WIP: Heresy Era Dark Angels Tactical Squad in Mark III Plate - part 2

I have more progress to share on the First Legion Terran tactical squad. First off, I completed highlights to the armor and red icons.  I also began some black armor highlights, barely visible above, on the first legionary, front row left. Vallejo Steel was used as the sliver highlight at this stage. GW Wild Rider Red was used to highlight...you guessed it...the red.

That brightens things up a bit after the shading and the icons really come to life now. I also got to work on some of the backpack details using more Vallejo Oily Steel.  This will later be highlighted with Vallejo Steel, same as the other metals. My early armor highlight attempts can be better seen as well on the front left marine.

At this point, I really should have carried on with highlighting the backpacks and armor...but that plain, primed Vexilla just  kept vexing me!  So I thought a bit and dug about in my decal collection...

Hmmmm...what colors to use?

The decal sheets above may be older than some readers...just sayin'.  The copyright is 1989!! The notched out decal does NOT give away my choice, either.  In the end, went with a black legion symbol on a white field. This would balance nicely with white banners on the sides. Here's how things looked with everything roughed in.

A roman numeral one for the legion and a chess board for the squad.  More on that later. This was all painted in my basic style with P3 Mennoth White for the scroll, GW White Scar for the banners and symbol field.  Vallejo Brass served for the gold details and GW Moot Green completed the laurel wreath.

The whole vexilla was then shaded with GW Agrax Earthshade thinned to about 60:40 with GW Lahmian Medium and brushed on.  I used a damp, clean brush to daub up any pooling shade where I didn't want it.  After everything dried, the scroll was highlighted with P3 Menoth White Highlight and the banner with more GW White Scar.  Vallejo Old Gold was used to highlight the brass.  Then I finished the highlights with some GW Warpstone Glow on the wreath.  Here's a close up of the details.

Some my recognize the chess board from my recent work on Legio Tempestus Reavers for Adeptus Titanicus. Three rows of checkers fit perfectly on the banner.  So that became the squad markings for these Terrans. I set about printing a new sheet with slightly smaller squares to serve as squad livery on the right shoulders.  This took some time away from painting progress, but I love the results. Custom decals are a great way to get the imagery you want if you aren't great at freehand, which I am decidedly not. A little Gimp....a little printing on Testors White Decal Paper...a little matte spray to seal the ink and voila'!

Click through for a better look, but now all ten legionaries have checkered livery on their shoulder pads.  The pics come after the first application so things are still a bit rough.  I need to go back in with a brush to touch things up a bit here and there shading a such will blend things in more fully in the long run.  If I fuss about too much, the ink still comes off.  probably because I didn't lay down enough matte spray.  I have been using Model Masters Lusterless Flat coat, but I'm thinking I'd be better off with a true Decal film spray and Testors offers just such a product.  I'll be trying that out soon.

In any case, it took a few passes with Micro Sol to persuade the  rectangular strip of decal to conform to the rounded contours of the shoulder pads.  But it worked.  Three rows was going to be too much on the pad, I felt, and too hard a rectangle to coax around the slopes.  I know relief cuts can be made to help,but with a checker pattern, I didn't wand the rows to end up all curvy and odd if I didn't cut and bend the design just so.

And that's where the squad stands so far.  Time to get back to the highlights and remaining details, few though they may be.  I hope to complete the squad this week so I can get to the next squad ASAP.  January is slipping away more quickly than I'd like.  And I still have to nail down how the bases should look...

Cheers and Happy Gaming!