March for Macrage '24 (Part 5)

 Here's the final miniature I was able to finish for the March For Macragge challenge. I completed him, well actually I painted the entire model, on March 30th. This was such an easy and satisfying miniature to paint. 

For the sake of brevity I won't blather on about the painting steps unless it's something I've not chronicled elsewhere. For example the steps for painting the cloak was discussed when I revealed the Eliminators. 

Basecoats.

The sword was an interesting departure. Perhaps I was inspired by a recent game I had against Necrons. No, not the  necrons themselves but my Deathwatch Librarian. When I painted him I made his force sword all green and glowy and during that game, I kind of realized how much I like it. 

Stepping out to smite the foe! 

So of course I replicated it on this guy. I painted the tip and the  runes on the blade using Moot Green. Then lightly applied Straken Green in layers to make a sort of faded effect before then adding a glaze of Tesseract Glow. The. I finished it off with a highlight of Stormhost Silver. 

Green and glowy.

This was such a quick model to paint. Before I knew it, I was slapping down the tufts! I was, and still am a little bit, tempted to paint his eyes with a electrical blue effect, but decided against it.

The finished model.

Peaking out from the cloak you can see a hint of his chapter icon. I free-hand painted this as trying to get a decal to work right might have driven me over the edge. I am pleased with how it turned out considering how subtle it is. If hadn't I would likely have just left blue. 

Another view of the sword. 

I decided at the last minute to keep his book black. The idea of a guy running around with a "little black book" amuses me and it's kind of a nod to the WHFB Dwarves of old.

The little black book.

Here he is joined up with the unit I will most likely join him up with. It's not just because they've coordinated their wardrobe, but the mutual benefits in the current edition of the game are quite good. 

Killing with friends. 

Hopefully we can get hims, and all the rest of my #MarchForMacragge models, on to the table top soon! 

March for Macrage '24 (Part 4)

 

"Whoa, you guys aren't gonna believe this...!"

I like these models, and I just couldn't resist moving them up the painting queue to squeeze them into my March For Macrage goal for the month of March. 

I'm not going to do a full step-by-step painting guide for these guys as I have established that recipe in many posts already, but the cameoline cloak is a definite exception. I got these steps from issue 63 of Imperium Magazine.

The basecoat for the cloak is done by using Mechanicus Standard Grey. After that all of the cloak is wash with Nuln Oil.

After that Dawnstone is layer on top but leaving the recesses exposed. 

Then I draw vague geometric shapes all over it using Mechanicus Standard Grey. I noticed that my patterns were not nearly as dark as the examples in Imperium Magazine, and I found that I had to paint on two more coats over my pattern as well as an additional Nuln Oil layer to get it anywhere near dark enough for my satisfaction. After that I added another serious of geometric patterns but this time using Administratum Grey. 

⁷

I was able to finish these guys on March 29th. And I was quite happy with the results. 

The glow on the binoculars was also taken from Imperium Magazine (issue 65). I thought it look different enough to give it a go. Mephiston Red for the basecoat followed by a Nuln Oil wash them Mephiston Red again. Then the highlights were using in smaller coats starting with Evil Sunz Scarlet, Troll Slayer Orange and a final edge highlight of Yriel Yellow.

The Sergeant decal was a real pain to apply. Not sure what happened but the top of it tried to disintegrate. Thankfully, and if you build this guy also I recommend this highly, I put the decal on before I attached the cloak. It ever so slightly covers the top of the decal which mostly hides my calamitous mistake. 

All-in-all, I thinknthese guys turned out well. So much so that I think I want to revist my old Sniper Scouts and apply this same technique to them. 

Alright, that's a wrap, but before March ended I was able to squeeze out one more painted model that will perfectly accompany this squad. But I'm saving that one for it's own post also. 

March For Macrage '24 (Part 3)

 My personal March For Macragge challenge has been completed! Behold, Brother Jay the Third Company Primaris Ancient! 

The finished Ancient. 

Finishing this guy was fun, but just like Da Masta Cheef recently stated when he painted up his second version of this model, he's got a lot of decals on him! 

The base model has four decals. I put one on his left hip plate only when I realized it was a bit too large to fit one of the banner squares I had hoped to put it on. 

Applying the decal onto his left pauldron was a real challenge. The left side nozzle almost touches the pauldron and it looks like the gap is big enough to slide a decal between, but, not really. I was persistent though and some how got it to work. 

Ok,  now let's discuss this banner: 

I decided to paint the border and the backside of the banner red to represent the third company. I had the idea to use a really old decal, from one of my first decal sheets from way back in the Rogue Trader days of 1989. It's red and I thought it would pop out best against a white background. 

Decals.

The rest of this was fairly straightforward. I opted to use yellow on the shield  emblem on the banner as I like the way it contrasts without clashing too harshly against the rest of the colors. 

 

done without decals.

I used seven decals on this thing. The most odd was the scroll on the lower right. I cut up some of the copyright indicia fro. the bottom of one of the decal sheets from was using and scrambled up the words. I kind of wanted it to say nothing g but give the illusion of importance. Not unlike the Deathwatch shoulder pads in that sense.  

Done with decals. 

The decal for the main icon was a bit yellowed with age so I tried to cover some of that up with White Scar. I left a little bit showing  close to the icon because I think it gives off an odd optical effect, a bit like a glow. 

Once that was done I stuck the banner onto the guy. 

Over all, I think I'm fairly pleased with the results. 

I really think that beakie helm turned out great on this model. I wish I had the idea sooner, I would have put beakie helms on all of my Ultramarines . However he will have to do as a lone reminder of the past glorious days.

Speaking of which, the Tau skull and helms at his feet are an homage to Da Masta Cheef's Tau, even though my Ultramarines have yet to face them, I feel it might be inevitable. 

