Trade Marine - Day Five: Still working that body...

I'm at the point where I'm not totally sure how this miniature is going to come together. I have questions about the shield colors, the weapon colors, how the red is working, the cape, etc... Experience says these problems will go away when I keep working on the miniature but it's still annoying... The lack of good light for taking photos has exacerbated this too... *grumble grumble*

Done today:

More red work; had an issue with the weapon arm front and needed to fix it, but has left the blend a little stagnant. The breastplate is looking a little weird as well, might have to have a closer look at that...

The first coat of metallics are on. Nearly everything that is silver will soon be gold, or bronze. Only thing that won't get another pigment color is the key, but that will be weathered with washes. I've also made the flexi-armour joints silver with heavy black in the recesses. I know Roleplayer leaves them black, but they'd be voids in this guy...

Yes, I know the right knees pad icon still has a touch of black in it... But it's all going to be gold... And there's gonna be a big ass shield in front of it ^_^

Trade Marine - Day Four: Work the body! *thud thud thud*

I have started to highlight the red. It's a little hard to see but I'm using a technique that is meant to be like blending... I haven't quite perfected it yet, but it's getting there. I think it needs a lighter color to help it out. So far all I've used is pure Scab Red and a Scab Red with a touch of Dwarf Flesh to lighten it up... Maybe tomorrow a touch more Dwarf Flesh... ^_^

Started on the cream for the body as well. P3 paint is bloody good. Even watered down to a good thin consistency it only took three coats to cover the black. Much better than the Scab Red did yesterday... I'm slowly going to be replacing a lot of my GW version paints... I recently purchased some metallics from "Andrea Color" if they perform then I won't be buying any more paint from GW...

I'm going to start the lining for the cream later this afternoon. Tomorrow is more red work and possibly the first layer for metallics. Still not sure what I want to do for the weapon... Green might look nice; like Thomas from Minivault uses for his Blood Ravens...

Trade Marine: Day Three - You call this an update?! This ain't no stinking update!

It's red! This must quite simply be the laziest painting blog post known to man. Ah well, you can't win them all... I did the base coat of red using multiple thin layers of scab red. I then washed the all the red with Baal Red, then started doing the recesses with Sepia, Flesh and Devlan.

For the red to work properly I think I might have to do one more with Black, just very thinly. Maybe with a touch of paint added to give it a little bit of sticking...

Trade Marine - Day three: Floating head syndrome continued...

More work on the helmet.
There's darker brown washes in the lines. I'm undecided whether I want to add a touch of black and have another line... I think I'll do another thinner line with Devlan mud rather than black. I'm not totally sure what I want to do with the head rivets yet. I thought maybe a very dark grey... But maybe they'll stay cream... Not sure, not sure, not sure...

The eyes came out quite nicely on this guy, which is a hoot, because I've had a couple of coffees and I thought my hands would be shaking like a banshee. My eye recipe for green eyes:
Black Undercoat
Dark Angels Green. Over 75%
Goblin Green. Over 50% moving towards the front
Scorpion Green. Thin line along the bottom
1:1 mix of Scorpion Green and Sunburst Yellow. Over the thin line of Pure Scorpion Green.

Working on the red of the armor as I took these shots. It's raining and cold which doesn't make for good drying... ^_^

Trade Marine - Day two: Or Floating head syndrome...

Day Two: before undercoating I needed to fill in some of the gaps in the back cape of the Miniature. I did an Ultramarine Master of the Chapter for Ricky Chang from 40k Forums awhile ago which had terrible pock marks in some of the recesses in the cape and above the left knee. As this guy is from the same set I thought he might and indeed he did have similiar problems. I didn't take any photos of it, but it was just really watered down green stuff smoothed over with a rubber-headed sculpting tool... I dunno if I got everything, but it'll start showing when I add some color... I then Undercoated in Black.

All parts have been undercoated separately. As with all characters I start with the head.
The head is basecoated with P3 Menoth base. Roleplayer uses quite extensive black lining in his miniatures, but I prefer using darker colors of the one used as base. Hence I've started to line using washes. I'm going to go ahead with all three GW washes, this is just the Sepia, I might use a touch of black if the Devlan Mud wash doesn't cut it...

Next for the head: More lining and then the eyes...
Next for the Body: Red stuff!

Trade Marine - Day One

I've decided to start putting up more of my WiP pics. Whether I take one at the end of each day or certain phases is still up in the air... My next figure is going to be a Space Marine Master of the Chapter. It's a trade miniature between Roleplayer and I. He has my two year old Gamesday Marine (With the big ass hammer), and I'm doing this guy...

Anyway, day one

Cleaned the miniature of excess flak, removed the mold lines, cleaned it with a little bit of toothpaste and given it an acid bath. While he was soaking I cleaned the head off, and put the base together. I made the decision to remove the funny little ear things and make the helmet more flat. With the face panel it looks slightly older, or it does to me. All of RP's minis are helmeted. So I wanted one that had a little more character. The base is a simple cork and sand job. Roleplayer buys his bases, but I think this one should work so long as I use similar colors. I like to have a bit of height for character minis...

Chaos Daemon Bloodletter unit

Wow, first things first let me just say that Batch painting is truly a sucky thing, it takes all the fun out of watching a miniature come alive before your eyes and distorts it so that you feel you're getting nothing done, plus you slack off and don't take as much care as you should. That being said, I don't know if painting in ones and twos would be any easier... Just longer...
These came out OK, I've missed bits and pieces and they still need to be sealed. For these guys it's going to be gloss, (shocking I know). I think the slight sheen will give them a little more zing, especially the lava, which I think has turned out OK... Ink is fun, but it can be sticky and messy so if you choose to use it make sure you have some paper towels handy... and old clothes on...
Couldn't get all of them to fit against my backgrounds so I had to use a white drop sheet instead, sucks all the light out of the shot... Oh well... Can't win them all... I think I'm going to treat myself to painting a single figure next. Maybe a Hero Space Marine... I think that would be a good break from batch painting stuff...