Good evening, folks and folkettes.
The title may be a little misleading, but this is not one of those blogs where I tell you all these hobby plans I have for the year and then document how spectacularly I fail in doing so (until about March, when everyone stops mentioning them again).
No, for me, my new start comes in the form of a new job and subsequently moving to a new home in a new town! That said, I do intend to crack on with this blog and keep providing you with loads of incredible content. Well, possibly not loads. Incredible might be a stretch... See this is why I don't make Resolutions!?!
Speaking of content, I had better get one with some! Last week I gave you a sneak preview of the second Assault Squad I'm working on, ironically the 7th squad of the 3rd company where the first squad were the 8th. I had hoped to provide you with an update sooner, but moving house kinda got in the way, both in terms of actual hobby time and blog-writing time. I have however started work on a test model for the squad;
I've been accused of having an all or nothing approach to life in the past, so who better to test the scheme on than arguably the most important model in the squad, the Veteran Sergeant?
"But Matt, you all ready have two wonderfully painted, incredibly detailed squads in this scheme; well, possibly not wonderfully. Incredible might be a stretch... Do you really need to test the scheme out?"
Cheers for that. You may have a point, but these guys have something the other squads don't; Jump Packs. Aside from the obvious bulk, I wanted to do something else to make them stand out, as you can see below.
I know it's not much, but copying the main colour scheme on the Packs really does make them pop. I think so at least. I'm not a big fan of the blue-glow inside the exhaust that seems to be so popular at the moment, so this will have to do instead.
Aside from the usual details you've seen on my other Marines, I'll be painting the wings on the Sergeant's Pack. The upper edges will be left as the dark red the currently are, but I'll be trying to replicate real flames on the feathers.
Something along these lines, but probably a whole lot less fiddly. What I'll certainly need is a lot more black-to-orange and black-to-yellow shading, along with much brighter final highlights.
As always; comments, criticisms and ideas are more than welcome. Just leave a comment below and let me know!
As a little incentive, how about I introduce you to the unofficial 11th member of this squad?
You can't quite see it from this angle, but he does have a Mk IV Jump Pack, much like the Sergeant's but without the wings. You might also be able to guess, but this guy is a Librarian. To keep to Codex colours, his armour is painted blue; to keep to Brotherhood ideals, he is more like a methane gas flame.
Normally I'm not one for OSL, but I do think it can work quite nicely on psykers, as long as it's done subtly. With that in mind, I tried to keep the face reasonably dark, just picking out his most prominent features with tones down skin tones. I then added a little yellow to the mix, painting around the eye and the area under the hood (including the eye itself). I then added some more yellow for a highlight before finishing with some pure white on the eyeball itself, careful to leave the yellow in the recesses. I'm pretty pleased with the final outcome; not because it makes him stand out particularly, but it adds subtle character to the model despite having to take a second look to spot it.
Least but not last, some detail work I've done on the axe head. I plan on doing the metallics in just as much detail, with plenty of shading and swirlyness, but for now that's just got it's base coat. I really wanted the Force Weapon to pop from the rest of the model, so went with the bright, fiery motif. Hopefully it should also act as a visual cue to tie him back into the rest of the army, particularly as little details, such as the bionic eye lens, that I'd usually use need to stand out against the blue armour or they'd just get lost. I'm actually a little scared of doing the rest of the axe head. There is a very real likelihood that I'll get some paint on those flames. I'm reasonably confident I can replicate the current result, but there will always be raised blobs of paint that will stand out from the rest. Unless I strip the whole thing back and I really don;t want to have to do that!
Guess that was last (if not least) after all! Let me know what you think of both characters. Hopefully it won't be too long before I post again (still trying to get a handle on the new job, and that kinda has to take priority!) but if you are in the Aldershot area, leave me a message. Who knows, you could be gunning my models down in the not-so-distant future!
Matt
The title may be a little misleading, but this is not one of those blogs where I tell you all these hobby plans I have for the year and then document how spectacularly I fail in doing so (until about March, when everyone stops mentioning them again).
Speaking of content, I had better get one with some! Last week I gave you a sneak preview of the second Assault Squad I'm working on, ironically the 7th squad of the 3rd company where the first squad were the 8th. I had hoped to provide you with an update sooner, but moving house kinda got in the way, both in terms of actual hobby time and blog-writing time. I have however started work on a test model for the squad;
"But Matt, you all ready have two wonderfully painted, incredibly detailed squads in this scheme; well, possibly not wonderfully. Incredible might be a stretch... Do you really need to test the scheme out?"
Cheers for that. You may have a point, but these guys have something the other squads don't; Jump Packs. Aside from the obvious bulk, I wanted to do something else to make them stand out, as you can see below.
Aside from the usual details you've seen on my other Marines, I'll be painting the wings on the Sergeant's Pack. The upper edges will be left as the dark red the currently are, but I'll be trying to replicate real flames on the feathers.
As always; comments, criticisms and ideas are more than welcome. Just leave a comment below and let me know!
As a little incentive, how about I introduce you to the unofficial 11th member of this squad?
You can't quite see it from this angle, but he does have a Mk IV Jump Pack, much like the Sergeant's but without the wings. You might also be able to guess, but this guy is a Librarian. To keep to Codex colours, his armour is painted blue; to keep to Brotherhood ideals, he is more like a methane gas flame.
Guess that was last (if not least) after all! Let me know what you think of both characters. Hopefully it won't be too long before I post again (still trying to get a handle on the new job, and that kinda has to take priority!) but if you are in the Aldershot area, leave me a message. Who knows, you could be gunning my models down in the not-so-distant future!
Matt
Comments