Challenge: Paint a Deathwatch Veteran Squad to match a recently painted Drop Pod.
It is finally time to put down the brushes and back away. I could pick and poke at a model forever it seems. There is more cleanups to the highlighting and other fine tuning before I hit these guys with the final matte coat (Only use Testor Master Series Lusterless (Flat)!).
This post I dedicate to a gallery for the completed work. I'll post a follow up to document my paint recipe and other trials and tribulations (tips and tricks!). As originally promised, here is the squad with the new ride.
Now for some closeups of the individual squad members.
And one last shot of the squad...
Many thanks to Stepping Between Games for promoting this fun challenge. I had a great time and will look forward to other community painting challenges in the future.
Well, this is it, 02/27, The Squaduary 2017 challenge will come to and end tomorrow. Time runs short. I expect I'll be working tomorrow night, right up to the last on this project. Having completed a first pass on the chapter iconography for the right shoulder pads and a base coat of dirt on the bases, I thought I;d post up a teaser in advance of my final post which will most likely come shortly after the deadline for the challenge expires.
Week four progress, the finish line in sight!
The storm shield is off once again as the base gets some attention. I'm planning a neutral blasted/barren earth look for this force. The models themselves carry so much interest and detail that I want to avoid over doing things with crazy bases.
I've very pleased with how this is turning out. I got lost in the final details; there are so many elements to track and my many short sessions left me unable to fully complete various areas in one pass - now I'm struggling not to forget what areas have final highlights and what don't, etc.. Regardless, the squad looks fine and I suspect I am my own worse critic with unnecessary self-doubt at this point.
Until the end...looking forward to completing the squad!
It is time for my next installment of Squaduary progress and I'm well overdue. A week-long business trip killed week 3 so this is the progress I've made since returning and plowing into week four with a fury. As you will see, there is plenty left to do, but at least the squad is clearly identifiable as Deathwatch space marines now!
Upon returning to the project I dove right in, basically following the approach outlined on the Warhammer TV painting tutorial below.
I have found Duncan's painting tutorials very accessible and a great source of easy inspiration. As you'll see when I post my final paint recipe, I don't adhere to all GW paints and instead use a variety of brands - still, it is nice to have a place to start!
So after the first two sessions back, the weapons and a couple other details have been addressed. I got the gold on the many of the icons while I was at it. The squad is now taking shape. Below is a close up of the storm shield work. Very rough work on the screen since it is almost entirely hidden when mounted on the Blackshield space marine.
In the next session this week, I continued to build on the details, completing the icon work and hitting the leather bits. At this point there is still a lot of final highlighting planned, but I wanted to get everything to a decent standard by the end of the challenge. If I can't finish, I'll just have the final highlights to do, but the squad will be easily at a solid tabletop standard.
Last night I managed to clean some bits up, tackle the right arms with scanners/computers on them, and hit up the various oath scrolls and other parchment. The scrolls need text and final highlights, and the servo skull needs more cleanup and final highlights as well.
So...not out of the woods, but great progress so far! After the needed clean up on last night's work, I will dive into the right shoulder pads and get all the chapter iconography right. Then after a last pass to be sure I didn't miss any important details I'll finish off the bases. At this point i believe I have enough session time to complete the project by the 28th, but I may very well be working right up to the very end of the night!
I have enjoyed watch this squad take shape. I find it hard to visualize primed space marines morphing into their final form, but as the work continues it is very cool to see it all work out. It has been especially hard with the Deathwatch for me....it seemed like they were nothing but black forever!
For my next post I'll have final pics of the squad in some scenic terrain, likely next to their new ride which was completed before them. I'm planning a second follow up post with the paint recipe I used and some more detail about the process/techniques I used for this squad.
Best of luck to all of the other Squaduary challengers out there.
Welcome to Squaduary 2017 weeks 1 and 2. The first week was the squad build week. However, as I explained in my introductory post, I accelerated my progress by starting with a squad of Deathwatch veterans that was already assembled and primed. That let me get right into the work since I will be unable to work on the project during week 3. This should have mitigated the week-long absence...but then there was edge highlighting black armor...and a family stomach flu. So progress was slow to say the least.
Edge highlighting is NOT a skill I have easy access to. I've been a dry brusher first and foremost when it comes to highlighting. An older skill I'm doing my best to leave behind so I can learn new technique and advance my skills with miniature painting. Clearly for black power armor, the go to technique is edge highlighting these days. So I set to with a gusto...with only a couple hours to paint per session, and only a couple sessions per week, I was managing two marines a session...ack. The family stomach flu prevented any acceleration of this. Cautions and a bit messy here and there, I when fairly timid with the high lights using a single layer of Vallejo Grey Blue. With time, I'll go back with a second pass of something lighter on the high spots. But this was all I could take for now.
In my final session of the first two weeks, I cranked out the steel left arms and armor joints. And here we are...
Probably spent a bit much time with my new Foldio360 turn table in the light box when I should have been soldiering on with the painting, but it was a good break. I'm very pleased with the steel. The subtle bluing doesn't show much in the washed out gif, but I think it works well with the blue-grey edge highlighting. I used Vallejo steel as a base followed by GW Nuln Oil as a shade. I then highlighted the arms with steel and glazed just the flat surfaces with a mix of GW Lahmian Medium and Vallejo Dark Blue in a 4:1ish ratio - very thin glaze of blue. I finished off with a final highlight of Vallejo silver.
I'm aiming for one last session before I head out on a business trip for a week; likely to base coat the weapons. Following that, I REALLY have to tuck in and see what I can get done in week 4. It's going to be a foot race, and a fun challenge! It's great to finally get some paint on some Deathwatch veterans.
Best wishes to the rest out their tackling their Squaduary challenges.
Similar to Dreadtober, Squaduary is a challenge to complete a hobby project within a single month, in this case February. The Squaduary challenge is to paint a complete squad. Having worked on a Dreadnought and Drop pod for the Deathwatch Space Marines most recently, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to continue the momentum there and complete a veteran squad to ride down in the drop pod! To that end, I chose four veterans with frag cannons and a Blackshield to act as a bullet magnet while the boys lay down the righteous fire of the Emperor of Mankind.
As shown above, the squad had been assembled and primed prior to the kickoff of the challenge. This will work to my favor due to a business trip that will take me away form painting for all for week three. I'll jump right in to painting so I won't be very far behind when I get back to it on week four to wrap things up.
I'm aiming for a pretty straight up standard paint job on these veterans. As I go, I'll try to keep a paint recipe going to aid me on future projects. While I use a lot of GW technical paints and shades, I tend more towards Vallejo and The Army Painter colors these days; along with Secret Weapon Washes. So that will become apparent as I disclose the colors and techniques I choose for this project. I'm psyched to get started!
