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You could go for a really dark blue/grey, something like Deadly Nightshade.

Chaplain is looking great. Always love to see them getting paint; they just encapsulate the spirit of 40k so well. Even if their rules are often trash over the years.

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

Cheers! A much appreciated comment!

Viterbi wrote: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.

Thanks! I actually think I've glued a lot of the backpacks on my Primaris marines and didn't think about how difficult getting around the back of them would be. Only the chappy and ancient didn't get that treatment. I think I'll be going for a dark grey with some lighter highlights to break it up a bit on the tubing, don't want it to be too stark.

gobert wrote: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

Thanks gobert, might just run with the reddish skin tones. Skin is always a bit of a weird one, I never think a lot about it but I conveniently gave my usual flesh tones to my dad as he's started scale modelling again.

Nevelon wrote:You could go for a really dark blue/grey, something like Deadly Nightshade.

Chaplain is looking great. Always love to see them getting paint; they just encapsulate the spirit of 40k so well. Even if their rules are often trash over the years.

Thank you Nev, I love chaplains, generally all of them are great but this one is one of the best recent ones imo, coming closely behind the classic Terminator Chappy.

Hey folks, back with another update for you all and made it to page 2! Woo!

These guys had a week off the paint bench as I went flitting to the assortment of other projects and came back to these this week. With the time spent on the marines this week, I've been going in on finishing some of the detail work I have been avoiding with the marines, such as edge highlighting the bladeguards' armour and their metallic parts to liven them up a bit after the oil wash. I've also painted the eyes of the eradicators and bladeguard and edge highlight the power swords too. I did a quick sketch on the Bladeguard robes to give an idea for highlight placement, I find blocking in different tones helpful and it gives me an idea of how extreme I should go with the highlighting.

Edge highlighting is usually a run of the mill, somewhat tedious process which results in sloppiness but I can chalk any thicker than usual lines as wear and tear by adding chipping to break up any neat edges. I tried out mixing some white ink into skull white (white scar, excuse me) to see if the flow off the brush would be easier and it has made it a lot better for getting opaque edges where I'm not fighting the brush. It wasn't easy getting the consistency right though, but that will come with practise I hope.

I would say the Eradicators are getting pretty close to done, a few of the pouches need the odd scratch and highlight and they need to get decals and weathering, but overall, maybe they'll be done in a painting session or two.





The Bladeguard got a bit extra done to them as I said, so they're not a million miles off either, but the cloth is the most time intensive part of these minis so far based on the Captain and Judiciar. I'm happy now with the power swords, not perfect, but on a table or even for a nice photo I think they'll be alright. The edge highlight helps a lot with framing them.





Swords!





I gave the Chaplain an added bit of detail, giving his black armour a first pass of highlights and it reminds me why I don't paint Chaos Space Marines with all that trim! I also washed the silver metals and had another think about the skin tones for the face. Maybe that'll be tackled by the next update? Still a good bit to go on this guy which I didn't think about last update, more robes, more parchment... phew.



Finally, I hopped over to my Bladeguard Ancient in an effort to get my minis near to each other in the level of completeness. I think the ancient is a gorgeous model and seeing all the conversion on it is tempting me to get a second for kitbashing. He'll be receiving silver trim and maybe a silver helmet in the coming days as he is one of the Honoured First and I have the Dark Imperium Ancient as my 5th company banner bearer.



So that's it from me, another minor update and it feels like these guys could be done soon but they also could take way longer. Anyone else feel that way about projects? I'm just waiting for that feel good paint the base rim black feeling with a couple of these.

Cheers and thanks for reading,

-TH

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Anyone else feel that way about projects? I'm just waiting for that feel good paint the base rim black feeling with a couple of these.

Sometimes, especially for models that I want to lay six or seven layers on one color, like the white I built up on the old Shining Spears I did for the last two Painting Challenges. To avoid burn-out I paint something completely different for the next little bit.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks Cap for your input, I actually took your advice and put down my marines for a little bit to work on some other projects, which seems to have worked!

