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Hi all,

I haven't posted in ages in the P&M blogs but I have been lurking away and over the course of the last year or so, I've been picking up the odd issue of the 40k magazine conquest if I happen across them as well as picking up Dark Imperium and Indomitus.

Back when Indomitus was released I had planned on doing a painting log but unfortunately with family issues and covid, my chances to sit down and blog away were very limited. Why am I starting a blog now? Well I have a pile of unpainted plastic that needs getting done and I am hoping this might give me the impetus to get something done for the shelf while I wait for games to be a more regular thing again. It's also a pretty distinct change from my previous Excavating eBay blog so anything marine related will go in here unless there is some kind of crossover episode in the making I am unaware of!

I chose Excoriators space marines as they're a relatively underexplored Second Founding chapter of space marines and are successors of Imperial Fists, a legion I'm fond of having collected Black Templars in the past. I read Legion of the Damned over the summer and after toing and froing over painting them or Star Dragons (from Architect of Fate), I decided that white armour would be an excellent challenge and they'd be different enough from White Scars based on their lore and battle tactics. Excoriators are attrition fighters, with an emphasis on not giving ground and inflicting maximum casualties while minimising their own. They're not a flashy chapter, their armour is often superficially left battle damaged and pitted, with marines adorning this damage with scripture of when and where it was received. These guys are to the point, get the job done marines which is something I found fairly realistic in an over the top setting. They like to embody Dorn's tendency for self-harm, and they tend to adopt methods of ritual scarring and purification through pain. While that might be hard to get across in a model, there's always the potential down the line should I want an unarmoured space marine.

My goal for this blog, other than to finish painting minis, is to build a company of Space Marines which follow the codex astartes taking into account what the introduction of Primaris marines have done for the lore and those being effectively the wat forward when building a marine army these days. I'll list my painting goals below, but the standard "active" company structure is as follows:

1 Company Captain or "Corpus Captain" as the Excoriators name them
2 Lieutenants (demi-company commanders)
Command Squad (built from the Reclusiam, Apothecarion and Librarius as well as the Company ancient and Champion)
6 Battleline Squads (within each is a Squad Whip and Second Whip)
2 Close Support Squads
2 Fire Support Squads
Dreadnoughts

I've decided to follow this as I build the 5th company, which in Legion of the Damned were destroyed to a man defending a world against the a Khorne Blood Crusade, thus giving me a blank slate to build a primaris company. My only caveat with this is that as I build my marines, one of the early Jes Goodwin voxcast episodes mentioned that as a marine passes the rubicon primaris, they may end up taking weapons or pieces of armour that they cherish and this allows me a bit of creative licence to do some head-swaps, weapon swaps or anything that takes my fancy in order to make a marine unique and just provide some visual interest across the troops and not just reserve it for the HQs.

My other goal with this army is to paint it with relative speed compared to how long I take with my Eldar and other minis. I want to set a standard across the board of what I'd be happy with fielding on the tabletop and then have the ability to add extra detail to HQs and other bigger models. The tools to help speed this up will be primarily the airbrush, but before I start painting, I want to establish a basing scheme. I've chosen a starship or space hulk theme to my bases, which in some cases may vary from a flight deck to a Chaos corrupted ship or Tyranid infested ship. I would love to be able to tell a story through my basing, and hopefully I can pull it off! The armour is all, white, which is a hard colour to paint by brush so I want to be able to have smooth gradients and good contrast with the white that I paint. I've watched plenty of tutuorials, and while it's a long enough process to achieve the white I want, it's soooo much faster than crying with a brush. After the airbrush step, I want the details I paint to have a fairly similar palette of colours across the board, which I can write down and replicate if I decide to take a break from my minis and come back later. This means trim, metallics, leathers will all be the same and basing will share a uniformity to them. A limited palette also means I don't have to run around looking for the right paint and I can mix on the fly to make additional tones that might add some variation. I also think that the old-school grey knight force swords are the business, so I want to replicate that on my own power weapons when I can! To add definition, I've been practising with oil paints and they're honestly a huge time saver for me, even with clean up included simply due to the capillary action working so well when I get the wash mix right. I don't know how I haven't used the technique before, but it's certainly hard to go back!

Without further ado, I'll show off some of the test model for the chapter and WIPs I've been tinkering with and eventually as I update the blog, the above Company list will get filled out!

Corpus Captain Torix Luxadian - Completed, serves as the sample model for the army.



Lieutenant "Chief Whip" #1 - WIP



Reclusiam - consisting of a Chaplain and Judiciar for now, the Judiciar is currently what I'm under the kosh for now in order to get it done for November's painting challenge! (Judiciar finished 30/11/20)







Close Support squads - WIP on some assault intercessors, but almost there, I'm just working on freehand and weathering and they should be good to go soon (Completed 05/12/20). I am also working on my outriders, but so far I am unsure as to whether they should be a reserve company as I plan on fielding bolter Inceptors over them.

