So, generally it's the same deal as the first model I painted although the head needed quite a bit of time to get right. The hair has no texture at all so I had to paint that all on. The bionic eye still looks a bit soft but there's not much I can do about that. The lens was tricky as it's just a hole and I wish I'd filled it before painting. Even after varnishing the model I went back to it and tweaked it and I think it looks alright now. I have seen some people improve these heads with putty or replace them entirely with better looking parts but I wanted to keep this real old school and not fuck about with things.
I'm not keen on the knife on the leg as it's not got a scabbard and looks a little odd just floating there but it was glued on with floods of liquid poly 25+ years ago and is utterly fused to the leg. I guess it's a reminder of my younger days. It's not the worst aesthetic choice I've seen though (look on Ebay for marines with arms up in the air and shit glued in all sorts of weird places). I was surprisingly sensible with my assembly of these originally.
I did briefly wonder about adding a back banner but with these intended for Space Hulk I decided that most marines would surely avoid something so cumbersome.
Insignia on the shoulder was done the same way as the other marine. A couple of decals as a base and then over painted to look painted on. I decided to go with the sergeants cuff insignia from the 1989 space marine painting guide (the tactical arrow marking is from that same period). This was 'proper' freehand and took a couple of attempts to get right.
I really liked the idea of adding kill markings to the bolter, either yellow stripes or a skull or something, but with the cuff insignia I thought it might look a bit much. I'll save that idea for another model.
Should I get any more models done I got a few more bases put together and painted. Just plastic sheet, strip and metal gauze.
"It's alright Brother Marine, the xenos haven't been painted yet"