Hey all, back with another update after taking a small break from space marines, but this weekend past I decided to pick them up as I fancied finishing some models this week. It being Valentine's Day/Weekend, I managed to steal a few hours here and there for some painting and I figured I'd get to work on the freehand I have yet to complete for the Eradicators, Bladeguard, Chaplain, Ancient and Lieutenant. I'm not a fan of freehand as I find it a little bit boring and mostly daunting scribbling all over white as mistakes are hard to fix but doing them in a batch means that the freehand is relatively consistent with other models and lets me forget about freehand for another while.

I'll start off by updating you guys with the progress of the Chaplain's face. Last time around I felt he was a bit red in the face so I went back to it and in between work I've touched up his face with some glazing and hopefully he looks a bit better? From the table he looks like he has enough contrast but input is always welcome as this guy is a character for the army.




Now, onto the freehand. I had a think about the freehand that was needed to progress the minis I currently have on my table and incidentally, all the space marines needed it in varying degrees. The Eradicators were first on the list as they were the closest to completion so I worked on their chapter symbol and squad markings as I don't have the decal sheet for them (left it in Ireland at Christmas). The fire support weren't all to difficult to replicate, and any mistakes can be covered with some weathering anyway. They got some weathering using mostly a fine sponge and then I went in and added more damage with a brush using brown and silver paint for the damage going beyond the primer layer, if such things exist in the 40k. Let me know what you think, I realise only now that they've not got any script on them and I haven't added pigment powers but they match my assault intercessors so I'm not too worried. With other models I may experiment more.

Fire Support Squad Kato








Once the eradicators were out of the way, I moved onto the Bladguard. According to their lore, they are typically attached as bodyguards to companies they go on campaign with and they mark their armour to denote that company but I left them with their silver trim from the Honoured First Company and used their tilt shields as an excuse to put some markings on there to show off that they're attached to the 5th company. I did think about having personal heraldry on their tilt shields but they are not Black Templars or any other chapter like that so I kept it simple. The only odd one out is the Mk7 helmed marine who has a templar cross on his shield which can be some honorific given to the marine in question for a campaign fighting alongside their brethren of the Black Templars. The veteran crosses on their pauldrons were probably the most difficult as the shape is big and chunky and I don't think I nailed the shape.








Finally, I did a little bit of freehand on the Lieutenant that I have been neglecting for so long. He got a checkerboard tilt shield as he's already part of the 5th company. I need to work on a bunch of things to improve the overall look of the model, like increasing the contrast of his tabard and I am tempted to revert his black faceplate to just white with a Lieutenant stripe.


Thanks for reading, I've got a good bit of work ahead of me with the loin cloths and tabards on the remaining minis so I'll try and hash them out over an evening or two. I also eBay'd some bits and pieces for minis in the future, as everyone needs some more power swords, axes, thunder hammers and the like!

-TH

Hello! What a fantastic looking army!

As others have opined: excellent white, lovely work with the oils (a friend has been using oils on his Black Legion army - so different approach altogether - but he raves about it/them also).

The craft and detail on the bases is another thing to appreciate - kudos for the end result.

My only critical remark regards the Judicar's helm - it appears quite stained from the oil application, I believe it is too far from white to tie it to your force at this moment.

I look forward to your progress with this army, thanks for sharing!

[A few remarks about the text:

I don't know if it was an autocorrect error, but quite early in the thread, in comparison to airbrushing you wrote "... crying with a brush..."
- perhaps you meant to type "... trying..." but I had a good laugh as it hits close to home, so thanks for that.

In a piece of flavor-text you reference a "... Stigmartyr..." - brilliant bit of word-play, haven't seen that before.]

More good progress TH. looks like the break did you good. To say you don’t enjoy freehand, you’ve done a good job with it.

Tremendous work Tyranid Horde.

