SPACE MARINES Tactical Squad 

• WIP Dark Vengeance. For my first time, I went codex canon on this guys scheme.

Little backstory… Seems I was hiding under a rock for some time when the 40K starter set, Dark Vengeance came out. I found myself buying second-hand chopped apart sprues of this guys, when I found out the boxed set they came from, added S&H, I found out I had spent as much as a brand new starter set, and was missing the cultists and the bikes… Accepted my loss and ordered from GW. Waited more than a month for it to arrive, with a phone-call in the middle. They sent an express parcel that got to my home in three days, and two days after that; yes, their first shipping arrived. The first to arrive had the box shreaded… The second one, came with all the booklets torn and bent. No complaint needed! The Universe, I decided, wanted me to cut even from my ebay noobishnes, and granted me a lot of work ahead of me!

Inspiration…

In 1994, 40K’s Rulebook featured the picture of this Dark Angels Captain. Likely the scheme fell out of canon, since GW discontinued the metallic range of color… But it sure was memorable.

• Squad Commander. Quite happy with this guy’s head. I don’t get how most tutorials go on to paint human skin… specially heads! What I do: Over white, a base of Dwarf Flesh, (or the appropriate mixture of white, red and brown/black), then Flesh Wash (or a Sepia Ink of sorts) and all the highlights are a single drybrush layer of Elf Flesh (or more white to the previous flesh mix). Hair, eyebrows and the eyes are just freehand at the end. In this case I also painted the hair and incipient beard with greys.

Using a camera flash, color and subtleties get washed away, but allows for the metallic green armor to show off, still not doing justice to the human eye.

• Marines. Side by side, each of the two iterations that come with the Dark Vengeance set. Wish the backpack was actually maybe less detailed, and part of the body mold, whilst the head would be the part to assemble… Why pose with the legs so open if you are all holding the gun to a side and looking to the front? They are just not a good mold and while affordable, they can’t compare to a multi-part plastic kit.

Codex colors or not I was not going Heavy Metal Studio on them… And the palette soon deviated a bit. I wanted my Dark Angels, dark, and distressed. At the same time, I went with a straightforward base of black, then two canned spray highlights of dark to light “car-paint” metallic acrylics, dark wash, highlights of a mix of Mithril Silver and old Dark Angels Green, followed by Boltgun Metal chipped paint effect and Black Ink and Silver scratches.

• Heavy Plasma. The one guy that knows where the enemy is at…

Back view.

Overall this is a single-day paint-job, if I had a single hold day to paint! Actually took me a week in my spare moments at home. More to come, hopefully. Any and all feedback or comments much appreciated.