Playing With Fire

So with Salamanders been born of fire, I wanted to include some on my Legion. I didn't want to go over board with it though so I was going to limit it to Sergeants, Veterans, Special units and anything which has fire moulded onto it.

You see fire painted lots of different ways, most of them look awesome which ever way you approach it. There is a science though to how fire looks and which colours generally lie where.

I found a great article at http://hot-lead.org/advance/fire_theory.htm . I encourage anyone interested in a nicely detailed look at how to get an effective fire look, particularly for 3D fire on miniatures check it out.

The general overview is explained in the above image, white is hot colour is not. We seem to want to instinctively highlight with a lighter colour, but when it comes to flames that's not how it works. The more I've been looking at different fire effects when I see them painted the wrong way I just can't help but think the mini would look better the right way.

My first attempt is on my Legion Tactical Squad Sergeant, I've pinched the power fist from the Pyroclast set (which I did base coat the other day). I started off with a base of Khorne Red for the whole flame then worked back to the combustion source with Wild Rider Red, Fire Dragon Bright, Yirel Yellow, Flash Gitz Yellow then White Scar. 

I'm looking forward to doing some more to get my technique down.

Cheers
J

Weather Warfare

There are very much two schools of thought on a Marines look. You have that fresh out of the forges of Mars new plate look, and we have the war torn dirty and grimy look. One of the reasons I'd gone for the lighter green armour was I intended to dull it down with some weathering and battle damage. 

I applied the battle damage first by making thin lines and small marks with a fine brush. I use two colours, a base of either Abaddon Black or Rhinox Hide, I then go over the same marks but slightly off set so the scrape doesn't look so flat with Iron Breaker.

Around the week I was finishing these models Games Workshop released a new set of FX paints in the technical range. They had used some of them on a new 40K board the store had just completed so I could see what they looked like. Out of all of them I really liked Typhus Corrosion and Nihilakh Oxide. These are basically washes, and in essence do what they say on the tin. Nihilakh Oxide gives a nice green oxidisation in the recesses when you apply it to metal surfaces. Typhus Corrosion has a sandy substance in the wash, which clings to the surface you apply it to. I see people using this for oil streaks but I decided to use it slightly differently.

I tend not to paint weathering on with a brush but use varying size of sponge and tweezers. I prefer this way as it much easier to get random coverage very quickly. I did this with the Typhus Corrosion around the feet and lower part of the leg fairly heavily, then lightly over other random bits.

I also gave the Forgeworld weathering powders a go on the bases. Using a combination of Dark Earth, Dry Mud and Faded Green I gave areas of the bases these different tones. I then lightly dry brushed back over them with Ulthuan Grey. Finally i gave the metal parts of the base a dusting with Light Rust.

What I like most about this weathering was it was really quick to achieve, which is a necessity when painting an army the size of a Legion.

Cheers
J

Rules Are Made To Be Broken?

I broke my rule a bit here as although not finished I decided to prep the next 5 Legionaries. My reasoning was that I was close to completing them and wanted to be able to get straight on to painting more.

I managed to acquire 15 non Legion pose MKIII Marines, a MK2B Land Raider, a handful of Phobos Pattern Bolters and 9 Heresy Meltas from a friend who had abandoned his Iron Warriors project.

This was a great help as it meant I could pretty much finish my Legion Tactical squad, bar the command options.

I was trying my best to make each base as unique as possible as a wave of a 20 Strong Tactical squad would have little other variation. I decided to start to include some of the Forgeworld Razor Wire to give me more options. If you haven't worked with this before be careful as it can be quite sharp, it's an excellent purchase though as you get loads on one sheet.

A lot of the other Legions already had specific shoulder pads available for them. Salamanders were yet to be released but I made the decision to leave the left shoulder on all my Marines until I could purchase them.

With my second 5 now ready for priming I started to finish off the other parts of the first lot. This has been the first time I have painted the majority of the models parts separately. It's helped with a couple of things, I've been able to paint any hard to reach areas with ease adding better detail to my miniatures. But more importantly for me it has broken my painting down into small chunks. This has helped me maintain motivation a lot, as even if I only have an hour of free time I can still get a little bit completed. It's really helped my pace.

Cheers

J

Uncomfortable Stools

Even though I am the ripe old age of 31 I still like to go to my local Games Workshop to paint (My Fiancé thinks I'm a massive geek but it keeps me out of trouble). It's a great way to get instant feedback on what you're doing, and for me one of the best parts of the hobby is getting to chat with like minded people. The only draw back is after a 4 hour stint you start to loose feeling in your back from being hunched over a painting station, and sitting on a stool conceived by a Chaos Daemon who's only goal was to inflict copious pain.

As my Salamanders Legion was the first army for me to paint with an airbrush I wanted to get Dave's (local Games Workshop manager) opinion on how they looked. He's been working on his Tau Army for Throne of Skulls, and has adopted doing his base colour with the Hobby Spray Gun. I can't reiterate enough, if you want to get your armies painted quickly, spray all your base coats. If you want general cover then the Hobby Spray Gun is fine (it also looks like a Hand Flamer so bonus points for that). If you are looking for more control invest in some sort of Airbrush.

For the gold trim and rivets I have used a base of Balthasar Gold, then a wash of Seraphim Sepia. First highlight is Gehenna's Gold then Iron Breaker. I prefer the look of Iron Breaker as a final highlight compared to Runefang Steel as it can tend to look too shiny and I wanted the more muted feel of Iron Breaker.