CB

Thanks for stopping by Scott, I'm glad you like the army and the basing. If you've not tried out oils or just want to try an oil wash, I highly recommend giving it a go. It's quite a rewarding process. I think you're right regarding the Judiciar helmet, I had originally meant it to be bone, but apart from the shoulder pad, you can't really tell what chapter he is a part of. Have to say, looking back at the text you pointed out, I'm really not sure if crying was a Freudian slip or not

Thanks Gobert and Captain Brown, the break did help I think. My issue with freehand is painting it over airbrushed white and mistakes mean I can't go back!

No photos, but I'm chipping away at the clothing on the Vets and other marines that have it. Should have something to show soon!

Nice work on these guys so far, Tyranid Horde. One of these days I might finish painting a Primaris model

Cheers Dysartes! All it takes is an impulse buy and you have to get it done!

Hey all,

A rather small update for you all. Not much done on the Excoriators this past while but I'm working away on the clothing of the bladeguard etc. They're still a good bit of work and what I have done so far I don't think is worth taking a photo of so when you next see them they'll likely be done.

I have however, started another space marine for the space marine themed painting challenge and I picked Lieutenant Amulius as I felt I could do a good job with a character model for the month.

I am taking a slightly different approach with painting this guy as I want to try my hand at NMM but white is quite a difficult colour as is so this is an added challenge! Amulius isn't a bad model as a test piece either. He is static which means there isn't anything funky going on with lighting and he has mostly flat panels. If all goes well, I want to try some NMM on his Aquila and the other metal pieces so he'll be a blinged out space marine before he gets covered in dings and dents. The photos below show the difference between the zenithal prime and the first pass with my airbrush which took a bit over an hour to achieve. I do know there is some graininess in the mid-tones but I will be going back again to improve the blends. I was also thinking of adding some environmental lighting to the paint job too as I want the white armour to reflect his surroundings. Let me know what you think, I know it doesn't seem like a lot but I'm pretty pleased with my airbrush control and blending to get to this point.

Zenithal prime:


First pass with an airbrush, starting from black up to white with "cool" greys. I mixed in dark reaper, followed by celestra grey, then grey seer and finally a bit of white ink for the highest lights.







Thanks for looking/reading!

He’s a shiney marine alright. The zenithal/volume highlights are working really nicely on him. Compared to my highlight transitions they’re pretty awesome, I can’t spot the grain on the mid tones.

I can't tell you how happy I am that you're painting up an Excoriators army. I love it when people paint their marines in chapter colors other than standard blue, red, black, or green. And the Excoriators are one of the more extreme obscure chapters. I love it. And your paint jobs are beautifully executed. Your Primaris look so good.

Thanks Gobert and Warboss_Waaazag! I really wanted a chapter with some established fluff but weren't done to death and these guys fit the bill. Glad you like them!

Made a wee bit more progress on Lieutenant Amulius over a couple of evenings. Having received some feedback from various sources, ranging from here on Dakka to some hobby groups on Discord, I've refined the NMM to a point where I think the mini looks like it has metallic components. More contrast=better! I realise now I haven't shown the initial stage of NMM so I'll post that first and then show the updated paint job underneath. I also did a quick oil pin wash to break up the panels and see where on the white armour I need to tidy up and any of the overspill you see will hopefully be covered by some edge highlights or glazes in the shadows. Next thing to do for the armour is edge highlighting and adding some reflective bounce lights on the inner legs and other parts of the body.

Finally, I have no company to assign this gent to. Should be the second Lieutenant for the 5th Company or should he be in a different company? I am undecided so feel free to jump in!

Older WIP


This evening's WIP:



Thanks for reading my quick ramble, I'm having a lot of fun pushing myself to paint like this, seems the tutorial watching is helping me!

-TH

You are just crushing the paint on these. Great looking stuff. The new guy is looking like he's going to be something special.

Thanks youwashock!