The same night I finished this guy, I also finished another small squad that I managed to cram into March of Macrage. I think they deserve their own post however so look for that soon. 

March for Macrage '24 (Part 2)

 

Having knocked out the first two models (Primaris Lieutenant and Titus) within the first fortnight of #MarchForMacragge, it was my intention to complete the Ancient and the Assault Intercessors in equal time. However reality and a looming art deadline kept me away from the hobby table for a good chunk of the past month. This left the remaining models stuck in basecoat limbo, although they were at least passable for 'battle ready' I suppose...

Basecoats on the Ancient. 

Until now! 

With art* completed I was able to ready dig into these guys.  However with a bit of perseverance I pushed on and got 'em done! Well, the Assault Intercessors anyway, the Ancient will be finished in Part 3

The one I feel I should discuss the most is the Sergeant. His breast shield (I feel like these things have a proper name but it escapes me at this time) has a very old decal in it. This decal came with our** first paint set and for the Ultramarines the decals we got were all red. This alone is what prompted us to choose the third company as the company for our Ultramarine models. 

1989, the year it started for me. 

And once added to the little shield, well, I think it works pretty good! The yellowing isn't too bad...maybe I should've painted the shield a bone-like color? 

Again I used a 30 year old paint on the Sergeant's helmet, the color in question being Ruby Red. 

The rest of these chaps are pretty much all the same, just posed differently. I really enjoy painting the Assault Intercessors models, I just think they're dynamic yet still leave a lot of space for a painter to play around with yet aren't too over the top with busy filigree noise like the Chaos Marines have. 

It's a bit more obvious on this next model than the previous guy's but I thought it might help me to distinguish them during a game to give this squad red left knee guards. In addition to just that color change I applied some old Roman numeral threes as a identifier of their allegiance to the third company.  

Another difference form this squad and the first squad is that I painted the gold using a technique found in Inquisitor Magazine. I think this makes the aquillas really pop for sure! 

And no, I still don't drill my barrels; live with it. 

And that's the Assault Intercessors done, now on to the Ancient! 

* Specifically art for Onward Retainer #9, which will be featured in Tales From The Smoking Wyrm #9.  

**My brother and I. 

This Old Whirlwind

What we have here is the first Whirlwind model released by Games-Workshop. Sure there was the template for making your own multi-launcher way back in White Dwarf 117, but this is the first one that came in a box with the words Whirlwind on it. Released back in the spring of 1995. Back then when GW did a big army launch the new stuff would appear in the UK first before being released to the rest of the world. I think it was almost two months before these hit the shelves in the USA. Our parents were on a vacation to England at the time and my brother gave them a list of models and miniatures that he wanted for his birthday. The way the dollar to Pound Sterling rate conversion worked it was cheaper to go* to the UK to buy these things and ship them home than it was to just get them here. (Hint, it still is!) .  So he got almost all of the Ultramarines for 2nd edition before most folks here in the States did. 

Also, this is really the point here, is that GW in the UK was still producing their metal miniatures in lead while here in the States GWUS had already switched to pewter. The lead was definitely better at catching details in my opinion and the flash was easier to clean up. And the weight difference was also quite substantial as well. The lead was definitely heavier! 

My brother was eager to paint this thing, and after painting a few Marines for practice he dove into painting this thing. And you know, it holds up a lot better than either of us felt at the time. Really, for the first vehicle he ever painted this isn't bad at all. The only issues with it were some of the decals. Particularly on the side door where the decal disintegrated while he was trying to position it. I have been trying to track down one of the the old Whirlwind decal sheets so I could correct this, but it has proven to be terribly scarce. 

As far as the painting goes, I think it holds up. The only exception are the winged skulls that adorn the Multilauncher tubes and the hatch next to the radar dish. So in order to update this thing to conform to my current Ultramarines scheme, I want to re-paint the winged skulls, paint the rocket tips, and give the whole tank a Fenrisian Grey edge highlight. The temptation to paint all the rivets a silver color was abandoned as I have always felt that this wouldn't make sense. In reality these things ate typical painted over to protect from rust and decay so to me it makes sense to give the impression that these would be painted over. 

And I did everything I just said I would to this, but this damaged decal needed a bit more attention...

Some light battle damage / wear and tear was the logical choice in lieu of not having a replacement decal. A few swipes of Stormhost Silver...

And a few low-lights of Abaddon Black and Macrage Blue and I think I got the result I wanted. 

But it didn't make sense to have this be the only wear on this thing right? So I grabbed a sponge and lightly dabbed Stormhost Silver on areas that I thought would most likely acrue wear on the paint. 

Mostly this scouring  would be applied to the fromt corners of the tank and the running boards since I think I these areas are most likely to be weathered. 

Also the rear of the tank where the ramp would drop was worthy of the sponge also. 

But there was one more area that now earned my attentuon: the gunner. I find his lack of should iconography...disturbing. and foresee that fixing it will challenging.  I painted one of these models for my Space Wolves about 20 years ago and I was able to convincingly free-hand that iconography, but the Ultramarines icons are wickedly tough to do. 

No decals on the gunner.

I cur down the decals to get them to fit and after a bit of work got them on. 

Decals on the gunner.. 

Amusingly I think I got the shoulder pad icons on the wrong sides. Oops. HAHA... I can't be bothered to fix it. 

Well, this old Whirlwind is sufficiently updated to my satisfaction and after I spray it with some sealant it will be ready to see the tabletop again. 

*Assuming one doesn't factor in the travel and lodging expenses. Also assuming of course that this isn't your only reason to go to the UK, in which case one must re-evaluate the priorities in life.  I'm specifically talking about the  cost of the items.