Excoriators 5th Company Close Support Squad Raman, last seen in boarding action of ++REDACTED++ space hulk, Cicatrix Maledictum, M42

"This is where our fallen Stigmartyr is brothers, the stench of Alpha Legionnaires, not even my filters can clear that..." Veteran Squad Whip Toros Raman















"The Honoured First" or First Company Vets - These guys have been on the back burner for a bit, but progress is being made on the ancient, which will likely be the Chapter Ancient over the Company Ancient






In addition to all of this, I have a bunch of hellblasters, regular intercessors, a repulsor, some inceptors and eradicators to make my way through, but I have told myself I won't be starting those until these guys that are on the bench right now are completed.

Hope you've enjoyed the read, it's a bit brief for now, but if you enjoy space marines, I hope this thread might be worth a follow!

Cheers and stay safe,

TH

Nice to see you back around, TH. New guys look pretty cool. Looking forward to more.

Thanks youwashock, keen to get back into the hobby side of things on Dakka again, been missing the interaction!

I finished up the Judiciar last night to get him done for the painting challenge. Fairly pleased overall with how he turned out, although not sure how I feel about the green sand timer, it might be worth changing to something else. C&C much appreciated! (More pics in the gallery with different angles)

Fabulous texture on that coat. I like the green sand. Makes it more than a mundane hourglass.

Welcome back TH, these guys look great. The old marine helmets work really well, especially the biker dude

That’s a well executed white, and the Justicar looks awesome. I love Mk 3 helms.

Very nice work Tyranid Horde.

Cheers,

CB

youwashock wrote:Fabulous texture on that coat. I like the green sand. Makes it more than a mundane hourglass.

Cheers! The coat is what I spent the most time on so pleased you like it.

gobert wrote:Welcome back TH, these guys look great. The old marine helmets work really well, especially the biker dude

Thanks for the welcome gobert, adding the older helmets gives me some variety that helps the Primaris line I think.

Ragsta wrote:That’s a well executed white, and the Justicar looks awesome. I love Mk 3 helms.

Thanks! MkII and III are definitely favourites of mine so I wanted to add at least a few in.

Captain Brown wrote:Very nice work Tyranid Horde.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks Cap!

Hi folks, another update with some completed models this evening. I didn't have a lot more to add since I'd stopped painting them a few months back, but some finer details were added to the assault intercessors to bring them up to a decent standard. I added some script to heavier battle damage to link the minis to their lore counterparts and added some rust and Verdigris to add some notes of interest. I'll show off two group photos of the marines and spoiler individual shots if anyone fancies perusing them up close. C&C appreciated, hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Excoriators 5th Company Close Support Squad Raman, last seen in boarding action of ++REDACTED++ space hulk, Cicatrix Maledictum, M42

"This is where our fallen Stigmartyr is brothers, the stench of Alpha Legionnaires, not even my filters can clear that..." Veteran Squad Whip Toros Raman

Gorgeous white! Great weathering.

A good looking bunch, the guys with the hazard stripes on their chainswords win it for me.

Very nice leather on that Judiciar.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:Gorgeous white! Great weathering.

Thanks! Trying to get a good balance between the white and the gritty nature.

gobert wrote:A good looking bunch, the guys with the hazard stripes on their chainswords win it for me.

Cheers, I was tempted to add a few more hazard stripes here and there, but I wanted them off the table! Might be worth going back to do it though.

Fifty wrote:Very nice leather on that Judiciar.

Thanks Fifty, glad to see folks like it.

Small update on my end, I've been working on my Chaplain, mainly getting some basecoats down but also working on his face as he's a bit of a centrepiece model, so working on the skin tones are important. It's been a while since painting flesh other than the intercessor from this weekend, but the detail is stepped up quite a bit. I think his face is alright for now, but it likely needs something? Lips and brows need adding in and then maybe it'll look better. I've also blocked in some of the details on my Eradicators. Most of the Indomitus box I have was airbrushed in one sitting, so I only really have other colours and details to paint. That being said though, it's a nerve-wracking experience trying not to ruin the white I've put down as there's no going back!






Thanks for reading/looking!

The detail work on the white armor is fantastic. The Chaplain looks sure to impress, as well.

Amazing work all around. Well done!

Thank you Youwashock and Nev, less work done this week on my marines as I'm working on my painting challenge entry but this weekend I'll be keen to get a bit more done.

Howdy - the white armour and weathering on these excoriators is excellent. Weathering is great too. Nice

Thanks Darkkt, greatly appreciated!

Slow on the progress since my last post, I've mainly been working on the Porsche build for the painting challenge, and while I was waiting for it to dry and rather than waste the paint in my airbrush, I knocked out a Space Marine I'd picked up a while ago from the getting started magazine GW do with a necron. Not the best value for £10, but they're fine practise pieces and unique sculpts, which was my reasoning for buying it. He was meant to be an Excoriator, but he is now a Blood Drinker!

