Monday, 16 May 2011















This is something I've been promising myself to try for a while. I bought a second addition Warhammer 40K boxed set that included a 'How to paint space marines' booklet inside. A facinating read; it describes unit markings (did you know marines had lieutenant's?), chapter organisation, power armour, and an interesting note about how the index astrates has been translated by the different chapters through time. I was determined to have a go, and see how the old methods and paints translate in 2010. 

Here is the original sheet:


"How to Paint Classic Blood Angel Space Marines"




There are similar sheets on how to paint ultramarines, space wolves and Salamanders. It's interesting to think how different 40k would be if GW decided to develop the Salamander range instead of the Dark Angels. Guess we will never know...

My classic Rogue Trader Blood Angel:

Step one 



Easy enough to start. Prepare model, and spray white. No difference.

Step two




As it so happens, I am lucky enough to own an original pot of GW terracotta that had not dried up. It took several thin layers to get a good, solid coat. I've found that GW's current merchite red has a similar pigment, but if your the pedantic type, add a little vermin fur in the mix. Paint equipment, backback (I forgot to add it to the marine when photographing), tubing, accessories black.


Stage three




Drybrush pack and weapons boltgun metal. You will notice that GW produced a colour calledBlood Angels orange and not red. However, since the guide calls for the orange to be mixed with terracotta, I just painted all raised area's of armour with blood red. 


Stage four



 


The highlighting stage is really bizarre. Drybrush any metallics surfaces as described above - no problem. The red armour: first highlight with a mix of blood angels orange (just add a touch of blazing orange to blood red) and sunburst yellow. I moved from a 70:30 mix to a 50:50 (sunburst yellow is pretty transparent when thinned down, so I would use this as a wash to 'taint' the edges of the armour), then added white. White? I didn't understand it either. I thought that the mixture would be tinged with pink (which it was) and ruin the highlight (it didn't, but you have to perform this stage sparingly). 


Stage five





At this stage, you've done the donkey work; time to tidy up. Black line all the recesses in the armour, paint the eyes green, then paint on chapter symbol and squad insignia (interestingly, since most of the old models had a studded left shoulder pad, chapter and squad insignia were often represented on the same pauldron - see above for Blood Angels Tactical).

Stage six





Base. In contrast to he sand base above, I've really gone old school and based my marine with classic goblin green and green sand.


And voila - Classic Blood Angel Space Marine.

Conclusions:

I think the marine turned out ok. It has the feel of a classic Rogue Trader paint job (No ink's or washes - even though I cheated a little with the latter), even using the current colour range. I think my effort tunred out a little darker than the orginal GW's. I couldn't get comfortable with the highlighting at stage 4. It still feel completely alien highlighting red with white. I also think I should have made the armour brighter at stage three. However, I'm really pleased at how he has turned out, adding an unusual accompaniment to the rest of my army.

When I mixed white in, it created a colour similar to elf flesh, which I used to hghlight the very extreme of the armour plate. If you make a mistake, and make the highlight too extreme, use some sunburst yellow to wash over it and try again.

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