That’s one thing I liked about the Dark Angels in the Dark Vengeance set. Easy to paint chapter symbols. When I did my friends Blood Angels, he had bought both chapter symbol shoulders and the squad designation shoulder pads (ie. the assault squad X marking). Made things so much quicker and more uniform.
I have totally finished ten tactical marines and am fully satisfied with the paint job. I think I’m going to leave them unsealed, since they’re plastic; expect pictures once I can find a lighting scheme that I like…
Played around with the lighting, and I think I’ve got that worked out more or less. Now, I do apologize for the fact that the front row of guys is a little blurry - I honestly expected the camera to focus on them, rather than the back row.
Group Shot :
Front View :
Right Side :
Back View :
Left Side :
Since these are plastic, I don’t think I’ll bother to seal them - I really like how their colors are now.
VERY nice. Excellent highlighting on the edges. Great bases, too. are they custom-made with brickwork or did you add that? The helmet eyes are well done. My issue is the missile launcher. It could use a little more weathering to my preference. But that’s just my style. Since I often prime with gray paint, it looks unfinished to me. Again, just my taste. Are you leaving the other shoulder pads bare?
ETA: what other parts of this army will we see in the future? Death Company? A dreadnought or other vehicle?
Thanks! Originally I had tried some of these guys with a subtle ‘overhead’ lighting, and while it looked pretty good in person, it’s almost invisible on the photographs I was able to take. So, inspired by the codex depictions, I decided to try the highlighted edge technique. Worked really well - especially on the backpacks.
I prime white or black (the first four guys on the left were primed white, the last six on the right were primed black because I changed techniques in between those batches) - but I can see what you’re saying. Trying to pick out proper colors for weapons is one of the little things that tends to stall my progress on these guys.
I am leaving the other shoulder pads bare for now. Company/Squadron markings are a pain in the ass, especially considering some of the armor styles don’t have the kneepads to decorate. Maybe once I’ve finish an army of a decent size, I’ll revisit the issue.
Based on what I’ve bought already, my Blood Angels army should eventually look like :
2 10-Man Tactical Squads (With a few extra ‘substitution’ Tac Marines - an alternate Sergeant, a swappable heavy weapons guy, etc.)
2 5-Man (or possibly 1 10-Man) Assault Squads
10 Death Company Marines
1 Death Company Dreadnought
2 Furioso Dreadnoughts
1 Dreadnought
5 Sanguinary Guard
1 5-Man Scout Squad
1 Techmarine with Servitors
Chaplain with Jump Pack
Terminator Librarian
1 5-Man Terminator Squad
2 Captains
1 Rhino
1 Drop Pod
1 Stormraven Gunship
2 Baal Predators
Commander Dante
Mephiston
Brother Corbulo
Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost
The Sanguinor
Astorath the Grim
I’m also likely to put together some smaller side armies for use as allies -a small Inquisition/Grey Knights force, and a small Imperial Guard force.
As for the bases - let me do a separate post.. this ones getting long.
Okay, the bases! I am actually pretty proud of those - came about as a moment of inspiration while I was pondering cool base ideas to try.
They ARE standard black plastic bases. I glue the feet to them first, then paint them brown. The brickwork is the cool part - I take a regular comic book backing board and use a ruler and the ferrule of a mechanical pencil to ‘score’ the glossy side of the backing board in the brick pattern.
Once the grooves are in, I cut out a section, and use a fine point black marker-pen to trace the grooves and darken them. I paint the bricks grey - a 50/50 mix of Reaper’s Stormy and Cloudy Greys; then I use a little diluted Elmer’s glue and put the brick piece between the feet of the figure.
Once the glue’s set for a few minutes, I go over the grooves with a brown wash - again, using Reaper’s brown wash. You can wash the bricks a bit too, but you have to be careful not to overwhelm the grey. After that, it’s all diluted white glue and terrain bits - first a layer of ballast to bring things up to ‘level’ with the bricks; then a layer of model grass. With the grass, in particular, I make sure to dab glue on some of the grooves in the brick, so it looks like plants growing up through them.
