Blood Angels Assault Intercessor Sergeant

The last couple of weeks have been mostly taken up by work, but I’ve been chipping away at a Blood Angel when I’ve had the time and energy. He’s done now!

The model was originally built last fall or so, out of a monopose Assault Intercessor and Blood Angel upgrade bits. I made the mistake of stuffing too much bling on his waist, which made the model look a bit off from some angles. Before I primed him this spring, I decided I’d re-do the accessories, and think the model’s way better for it. I also spent a lot of time deciding between a bare head and the helmet. On one hand, I like painting faces a lot, on the other I’d like to have a few helmeted warriors in my Primaris collection and I quite like the yellow helmets on Blood Angels. The helmet won in the end. The base is scratch-made, and might be my favorite infantry base I’ve done so far. I imagine he’s charging down a space ship corridor, as a nod to the Blood Angel Terminators in Space Hulk.

I wanted some variety on the normally all-red armor, so for the paint scheme I settled on an Assault Intercessor to get the yellow helmet, and a sergeant for the black shoulder pads. Although, if I’m being honest, I really enjoy painting red so I would’ve happily painted everything in it. But alas, I think I did well with the yellow and black bits as well. After I had decided on the color scheme, I considered a few different styles of painting. I really like the ‘Eavy Metal style, but painting the Ultramarine was plenty of that for a while. Richard Gray’s and Trovarion’s takes were also considered, but I didn’t think this was the right model. I ended up going with something similar to the way I painted my Dark Angel, using volumetric highlighting. I didn’t push the edge highlights as much, but paid more attention to the weathering. There are a couple of places where I’m not totally happy with the light placement or the chipping work, but nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed painting the armor.

As for the detail work, I of course saw the opportunity for some hazard striping and went for it. I actually even painted the red cable on the floor in hazard stripes, but thought that was a bit too much and changed it. All of the gems, lenses and the purity seal were lots of fun to paint and among my favorite details on the model. I also continued with the script practice, writing “Baal” (Blood Angels’ homeworld) on his right tasset plate. The “curly bits” didn’t end up quite as nice as I would’ve wanted, but nice enough, and it’s legible at least. Trying to do a fancy font myself really makes me admire the ‘Eavy Metal paintjobs. I mean, the lines on that “blood” text are so razor thin! I’ll keep on practicing…

Anyways, this Blood Angel is the fifth of nine in my Primaris first-founding chapters project, which takes me over the half-way point. That’s a good excuse for a group photo, I reckon, so here you go!

A handsome bunch, no? And to finish this post off I’ll claim another square on the bingo card. Again, there were multiple possibilities here, but I’ll go with the “model from a faction you don’t own painted models for”.

Imperial Fists Intercessor Sergeant

Working up the courage to paint a yellow model took some time, but using the new Contrast paint made the process almost trivial. My Primaris collection now has an Imperial Fist!

The model was built mostly from the Intercessor kit with the IF upgrade sprue. The pistol arm(+hand) are from Assault Intercessors, as I thought the pose was a more natural pair for the raised fist. I changed the “heavy bolt pistol” to a regular one though, as I like my pistols more reasonably sized 🙂 I put the model on a sloped piece of cork, which made the model more upright and, to me at least, works very well with the overall pose. If you don’t count the kitbashing, the one conversion I did was to remove the IF icon from the power fist. Mostly because I felt there would’ve been a bit too many fist icons so close to each other (I mean, just look at this), but it also gave me some room for freehanding!

As I mentioned, this was an exercise in Contrast painting. I took Aidan Daly’s Imperial Fist scheme as a starting point. I zenithally primed the model with Greyseer and White Scar sprays and coated it with Imperial Fist Contrast paint. A smooth, vibrant one-coat solution! I don’t have Fuegan Orange, new or old, so I used thinned Gryph-hound Orange for recess-shading instead. I then layered and highlighted using Flash Gitz Yellow, Ice Yellow and white. While I of course had to work very thin when layering (more like glazing, really), it was actually enjoyable as I had the solid IF basecoat to work on. After finishing the armor I had to paint all the black elements, which was somewhat stressful, but I managed to do it without too many slips.

