Reilly2040's Blog

Despite continually distracting myself with other models, I’m slowly coming to the end of the Black Reach kit.  The second last Space Marine unit I’ve completed being the Dreadnought.

It was an interesting experience painting this model up.  For most of the painting, I wasn’t actually happy with how it was turning out at all.  The large expanses of red (as per the colour scheme I’m using) and boltgun metal were resulting in a hugely bland-looking model, even despite the gold detailing on the front, and the brighter silver I used in the skull emblem.

Once again, the washes came to the rescue, at least partly.  A nice thick black wash on all the boltgun metal parts brought them up a lot more nicely.

However, there were a couple of little touches I made which really seem to have made a difference.  Firstly, was to try and use the mithril silver paint to add a little definition to the gold at the front, which while I’ve still not got the hang of dry-brushing at all, has definitely helped.

The second thing I did was to use the boltgun metal on the red parts of the Dreadnought to give an idea of battle damage.  This I did by putting some of the paint on my brush, and then wiping most of it off (a la dry-brushing) before putting quick strokes on random parts of the dreadnought. It seems to have produced quite a good effect, giving the model a much more beaten, worn look.

I’m also trying to get more into basing my models, which in this case also included using some of the base decorations that came in the Black Reach set.  Being a bit new to the whole thing, I really couldn’t figure out what the random skulls and shell-casings on the sprues were for for quite a while.   Eventually it clicked, so I drilled a couple more holes in the Dreadnought’s base and grabbed the polystyrene cement.  They’re nice little extras in the set for adding a little more to the models.

Its amazing the difference the little bit of battle damage did to the model.  While I wasn’t happy with the model for most of the painting I’m now pretty happy with the way it turned out.  And it now means the only remaining Space Marine from the Black Reach set I’ve got to do is the Space Marine Captain and then they’re finished

Well, I’ve now finished the bike unit and I’m pretty pleased with the results.

The overall process was pretty much the same as a basic unit, clipping everything off of the sprues, building the model, basecoating, foundation paint, detailing and washes.  The main difference aside from the size of the model was in applying the transfers, which was new.

Some have definitely applied better than others.  The skulls on the sides of the front wheel ended up a bit squint sadly, and the transfers on the marine’s shoulders didn’t seem to like curving with the shoulder.  I’ll get more practice at it though, and its nice to have a sheet of transfers to add logos to the shoulders of my marines.  My painting skills aren’t really up to hand painting them like a lot of people do

I’ve attached a gallery of the model at various stages.  Sadly I kept forgetting to take photos as I went along, but you can see, the model unboxed and on the sprues, assembled and base-coated, after its first coat of paint, and then finished.

My newfound addiction to Space Marine miniatures continues.

After a less-than-successful trip to Hobbycraft to get the Assault on Black Reach set, I did end up picking up a bike unit.  I’ve had my eye on the bike+sidecar unit for a while as I think it looks really neat, but as I hadn’t tried any vehicle models before, I thought the cheaper single bike would be a good starting point to practice on.

Its made an interesting change from building up the marines, as the basic marines don’t require glue as they can be nicely pegged together.  Whereas this model doesn’t really have solid pegs so has to be carefully assembled and glued together.  Fortunately this wasn’t particularly difficult, and for most parts, there’s at least guiding pegs which, while they won’t hold the model together, will at least help you figure out where bits go.

I also was unsure about whether to paint parts first and then assemble, or assemble and then paint, so it ended up a bit of a hodge-podge, with me painting some parts, before deciding the glue and paint probably wouldn’t mix and just putting it all together and then going back and painting everything.

As seen in the picture, there’s still a good amount of painting to do (and the eagle-eyed will notice I forgot the shoulder guards on the marine’s armour, so they’ll need to be done).  The bike needs a second coat of red I think, along with a good bit of tidying up.  And then the washes will be applied across the bike and marine to add some depth.  I’m quite happy with how its shaping up though, even if it is quite rough at the moment.

I’ve also been continuing to work on my basic marines.  With 3 painted as the Genesis chapter, I decided to try doing my remaining two as Salamanders to have another go and compliment the Salamander I’d already done.

In the picture I’ve included the first Salamander I did for comparison.  This time I used a Dwarven Bronze paint on the chest logo instead of flat yellow, and applied a wash of Devlan Mud.  The gun’s more detailed as well, with me leaving the body of it black and applying a little white to the skull logo.

I’m very happy with how the bronze paint turned out on the chest, as well as the wash.  As usual, there’s some tidying up required (darn these hi-res pictures showing up the bits I’ve missed) but overall I think its a big improvement.  The wash really improves the look of the miniature with minimal work.

Over the last week, I’ve been painting up my other space marines, and continuing to try around with different ideas. I’ve slowly added some extra details, like painting the scroll on the side of their legs and painting their belt pouches brown.

However, today I thought I’d go a bit extra. I’d been meaning to pick up the Citadel Washes pack to try them out, as well as some proper gold paint for the chest detail and shoulders, so tonight I grabbed them from Games Workshop and set about the next two marines I’d been playing with who had a red foundation.

I had been toying with a red and silver colour scheme, but each different mix I tried, I decided I prefered the red and gold scheme I’d used originally (the Genesis Chapter from the Codex). The results of tonight’s painting can be seen on the right. The middle marine is my original one, with the basic red foundation and yellow details. The only changes are I painted up his gun a bit, added black to the joints in his armour legs, and painted his belt pouches.