I wanted to see how fast I could knock out a tabletop level marine and I added some freehand into the mix for additional interest as I don't have the transfers. Under 2 hours and fairly happy of the change of pace. Let me know what you think!

Hey all!

Another update from me, and probably the last before the new year as I'm headed home to Ireland tomorrow for the Christmas holidays. My university worked on two stage covid tests so I've been cleared to go home and it means self isolation isn't as big of an issue as I go from Scotland to Ireland. I do plan on bringing a few minis home, as I'll have a good bit of free time to chill and paint away. The trip home lets me collect some minis I have at home from my pile of shame too, for 2021's foray into painting.

This week since painting the Blood Drinker, I've been doing a bit of project hopping, working on the Porsche, a tiny X-Wing, and my Excoriators. I even got to jump into a call with Mad Doc Grotsnik and a couple of others for a painting session last night! I've never really had the chance to paint with anyone else and the past year has mostly been online interactions, so the hobby call was a good one, and I feel like I needed it too. I placed an order with element games as they finally got in stock of the Vallejo metal color line of paints that I've been after for absolutely ages. I picked up duraluminium and white aluminium as they're good tones and different enough to be used side by side or as a highlight colour. I was tempted by their gold, but retributor armour I find is a good enough shade of gold anyway and I have 3 or 4 pots of the stuff from conquest and mortal realms! I'm excited to try them out.

Back to the Excoriators, I've been working on Eradicators primarily as I want to get some of the units out of the way so I can reward myself with character models on the side for putting up with any monotonous bits of the painting process. I am a good bit away from finishing off the Eradicators, having spent a while edge highlighting the three of them to a pretty reasonable standard and adding some light weathering, so if you see any unsightly white lines or splotches of paint, they'll get filled in with deeper damage down the line, and the finer white lines serve as extra texture on the armour panels. These guys are going to be one of two fire support squads for 5th company, hence the black trim and company roundel on the kneepad. I only managed to take one decent photo, but the other two marines are exactly the same:



I also dug out my Bladeguard Veterans, who have been hidden for a while. I dug them out to try out airbrushing power swords again, something I'd tried with decent results for my howling banshees earlier this year. I think it doesn't need to be said, but the swords I've attempted this week didn't go as well, with the swords generally looking a bit naff, even though they've not received their edge highlights yet to break up each face of the sword. I'll go over them again and start from scratch I think. I couldn't remember from last time whether I'd used white ink or white paint to paint up the Banshees' swords, or the pressure was too high, but I got some pooling of paint on the blade which gave some poor results. Anyone have tips to help me out with that by any chance?





Finally, I painted up the trim on the Vets and have decided to use them as First Company or "The Honoured First" for the purposes of the chapter fluff. I don't have a spot where they could reasonably fit into the 5th company as a unit, so I feel that does the job. First company colours are normally white but sometimes silver, so I've gone for silver as I think there'd be just a bit too much white. I do feel that the silver gets lost in the white, so it may be chapter accurate, but it's missing some contrast that will hopefully appear when I get onto painting some heraldry and what not on the mini shields and pauldrons.






Thanks for taking a look, and if I don't post here before the New Year, have a good Christmas and New Year!

The white on those Bladeguard is fantastic.

Nice job TH! I think the silver was the right choice as the white would’ve been too much. The power sword looks pretty decent to me, I didn’t really notice the pooling you mentioned. Have a good trip back home and Happy Christmas

That's a great white you've done on those marines and really well aged too. Good stuff, looking forward to seeing more

Fifty wrote:The white on those Bladeguard is fantastic.

Cheers Fifty, much appreciated!

gobert wrote:Nice job TH! I think the silver was the right choice as the white would’ve been too much. The power sword looks pretty decent to me, I didn’t really notice the pooling you mentioned. Have a good trip back home and Happy Christmas

Thanks gobert! The pooling I think is more noticeable in real life, and that's if you're looking closely. I'm hoping once there's some edge highlighting it won't be seen at all.

Maharg wrote:That's a great white you've done on those marines and really well aged too. Good stuff, looking forward to seeing more

Thanks Maharg! More to come this year for sure.

Hey all,

I'm back again after a restful Christmas and New Year, and I spent some time catching up on different folk's blogs over the holiday period. It's tough reading and commenting on Dakka through a mobile phone, so I'm glad to get back to my PC to properly look at everything. Unfortunately, being home and away from the majority of my hobby supplies meant that painting anything Space Marine related was nigh on impossible, but I did sit down and dig out my stash of Dark Imperium marines to begin work on their bases.

