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I've done my test figure for my new Marine chapter, theres a thread about reconditioning some marines of mine kicking around thats becoming a bit of a progress diary (these piccys are in there also).

This is about the best I can do currently, but as ever progression is the aim. I'm not sure where to go next to improve my painting. Does anyone have suggestions?
The paint range I'm using is entirely the new Citadel ones, I do have access to an airbrush (H&S Evolution 0.2mm gravity fed). This was the first mini that I used it for more than just a solid basecoat. The airbrush also go used at a 45 degree downwards angle with a lighter purple to give some quick shading. I'd like to use the airbrush for more things on my figures but get a bit stumped with what to do with it from time to time.

Not sure how i feel about the blue was but its really awesome other then that.

No suggestions but the nintendo purple marine looks really unique, lovely crisp paint job too.

Very nice I'm realy impressed I'm currently doing a test model for a purple marine using the old gw warlock purple I think the yellow goes very well I'm going to give mine gold instead

Thanks for the comments everyone.

The blue I chose because I had a feeling that blood red was going to clash badly with the purple.
Im not sure I like the blue badge on the yellow gun though.

The purple I've used is actually a few of the new gw ones;
Base coat of Naggaroth Night, Then Xereus purple and genestealer purple with druuchi violet wash.

I couldve mixed the shades... but wanted some uniformity across the army and bought some premixed shades of purple to do it with.

Don't know what to do on the base, other than snowy/ice but unsure on how to go about it.

Can't really give any suggestions as it 10 times better than anything I could do, but the colour works really well together and I actually like the blue, gives a bit of a spot of contrast to the rest of the marine.

Thanks for the compliments, I feel like I'm finally getting back to a good level of painting ability after the massive decade break I took from the hobby.

But as I'm sure we all do, I strive for better still.
Planning to complete this guys squad up to the same standard as this guy. Then figure out some wicked awesome basing for them, I want them to be on an ice world. So far the best thing I have seen involves adding depth of clear resin ontop of a painted base and frosting it up afterwards.

The next unit I would like to improve on something from these guys... slow and steady progression being the aim. Perhaps weathering on the yellow gun casings and burn marks from it firing or something like that could be a good next step? :/ I'm not really sure what techniques to learn to use hehe, maybe something with osl would be fun? or too hard?

I would change the bolter casing colour to black and the chest eagle to grey. just too much yellow.

Looking good, The purple looks really nice, yellow is a little bright but not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing :S
blue might be a little lost on the model from further away but as they are only small details im not sure it matters.

I have also recently done a purple test marine.
I have long had a purple space marine army, but originally used liche purple and a dry brush of 50/50 liche/skull white, needless to say they looked a bit pink, especially next to my new test marine which has been painted using vallejo royal purple.

method:
Vallejo royal purple, APJ Heavy body black wash watered down over entire model, go over armor again leaving the shading, then highlight of 50/50 royal purple and skull white
Bleached bone for the trim and bolter, washed and highlighted
then its just minor details, Red for purity seal, and lenses and bone on skulls/purity seal paper and vermin brown for the eagle

Let me know what you think.

I really like the brightness and crispness of those colors! My only suggestion would be to hit up the under rim of the shoulderpads with yellow as well. Right now there's a bit of yellow spillover and it doesn't look so good.

Let me just restate how much I love that scheme. Those colors are bright and ballsy, and it takes a real man to run Marines in bright purple and yellow. Do you have anything planned for basing?

I quite like your test marine Bum_Fluff , its much more deep violet, getting really close to royal blue, makes me think of chaos Thousand Sons, while mine makes me think Hawk Lords Marines. I suppose mine are in the newer version of liche purple, Im using the triad that gw reccomended for the dark elves fatigues and stuff. (Nagartoh Night, Xereus Purple and genestealer purple with gw's violet wash)

I had wondered about going underneath the shoulder trim with the yellow (I did cuss and swear when I made that little error spilling around it!). Do you think making them yellow? or touching the purple back up would come out better? hmm

The yellow guns... I did have my doubts, but I quite like them now. I couldnt think of any other chapters that use yellow weapon casings? So it keeps them a little unique maybe?

I've got a fair little selection of marines to piant up in this scheme. I'm trying to envisage the landspeeders in all purple? Not sure itle look right like that. Maybe black speeder with purple crew. I've also got some bikes that may get the same treatment.

Army badge could end up being a yellow iron cross... that way I could use my ltd edition emp's champ figure without him lookin too oddly placed.

