After some considerable time 'picking away' at this particular 28mm plastic and resin model, I've finally completed the first of five "semi-finished" "Games Workshop" Sternguard Veteran Space Marines I bought off of Ebay at the start of the month. Initially I was planning to simply go with the original dark green Sons Of Horus Legion paint scheme their former owner had started to apply.
However as these Adeptus Astartes would seem to be equipped with weaponry far more in line with "Warhammer 40K" than the "Horus Heresy" era I've instead decided to paint the squad as part of the First Compnay of the Ultramarines Chapter instead. This would also explain why, to honour the history of their glorious predecessors, they're wearing the old ("Forgeworld") Mark IV helmets of former veteran Ultramarines and give me a good excuse to paint them white as opposed to the Chapter's usual deep blue.
As with the majority of my models, especially infantry, I started painting the miniature from the feet up. This actually meant I first had to remove it from the 'converted' cork base it had been previously glued upon (in order to represent the model standing atop a large slate boulder) and then flock its new 25mm round base with my usual combination of "Games Workshop" Citadel Sand and some finer grained "Hornby" ballast, bought from a local Train hobby shop.
The model's power armour was coated in two layers of "Vallejo" Heavy Blue and was originally treated to a wash of Blue Shade. However I disliked the minimal effect the 'Lavado Azul' had, so changed it for a coat of "Citadel" Asurmen Blue. For the gold areas, such as eagles and shoulder armour plates, I used my usual technique of applying a double layer of "Vallejo" Gold upon an undercoat of "Citadel" Doombull Brown and then gave them a heavy wash of Devlan Mud. In order to re-paint the purity seals quickly, I simply painted them using "Vallejo" Heavy Red with a glaze of "Citadel" Bloodletter and "Vallejo" White with a wash of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. I also applied "Vallejo" White to the space marine's helmet, shoulder pads and loincloth. These were then washed with Pale Grey. Finally all the silver/metal areas were painted using an old pot of "Citadel" Boltgun Metal and then washed with Badab Black.
I'm reasonably happy with how this 'test' model has come out, but have been looking to replace the space marine's combat knife with something a bit meatier; especially as I see this model as being the squad sergeant. I've even considered purchasing an actual box of Sternguard from "Games Workshop" in order to both obtain a more substantial close combat weapon for this figure and also build a more obvious sergeant model complete with helmet plume and powerfist. However the thought of then needing to paint up an additional five more Sternguard, in order to make the financial investment of such a purchase worthwhile, has proven rather off-putting. Instead I'll be looking in bargain bins and may well consider cutting the knife hand off at the wrist and magnetising the join so I can add a chainsword or powersword in the future.
In the meantime I'm concentrating on completing the gold badges and shoulder pads of three more 28mm metal figures from the "Judge Dredd" range by "Mongoose Publishing".
No comments:
Post a Comment