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Hi, I am new to the whole table top gaming. Just got into it early September. I have been a fan of 40k for many years since the first Dawn of War game but could not resist any longer to its original form. I was just inspired by all the great miniatures I have seen painted and hope to have a top quality painted army as I get into this hobby.

My friend got more into the fluff by reading the books and online info. I have just been getting into it as well. So randomly one night he was testing me on the original chapters and I said Blood Scars, guess I combined Blood Angels with White Scars... But we thought that was a cool name so I decided to build a custom space marine chapter army. I will be following the Blood Angels Codex.

I am new to painting miniatures but I do have artistic experience, studied some form of art all through grade school and went to a design high school for film. Totally did a 180 in college. So I wanted something to re touch with that artistic side and what better than painting some cool figures and battling with them. My friend is writing all the fluff for them.

I found this site randomly and saw the Space Marine Painter. I am basically doing a cross pattern of a crimson style red with a dark grey.

I am taking lessons from a new friend at a local hobby store that does lessons real cheap and takes commissions for local jobs from 40k to flames. He has been playing for 12 years. I have also been looking online and come across great tutorials so I am looking at all kinds of stuff to see what I will do. I like to do things right.

I am using vallejo paints but I am yet to find a brush that I like. I am probably going to go with one that Les uses from awesomepaintjob. I love his work. My buddy that is teaching me has an interesting style, he does not like using metallic paints, washes or dry brush so he does a lot of layering or blending. Plus he loves to lick his brush instead of water. He does do some amazing work on the HQ and other more important units.


Here is my original scheme before ever painting a model. Mechrite red with Charadon Granite



A. Here is the scheme 1 with the paints used (terracotta and cold grey), Totally different real paint wise but just funny to see how dull it looked on the painter. (well actually looks kind of cool but more pre-heresy kind of scheme in my eyes and not blood angels quality).


B.Testing scheme from the painter. I modified some things and repainted the red with Heavy Red instead of the terracotta, much better. I was waiting on my darker grey.


C. This is scheme three with the darker grey but how the actual model was painted scheme wise


I will post pictures of the real models in a bit but just wanted to show how I used a useful resource here and also to compare to the real deal.

Now my friend paints with a very artistic style and I know others use it as well. Since he does not like washes since he finds them cheap, he uses the black primer as the dark shadows always tries to leave black lines when he paints the base coat. Surely a very nice table top finish. He also used a basic two tone for the each color with a base coat and high lights. Since it is during a class he is going simple to teach me but he is very impressed with my lines after only my third model. I am hoping to be one of the best painters around my area hobby store wise and am a bit more open to different styles.

Any recommendations or comments are welcome. Thanks for looking


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Ok so here are the pics of the first model the letter will correspond to the scheme from the painter in the original post.

BTW I take a good time into modeling these guys even for testing because I will use them for now even though they are not part of my 2k army list. I wash the bits with soap and warm water, use modeling files on mold lines big and small. Use sand paper to smooth the surface. Battle scar them with a hobby knife. For the actual figures I will use. base the model and then BAM primer time.

My friends name, who gives the lessons is called Brad just in case when I refer to his models and mine separately.

A. Unfinished ofcourse but the base and the highlight were there with the first colors. By Brad




B. Brad redid the red with heavy red (mechrite) I liked it so far. This was his finished product from yesterday. His version of gold non metallic on the gun, he likes bright colors



C. This was my third model using his the style he uses, I want to try others as well. I got the charadon granite but it was so much darker than expected so I mixed it 1:1 with codex grey. and I liked it. This model looks darker since it has no highlights yet. We will see, maybe I will have different companies with the two one of the two tones of grey since I like both. My lines are getting better.



Cape on the captain. By Brad Base of Dark Blue and Cold Grey. Looks Great





Sorry I keep mixing the color names between citadel and vallejo.

I no see pictures.

Rabid Ferret wrote:I no see pictures.

Really I just copy and pasted from the bolter and chainsword and I see the pics on here fine. You don't see anything? I am hosting them from my Flickr

I can click on them and see them. Something is broken with the viewing on the forum. I will see if I can figure it out.

EDIT: Ok not sure what the issue is. One of your images is showing fine now. The others are still messed up. I have not had much experience with Flikr.

I suggest uploading to the Dakka image gallery.

EDIT2: Could be something with my cache settings. Is anyone else having this issue?

I no see pictures either. But I want to!

Edit: right, having looked at the pictures as links, I really like the scheme on the painted models, but I think the yellow bolter really doesn't fit in. Other than that, cool!

Skylifter wrote:I no see pictures either. But I want to!

Edit: right, having looked at the pictures as links, I really like the scheme on the painted models, but I think the yellow bolter really doesn't fit in. Other than that, cool!

