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Well I think the Indomitus Crusade box is going to get me back into a major 40k project, mainly updating my minimarine army with the new stuff. I have a Start Collecting Vanguard Marines box that I'm just digging into, but wanted to play with some of the easy-build primaris figures first.



First up, a fairly standard marine from a new chapter I made, the Sons of Apollo. Painting will be a split scheme, black on right and gold on left. Their left, golden, side is the side mainly presented towards the enemy and other outside viewers, and is covered in accolades and honors, while their right side is completely unadorned and black, as a show of penance for a secret shame in their past. What? A space marine chapter with a mysterious past?! Say it ain't so!

Chapter icon is an upward facing laurel wreath with 3 arrows coming out of the middle.




Next up is a member of the Fallen. I'm not saying he's a primaris marine or anything, I just wanted to try making something cool. That way he's a little more imposing to hang around with the traitor guard types from the Blackstone Fortress that are in my queue. They may end up as Genestealer Cult troops, but that's a subject for another post. I really like how the head mirrors the Dark Angel chaplains.




Finally (for now), is a marine from my custom chapter I started with the 2nd edition box, but haven't played in at least a decade. Anyway, they used to be called the Dark Foot (yikes we'll need a new name here) and use a purple and black color scheme like their namesake, the Foot Clan from TMNT. They work closely with the Inquisition, so this guy would be intended as a model that could be used in Inq28 rather than one that's strictly game-legal. Again, another topic for another post. Overall, they were heavily invested in scout forces back in the day, which makes Phobos armor dudes pretty appealing for this new rendition of them. More of those coming soon!

Chapter icon is a footprint with 4 toes.


Thanks for looking, more to come as I dive back into this whole hobby thing.

Foot Clan Marines? I'm on board.

The Fallen looks awesome. Great mask.

I love the Sons of Apollo concept. Would love to see how it looks once painted up! Would certainly be jarring, the one side bright and busy, the other side dark and plain. Could be quite effective!

Yeah, hopefully not too jarring. If it's too much, I could see adding some adornment but still painting it black.

@youwashock
Yeah, foot clan, but not super japanese-inspired. I'd prefer high tech ninjas to medieval ones. So I'm not going to be giving everyone katanas or segmented armor. Plenty of claw weapons, though, like for that Phobos armored Lieutenant with the paired combat blades.

Slight change of plans, because of course. But that's okay because it gets me into the army straight away.

My FLGS is running a painting competition for July, and the entry is a 3-man unit/group, so I figure there's no better way to jumpstart my painting than with deadlines. The deadline is the 31st, so hopefully I can finish painting 3 marines before that! From the Vanguard box I chose the Eliminators because their cloaks will give me some good chances for dramatic painting. One big rule in the competition is no kitbashing, so they pretty much have to be straight from the sprue. Not really a problem with monopose sniper marines, but since I can't convert the marines, I can go big on the bases, which will also give me some good painting opportunities. Anyway, on to the pics.




On the first guy, I took the "theme" of the I-beam he's kneeling on and ran with it. My army will be on industrial/hiveworld bases anyway. The idea is a bit of floor has collapsed into rubble, and that's what he's hiding in. I'm thinking there needs to be something above his head, maybe a little worklight or something where I can experiment with OSL.




Next, the Sergeant. In addition to fancy bases, I'm making them all at different heights, which will help differentiate the two kneeling guys (since they're the same except their head). But the sergeant gets a cool plasma conduit to stand over. Again, I'll be able to do some bottom-lit OSL on him here. The base torso of this model is really superb. It's got shades of the Kelermorph from GSC, but with fewer arms. I might grab another one of these for a character conversion as I get deeper into the army.




Finally, the base for the 3rd guy. Still WIP, but he'll be raised up on some scaffolding.

No kitbashing? The very idea.

Bases look fantastic. Good luck in the competition.

Finally got the last Eliminator's base built. I was a bit stuck on it for a few days, not knowing exactly how I wanted the pieces to sit together. But then I just kept fiddling until it worked out, and now all 3 are done.



The back is a bit plain, but I don't think I want to clutter it up any more. I'm already pushing the limit with the upper platform being too busy.




Here's the two pieces of the base separate for painting. I'm going to have the little node on the dome on the bottom be a light source for some OSL. We'll see how that goes.




And here's the whole group. I'm very happy with how they've turned out so far. All 3 sit at different heights, and I think the bases work together. Paint will help emphasize that.

Up next is to fill all the seams on the cloaks with green stuff, which I'm not looking forward to. I've never taken to green stuff, and don't really like working with it. Also, the sides of the conduit on the sergeant's base need to be filled.

I finally got some paint on these guys. Not the bases yet. 10 days left to paint them up and I'm starting to get a little worried. I'm just showing the sergeant for now.



Thing is, I started off the completely wrong way. I may not have painted anything in a few years, but I sure as heck have watched a lot of youtube videos about it! So when I started in the process of my "old way," which is to say layering from a dark base up to highlights, I was actively ignoring everything I've learned lately. See above.

So I had to start over. I didn't go the zenithal highlighting route, but I will be two-brush blending as much of these models as I can. It will especially help with the OSL.

The above color is a mix of Vallejo's Royal Purple (which is a great color) and Black, with some Black ink mixed in, hence the shininess. The was absolutely the wrong way to go.

My medium purple color is Vallejo Game Color Hexed Lichen, so I went over all the purple areas with that to serve as my base to shade and highlight. I did not get a picture of this step, unfortunately. Bad Power Cosmic!



