The Space Marine Revival

Hey!

I have been wanting to repaint my old space marines for a while. I used to collect this army when I was a teenager and it has been sitting, half finised, in a box for almost 10 years now.

I am not a huge fan of 40K to be honest, but with a full army at your disposal, just waiting to be re-activated under your command (i.e. paintbrush) it is hard not to let the 40K bug bite you.

At the time, I used to paint them as Dark Angels (i.e. dark green) because I was never too fond of flashy colours (except for the "Sons of Medusa" chapter which looks hilarious).

If I repainted these space marines I wanted them to:

1. be anything BUT dark green
2. have weathered armour: I have always wanted to try that :)
3. ideally be a custom chapter of my own making (i.e. NOT Dark Angels)
4. be based in a way to suggest an environment unlike any of my other armies
5. above all be QUICK to paint, since I have very little time

After some thought, I decided to go for a desert theme. A Mars-like red desert to be precise.

And after some dabbling with different colour schemes, I found a way to get a decent result on the model and the base in very little time.

I might post a step-by step walkthrough tutorial of my colour scheme if I have some time. In the meantime, my recipies can be found at the end of this post for those you interested.

Here are some WIP pics. Enjoy!

WIP shot of the army (some models missing: predator tank, 3 land speeders, 12 bikes)

The "original" color, before revamping.

First try of creating a banner for my custom chapter, with Phosotshop.

Basing

1. GW Dark Flesh
2. Brush GW Dark Flesh + VMC Amarillo mate, increasing Amarillo Mate as you go
3. Add a little VMC Arena Oscura to the above mix and drybrush lightly to accentuate

Metals

1. Paint with boltgun metal (that's right, paint, not drybrush)
2. Apply heavy GW Devlan Mud wash

Greens (like lenses, power weapons etc...)

1. VMC U.S. dark green highlighted with VGC Camouflage Green

Skin

1. VMC Dark Flesh + Brown (GW Graveyard Earth or VMC Tierra Mate)
2. Add increasing amounts of VMC Dark Flesh
3. Wash GW Devlan Mud
4. Again VMC Dark Flesh
5. VMC Dark Flesh + VMC Basic Skintone

Marines

1. Spray Black
2. Basecoat VMC Tierra Mate + 30% VMC Orange Brown
3. Drybrush with above mix adding increasin amounts of VMC Arena Oscura
4. Drybrush pure VMC Arena Oscura
5. Wash recesses with VMC Orange Brown
6. Weathering armour (chipped paint) with VMC Tierra Mate + Black.

This is my "poor man's" solution for quick weathering: it is done by using an old medium-sized old brush and randomly adding step 6 mix to "exposed" bits of the armour, like edges and knee-caps, that are likely to have taken more punishment in combat. Don't over do it, better too little than too much. To get a better contrast, you can highlight the "chipped off" bits you have thus created with VMC Arena Oscura (warning: time consuming).

Example of highlighted vs non-highlighted chipped paint:

Stay tuned for more in the future!