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I'm posting these to showcase my son and I's "shared ' Space Marine force. Mostly its been bought from ebay , cleaned up or stripped of paint and then painted / converted by me for my boy to play with ! Apparently thats a fair swop ......

More to follow if people want to see them.

Couple of other vehicles that are finished , several more are still WIP's , my favourite at the minute being my backwards Leman Russ / Vindicator kit bash (also on Dakka )

Comments on camo ?

Have to say, your camo is really well done. Both in balance and colour choice. What really puts these models apart from the normal stuff you see is the weathering. Great stuff. Would love to see more, especially infantry if you have any.

I think you've done a great job. The camo looks beautiful and I really like the colours you've gone for, the weathering looks great, also. I think it's a sterling job all-round, a shame more people haven't commented on this!

Have you done any foot-slogging Marines? Also, what Chapter are they?

Hi guys , thanks for the comments , Marines have been done to a certain extent , and by that I mean they were mostly done fast to get my boy playing !
I'll post some pics tonight !

Very nice work, the camo scheme works really well, the muted colours add to the effect. As the others said the weathering makes all the difference! Nice!

Really like these! love the weathering the really thin scratches around the hull are convincing and work great with the brilliant chipping style you do! i'd be interested to know your methods for this? also the camo is awesome!

These are very nicely done! Can you give us a breakdown on how you did the weathering? Great job on the Land Raider!


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These are very nicely done! Can you give us a breakdown on how you did the weathering? Great job on the Land Raider!

The weathering is fantastic. I really like what you have done here.

How did you like the alternate Razorback turret?

Really impressive stuff here man, especially seeing as it's re-conditioned!
Would love to see how you do your infantry models, keep up the great work

What I am most impressed by is that you took prepainted eBay models and ressurected them to this quality of end product. Very fine job sir. You make me a believer that there is a second life for models found on eBay. Fantastic work. I can tell you really put yourself into the hobby. Keep it up.

On a side note if you have a before and after shot of how far one of these has come it would be nice to see. No problem if you don't, just thought it would be cool.

Wow ! Thanks very much guys ! I half expected a killing for "daring" to paint Marines in something other than blue ! :-)
( There's nothing wrong with blue either ! )

SickSix : I quite like the turret , its nothing special detail wise and mine had some warped parts and a few bubbles , but nothing that couldn't be fixed easily enough , and its CHEAP !!

Camo wise I just got a basic idea of camo patterns from google , settled on Tamiya Desert yellow for ALL bascoats and Vallejo German Grey for the cam base , got a bottle of wine and set to with the airbrush !

Chipping wise , I stole all my tecniques from other military modellers , but the principles are very easy . After all your shading , filtering etc use a colour that could realistically be metal primer , either dark grey or Red oxide ( avoid silver , bright metal is not often seen except for the first five minutes ) and apply with a VERY fine brush to all edges of plates , around hatches , where crew constantly walk etc , think of how scratched paint would get when a tank drove through a forest , a building , a sandstorm etc etc and make the scratches go in logical directions. For the hull sides very long thin scratches can be added using the fibres of a broken bamboo skewer dipped in paint , simply snap the skewer , dip in the chosen colour and drag the fibres in the direction you chose.

Then you use a very light colour of your original base colour to highlight the scratches , for large areas of chipping you can add fine lines of a darkened primer colour to further deepen the texture.

All brushes need to have really good points , all paints must be very thin , and you will need alot of time to do a LandRaider !!!!

Simples !!! :-)

AdeptArtificer : Reconditioning ebay stuff can be alittle haphazard in that sometimes you end up buying parts from the various Bitz sellers anyway , but sometimes all thats needed is some greenstuff.

If I can I strip all my ebay purchases in brake fluid , this works 90% of the time ALL the time , brake fluid also seems to have an effect on plastic glue , I've noticed models very often just disassemble themselves , which is handy if you're gonna convert it.

Also stuff on ebay tends to be older , so its made with the light grey plastic instead of the new dark grey stuff GW use now , which is easier to cut ! :-)

Some infantry pics.

"Camouflage is the colour of cowardice" -Some Space Marine Guy -M39.891

But in all honesty I really like this, great overall scheme, execution and especially weathering! I like that grungy hard beaten look they all have!

 More Dakka wrote:
"Camouflage is the colour of cowardice" -Some Space Marine Guy -M39.891

But in all honesty I really like this, great overall scheme, execution and especially weathering! I like that grungy hard beaten look they all have!

Its a shame someone didn't say " Being seen in the ambush BEFORE its sprung is for dead guys !" :-)

Thanks ! Grungy and hard beaten is what I was after .


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 Just Dave wrote:


Have you done any foot-slogging Marines? Also, what Chapter are they?

Sorry missed your post , Chapter name is "Storm Eagles " or occasionally becomes " Storm Wolves " when my son changes his mind. Both D.I.Y chapters but no fluff much as yet.