The bit I probably enjoyed painting the most was the head. I’ve been really enjoying painting the Primaris heads, they’re relatively large, very well defined and have some great expressions. This time I left the five-o’clock-shadow out as I imagine Imperial Fists are always properly groomed. I tried something new with the hair: some gray/white above his ear to hint at him being a “more seasoned veteran”, or the light gray hair that many Fists seem to have.

There are a couple of freehand elements on the model. The first one was on the aforementioned cleaned up power fist. I try to incorporate the name of the chapter/legion, its primarch or homeworld on each of these first-founding Primaris models, and went with the primarch, Dorn, here. I wanted to try a more gothic lettering than I’ve previously managed to do, and after looking at a lot of references and doing some back-and-forth fixing mistakes I had the design you can see in the photo above. The position of the letters is just a tiny bit to the left of where I’d want them (in relation to those studs), but definitely not enough to repaint a black design on yellow background! I also painted the company marking on the left knee, which was a relatively quick thing to do and brought an additional point of interest to the model. Decals were used for the other details: the squad markings and the small maltese/templar cross that seems to be a popular motif even with Primaris Fists.

I tried to keep the weathering subtle on this one, to emulate the clean ‘Eavy Metal-look. Of course, I did muddy up the legs like I always do, which went a bit overboard as it often does. I’m not super keen on the coffee staining that happened, but otherwise I’m happy with it. Likewise, I’m generally happy with the chipping. I’m not sure if it’s weird that there’s no chipping above the knees (other than on the hands), but kept it like that to mostly preserve the clean yellow armor.

As for the bingo card, I’ll definitely claim the “rarely-used color scheme” with this model. While I previously haven’t painted any models predominantly in yellow, I got to say that I’m pretty excited to work with the IF Contrast paint again in the future. Perhaps on some box art-scheme Orruks?

Revelators Bike Squad

So I really took my time with this one, but I’ve now finished the last biker in my Bike Squad. I showed the two other bikes back in… 2020. Yeah…

This guy, and his bike, sat on my desk for the two years pretty much with the first basecoats applied. Now that I’ve found myself enjoying painting marines, I thought I’d finally bite the bullet and get the model finished and off the table. After a week or so of painting, he’s ready to join his biker buddies.

I still quite like these models, even though they’re really showing their age. The whole bike seems to be skewed a bit, and the mini-marine has even less waist than, say, a current Tactical marine. And I guess it’s telling that on GW’s website the biker model has it’s helmet antenna broken off… But, with some minor conversions/kit bashes, a nice paintjob and base they still look cool.

Speaking of conversions, I built the meltagun arm from Tactical squad bits, adding a pistol grip cut off from a pistol holster, and even went so far as to reposition the little aquila trinket to look like it’s flapping around in the wind. As you might have picked up on, the pose is inspired by the old metal biker with plasmagun.

Painting-wise, there’s not much to say. I tried to paint it as similar to the previous bikers as I could. There are some differences that come from not batch painting and leaving the project for two years, but they’re very minor. The only really new thing was the heat burn effect on the melta barrel. I’m not really happy with how it came out, I rushed and didn’t let the different colors dry properly, so I got some coffee staining which I of course couldn’t really fix. But it’s serviceable, and I’ll try the technique again with some future model.

And hey, that’s a vehicle painted!

Zarbag’s Gitz

And here’s the whole gang! (more about the squigs in the previous post) When I initially started painting the gobbos I thought they’d be pretty quick to finish. Once again, I was wrong 😀

Zarbag’s Gitz

The main inspiration for the paint scheme came from a classic Adrian Smith painting of Night Goblins. The main take-aways were the blue, black and red robes, as well as the freehand patterns on the hoods. My colors are obviously quite a bit more vibrant and cartoony than the artwork, but I’ve noticed I like my miniatures like that!

Prog da Netter, Dibbz, Stikkit and Redkap

The robes were finished pretty quickly, and painting a rough fabric texture by hashing is always fun. To contrast the robes I tried painting the skin smoother. While the light green paints have pretty bad coverage, I’m once again really happy with how they came out.