Ugh, does anyone else have issues seeing the photos, where else can I upload them to. photobucket. They show fine on bolter and chainsword.

Thanks for the good comments and yes I dislike the yellow bolter. As I stated it was not painted by me, my friend that gives lessons did it and he hates mettalics so thats his bright version of gold. Not my test I am going to do metallic so yea.


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So here is my first Rhino ever, not finished, I'll spare you the build up pics. This is just with the two layers of base coat. washed the pieces as usua;, they glued them with testors glue. Since this was my first one I did not have the materials to create them with open hatches (tutorial here) but the next one will have a painted interior and the extra goodies. So I assembled the model then drilled out holes with a dremel, a bit to fast might need a slower one, (my dad used it for wood carving) Then I used a combination of exacto blade work and dremel to create battle damage like scratches, bullet holes, and wear and tear.

I am very happy with it so far, I used Quick color flat black from home depot, might need another coat since it felt a bit un-smooth especially when I painted it. Then with a big bush I laid out the quadrants and then went in with a smaller brush to get some missing areas. I later used the smaller brush to apply a second coat all around, took a while.

So here it goes. I still need to go back and repaint some areas black and then all the mettalics, battle damage, etc. I just wanted to show what I had so far.

I had to also click on the dead link to see the pics , so the pics are not being displayed correctly on forum. That being said I LOVE THE MARINE YOU DID! Very nice and amazing for your first try.

I think the yellow bolter is different, it does not look bad but definitely different.

I'm liking the quartered red and grey scheme! Very nice for your first army ever.

I seriously recommend uploading your pics to the Dakka gallery. It's easy and you will probably get more responses here if you do!

Flying Pooo wrote:I'm liking the quartered red and grey scheme! Very nice for your first army ever.

I seriously recommend uploading your pics to the Dakka gallery. It's easy and you will probably get more responses here if you do!

OK I will try that as well, its ok to put WIP stuff in the gallery. Also were you able to see the rhino pics I changed those to html code.

thanks everyone for the comments, I am super into this stuff and all the fluff and went with a quartered scheme since I hardly see them custom

NAOK9688 wrote:

Flying Pooo wrote:I'm liking the quartered red and grey scheme! Very nice for your first army ever.

I seriously recommend uploading your pics to the Dakka gallery. It's easy and you will probably get more responses here if you do!

OK I will try that as well, its ok to put WIP stuff in the gallery. Also were you able to see the rhino pics I changed those to html code.

thanks everyone for the comments, I am super into this stuff and all the fluff and went with a quartered scheme since I hardly see them custom

No, I still can't see pics. I can't see why it's not working on flicker.
I have a few pics that I've uploaded onto imageshack that work on Dakka but it's eaiser to just upload to the Dakka gallery.
And of course you can put WIP images in there.

Go to your user profile.
Then click your gallery.
Cick upload more Images.
And then from there it's quite self explanatory.

Then once you have pics in the gallery once you have clicked on your image you con copy and paste the URL under Forums:.

Hope this helps.

(Edit: Hurrah I can see them now, I still reccomend using the Dakka gallery)

Awesome thanks for the help. I uploaded all the pics to a gallery here on DAKKA and I have fixed the links to the pics by hosting on photobucket. Get working on compatibility with Flickr guys. Well I am going to paint my battle scared marine that was my first one ever put together and paint it in the scheme that I originally had in mind before test painting schemes.

I'm glad that I can be of assistance. I can't wait to see more of your marines. Keep them comming!

Nice! I see you got them working... Now to peruse.


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Nice stuff! I like your quartered scheme. Your army looks to be off to a good start. I wish you luck. What codex do you plan on using for your chapter? Who are they successors of?


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I am probably going to go with one that Les uses from awesomepaintjob. I love his work.

Kolinsky sable brushes are worth the investment. Use The Master's Brush Cleaner and Preserver to keep them going and going.

Link: http://www.fineartstore.com/Catalog/tabid/365/CategoryID/11345/List/1/Level/a/ProductID/11545/Default.aspx?SortField=unitcost%2cunitcost

Rabid Ferret wrote:Nice! I see you got them working... Now to peruse.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nice stuff! I like your quartered scheme. Your army looks to be off to a good start. I wish you luck. What codex do you plan on using for your chapter? Who are they successors of?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

I am probably going to go with one that Les uses from awesomepaintjob. I love his work.

Kolinsky sable brushes are worth the investment. Use The Master's Brush Cleaner and Preserver to keep them going and going.