Hey folks,

A quick update this evening. Steady work on the Lieutenant has been made with very little time spent on anything else and due to his lack of tabards, painting is a lot speedier than I expected. Basically worked on pushing the contrast in the NMM portions of the model, edge highlighted the white armour and worked on knocking out the leather parts too. The lenses got painted a dull red as it's not active and the purity seals got a nice pink colour. Some lettering to do on the purity seals themselves, but that's basically the body done.

I decided to make him the second 5th company lieutenant of my force, as I have plans to make a chapter scourge out of one of the Dark Imperium marines. I hope the black is readable as a shiny black and not grey. Dakka washes out the images a little so there is a bit more contrast, but hey, gotta make it look good for Dakka!









Maybe because I'm impatient, or lazy, or both, but I decided to airbrush his power sword. Based on the result, I'll likely need to go back in and work on the transitions by brush as my skills let me down a little bit. In future, I think less colour flips may be a good idea. You'll see I did some proper freehand work too. The fist was actually super easy to do as the shapes aren't very difficult. It is a little bit larger than the transfers, but it is good practice and no faffing around with transfers. The lightning bolts though, they're not so good. Yellow on white is hard to see and I made a few mistakes that aren't easy to fix over an airbrushed shoulder pad. Not the end of the world though, I'll work on touching it up.



Finally, I saw David Colwell released an overview of how he paints skin on his Instagram and figured I'd give it a try as I really enjoy his work. About mid way through the process right now, as I intend to lighten the skin tone up to a European tone. Still can't paint eyes, woeful stuff.





In other news, I signed up to Hachette's Imperium magazine which contains marines, necrons, sisters of battle and ad mech. That's coming in the late summer, which gives me a few months to knock out some of the marines I have. I'll likely be picking up duplicate issues if there are any places near me, so if someone wants cheap minis but don't have access to the magazine, drop me a line and I'll post to you at cost plus shipping.

Thanks for reading!

-TH

That space marine is coming along very nicely and the NMM experimenting is working well.

White, black and red is such a striking and powerful color scheme. And your freehand is excellent - more ambitious than I would dare try. Very nice highlighting and shading on the white.

The sword looks good. The head is fantastic, too. Nice job.

Nice smooth white . The metallic black trim looks the part and to me does not come across as gray.

Tyranid Horde,

I would make him the second Lieutenant for the 5th Company. Otherwise you are going to get the urge to start another Company...

My two cents,

CB

The white is looking really shiny, it’s almost a shame to chip it! The face is already looking great, I might have to look up this David Colwell

Your Lt. is going to be quite the showcase model when he is done. Smooth whites, vibrant reds, beautiful power sword and that face is looking great too. You are going to have to throw a few pics of your army together so we can drool over them also. Are you planning on doing any weathering on the holster and other leather bits?

Maharg wrote:That space marine is coming along very nicely and the NMM experimenting is working well.

Cheers Maharg!

The Riddle of Steel wrote:White, black and red is such a striking and powerful color scheme. And your freehand is excellent - more ambitious than I would dare try. Very nice highlighting and shading on the white.

Thanks RoS! Give the freehand a go, you never know how you might do until you try!

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:The sword looks good. The head is fantastic, too. Nice job.

Thanks Warboss!

Theophony wrote: Nice smooth white . The metallic black trim looks the part and to me does not come across as gray.

Thanks Theo, glad it looks black and not grey, another set of eyes helps me to no end.

Captain Brown wrote:Tyranid Horde,

I would make him the second Lieutenant for the 5th Company. Otherwise you are going to get the urge to start another Company...

My two cents,

CB

Gone for 5th company and now considering what other companies could be cool to do.

gobert wrote:The white is looking really shiny, it’s almost a shame to chip it! The face is already looking great, I might have to look up this David Colwell

Thanks Gobert! I'm afraid the time for chipping has come, nearly didn't want to do it myself but hopefully the results are pleasing. David has some gorgeous works of art and his interviews are good listens.

