The Expendables - Finding My Painting Style

On taking my friend's advice to collect plastic miniatures, I have decided to buy a few cheap models off ebay to practise my painting techniques before letting myself loose on the new kits...

The Expendables

A wider selection of Citadel Paints

Below is my second attempt at painting, this time on an Assault Marine.  It's not finished but it has enabled me to practice the basecoats and washes.  I think the wash on the helmet is far too dark and makes it look dirty.  My next attempt at yellow will probably use a Sepia wash or maybe even a yellow wash I have seen on the Games Workshop website.  I'll give it a shot on another 2 or 3 metal miniatures before I man-up and commit to making my best effort on a box of plastic miniatures.  

Blood Angel Assault Marine - painting technique test

An attempt has also been made to try and highlight the armour on his leg.  I feel the contrast is too obvious and will have to try and find a lighter coloured red as opposed to using orange for the edge highlights...  I'm also thinking this Memphiston Red is maybe too dark for the basecoat colour and that I need to get a decent camera, I just couldn't get this focus close enough without blurring.

Blood Angel Assault Marine - armour highlighting attempt

Another quick attempt.  Just testing out the blue colours and wash, together with more effort being placed on the bone chest emblem.  Next stop, plastics!

Small improvements being made all the time and a chance to
test the blue paints on this old devastator marine

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. 

Method In My Madness

20 years away from the hobby and an old university friend has challenged me to buy, build and paint a Warhammer 40K army.  The artwork of the first White Dwarf magazine I ever bought still strongly sticks strongly in my mind and, as Blood Angels were on the cover, this will be my army of choice.

Lets see how we get on....

White Dwarf Issue 134.  My first purchase of the

magazine back in February 1991