Smurfguard!

This was a more difficult assignment than one would think.  Like most of the previous Ultramarines posted here to the blog, I had to match a very specific color scheme.  Also, this scheme did not have very much high contrast shading... it was all about the tiny highlights, and even those needed to be done in a very specific color. 

Typically, I am grabbing whatever paint jar happens to be closest, and fooling around with the glazes and such.

Essentially, each guy was restricted to 3 shades of blue.  Also, I could not do my usual heavy shading, creating lots of contrast throughout the miniature.  It was really working against my instinct, that's for sure! :-)













Here are a few WIP shots.  The approach here was a little different than what you have seen lately on the free-wheeling Chaos side.  That was due to having to match someone else's color scheme.

 



And then some more group shots:

Lords of the flies

What did we just step in?  Anyway, the promised Nurgle Marines are now here!

I believe these are the only Nurgle marines I have ever painted.  It was lots of fun.  I was able to use a much different palette than normal, and some different icons as well!  The rest of the squad will be posted later when we get back home...













Here are a few WIP images that once again illustrate the idea of painting lighter, and then glazing and shading and tinting darker colors later:

White out: Forgeworld Demon Prince

Here is the companion piece to Harold the Herald which was posted the other day.

To say that there were numerous tiny details would be the understatement of the millennium.  It probably took me a week to glue on all the little spikes!

Just like the Herald, I enjoyed the lighter color scheme, done to fit in with the World Eaters army.

Really Pre Heresy Thousand Sons :-)

I know that these days what constitutes "Pre Heresy" colors and appearance can get folks in a bit of a tizzy, but I think there can't be much question with these guys :-)

It was a fun squad to paint, but my favorite was the Prospero banner.  I would love to make myself a Prospero gaming table.  OK, I think I will! 

Also, blue purity seals were the most guilty of pleasures!  It was also a blast to do the scarab bases.

Dante: Angels Solarus style

Today we have an alternate form of Dante, with a jump pack that matches all the other infantry of the Angels Solaris.  This type of pack also gave me a chance to get the chapter icon on it, which was a plus!

This figure is always an interesting gold NMM candidate, since everything must be gold!  That means I have to play around a lot with color temperatures and saturation.  I tended to go with cooler colors towards the base (adding more muted greens and purples), while doing high chroma yellows and oranges by the face.

Those kinds of differences, along with many sculpted areas of definition (faux muscles, etc.) allowed for many areas of high contrast in shading.  That makes like a lot easier when trying to convey gold NMM on a space marine!

Unclean, Unclean!

Here's the last of the Plague Ogryns.  Up next, the Plague Marines!

Yes! The Zombie Army I always wanted...

I thought this was a great concept dreamed up by one of our buyers.  I only ever did the command squad, but the idea is in my head, filed away for future use. :-)

Since I dream every day of conquering the world with a vast horde of undead minions, I look forward to taking all my undead and TK bits and mixing them with IG.  Who better to serve a withered husk in a lounge chair than millions of zombies?

I want to combine kits like the corpse cart, Mortis engine, and banshees with tanks and such to create some wild vehicles!  I think some blood knights with the correct IG bits could make some fascinating Rough Riders.











Here are some shots of the entire comand squad:







This WIP gives you a glimpse of the early "shaded basecoat", where I do all the lightest colors first, and then use a series of glazes and washes in order to do all the shading and tinting.