You could modify the technique pretty easily (by changing the length between cross-grooves) to simulate wooden plank flooring.
I’ve used a similar technique to make stone floors and walls on bases and terrain pieces. A very good effect.
Some individual shots of the sergeant from the last batch, as well as a Captain I finished up :
I see you went with the crackling electricity on the power sword.
Well, yeah. It just looks so cool! I had it painted plain metallic at first, and then when I was finishing him I decided to do the glow/crackle.
Found a bargain at the local game store. Someone was selling his (poorly painted) collection of Space Marines for $125, on consignment at the store. I figure I can strip them, or at least paint over them. It’s a big bunch of bodies :
Assault Marines w/ Chainsword and Bolt Pistol x5
Marine (no weapon) x16
Marine w/ Chainsword and Bolt Pistol x4
Marine w/ Chainsword
Marine w/ Boltgun x29
Marine w/ Flamer x4
Marine w/ Missile Launcher x6
Marine w/ Teleport Homer
Metal Marine w/ Chainsword and Bolt Pistol x3
Metal Marine w/ Chainsword and Teleport Homer
Metal Marine w/ Two Bolt Pistols
Metal Marine w/ Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Teleport homer
Metal Marine w/ Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Standard
Metal Marine Captain w/ Power Sword and Storm Bolter
Marine Tank Spotter (Top Halves) x2
Marine Tank Spotter w/ Hurricane Bolter x1
Metal Techmarine w/ Servo Arm, Bolt Pistol, Some kind of Axe
Partly Metal Marine w/ Plasma Cannon
Partly Metal Marine w/ Heavy Bolter
Partly Metal Marine w/ LasCannon
Terminator w/ Power Fist and Heavy Flamer
Terminator w/ Power Fist and Storm Bolter x3
Terminator w/ Power Sword and Storm Bolter
So I figure this guy bought 1 Terminator Squad, 1 Assault Squad, 1 Devastator Squad, 1 Techmarine, 1 Captain, a ton of Tactical Marines, and maybe a Vets squad or something.
At least, I THINK those little spiky tricorder things are teleport homers. What ARE they?
Is it handheld? If yes, then it’s an Auspex (scanner). The teleport homersits on its own base.
And lucky you on the good deal! A lot of stuff for the price.
Auspex - that’s it. And yeah, I’m pleased. I’ll probably turn the captain and two of the tac squads into some other Legion, to use as allies.
Do you think a general 40K thread would be worthwhile here? I hate all the other 40K related sites out there because of (a) the posters and (b) the eye-watering layouts.
Maybe! It seems like this thread has sort of become one, by default. It’s not exactly super-busy, but… eh.
Pics, or it didn’t happen! 
A few years ago, I got around $2,000 of mostly GW stuff for $500. Still haven’t gotten through it all, even after re-selling much of it unpainted. And have definitely made my money back.
It’s really hard to get paint off of plastic miniatures. If it’s glooped on there, I don’t even bother. This is such a shame for me, because I want old plastic (my Land Raider, Predator Destructor, Predator Annihilator, Razorback, and all of my Rhino transports are the original Mk I models), but I won’t pay a penny for anything that looks like it’s layered in frosting.
At least the metal ones are largely immune to the chemicals I use.
Grabbed a Dark Eldar Razorwing Jet today at the local store. Haven’t painted a vehicle in a couple years, so I’m excited to get some color on it. My plan is to use it to shoot down everyone else’s flyers.
I thought that rule only applied to cats and tits.
But sure, I can snap some pictures - I also just finished (except for basing) my second ten-man Tac Squad. I’m kind of jammed with preparing for my trip to the Origins Game Fair, so it might be a week and a half before I get around to it, though.