Yorkright wrote: Your Lt. is going to be quite the showcase model when he is done. Smooth whites, vibrant reds, beautiful power sword and that face is looking great too. You are going to have to throw a few pics of your army together so we can drool over them also. Are you planning on doing any weathering on the holster and other leather bits?

He's kind of ended up that way hasn't he? I'll get some pics of the army soon as most are almost done. You make a fantastic point about weathering the holster and leather bits, I was so focused on weathering the armour I'd forgotten to weather those! I'll have that for the next update.

Hey all,

Another update this week, plugging away on a range of things this time as I find ways to dodge painting this lieutenant which has quickly become what will be my best piece to date. And speaking of, the lieutenant is almost done I would say. I decided to weather the armour with chipping and streaking and added a few bits of script to the armour where there is older damage and also added some script and text on the pauldron and purity seal paper. Still haven't painted in his eyes, it's a bit nerve wracking but I'll get round to it. Having the model fully built will help with pupil placement too as it's hard to decide what a floating head will be looking at. I touched up the sword a little bit, smoothing out blends with some glazing and adding some bright whites to increase the contrast and then I added a subtle OSL glow to the left greave; I didn't want it to be obvious, but the photos don't really show it too much. Also need to wrap up his little sculpted base thingy, as that may take some time with all the bolt shells and the chaos marine helmet at his feet.





I decided that I'd also make him a plinth. There is an online painting competition run by Cult of Paint in April/May so I figured I'd enter this chap as he's well on the way to completion and when things open up, I may bring him to an event or something. I've not entered any competitions before, and the painting challenge here is a good test bed I think. The plinth comes from the top of a hairspray bottle and I pressed the mini into the milliput to seat it correctly and allow me to sculpt around the sculpted base. Upon dry fitting with the miniature now, it doesn't fit well and there are a few gaps, but I'll fill those in and get it painted up (sorry for the gak photos, white primer is hard to photograph).




While I had my weathering toys out, I worked on the bladeguard and indomitus lieutenant to bring their armour up (or down? ) to a nicely weathered look after I worked on their cloth parts. No text on the bladeguard aside from their purity seals, I'd rather leave that until it is fully painted (still some bits to do). The ancient hasn't been weathered yet but I thought I would ask how best to proceed with his clothing. Should I increase the contrast on his robes as he's a gaming piece? Let me know!






Ancient:


Thanks for reading, I'll hopefully be wrapping up everything you see soon enough so you may see an update in a week's time

Cheers,

-TH

Bladeguard and Lt are looking great. The chipping has definitely added to the look of the Lt. Good luck painting his eyes

Thanks gobert!

Hey all,

I didn't expect to be posting another update so soon after the last one, but I finished off my Bladeguard and Lieutenant from Indomitus yesterday evening while listening to some podcasts and snapped a few photos. Let me know what you think!

Bladeguard Veteran Squad Gallax of The Honoured First








5th Company Corpus-Lieutenant Cambega Ortiger





These were fun to paint up for the most part and great models to boot. Feel free to have a look through the gallery at other angles, I didn't want to flood this post with half a dozen side and rear angles of the Bladeguard.

Thanks for reading!

-TH

Great job, I love the bone colour on the shield crosses. What colours did you use?

Thanks gobert! I used zandri dust as my basecoat followed by ushabti bone for the higher points and then used skeleton horde contrast paint over the top with a highlight to finish it. I thinned the contrast paint with medium for the MkIII helmeted bladeguard and the lieutenant so it gave a lighter look which I prefer overall, but having different coloured bone works well enough I think.

Exalted Tyranid Horde.

Cheers,

CB

Love these guys TH, especially that weathering on the holster and tabard.

Wow, that weathering really adds to the realism. Looking better and better. The amount of detail you are putting into these guys is impressive.

And I agree the lighter bone on the shield does look a bit better. Very good bone effect and nice use of standard and contrast paints together on the same item to get the effect you want.