2012 is now firmly behind us and overall was pretty crap. That said I am on the whole an optimistic person and I did manage to get two very significant projects completed (the Stormlord Tank and Space Wolves Contemptor) and ended the year with enough cash in my hobby pot to collect most of a Death Guard Forge World army.
My Christmas break flew past and didn’t actually start until mid-day on Christmas eve (the afternoon was taken up with present wrapping and delivering). Sadly because of this and other commitments, the number of free days I had was really low so I didn’t get as much done in way of hobby activities as I would have liked. I did manage to get 15 marines washed, tidied up and gaps filled and glued together so have the core of a squad. Unfortunately the heads from the Command Squad upgrade pack were quite badly molded so I’m going to have to phone Forge World and get some replacements. I was going to magnetise the Nuncio Vox but didn’t as I couldn’t work out how to magnetise the head (which needed replacing anyway) decided to just construct them as a regular squad.
Last night I pushed myself to get my test marines painted up – it meant I didn’t get to bed until almost midnight (and I’m suffering for it today), but overall I’m quite impressed with the results. Because I only had two practice marines I ended up having to be a little “economical” with my experimentation and divided my marines into quarters:
Both marines got a grey undercoat, the top marine got an airbrush of Dawnstone and the lower one got just the right hand side (sections 2&4). The top marine got airbrushed Rakath Flesh, Pallid Wych Flesh and then Ceramite White, the lower one just got Pallid Wych Flesh and Ceramite White. Both got a light sponging of Adeptus Battlegrey and then a quick coat of the GW ‘Ard Coat varnish to seal the paint in.
Wash wise I treated both marines the same. The left leg (C & 3) was a straight wash of Nuln Oil, the right leg (D & 4) was a straight wash of Agrax Earthshade. The top right section (B & 2) was washed with a brown oil wash and finally the top left section (A & 1) was the same brown oil wash on top of a wash of Agrax Earthshade.
I actually quite like both variants, I feel that I could comfortably remove the layer of Dawnstone as it makes so little difference it’s not worth it, that said technically there would be some of the primer showing through (not sure if that would be a problem). I’m currently running a poll on Cool Mini or Not to see what ones people prefer and will try and look at them in the daylight to see if there is any noticeable difference. My only real concern with the top marine is that the overall armour colour is bone, looking at the Forge World painted models, I think I need to push the Palid Wych Flesh and Ceramite White highlights further, a watered down pre-wash of Nuln Oil could also help to darken the shadows.