. Now I'm thinking it would be a pretty easy repaint to turn them into Flesh Tearers

I know that overall black BA are not UNIQUE. But in my area, there really are not many players with black marines of any flavor. I ultimately would like to make my homebrew chapter a BA successor. That said, I do like to play my Vulkan force from time to time and ultimately want to have 1 chapter and fluff for it.

Any more thoughts?

Okay so some people say it is a Deathwatch vibe, maybe not or maybe its because he is sporting a Bionic Eye targeter thingy...

I like it because the Marine is well highlighted and this makes a big difference to the final result, it doesn't look like some one has spray painted it black painted a bit of detail and left it at that, it looks as if effort, time and attention has been paid and therefore the model looks good.

Brother Julian, you could resurrect those marines, but that black looks really Glossy (or is that just the camera or how good your highlights are??) .

Thanks for the comment mwnciboo. Funny thing is I did spray and detail. But I still want them to look good!

I love the new scheme, very nice! I imagine the gloss is from the camera flash. I live in a ill-lit apartment as well and have found that using a makeshift light box goes a long way towards better pics. Here's what I do:

First lay a sheet of white paper on the table or surface you're taking your pics on. Then, tape a sheet of paper to something tall so that it forms a slope and set this on top of the first sheet. Finally, stand a sheet of paper on either side of the slope and have something behind them to keep the standing (cereal boxed are great for that). Use a desk lamp with a natural light bulb to light the "box" and use the macro setting on your camera.

The best thing about this is that there's no need to store the box anywhere, you just put the paper back in your printer. Wally World sells a natural light desk lamp for $20 and they're great to use for painting as well as photography, so it's worth the investment.

Thanks for the suggestion Gavin,

I do have a thin layer of Ard' Coat on the mini to protect it, make the colors pop, and also give a natural light highlight. The camera flash made it look MUCH glossier than it really is. Now the red marine pictured is caked in it, but i have learned a little of that stuff goes a long way.

So I got curious to see how the Sanguinary Guard would look in this type of color scheme so I painted one up!

Here you go!





I see a couple minor mistakes that I need to go back and clean up, but overall I'm proud of this mini! I think it turned out pretty good. As for the Glaive, I am going to go back and put some lightning designs on the sword once I go out and get the appropriate colors to do it. For the wings I followed the Seven Days of Sanguinius painting guide. Its not the greatest looking wings, but it is very simple and effective.

What do you guys think?

Now that's very nice. I like the wings, actually - not overdone and fairly simple. Is it Fortress grey with skull white highlights?

I'd like to see the wings in red maybe...

The wings are indeed just Fortress Grey with Skull White highlights.

Here is the video I looked at to help with painting the wings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw8dex2nFjg