Lately my painting table has been consumed by a couple commissions from clients and friends. This is my latest completed commission, 2 units of Space Wolves Long Fangs, all armed with missile launchers (do they ever have anything else?). I painted 14 models at once and really surprised myself at the level of quality I was able to maintain across all the models. Normally when I take on large chunks like that the quality suffers but in this case, I had done models like this before and I was methodical in my approach and still managed to get some flourishes like squad markings and a colorful banner.
I always try to include a few models in alternate and original poses in my work and this center Long Fang typifies that. Any Space Wolf worth his salt would be ready for close combat of course!
Here you can see the Ragnar's Army Badge, as requested by the client and squad markings. This helps differentiate the squads when unpacking your minis and during the game, when like models can often get confuses with others.
This squad was armed with Scout missile launchers that the client provided. They aren't so bad in the end. If you're short on Space Marine missile launchers, Scout missile launchers are a cheaper and decent substitute. The only problem becomes that scout arms don't really match Space Marine heads that well so I used Scout heads for some of those models. You'll have to sculpt necks on them if you want to do this too though!
While this leader is not actually armed with a shield, I think squads need little embellishments like this to individualize them and make them stand out.
I'm starting to really like Scout heads on marines, but preparing them is a pain. You have to stick them on a pin, sculpt on a neck - eyeballing it - then when it comes time to attach to the model, you have to trim the neck down so it fits.
Right now, I am booked for commissions for a couple months. Ahead of me is completing the Alpha Legion vehicles, a display piece for a friend and then I'll be free for some of my own stuff. Unfortunately due to this commission and other, I probably won't be submitting anything to Crystal Brush this year...perhaps.
10 comments:
Those look very sharp! Mind sharing your color progression on the leaders blonde hair. I have bee struggling with fair hair and it looks like you might have the answers I am looking for. Again, incredible work.
Hi Mars,
Great question! it can be hard to get blonde/fair hair as GW doesn't make a color that really works for it. The first thing I did was google image search 'norwegian.' I studied some pictures and I realized that blond hair often looks very similar to caucasian skin color...
So then I look at it and looked for the dark parts of the hair, and then went through my paints and tried to match it, while looking at the image on my computer. I found a near-enough match, Graveyard Earth.
I put some out on my palette and a starting mixing a little. I added some bleached bone and some white and voi-la! I had some blond hair color. After applying I matched it again with the images, was a good enough fit, not perfect, but had the right effect.
The important thing is to bring the paint on a brush and bring it close to the image you are trying to copy, and compare how close the color is.
Lovely work again, the shading on the yellow is great. :)
I agree on the Blonde hair recipe, I use the same too! Also, being a light base colour, if you're unhappy it is far easier to change.
Is that Astronomican Grey with a Badab wash then some highlights?
That is a base coat of Adeptus Battlegrey, then a topcoat of Codex grey with an airbrush. Then a Badab Black wash, then a clean-up with Adeptus Battlegrey again. Then shading with black ink, then a highlight of Fortress grey.---kind of an involved process, I know. Probably could have been easier your way. lolz
These look incredible, I really love the look of your army but I've never been able to duplicate it.
I think the big shortcoming for my models is that I have tried to get the slight blue hue. What I'm confused about is, if all you used are greys, how do you have that perfect light blue hue going?
My models, for simplicity's sake, are just Fenris Grey basecoat under a layer of Russ Grey.
Astartes - I haven't done anything to add a slight blue hue to the models. The recipe for the armor is like this:
Basecoat Adeptus Battlegrey. Wash with watered down Badab black. Clen up splotchiness with Battle Grey again. Highlight with Codex grey, then Highlight again with Fortress Grey. Then use black ink to deepen the shadows. Done.
I love the look of your armor, as I have struggled to get that epic shade of worn blue-grey you have. How did you manage to get it to look so blue using only those greys?
I'm also dying to know how you did the yellow and the orangish shading along the creases of the pauldrons.
Apologies, I commented twice. Thank you for the breakdown. My recipes have relied heavily on the "blue greys" and it's always looked a bit too cartoony for my tastes!
No worries.
That orange shade. that is done Rust Brown Ink. thinned down and blended on.
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