For the other two marines, I started as usual. Black undercoat, and red foundation. Then green for the eyes, black in the mouthguard, and brown for the belt pouches/holster.

I then used my new shining gold paint on the shoulders and chest detail. I then took the red wash and applied it over the marine, save for his chest, which had a black wash applied.

Once the washes had all dried, I then lightly added another layer of gold to the chest (very lightly with hardly any paint on the brush to try for a dry-brushing effect) and added another layer of gold to the shoulders as normal.  The green in the eyes, and brown for the pouches/holster were re-applied.

For the gun, a basic coat of gunmetal was used, as well as red for the marine’s hands. The insignia was then painted bronze. The hands were given a red wash, the same as the marine, while a black wash was applied to the gun itself.

I’m pretty happy with the results.   The washes definitely add a level of depth to the figures with minimal work, and the gold looks much nicer than the yellow.

Next is to paint up my final two marines with the green and black Salamander paint scheme again I think.  That’ll give me two groups of three in each colour scheme.   I’ve started painting one so far, however this time, rather than gold I’ve applied a light foundation of bronze to the chest logo over the black basecoat, which currently looks quite effective, so I may leave it with that.   For the wash, rather than the obvious green, I’m tempted to try the Devlan Mud wash and see if it gives the whole thing a more battle-worn look.

Oh yeah, and I need to tidy up the left eye of the marine in the top picture.  Bit of a splodge that one

Over the last while, I’ve been slowly getting into tabletop wargaming.  I’ve been playing for a few months with a group of friends with one of them providing all the miniatures, and for a while I’ve had the vague notion to start collecting my own, as I’ve always been impressed by them, and the level of detail they have.   However, one thing always put me off.  The idea of having to paint them.

You see, I’m blighted by two things in this regard.  Shakey hands, and no artistic ability.

After seeing the Battle for Skull Pass Warhammer starter set, I became very tempted by the 40K Black Reach set.  Here was a way for me to instantly have two reasonable armies with a variety of weapons, some generals and even a special unit.   However, again, I’d have to paint them.

I got talking to my friend with the Skull Pass set, and he pointed out that a basic paint job on his goblin spearmen was actually pretty easy, so I shouldn’t be put off.  I resolved to investigate further.  I spent some time quickly googling, and watching some Youtube videos, but they all seemed to be from experienced painters, who would talk about things like “washes” and “dry-brushing”.  What I wanted to know was, could someone with shakey hands, get some basic paints and do a job that, while it’d never look like those pretty pictures on the box, would look ok enough that I could use the units in a game without being embarrassed?

And so,  I ended up in the local Games Workshop, where they told me they did free painting lessons.  They supply everything you need and take you through the basics as well as demonstrating some of the more advanced techniques like dry-brushing and washes.  I was pretty impressed, so thought I’d give it a go.  All I had to lose was 15 minutes of my time.

Suffice to say, the painting lesson went very well.  I was given a Space Marine unit and taken through each stage of painting it up to a basic standard.  From an incredibly basic point of view, this took the form of four stages:

1. Base coat.  Paint the whole thing black.

2. Base colour.  In my case I was going with the traditional Ultra Marine colour scheme, thus the whole marine was painted blue, save for his gun.

3. Shoulder detail.  Paint the edges of the shoulders yellow.

4. Paint his gun gunmetal grey.

And that was it.  The trickiest part was undoubtedly the shoulders, although what that involved was just taking your time and slowly rotating the marine around while making small, straight strokes with the yellow paint along the edges.

While the finished marine wasn’t going to win any awards, it was certainly acceptable.   I was intrigued enough to pick up the hobby starter set (basic foundation paints, glues, paint brush etc), and some packs of their basic space marines for practise (3 Space Marines for a fiver, perfect for practising on).

When I got home, I did decide to add some extra detail, as the helmet looked very plain.  So I added red eyes, and some black to the mouth plate.  The trick to this I found was again, taking my time, but also just adding a little paint to the point of the brush, and slowly dabbing it in place.  In the case of the eyes, I invariably ended up splodging it on, but by letting it dry and then putting a little blue paint on the end of the brush, I could then paint around the splodge to get a more satisfactory job on the eyes.

I’ve now done three marines in this style.   I’ve played around a little, trying three different colour schemes, and trying to add detail here and there.  Some of this hasn’t worked, so I just paint over the offending bit again.   One thing I have been doing, which I think looks better, beyond the eyes and mouth, is to hold off attaching the gun to the miniature and painting the crest on their chests yellow first.  It again serves to break up the solid colour a bit.

The finishing touch is pretty simply dabbing some PVA glue on the base, and sprinkling on either sand or grass (again, included in the hobby starter set).

I’m still very much playing around, seeing what works and what doesn’t, but I do think the results I’m getting are not bad.  Again, it’ll never look as good as those pretty pictures, but for having them painted up in a basic way, that I’ll not be ashamed to play with, I’m pretty happy and its all done using the very basic paints.  I’ve only done three marines, and I’ve only been painting a few days, so if you’re not sure, I’d say give it a go.  Patience is really the only thing you’ll need, and if the idea of having to go over the same bit a couple of times to neaten it up doesn’t scare you off, you’ll probably be all right.

I’ll definitely be getting some more models to try painting, and I’ll probably throw caution to the wind and pick up some of those washes to play with as well.  Again, this is where I think those basic marines are useful, as I’ll probably just base coat them, apply the base colour, and then try a different wash on a couple of them before adding any details, just to see what looks best.  If they end up not looking great, then its not a huge loss, and once its dry, I can always paint over it again.