Nice job. They turned out very nice. I like the camo scheme. Well executed and effective without being overpowering.

AdeptArtificer wrote:


On a side note if you have a before and after shot of how far one of these has come it would be nice to see. No problem if you don't, just thought it would be cool.

I don't have any before and after shots of these vehicles , but I got a WIP in the Dakka Painting and Modelling section of a backwards Leman Russ / Vindicator thingy conversion , the parts there mostly came from ebay , stripped etc .

Thanks for the kind comments guys , MORE spraying to do !

I've always had something of a problem with the shiney, bold colors that the usual SM's have. I can understand it in some cases, but not on the ground. I love the camo scheme. Hard-used and gritty is an excellent description. I know I've never seen a pretty troop after a day or two in the field.

I like the camo design, and I absolutely love how you've used the weathering to conceal the wear and tear to the secondhand models. Very clever!

That being said, I don't like camo on Space Marines. (Except scouts.) I think that camouflage runs counter to the heraldric feel of the Space Marines. Like your knights of old, the bold colors are purposeful. The complaint I hear from realists is that being in such bright colors would make you a target, but that's kind of the point. Space Marines are supposed to be the knights with banners flying, ribbons streaming from their armored steeds. The guys in brownish clothing, maybe with some dirt on their faces to blend in with the hills, those are the archers. (Or the Imperial Guard, in this case.) And yes, I understand that this dynamic is unrealistic, but so is every other aspect of the 40k setting.

That's just my personal preference though, and I don't think it's one that most people share. (At least not openly.) I think you'll probably get some good reception for this army, since it's different at the very least, and it's very, very well done. Awesome paint job, and awesome conversion work. I hope that when my son gets old enough, he and I have a project like this, too!

 Jimsolo wrote:
I like the camo design, and I absolutely love how you've used the weathering to conceal the wear and tear to the secondhand models. Very clever!

That being said, I don't like camo on Space Marines. (Except scouts.) I think that camouflage runs counter to the heraldric feel of the Space Marines. Like your knights of old, the bold colors are purposeful. The complaint I hear from realists is that being in such bright colors would make you a target, but that's kind of the point. Space Marines are supposed to be the knights with banners flying, ribbons streaming from their armored steeds. The guys in brownish clothing, maybe with some dirt on their faces to blend in with the hills, those are the archers. (Or the Imperial Guard, in this case.) And yes, I understand that this dynamic is unrealistic, but so is every other aspect of the 40k setting.

That's just my personal preference though, and I don't think it's one that most people share. (At least not openly.) I think you'll probably get some good reception for this army, since it's different at the very least, and it's very, very well done. Awesome paint job, and awesome conversion work. I hope that when my son gets old enough, he and I have a project like this, too!

I totally agree with all you've said , just I like dirty , chipped , worn and haggard !!! :-) Tho of course that could be in red or blue not necessarily camo.

The colour thing is down to personal preference for me , I don't mind a camo painted marine with a Red helmet or white stripe somewhere. I have no problem with "Camouflage is for cowards" either , lets flip that around and say , " Lets not die for our god , but make the enemy die for his " LOL. plus of course most of what we're talking about is utterly made up fairy tale !!

Thanks for the input , your only problem if you start something like this with your son will be keeping a reasonably steady focus , " Dad , do me some Marines , Dad do me some Orks , Dad, those Germans look cool . Dad , what about these Spartans ...... " etc etc

Very nice, you really get an impression that your space marines have been in the field without a refit for a fair while...

I'm sorry, but these are awesome.

Well executed, I like them.

Awesome, though the yellow shield might give away that one dreadnought in camo.

I think it is very well-executed as a paint job, and it also harkens back to the days of Rogue Trader (1st edition - not the RPG), where several published Space Marine armies/models utilized camouflage, explained as an alternate scheme to their Codex color, when the warzone might require it..

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I think it is very well-executed as a paint job, and it also harkens back to the days of Rogue Trader (1st edition - not the RPG), where several published Space Marine armies/models utilized camouflage, explained as an alternate scheme to their Codex color, when the warzone might require it..

Absolutely correct ref. Rogue Trader Sir !

I queued up from 3am outside a GW store to get a copy when it was first released , and in those days camo was everywhere ( and peace symbols on marines , and painted on rank and name badges, and lots of crappy slogans that theres no need to go into .....)

Pretty sharp stuff here. If Im not mistaken, there is a marine chapter whose liverly is camoflage. They have a short story in one of the marine novels. I tried it myself, but failed miserably. This army is great, and its cool you and your son can enjoy this together.

I was having enough trouble keeping to just my one Marine chapter, now I see this and its giving me all sorts of ideas. These are just really well executed.

Looks awesome, great weathering and nice militaristic look to them.

Think some of these look ace, like your vehciles.