The hip coils were just Leadbelcher washed with Nuln Oil. The band around the back of the knee cap is Abaddon Black.

The bases are first painted Mechanicus Standard Grey then washed Nuln Oil. Once completely dried there are 3 layers of dry brushing, Mechanicus Standard Grey, Dawnstone and finally Ulthuan Grey. I have started to then use some weathering powders, but I'll cover that in another post. For the scrap metal my method kind of changes as I go, it's scrap after all so won't all be the same, however I usually start with Warplock Bronze.

Same method for the trim on the torsos as the legs. I've gone a bit overboard by painting every rivet on the armour gold. In some respects I wish I'd never started as now I'm compelled to repeat this for every model in my Legion. Arrgh!

Cheers

J

Don't Wine About It!

After I'd primed my first 5 Legion Tactical Marines black I needed to set them up for airbrushing. A lot of people at my local Games Workshop stick their minis to the top of paint pots to make them easier to handle. This method wasn't going to work for me as whenever I get an empty pot I use it to mix a colour I regularly use. The idea of using a full pot and it accidentally opening and ruining my Salamanders was not a thought I wanted to entertain either.

For some time I've been saving the corks from my other unintentional hobby 'drinking red wine', with the intention of making a home made cork board for the kitchen one day. Well some of them were about to be donated to support the Great Crusade. What I like most about using corks is that they are easy to grip, being more tactile than a plastic pot. I also have a shameful abundance of them laying around.

My mates think I'm mad for undercoating them tacked together before separating them to airbrush. They are probably right but I like that it leaves a clean surface on the resin where I'm going to stick them together. Even though it gets airbrushed over a bit it's much easier to scratch away without the undercoat. I'm also a sucker for buying Chaos Black undercoat from Games Workshop, just a traditionalist I guess.

So these are the first models I've airbrushed and it has changed my hobby. I love to have smooth cover on my models, so painting with a brush has meant lots of very thin layers of paint and medium. I don't have the best of airbrushes but it's fine for base layers and basic highlights and it's allowed me to really speed up my painting.

I've started off doing 5 minis at a time, with the aim of not airbrushing more until they are fully painted. For my method I do a base layer of Warpstone Glow, wash them with Nuln Oil, highlight with Warpstone Glow then a small highlight of 50/50 mix of Warpstone Glow/Moot Green. Then they are the ready for the brush.

Cheers

J

Pins of War

So began the building of my first Salamanders Legionaries.  As this was going to be my first Forgeworld army I wanted to spend a little bit more time on the minis and try some new techniques to boot. 

I made the decision very early on that I was going to airbrush the base coats for the entire army. This presented me with some new challenges as I wanted to be able to get good coverage when spraying without getting paint all over myself, and also find a way to make it easier to paint normally hard to reach areas with a brush. The only real solution was to paint them in multiple parts.

As I didn't want to get the green base colour on to the bases I went ahead and started to pin all the legs. This wasn't as laborious as I had initially anticipated and by using a Games Workshop hobby drill and a bunch of paperclips I quickly got them all pinned and in place on their bases.

I wanted to do something a bit more interesting with my bases and after thinking through a number of themes I liked the idea of my Legion fighting on a war torn city scape. Using pieces from my hobby bits box and the Warhammer 40K basing kit I started to lay the foundations for the bases. 

A bit of sand and fine slate later and the models were ready to be undercoated. I blu tacked them together to make it easier and it also helps to save on primer as I'm not spraying bits that won't be seen. Lets get these guys outside and primed.

Cheers

J

Starting With The Core

I've always found that when I begin a new army, I tend to start with the best units neglecting basic troops choices thus rendering me with an unplayable army. So for my Salamanders Legion I decided I was going to be strict with what units I bought and painted first.

As I stated in my last post I finally decided to start my Pre Heresy Salamanders at Gamesday 2013 with the release of Massacre. Having wasted the best part of the day the previous year queuing to get Angron (got caught up in the hype of him being the first Primarch release) we decided we would look around and wait for the Forgeworld queue to quiet down seeing as we were not desperate for anything.

This also gave me the opportunity to finally settle on a Legion and think about what models I wanted to start with. I'd being toying with the idea of Salamanders for a while even as a 40K force, as I really like their background about them having a lot of humility and having families back on Nocturne. Ferrus Manus was available as a pre release that day which almost tempted me to Iron Hands, but the thought of painting so much black quickly put that idea to bed.

So Salamanders it was then, my Pre Heresy journey was to begin with the XVIII. Having had the chance to skim through Betrayal I knew I had to have at least 2 compulsory Troop choices, which was Tactical Squads or Assault Squads. I knew that at some point I would want both but decided that I would start with the real core of Space Marines, Bolter clad and lots of them.

I really like all the marks of armour that Forgeworld have released but I was particularly drawn to MKIII Iron Armour. I didn't want to overwhelm myself with minis to paint as the project could rapidly become an insurmountable task. So I got a copy of Massacre, 10 MKIII Legion Marines, a pack of Phobos Pattern Bolters and a cheeky Sicaran that had just been released. I would have also bought a MKIII command upgrade but they didn't bring any with them.

So my Legion had begun and I couldn't wait to get started building them up.

Cheers

J