Painty Progress

Bit later than promised, but the painting update is here :)

Been working on my first batch of 5 marines and 5 scouts, they're mostly finished now. Got a fair bit more to do on them but i think i'm going to leave them as they are for now and concentrate on getting everything else to the same level. Mostly minor detail work left to finish as well as weathering and the bases (definitely going to make an effort to do the bases as i'm a bugger for leaving bases plain)

I've been working on the step-by-step process guide Moon has asked for, i chose to paint a Black Reach marine as it'd be easier to show technique on than something with a more dynamic pose.

The way i've tacckled them so far is as follows:


1- After i'm happy with the modelling and i've carved enough dings and scratches into the armour the models are primed black. Helps to set an overall dark tone to start with and means if i miss anything it just looks like shading :D

2- Next comes a basecoat of Adeptus battlegrey. Being a foundation colour it spreads nicely when watered down slightly but still covers in one coat. I try to stick to just the armour but at this stage i don't try to be too neat

3- The chest eagle and any skull or other aquilla motifs are picked out in white, i try to stick to just the feathers on the eagles but again, doesn't need to be too neat. The backpack vents and bits of bolter not covered by casing are painted chainmail

4-Badab black wash over the whole model. Just one coat usually works fine, i try to do this quickly and use a big brush to avoid streaks. I left the gun off in this model as i was really pleased with how the chest eagle came out. Shame bits like these always get hidden by something afterwards :(

5- Detail work comes next, just did one shot as it'd just be lots of small things to show otherwise.
Pouches are picked out in bestial brown, straps and gun grips in Scorched brown, then brown ink is put over all these. Cabling, suit seals and the bolter casing are painted black, eyes are filled in with black and then coloured with Regal Blue, any metal studs are picked out in black and then painted Chainmail, the battle damage and scratches on the armour are done the same. The helmet stripe is Red Gore

All ten models i've done are at this stage now, i've also done a quick urban camo scheme on the scouts. I haven't painted any flesh yet as i know this will take time, gonna leave that until everything has at least some colours on. I've had to make a list of all the things i want to finish so i can go back and get everyhting right :)

Still got 6 marines to build and another 4 to finish off, undercoated the Rhino interior tonight so i can do a quick job on that and get on with modelling the outside. I'm dead set on loading it down with gear and putting some comms antennae on it, so i know it'll take more time than i really have :( should be able to sort it within the first week of next month though, so i won't lose too many painting points
Also still need to nail down what model i want for my commander. I have found a Techmarine i'd modelled up for my Blood Angels that i may use, but i'm still not sure

Times running out! Need to get a move on and build everything in time for the TGC Birthday bash on the 27th - Monkey and his Elfdar will be waiting to face me now i've managed to get out of work early!

Progress?

Ack, half the first month gone already!

Meant to post an update earlier than this, but i've been distracted by other things and awaiting my initial purchases.
I meant to follow in the style of the original White Dwarf articles and limit myself to £25 a month (would also help my wallet out too), but price changes since then put that idea out of the realms of feasibility. That and i got a bit carried away with looking at bitz sites, and ended up spending way more than i really should :(
Anyway, initial purchases went as follows:
-1x box Devastators
-1x box Sniper Scouts
-A buttload of Greenstuff
-£20 worth(!) of random bitz
Think i spent just over £50 in the end O.o
To be fair, i managed to pick up some very useful stuff in with the bitz order that i wouldn't normally have been able to. I want to get a Master of the Forge eventually, and to try and go with a bit of a Mechanicus theme i picked up some of the Ravenwing techmarine helmets and shoulderpads, and i also managed to get the Techmarine from the Thunderfire kit, albeit without the backpack as they were out of stock. Also got some cheap special weapons and a set of the excellent pouches from the Scouts sprues

Ordered these at the end of may, and due to delivery delays the box sets only arrived this morning. Handily enough, i've got the next week off work, so i'm hoping to get plenty of stuff done. Already put together the five scouts and most of a heavy weapons marine (the new plastics are awesome looking but a pain to put together, however i can bet the metals were even worse). Some of them still need some greenstuff work due to a conversion or two, but otherwise i hope to get some paint on them tomorrow.
I've started work on a Captain for the force too, but due to the fact i've still not decided on a final list i'm still unsure of exactly what i'll be taking.

For the moment, the list i'm roughly working towards is as follows:

Captain - bolter and power weapon -115
Tac Squad - 10 marines, meltagun and plasmacannon -180
Tac Squad - 5 marines, just bolters -90
Scout Squad - 5 scouts, sniper rifles -75
Drop Pod (undecided as to which squad to give it to) -35
---Total -495pts ----

Still unsure on a lot of things, the Captains weapons for starters. I really want to try out some of the funky weapons allowed by the new codex, but i don't want to gimp the rest of the force by giving him too much stuff that he won't get the use from. The auxiliary grenade launcher especially keeps drawing my eye, but i dunno if it'll ever get use apart from when i'm charging things, but then i run the risk of killing or breaking whatever i'm wanting to charge.
I could also:
-Change the drop pod for a rhino - means i don't have to convert up the pod and since i already have a rhino i don't need to buy anything. Also a rhino loooks better and i could make it look like a mobile command post. Thinking ahead, i could then use this as a Damocles command rhino in bigger games :)
-Get rid of the drop pod and give the Captain terminator armour and a powerfist. There's no real reason behind this other than me having played around and made a terminator i'm really happy with. Getting rid of the transport would seriously limit my mobility and means to counter-assault threats
-Cut out some of the marines and add some toys. Weapons for the Captain, gear for a sergeant, stealth cloaks for the scouts, there's lots of things i could throw in. I'm a bit reluctant to do this though as i prefer the weight of numbers i have currently, and if i start taking guys out of the 10-man squad i can't use the combat squads rule. i think i'd prefer to use this since it'd give me 2 mobile squads to take ground, and i could leave the scouts and plasmacannon squad to give covering fire

Hopefully gonna be able to get some paint out tomorrow, Moon has also requested we do a step-by-step painting thing showing our process, so i need to do this as soon as i have a suitable marine ready - most of them still need some kind of greenstuff or converting work
Should have some new pictures in a few days so i'll endeavour to update once i do.