For my bases I really want to make a realistic ice world. I've seen one tutorial that looked amazing involved clear resin casting.

Boyz "R" Us wrote:No suggestions but the nintendo purple marine looks really unique, lovely crisp paint job too.

Seriously I love how dull the finish is for this color. And it's a VERY nice crisp job too. Good looks.

My only suggestion is paint the bottom edge of the shoulder pads. But I'm sure in the final production you've already thought of that. Since this is only a test model.

The purple is very smooth. I like it.

I like it.

i really like the colors you chose, except for the blue on the wires and the gun's emblem. The emblem should have been green (like ony the helm), and the wires should be a more muted color. If you really absolutely inisist on picking out those wires, I'd reccomend some sort of a hazard-pattern, or a dark purple.

The only thing that jumps out at me is that the shading on your yellow needs work, and the eyes need to be picked out. If you didn't use any metallic paints on your chain and boltgun, then there's work that I'm jealous of.

Aweomse amounts of feedback coming in just what I was after.

The dull finish I'm loving too to be honest, I've got a feeling its owed to the airbrush.. Sometime I will try one with just a paintbtush and the same purple paints. See if theres much of a difference. But right now that particular pruple was achieved with the following steps;

Sprayed Matt Black undercoat (halfords matt paint spray can)

Then sprayed with 2 thin coats of Nagaroth Night (thinned with Liquitex Airbrush medium at around 75% medium to 25% paint)

Then sprayed with 2 thin coats of Xereus Purple, but mostly concentrating on spraying from the top downwards at 45degrees to create some shading.

Then again from the top, but much much less with genestealer purple.

Then a brushed wash of Druchi Violet

followed by some edge highlights with genestealer purple.
Nothing too tricky there, all the hard work got done rapidly with an airbrush.its a rather subtle fade, I can tell more by looking at the underside edges of the armour plates where the paint barely caught on if atall.

The metal on the Boltgun and chains, was done with citadel metalic paints too.
Abbadon Black base, drybrushed necron compound, and drybrushed with leadbelcher, washed with nuln oil and highlights with iron breaker. I've seen people hating on the newest generation of metallics... but I've gota say I think theyre great looking and easy to work with.

The main thing that I'm looking at changing is the blue icon on the yellow gun casing. I don't like the contrast there hehe.
I couldve just filed off the icon....problem solved!
But i like the chained weapons from the BT sprue and have a 25th aniversary champion that might be a force commander or something. Comandeering the Cross emblem is a strong possibility.

Been a little while, and the whole squad still is not complete! lol!



I'm getting there though, mostly little details and a couple of tidy ups to get done, the bases I need something really special, so are being put on hold untill I have chance to try some things out.

What colour grenades should I do? classic green seems obvious but maybe something a little different... I dunno.. red perhaps?

That purple is really nice, love the pic of the whole squad.

I liked seeing the one model, it looked good, but I wasn't sure how I'd like seeing an entire army done the same way. (heh, I speak from personal experience...) and I love the way the squad looks together

Wonderful stuff. I see that you dropped the green color, and that you colored the guns' emblems with metals. That really really does do the trick. I also love the bone color you did on the sarge, and I think it blends well and should be your 3rd color going forward.

Well theyre not all finished up yet.. still got some bits to do here and there, but I thought they looked a bit more like a unit now hehe.
The grenades I'm thinking about red, or green.. probably red but still just thinking. (the plasma coil bit on the plasma gun is red; you cant see it from this angle, but the special weaon guy is magnetised and has all 3 guns, also the sgt's sword arm is magnetised and will have some options painted up later.
The gun emblems.. a lot need doing, they might all get different treatment because they dont all have the same ones...one is templar cross, one covered in chains, one imperial eagle, one with a skull on... etc
Same for the green on the helmet.. its a little reef so I picked up green lol! maybe gold, or bone wouldve worked nicely (or better) but guys with other helmets can be done differently without looking like misfits.

Still lots of highlights to be done, eyes on the sgt maybe...maybe i will do mouth and lips but no eyes, they look ... okay... we'l see because some days my hand is steadier than others. I try to take advantage when i notice it.

The bone loin cloth, should get more layers of shading upto a much whiter colour, the last time i worked there it was a sepia wash, which is why its so brown right now.
This will be repeated, I have 5 Dark Angel Robe guys and a few templar robe guys in the que for this paint scheme.