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Well, I haven't picked up a brush in years, haven't played in years, and as I'm sure my wallet will be happy to report, haven't bought anything in years except for the very occasional piece to round out the collection... however, Darktide just came out and oh god I've sunk almost 100 hours into it and I'm thinking about warhammer all the time again.

So I looked at my vast hordes of minatures that had been sitting collecting dust and decided to get back into things. I think I'll probably wait for 10th before I start playing again but why not put brush to plastic in the meantime. Among other arimes that I started over the years, I have a decent sized collection of Raptors. And a gigantic collection of grey marines. So why not make some guys for my raptors to fight. I have one of the badab books, I bought Huron just before Forge World discontinued him, and the new imperial guard range looks pretty fantastic, so I could even make some Tyrant's Legion guys if I want to. Plus I like the 'historical' bits of 40k, and not just because I'm a grade-A grognard. (I will not forgive GW for shoving my namesake into a pokeball.)

Now, the bulk of the grey marines I got in a gigantic job lot off ebay years ago (for very little money, I have a horrible suspicsion someone was clearing out a dead relative's stuff and had no idea what they could have got for it). So I selected 5 who had already been primed by the previous owner and got to work.

First things first, one marine is an old metal heavy bolter guy, so I'll have to superglue his backpack on. Huh, all three superglue tubes have dried up. Never mind, let's get the paints out. Oh god, most of them have dried up too. A fantastic opportunity to free myself from citadel but for the moment money is tight so that can come later.


I started by basing with iron warriors.


Iron Warriors is a great paint, but I quickly realised it was way too dark compared to the traditional Astral Claws silver. Oh well, guess it's just gonna be a dark interpretation of the Astral Claws.
Then I tried highlighting with Stormhost Silver. And I quickly realised that after years without practice, I can't highlight any more. I was never that good but I just can't keep steady, plus it's way too light compared to Iron Warriors, the contrast between the two looks ridiculous.

Then I had an epithany. The models are too dark. They've already got Stormhost Silver on them. I can't highlight. I'll just drybrush with Stormhost Silver.
Genius ladies and gentlemen, genius. By swallowing my pride (back when I used to paint I thought drybrushing was for amatures) I managed to add depth to the model, incorporate the stormhost silver and lighten the metal up so it looked far more appropriate for Astral Claws.

(sorry these pictures aren't great)

Next step, the splash of colour in the Astral Claws scheme, the blue pauldrons with gold trim. Retributor Armour went on, followed by Kantor Blue. Which is a fantastic paint, it is the blueiest blue. There is no part of it that can be described as anything but blue.


I tried using some MIG Jiminez's Dunkelgrau (over the years I picked up one or two paints outside of citadel), thinking it was black. Turns out it's grey, so Abbadon Black it is.


Along the way I noticed paint kept chipping off. I have no idea what primer the previous owner used but it seems citadel paint doesn't stick to it terribly well. I ended up doing an all over coat of Lahmian Medium about halfway through. I'll have to take grey minis and spray them myself until I figure out how to strip the ones fully or partially primed.

I forgot to take photos of the next steps but the bolt guns' metal parts got turned back into Iron Warriors, Khorne Red was used on the wax of the purity seals. Of the many pots of light grey and white paint I've bough over the years from citadel, only one pot of White Scar seemed liquid enough to be used, so that went on the paper of the purity seals and in the eyes, which were then covered in a bit of Waywatcher Green glaze, a simple and effective trick I used to use when I couldn't be bothered doing the intricate triple painting for red lenses finished with hardcoat for sheen.

The boys are almost ready, just gotta do something with the shoulder pads, so I followed the old Mengel Miniatures tutorial. Here is probably the best one.




All in all I think these 5 tyrant's claw symbols could be generously described as a 'mixed bag'.


One coat of liquid skill later and the boys are done. At least done for now. I'm not sure yet what basing scheme I want to use and I'm also not sure if I want to use base extenders so for a little while the bases are gonna be as they are.




I did these guys over the couse of two weeks. Three sessions, the first one was probably 2-3 hours, the second 1 hour, the third ~3-4 hours. Painting was always the least fun part of the hobby for me, not that I didn't enjoy it sometimes. On the other hand, sometimes it felt like a chore that came between what I considered to be the fun bits of the hobby, building and playing. I'm happy with how they've come out, given how long it's been since I last painted anything. I've come up with a simple and repeatable scheme that I don't find too boring, and as I regain my lost skill I will be able to add onto and build off of this basic method.

Hopefully I'll see you guys in another 2 weeks with the other 5 members of the squad.