My first attempt...

Ok, so here you have it.  I've had a go at painting my first metal space marine with some random plastic parts off ebay this weekend and this is the result.  The only person not happy about this is my poor wife as I ripped into a cork table mat to try and make some fake rocks for the miniature to stand on.  I think she will get over it, in time.....

One thing is very obvious, I'm in serious need of some more colours to highlight the model and base but loving the new ink washes so far.  The 90s inks were like fountain pen ink and needed heavily watering down prior to application, whereas the new ones are perfect from the pot.  Liquid talent is an understatement for the improvements a simple ink wash can make to your models.  I'm personally not a fan of the cartoon paint-job on the Games Workshop website so I have gone for a more realistic looking style.  This was actually by default as I only have black and brown ink which darkened the model very heavily but I think I'll continue with this method so the miniatures actually look as though they have been in battle and not perfectly clean.  Having said this, I have been a bit heavy with the ink and will try to achieve a balance between a 'cartoon' and 'realistic' looking finish.  If I'm not careful, a load of dirty looking models on the tabletop will all look pretty uniform in colour and uninspiring.  As a first attempt, however, not too bad.

I had it in mind that I would like to keep the miniatures metal and have a more 'classic' looking army, just like in the 90s, with plastic only being used where necessary (arms, guns etc).  My friend had the opposite view point and recommended that I buy the new miniatures in plastic as they were easier to paint, carry a higher level of detail and can be kit-bashed in order to make some pretty unique models.  On reflection, I have to bite my tongue and agree.  Whereas I don't want to leave the old metal miniatures behind (for nostalgic reasons), I think he has a point.  The old metal casts have a limited number of stances and aren't as dynamically posed as the newer models.  Couple this with the fact that the new plastic parts don't fit seamlessly together with the old metal bodies and a plastic army is now looking very likely.  In addition to plastic, I'm also new to 'Finecast' as this didn't exist when I was first in the hobby but I am now really looking forward to seeing how good this is and getting to grips with it.  Nothing will beat the quality feeling of picking up a heavy, metal, miniature but I guess I'll have to move with the times.

I am now currently saving for a couple of new blood angel boxsets and aim to order some tactical marines, devastator squad, and a wider selection of paints in the next 4 weeks.