Space Marine Spartan Tank

With 40 Space Marines completed I now need to move onto the remaining four models. As one of them is quite big (very, very big), I realised I needed to get started on the Spartan.

As I’ve been playing mostly Fantasy and Age of Sigmar in the last decade I haven’t painted many tanks, so I needed to go back to basics and remind myself how to do it!

Assembly was a long process, but very straight forward apart from a small error with one of the top hatches. Once I’d worked that out it was completed and ready for undercoat.

Undercoat / Step 1

All my models have a black undercoat as I like the slightly darker affect it has on Mephiston Red. It also means there are no grey / white spots left even if I miss a bit! So I can always pretend it’s deliberate shadow.

I decided I would mask off the tracks and some of the weapons to ensure that these remained black as building back over red is a little pointless when it’s already there. If you’ve not done this before just make sure you take a little of the ‘stickiness’ off so that it doesn’t remove the paint when you take them off!

Step 2 – Red Undercoat

With the Mephiston Red undercoat on, and the masking tape removed it’s starting to look a lot like a Blood Angel tank. Next up is some pin washing (which I’ve never done before) with Nuln Oil and a little tidying up of the tracks where the red undercoat has snuck through!

I also need to finish the Lascannon Sponsors of course but they fit on very nicely to allow some movement of the model.

What’s Next

I need to finish the tank, and complete the remainder of the Age of Darkness Box Set. It’s great to be getting close to finishing a starter set!

— Declan & Eeyore

Legion Heavy Support Squads.

The last of the normal marines… having painted 10 Terminators and 30 Space Marines I am now on the final stretch (before characters, Dreadnought and tank).

And what a final stretch… for these I cheated a little bit and bought a second box set.

I selected these, because the Missile Launcher is iconic from the RTB01 box set and my first foray into Warhammer 40k, so long ago.

Missile Launchers

Heavy Bolters

It was great to have a bit of a change following the 30 Tactical Marines and the weapons themselves are easy to paint – especially given the simple scheme for the Blood Angels. Fortunately Black and Red go together!

What’s Next

I am halfway through the Praetors and Dreadnought and they will hopefully be finished before an October trip to Warhammer World. Meanwhile I have also started my Land Raider Spartan – more on that later!

— Declan & Eeyore

Legion Tactical Squads.

To say that the Age of Darkness box set is bursting with value, is doing it a disservice. With 40 Mark VIs, 10 Terminators, 2 Praetors, Dreadnought and Spartan Tank; it has got everything you need to have a fun game.

I’ve previously finished my Terminators, and have now completed the Sergeants for the Tactical Marines.

As there are 40 Tactical Marines the obvious answer is to build them as 4 units of 10 to give a good backbone of any army, but I picked up a box of missile launchers and heavy bolters… so I have 3 units of 10 Tactical Marines.

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

I really enjoyed painting these models. They have enough detail to be Space Marines, whilst not having too much to paint… no trim! Of course they do have the studded shoulder pads which took a while to get right, but I batch-painted them so got used to it by the 40th Space Marine!

What’s Next

I have finished the Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters, so the next article will show some pictures of those!

— Declan & Eeyore

Blood Angel Cataphractii Terminators.

With the standard marines finished (just special equipment and Sergeants to go), I decided to try to finish off my Cataphractii Terminator Squad.

I needed them to pop a little and then I saw what Mengel Miniatures had done over on twitter.

Finished up my test Cataphractii Terminator for my Ultramarines. I’m happy with how he turned out so onto the squad soon! pic.twitter.com/NGjZfYVdTd

— Mengel Miniatures (@MengelMinis) July 22, 2022

Putting aside that they are the wrong legion, I loved the breakup of the single colour and the use of gold goes nicely with Blood Angels as well. As if to reinforce the hint, I bought the Astartes (Loyalist) book, and veteran marines in Blood Angels use gold (who knew).

The sergeant already had black shoulder pads to designate him, but a full gold helmet definitely doesn’t look out of place, and I’ve once again taken Mengel Miniature’s idea of white on the legs but moved it down to the knee. This has allowed me to use the black transfers for the legion number, although they are small, so it was fun getting some of them on.

I then added gold trim to all the models in places that felt appropriate and … hurrah they are finished.

And some more pictures for details:

What’s Next

I need to finish the Sergeants and special equipment troopers, the Praetors, a Contemptor and the Spartan Assault Tank. Lots to get to, but happy with progress so far.

— Declan & Eeyore

Blood Angel Batch Painting from Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Box.

Following on from my last update, I’ve made a little progress on my Blood Angels for Horus Heresy despite work being busy and the hot temperatures in the UK.

However, I did get some paint on the non-special models such that they are now complete.

Following on from my previous update, I’ve added more black and picked out the details on the weapons with Leadbelcher and a highlight of Ironbreaker.

The missile launcher’s above show the colours used on the weapons. I have gone for a simple scheme and black and red so very well together.