Then it was on to the details, of which there were many. Each model also seemed to have their own special things, which made batch painting difficult. But that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it! Even painting all the rope textures on the net was quite enjoyable, relaxing even. There were a few details which were a bit more intimidating (those involving blending), but once I started doing them they all came out great! It was funny actually, at first Drizgit da Squig Herder was my least favorite of the bunch (the mushroom on his mouth doesn’t really work for me), but after painting the fire effects he’s one of my favorites.

Drizgit da Squig Herder, Zarbag and Snirk Sourtongue

I quite like the bases on this warband, they have various small details that add to the narrative of the group. I actually started this painting project with the bases, something I don’t often do. As painting the bases was mostly drybrushing, I thought I’d have to repaint a lot less if I started with them (looking at Zarbag and those mushrooms!). Of course, I then had to lightly drybrush the bottoms of the robes after finishing the models, but thankfully that went without issues.

I’ve got one regret with this warband, and that’s not doing gap-filling properly. Thankfully it’s not (very) visible on the photos, but especially on Zarbag’s cowl it’s raining on my parade a bit, after painting him up so nicely. Painting-wise, there’s one or two things that I could’ve improved or added, but as fun as they’ve been to paint, it’s time to start working on something new.

I also get to cross off another square on the bingo card, this time it’s the “warband for a skirmish game”.

A Couple More Revelators

Huh… In the last post I said that felt like painting some more Revelators, and I actually ended up doing so. Right away! Odd… But here they are, two mini marines painted much more simply than the Primaris of the last post.

I’ve previously said that I don’t much enjoy painting this scheme anymore. Happily, I had done a large part of the annoying work (carefully layering Dawnstone) previously, so now I got to start with the more fun stuff. Doing just a single highlight on just the upper edges of the model was pretty quick, the metallics were fine and using Contrast paints instead of washes felt like a good call. The yellows were annoying though… Always seem to get some grit in the paint, and don’t really understand why.

Painting the sergeant’s face was the most rewarding bit. Modern Space Marine heads are always a treat to paint – expressive, very well defined and relatively large – and this applies especially to the Primaris ones like on this model. Once again I added some color to the face with thinned-down Carroburg Crimson, but I also tried doing stubble. This was just (very thin) Drakenhof Nightshade, and it worked out really well! I think it’s about the best face I’ve painted. I’ll keep on practicing with the glazes on future heads, and I think the next step will be some tattoos.

The other bit which I thought was successful is the glow effect on the power sword. It was done by glazing with a couple of blue paints and white. I probably should’ve gone even thinner, but I think the effect is convincing enough.

These two marines are not yet part of a larger squad, just two models I liked the idea of and kitbashed. If you know your Space Marine markings, you’ll see they’re the beginnings of a Tactical Squad, though when I’ll get to making the rest of the battle brothers is anyone’s guess. First I’d have to get some more running legs!

Primaris Revelator

After painting the Black Templar I got the urge to paint some more Primaris. Luckily I had one started: he’s now painted up in my Revelators color scheme.

This model was built at the same time as the Templar, and as discussed previously, he’s converted a bit and is a mix of Firstborn and Primaris Marines. I’m very proud of the helmet modification, and now with paint on it you can actually tell what’s going on.

As he’s not a part of my existing army (of mini marines), I painted him a bit differently. I wanted to practice painting volumetric lighting rather than just edge highlighting everything once or twice. It took a bit of back and forth to get the shadows and highlights looking appropriate (ish), but I’m very happy with the result. My goal was to get the armor looking matt, not reflective with the extreme value contrasts of NMM. I think I managed to pull it off pretty nicely, and the gray armor reads more or less as Dawnstone, which was the target.

In addition to paying attention to the volumes, I tried a couple other new things as well. The first was a new recipe for the gold bits. It requires less paints, is more pleasant to paint and, with the additional contrast, looks better too. Needless to say, I’m very happy with the method and will be using it for all future Revelators. Previously I had been using Auric Armour Gold in the recipe, which is just a terrible color. I mean, is it just glitter in transparent medium? I think I can toss the pot now…

The other new thing was subtle weathering of the armor. I’ve noticed that I often go a bit overboard with weathering. Not necessarily in the sence that it would ruin the model or be unrealistic, just doing more than what I set out to do. This time I paid more attention to it, and again, think that I managed pretty well. There are areas that are really nice and some places that are not so good, but overall I like the effect.