I have this idea that each squad will have progressively warped or damaged bases to make it appear like they're delving deeper into a Daemon ship or space hulk, although achieving that may be easier said than done. I decided as well to elevate some of the character models for my army akin to what I did for the Indomitus Captain. Basically it'll make them more noticeable and definitely doesn't help me in terms of modelling for advantage but I do think the larger bases deserve to have some interest going on and makes the world feel more lived in.

As I've seen others state some hobby goals, I decided to make a couple of my own for this specific project. Excoriators have quickly become my favourite project to work on having never really done much in the way of marines before and they'll always be a force I want to add to, but at the same time, I think an achievable goal for me would be to finish off the marines I currently have in my pile of shame and call the army done. Based on how marines play these days, I don't want to field them as a tabletop army, I get enough abuse with Eldar being OP (although not right now) and the basing won't lend themselves to a competitive environment. I do have a good few bodies to paint already, but no marine force is complete without a tank or two, so adding an Impulsor or other vehicle might be a cool thing to add to this year's hobby goals.

I'll leave you with some photos of what I've done, and I'd like to say thanks to you guys for welcoming me back after my hiatus from blogging! Also, Happy New Year!






-TH

Just read through from the start and that is an amazing force you're getting done. Love the color scheme, the white with its weathering is marvelous. Excited to see more!

I hadn’t spotted the claw on the base the first time I looked, cool addition! The new bases all look great, is it zip ties that your using on the ridged bits?

Really beautiful marines in here mate! Love the scuff and grime of both the paintjobs (I dunno what it is but multiple shades of brown on the same mini always make me happ!y) and the bases are just great and make the minis on top of them pop.

It's a while back now but the flesh work on the chaplain's face is also very nice - I reckon it would (does, by now? ) look great after those final highlights. Looking forward to more in 2021!

That white is a thing of beauty TH and the weathering is top notch. I want to say I could help you with the power swords but mine don't turn out as well as yours. Looking forward to more!

Viterbi wrote:Just read through from the start and that is an amazing force you're getting done. Love the color scheme, the white with its weathering is marvelous. Excited to see more!

Thanks Viterbi, there's more coming soon as I'm rounding down on some of the other projects on my table right now!

gobert wrote:I hadn’t spotted the claw on the base the first time I looked, cool addition! The new bases all look great, is it zip ties that your using on the ridged bits?

Thanks gobert, wasn't sure on the claw, and still not, I need to think of something clever to make it seem like there's something happening out of scene. They are indeed zip ties, I have a bunch of various sizes and seem to fit fairly well into a spaceship as a power conduit or something.

tzurk wrote:Really beautiful marines in here mate! Love the scuff and grime of both the paintjobs (I dunno what it is but multiple shades of brown on the same mini always make me happ!y) and the bases are just great and make the minis on top of them pop.

It's a while back now but the flesh work on the chaplain's face is also very nice - I reckon it would (does, by now? ) look great after those final highlights. Looking forward to more in 2021!

Thanks for stopping by Tzurk and thanks very much for the kind compliments. The weathering aspect of the paint job is quickly becoming my favourite and they look weird when the aren't weathered now. Still need to add those final highlights to my Chaplain, I've largely been avoiding him as I'm not sure what direction to take his skin tone as it's a bit red right now.

Yorkright wrote: That white is a thing of beauty TH and the weathering is top notch. I want to say I could help you with the power swords but mine don't turn out as well as yours. Looking forward to more!

Cheers Yorkright! I wouldn't say mine turn out better, we just have different methods for power swords, which I'll hopefully have an update on soon.

Another small update from me. The marines took a back seat this week for some scale modelling among other things, but I dug out the Chaplain I'd been avoiding for a while and did some pin washing on his armour and gold trim as well as bring the lustre of the gold back a little bit with some selective highlights. I haven't worked on the face at all since so that'll have to be sorted out at some stage soon but I did some work on his back pack and I'm pretty pleased with the result of that. I may have to add a brighter highlight to the black armour as under the light it's not very apparent. Luckily the backpack is removable too, as I'd never get past all that parchment. Unfortunately, I seem to have broken one of the halo's spikes slightly based on the photos which I didn't see before. Can't say I am surprised, I feel GW's approach to gaming figures has changed and they care more for spindly bits and dynamism over sturdier sculpts. Also wondering what colour the tubing on joints should be? Black doesn't make a lot of sense so I may go for grey to break it up a touch.




Thanks for reading!

-TH

Chappy is looking really nice. Needs a little dirt on the shiny silvers, but otherwise great all around.

Chaplain is already looking great and I too was happy to be able to remove the backpack while painting, otherwise it would have been impossible
Grey should work well for the joints.

Nice progress on chappy, his gold is looking lovely and shiny. I see what you mean on the red tone to his face, you could embrace it and make him quite flush faced from all of the shouting? I like Viterbi’s idea of the grey for the tubing, a mid grey should work well