Then I started the shading with Royal Purple mixed with Vallejo Game Color Stormy Blue and a bunch of mixing medium for flow. Water might have been just as good here, but I would be using a lot of water in the blending steps, plus I have it sitting around, so why not? This is what we've got here, with the addition of a bit more shading with Royal Purple, Stormy Blue, and Black in the deepest reaches. I actually want to go back and put a little more shading with that mix. Contrast is king, but I've always avoided it, being more concerned with how my models look up close rather than at arm's length. Caution, though, if you try this: that black is powerful stuff, and will overwhelm all the other colors in the mix if you let it.



Here's where I've ended up at the end of last night's painting. I've taken the Hexed Lichen and started blending it back into the model, preserving the shadows that are bluer and blacker. I'm quite pleased so far, but wow does this take a long time, especially since I'm just learning how to do the two-brush blending at this point. Also, don't let the chest plate fool you, I'm not going for a purple NMM look there; it's just a trick of the light. And the fact that I need to blend it a bit more there.



Here's a couple shots of the blend on the shoulder pad. Again, very happy with how it's looking, despite it taking a long time to get it right.

Next is the actual highlights with Magenta, and then White or something? I'm not sure how high to take the contrast yet, so we'll see how it goes.

Some good progress the past couple days. Purple armor done, along with the bodysuit. Undersuit? Whatever the ribbed thing below the armor plates is called.



Here's our sergeant again. This is the shot after the purple armor was finished. Hey, if you've ever wanted to see all your flaws as a painter, take a really high-res shot and zoom in in photoshop. Yikes, you will see all kinds of ugly bits. But hey, how about that blend on the (slightly blurry) shoulderpad?




And here are his two squadmates, also with their purple armor finished.



Next I worked on the heads of the two guys with skin showing. I realized as I was making the images that I forgot to put on the 5 o'clock shadows on their heads. I'll have to get that on there before I got any further and forget. The Sergeant's face is also currently missing his eyes. They will also come at a later stage, after the rest of the head is finished.




Next I did the undersuit part, which is technically black. But I didn't want it to be just black, as the rest of the armor and probably the guns will be black as well, so I went with a more charcoal/dark gray color. Maybe slightly carbon fiber? It fits the texture on the abs at least.

For the armor I'm planning on doing a slight teal tinge to the highlights. The old guard might remember Scaly Green, well I've got a close approximation that I use for lenses and such, and I think I'll try it on the armor. to play with the purple and get some of that color wheel action going. I also noticed after looking at GW's pictures that there's a bit of the undersuit showing below the kneepad on the kneeling guys. Another fix to make a note of. For the extra protection on the right kneepad, I'm not sure if I want to copy the undersuit colors or make it part of the armor. It would only be a slightly different tone of black, so it wouldn't be as drastic as on GW's, but it's something to consider. Probably will only happen if I have time.




Oh, and while I was waiting for stuff to dry, I started on the bases as well. Nothing crazy yet, just the base color. Plenty of dirtying and rusting to go on these.

Not going to lie, I was a bit skeptical at first but, those dudes looks like he fits right in with the Foot. Good job!

Thanks, kavika. Hope they keep up the expectations.

It has been a solid week of intense painting getting the sniper triplets ready for their competition. Unfortunately, that's left no extra time for updates. But now that they've been delivered, we can take a look at their progress.




First thing is that the interior of the capes was done. I went back and forth debating what color to use for them. Black was straight out, as was a bone color or some other light cloth color. These are sneaky infiltrator boys, so we can't have a brightly colored cloak (more on that statement later). Looking at the traditional foot clan colors left me only with a dark grey or red, so I decided to go with the more regal red. It's a part of the scheme I can carry over to other units as well, to keep everything unified.

So this is a basic red cloak. I added some purple into the shadow colors, again to tie the whole thing together and give it a more... velvety look? Here in this pic you can also see the first highlight color on the black part of the armor, namely the lower leg parts.




Next, the highlighting on the black armor continued. This was the end point for them, as I was getting too far into the grey territory. The lower part of the legs look a little dark, but that's due to the shadow from my phone. I went for a more zenithal highlight rather than edging to give them a more natural feel. Gotta step up my game if I'm going to enter these guys into a painting competition! And hey, how about that fade on the lower part of the cloak, huh?

The highlights were very subtly tinted with the Scaly Green-type color I mentioned in a previous post. I had to go very light with it, to avoid turning the armor to a dark green rather than black. Also I kept the armored kneepad the same color as the rest of the armor, just for ease of painting and for a less jarring look.




The other two got the same treatment. It's funny how in these pics you can see the hard outline of each layer of color, especially on the calf armor on the right. I wasn't using water to dilute these washes. Anyone have any tips on smoothing that out or getting the layer to dry more evenly?




Next step was the pouches and such. I go for a dark leather here, again avoiding another black component. I'm nowhere near Snakebite Leather (or whatever the new equivalent is), but the final highlights did include a touch of yellow, something I'd never used for leather before. The kneeling snipers didn't have too many pouches to manage.





Next, my most dreaded step: the metal bits. I hate painting metal, especially silver metals. Not sure why, they're really no different than any other color. In fact, they're easier because you can get away with washes a lot more effectively on them than non-metallic colors. But I hate painting them.

The colors here are pretty basic: 3 levels of increasingly bright silver, followed by a few washes of a 50:50 mix of brown and black ink. The wash goes on in a few layers, just to define the sections, and then gets a heavier application for the darkest parts, blended out.




Progress on the heads and backpacks continued as well. The other most dreaded part of painting space marines: the backpacks. These at least were covered by the cloaks, just to give me a bit of a reprieve. This shot also shows the effect of the black highlighting on the heads.




Finally for this post, the metal parts of the bases was done as well. They were done the same way as the metal on the marines. One note here is the large bronze section on the first image, on the diamondplate bits. Since I've been making these industrial bases, the diamondplate parts always are bronze. No real reason other than to break up the other colors, but I really liked how the washes worked on this one.


Next up: the cameoline cloaks!