Link: http://www.fineartstore.com/Catalog/tabid/365/CategoryID/11345/List/1/Level/a/ProductID/11545/Default.aspx?SortField=unitcost%2cunitcost

Thanks, they are a successor Chapter to the Blood Angels so I will be using there codex. I already have a 2000 point army list I am building towards but for now what I have will have to do.

Mind you I chose them before I knew how to play the game, still learning, and I head the Blood angels codex was cheap to some. I chose fluff wise and it seemed to work out.

I just bought two kolinsky 2/0 winsor and newton series 7 and a rafael 00 both expensive but good. Still working on the thinner paints stuff. Hard with red since it is so transparent. I need a smaller one though So i also use the vallejo brushes I bought at the beginning. I also picked up the masters cleaner today at pearls so I am set to make them live long. thanks for the comments.

So here is what I have so far of the AOBR marines I have ben practicing on. 1 has a different style but I feel washes really dont work with this black primer model. I am going to do a test batch either primed white or grey and try the wash technique. I don't mind the black hard lining but it is a more artistic approach and I want to test out different techniques.



I painted my first assembled marine which I did physical damage too and stayed more towards the original scheme I had in mind before I test painted anything. Meaning some metallic gold. Sorry if the pics suck, I don't know where to take pics for good lighting.

I like the golden bolter, well some of it but it needs some other coler maybe a highlight or something, seems to bland. Any recommendations??? This is still WIP





More angles available in my gallery. Man I hate that over primed it, some detail was lost, luckily I found a better technique.

Also what color should I do the pack, red or grey, The black looks too bland with hard black lining. I want a little more color. Any recommendations are welcome.

Nice work on the AOBR marines. I really like the scheme and the battle damage looks great!

The highlights are looking great but are more noticeable on the grey side. This is not a bad thing but the highlights are a bit more subtle on the red side. Red is a hard colour to highlight and paint well. You've done great but the red could benefit from another brighter second layer highlight.

For the gold on the bolter maybe try dry brushing the gold on instead of painting it on in one thick layer, then you can either wash it with Gryphonne Sepia or Devlan Mud (both work great on gold), you could also highlight it with a 1:1 silver gold mix. Or maybe you could do both.

If you haven't invested in washes yet I'd say do so, they shade everything with such ease making you look like a better painter than you are (I rely on washes heavily).

For the backpack maybe you could try quartering that as well however it doesn't look bad in black. Maybe try Highlighting that black and it won't look as bland as you say.

Enough of my nitpickings they are great models, which you should be proud of as they are some of your first.

Flying Pooo wrote:Nice work on the AOBR marines. I really like the scheme and the battle damage looks great!

The highlights are looking great but are more noticeable on the grey side. This is not a bad thing but the highlights are a bit more subtle on the red side. Red is a hard colour to highlight and paint well. You've done great but the red could benefit from another brighter second layer highlight.

For the gold on the bolter maybe try dry brushing the gold on instead of painting it on in one thick layer, then you can either wash it with Gryphonne Sepia or Devlan Mud (both work great on gold), you could also highlight it with a 1:1 silver gold mix. Or maybe you could do both.

If you haven't invested in washes yet I'd say do so, they shade everything with such ease making you look like a better painter than you are (I rely on washes heavily).

For the backpack maybe you could try quartering that as well however it doesn't look bad in black. Maybe try Highlighting that black and it won't look as bland as you say.

Enough of my nitpickings they are great models, which you should be proud of as they are some of your first.

thanks, yea since these wont be in my 2k army, they are not all battle damaged but its good for practice while I assemble my assault marines. Your right about the highlights. Im doing bloody red high lights on the heavy red (mechrite) base coat. They are more noticeable in real life, sucks it doesn't show in the pic so well but I might try a mix of blood red with some orange and do some subtle highlights.

I have never practiced dry brushing and I tried washes on another model. My friend hates both techniques says they are cheap and as you say make people look like better painters but I am open to all. I am going to prime like 3 AORB guys in white and try with washes and follow the style of Les from Awesome paint jobs. I have some washes, actually I have the sepia probably throw some on the gun, the rest will get some blt gun metal dry brush or highlights.

Quartering the backpack would be cool but a bit fifficult with black hard lining, I might just highlight it with some light grey.

thanks for all the tips and compliments man, glad you are commenting on my stuff.

NAOK9688 wrote:Your right about the highlights. Im doing bloody red high lights on the heavy red (mechrite) base coat. They are more noticeable in real life, sucks it doesn't show in the pic so well but I might try a mix of blood red with some orange and do some subtle highlights.

Yeah, Red doesn't pick up that well on my camera either. Although it looks great and is perfectly fine highlighting your base red with different reds and oranges sometimes looks a bit cartoonish. Maybe try highlighting by adding successive amounts of white to your base colour. These highlights look more natural. Try first Highlighting with first 1:2 White and Mechrite red and then for the second highlight try 1:1 White and Mechrite. Mabye try it on your next test mini just to see which one you like better.