Comparison of Revelators painted at different points during my hobby journey.

Huh… Now I feel like painting more Revelators. Funny how inspiration (/hobby-butterflying) works – it doesn’t really matter what I paint, I end up wanting to paint more similar models. I even have a few Revelators models started ages ago that need finishing. But of course, for whatever reason I’ll probably end up picking something different for my next project…

To finish off this post, I’ll claim another bingo square with this model: “incorporate a technique you haven’t mastered”. Volumetric lighting and the weathering both count, as I’ve still got a looong way to go before I start to approach “mastery” in either.

The keenly-eyed among you might notice there’s another new filled square in the card. More on that later…

Revelators Bikers

This project has taken waaay longer than I would’ve thought, but the two bikers I built a month ago are now finished! There’s still one more to build and paint for a complete squad, but I think I’ll paint something else before that..

I’ve got a bit of a confession to make. I don’t find my Revelators power armored marines much fun to paint. All the main colors – gray, yellow and gold – are more or less a struggle to paint. Well, maybe “struggle” is a wrong word, tedious would be more apt. The base paints cover well, but the layer ones are terrible. I very much like the end result, but getting there is mostly dull, very time consuming work, and I feel that I could use that time better on some other model. But I’m kind of locked in with the paint recipe now, and as I’d like to see some kind of a “finished” army at some point, I’ll continue to add a unit every now and then.

And oh yeah, if you see any out of place silver spots (hopefully not) on the models, that’s because the Vallejo Metal Color bottle caps are the worst! For some reason they occasionally leak while shaking them, resulting in a spray of silver droplets all over the place! This time a couple hit my models, of course in a way that required three paints to fix each splotch. I need to remember to cover the caps with a paper towel while shaking the bottles..

It wasn’t all bad, of course! The detailing and light freehand work (check out the “navigator” screens below) were enjoyable, as was the basing and even edge highlighting the gray armor. I’m pretty happy with the chipping as well. The goal was to do a very light application to the bikes only and leave the riders clean, to echo the rest of my Revelators. All in all, again, I think the finished models look great and are a cool addition to my collection, even if there are one or two mistakes on them..

Another great thing is that these bikers also qualify for a couple of hobby challenges: firstly, they’re my submission for Azazel’s Jewel of July-August. I’ll try to paint a quick character or something before the month is over for an additional entry, but yeah, we’ll see how it goes.. Secondly, they count for the vehicle square in the hobby bingo. Heh, I’m really setting up those sweet bingo rows, aren’t I? Hopefully I can actually follow through on at least one of them!

From the Archives: Revelators Throwback Veteran Sergeant

It’s been quite a while since I’ve shown you an old model, but here goes.. This time it’s a slightly converted Space Marine Veteran Sergeant.

If you’ve been in the 40k hobby back in the 3rd edition times, you might notice that this (veteran) sarge resembles the one in an old metal Command Squad. I always liked that model, and once I found out that the ‘new’ SM kits had appropriate parts I decided to make myself a modern plastic version of the old guy. The parts are mostly from the Tactical Squad, but there’s also a hand (and an arm?) from the Devastators, a backpack from mkIV Marines and a bolter from 3rd ed. Tactical Squad, when they came with grips! The weapon sling is made from greenstuff, as is the soft armor on the right armpit.

One final note about the build is that this was probably the model that inspired me to spend quite a bit of time accessorising my models. Adding a bunch of pouches doesn’t seem to be high on the priority list for most hobbyists, but since I built this model I’ve added accessories to pretty much every 40k model I’ve done. Yeah, they’re very fiddly most of the time, but I think the end result makes up for that.

Some of you have of course already seen this model in a previous post about my SM Captain, also inspired by the same old Command Squad. As you might’ve guessed, I’d like to have a version of the Standard Bearer as well, and indeed I’ve been gathering up bits to build one. The head still eludes me though, so it might be a while before he gets built..