There are also transfers on all the models, with Blood Angel wings on the shoulder pads, legion number on the left knee and unit marking on the right.

Basing

The basing is a simple affair with Vallejo Thick Mud (Brown) and a highlight of XV-88 to pick out the ridges. I was generous with the mud when applying it and it looks great – not least because it is different to the AoS Destruction base I normally paint.

There’s also loads in a pot, so I’ve hardly used any to base the models so far – it’ll definitely cover a lot of an army.

Finally I finished off the bases with a black rim to keep them neat the tidy.

What’s Next

There’s still the Terminators, Sergeants, and 2 special troopers to finish off. And I need to start the Praetors at some point…! In order to give myself something different to paint I’ve also assembled the Contemptor Dreadnought and given it a quick undercoat to be ready as the next model on the table.

I’m still aiming to complete by October when I’m meeting up with friends at Warhammer World and I think I’m still on target.

— Declan & Eeyore

Blood Angel Batch Painting from Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Box.

In my continued effort to try to get some Blood Angels for Horus Heresy actually finished, I am continuing to batch paint the models from the Age of Darkness Box. In my last article I got them to Mephiston Red (with some Nuln Oil shading)… what’s next?

Last time I got here:

Orange is new…

But I needed to get the highlighting done. As I was around when the original Beakies were released, my normal go-to- method is to use edge highlighting… but it can take a long time and I only needed battle ready. Fortunately I had heard of some people using the hallowed technique of drybrushing for their marines! Strange, but I did some investigation and I found this by Sonic Sedgehammer:

They suggested two levels of drybrushing, but why do two when you can go straight to the end and pick up 1? Fortunately I had Ryza Rust from some Martian terrain I painted that I got as a gift from a friend, so I was ready to go and skip right to the end.

The technique is explained well in the video, but effectively just drybrush the edges only and leave the panels free of highlight. This gives a good overall impression and whilst I may do a bit of tidy up later I’m happy with the results at the table-top level.

Black Legion?

Not quite, but the next colour was Abaddon Black to get some contrasting colours onto the models. For this I wanted to keep it easy (and quick) which is rapidly becoming a theme. Some of the eagle-eyed readers will have noticed the black in the picture above, and that’s what I did. Pick out the joints, the cables and the back of the backpacks.

Whilst this may be sufficient I do want to add a little silver here and there, but it is a great start and the models are beginning to look like Blood Angels.

I’m really enjoying the batch-painting and seeing progress each time I sit down even if I’m only able to give 1 or 2 hours at a time. By now I’ve normally got bored and hived off some models, but I’m managing to keep with the 50 done to Mephiston Red level – and now they’re all highlighted and some black sections picked out.

But weren’t there 52?

Well yes, I’ve not done the Praetors but there’s a reason for that. In fact there are a few.

1. I don’t mind if they take longer to paint – they are characters and should have the glory and attention
2. I want to do a few more highlights, so I’ll like do some halfway colours on them to get there
3. There’s so much detail I can’t go into ‘automatic pilot’ with them and because I need to think about what colours I want they will take longer.

So the Praetors are out of the batch-painting process for now, but I’ll go back to them soon as I need them to complete the foot troops before I get to the tank and dreadnought.

What’s Next

Well, I’ve already alluded to it, but I’ll be adding some silver to some of the pipes. I think want to start on the cloth/leather for the Terminators and any that may appear on the Beaky Marines, and then I’ll have to move towards the weapons.

I am pleased with the black so far and the contrast it provides, so it’s likely that they will be black as a base as well — but still time to reconsider.

Stay tuned to see how I get on.

— Declan

Blood Angel Batch Painting from Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Box.

As regular readers of my Hobby Updates will know, I have picked up an Age of Darkness box set and am painting mine as Blood Angels. The Sons of Sanguinius have been my favourite for many years, and there was never any question what I be painting for my first Horus Heresy Army (Ignoring my Epic / Space Marine ones!)

In the last article I had sprayed most of the models in TT Combat Spray Black & then Red. The above picture shows what they looked like.

I then drenched the models in Nuln Oil. If you’re reading this 2 weeks from now (so mid July-2022) the old Nuln Oil. It gives a very dark undertone, but I wanted to use it instead of pin highlighting. If you are include pin highlighting (putting Nuln Oil only into the recesses) is slower but neater!

I have then added 1 coat of Mephiston Red to all the foot troops (52 models) from the Age of Darkness box set. This takes off some of the gloss of the Nuln Oil and the TT Combat Seriously Red spray, and gives the models a nice clear and smooth coat. Whilst I may build up the red on the Praetors a little more, the troops are done with red at this stage.

What’s Next

Next up is highlighting the armour with Wild Rider Red. I need to be a little careful here as it is a very bright orange and if I apply too much it’ll look odd. I just want to add a little highlighting to the armour before proceeding with the weapons and other non-red items.

Stay tuned to see how I get on.

— Declan