So I primed a couple of AORB tac marines in white, I also was going to paint them un-assembled and then but them together after being painted.

I chose white to make the red pop a bit more and also I am going to try the technique used of washes and then highlights, not focusing on the hard black lining. I haven't done the red yet since that will requre more control since I went a little carelessly with the grey side. I am also trying a half scheme on the packs.

Now I have heard that there is an issue with white primers whether it be game workshop or whatever, I just got wal-mart brand and did experience the chalky feel with the little grains that sometimes happens, I shook the can well and also sprayed a bit before but idk any decent priced flat white primer out there that doesn't have this happen??

So here are some pics. I like both styles but I will see which one I like in the end.

Looking good so far. The white primer should make the red armour pop a little more as you say, I'll be interested to see the results. It will also be cool to see how the halved backpacks look in this scheme. I'll be looking forward to seeing these models finished so keep up the good work!

So I have been a bit busy with other things in the world, sadly some of it being new great games that are coming out each week. Especially Forza 4, I love cars and is another hobby of mine. But I still go once a week to play and or paint.

I was learning some of the game last friday and played an actual 1000 point game today, (not legal list, need more troop choices) I will post a pic of what I have currently assembled. Not all of it will be in my final list but I have to use what I have to get to 2000 points.

So here are the white primed guys with both base colors on and a wash, you can probably not tell that it is there as much on the left one since I went back and painted over the large areas with red and tried to leave the crevices with the wash, might need to apply more. I used badab black.



As for today I worked on my first terminator, loving how he is coming out. I used a blick studio 0 kolinsky, its great, harder for the red since I could not thin it down because it would be too runny but my mixed grey is a perfect consistency. I am planning on painting the termies head bone white, starting with a beasty brown base color and then high light with a mix of skull white and bone white. White might be my veteran status instead of gold like blood angels.

Here is a pic of the front I have a pic of the back in my gallery. Still needs touch ups of black and missing some places with color, Might do the power fist fingers red.



Enjoy, especially you Flying Pooo, my friendly follower

Termi's looking good! You think about your army badge yet? maybe some sort of lightning bolt motif? Onward!

genom.cor wrote:Termi's looking good! You think about your army badge yet? maybe some sort of lightning bolt motif? Onward!

Here you go, I did originally start with a lightning motif and maybe I will go back but I wanted to try these out first. I would love to see how to make the symbol into decals.

Your marines are looking great!
After a quick Google search I found something that could help you design your own decals.
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=143757&st=0&p=1665629&#entry1665629

Flying Pooo wrote:Your marines are looking great!
After a quick Google search I found something that could help you design your own decals.
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=143757&st=0&p=1665629&#entry1665629

thanks for the info, that will definitely be for the later stages of the work. So I have been focused a bit on modeling when I have the chance. I just found out about a doubles tourney coming up in three weeks and my new buddies want me to play so I have to play. Some of the local players went up to tampa for beakycon and wrecked house. 3 got in the gold bracket and another took number 1 for silver bracket even though he was undefeated. He was bumped down for not having a painted army but he got a whole bunch of stuff still.

So progress wise, for my army I magnetized my first ten man squad of assault marines, I did both arms and jump packs. I must say it was a pain sometimes and I hate super glue when it sticks to you or you magnetize something wrong and they repel luckily it only happened once but wow took a while to get off. I plan on magnetizing some melta gun arms for some of my guys. Magnets are expensive though

Here are some pics
(this is my sergeant assembled, check out the gallery to see the arms off and what not.


Check out my termie with his bone white helmet. Love it so far, mixed in different shades of bone white with beasty brown. He is in the Blood Scars Gallery. I didn't put it here since its pretty blurry :(

Here is my army so far that is assembled. I have gotten some from friends, I have done others myself.



Basically the list is as you can see:
-10 man tac squad
-9 man tac squad
-10 man assault marines
-1 rhino
-3 predators
-two dreads
-5 man termie squad

I have my librarian and sanguinary priest arriving shortly, tomorrow. With another on the way

I have to build or borrow six razorbacks, with twin link assault cannons for the tourney. Its 1250 points so yea need to get building but have to do it right.

I like the badges. You got a cool concept here.

The problem with decals is that they are a curved surface... your probably better off picking an easy-ish symbol that you can freehand onto it.

Horst wrote:The problem with decals is that they are a curved surface... your probably better off picking an easy-ish symbol that you can freehand onto it.

Yea but I have seen some solutions that work great to form to the curvature of the surface.