Tactical re-awakening

This tactical sergeant was my first attempt at a complete paint job since I regained my miniatures. As you can see, the newly constructed light box has seen its first action and it seems this guy is a bit of a poser, a natural in front of the camera. Here's a tale from a few months ago of how he came to be:

The sergeant is from the 3rd edition boxed set, one of the first highly-posable plastic marines. I actually built, based and undercoated the whole tactical squad quite a few years ago, one of the last things I did before my collection was relegated to storage (something to do with university, living away from home etc.) I painted one of the marines at the time, an early experiment with a black undercoat that went quite well.

After announcing to my parents that I would finally free up the space in their loft and knowing that I was soon to get these models back, I took a trip to the local store and found something new in the Foundation paints. These sounded perfect for working over a black undercoat so I picked some up along with a few other common colours I'd need and suitable brush.

I also picked up an Ironclad Dreadnought from the store, another new addition since I'd been away. I'm a sucker for the walking hulks of metal and this was something new and interesting. I planned to use it as a Furioso but it looks like it may be viable as a real Ironclad in the new codex. Either option is fine depending on how the army list works out.

I built up my confidence with a brush by base coating this model but I started to feel it was a little large for a first project. Given that my collection had escaped from my parent's attic made their way to me I abandoned the dreadnought in favour of the tactical squad sergeant that was primed and ready to go. I'd also been taking a look at Jawaballs' blog and his videos on youtube that gave me some ideas to add to my plan.

I started with a basecoat of Mechrite Red, covering the bulk of the surface but avoiding the crevasses. I then used Blood Red in much the same way, layering up steadily to cover the Mechrite, less so in darker areas. I think I used Baal Red to shade any areas that were too light and once that was dry Badab Black in the deeper recesses. I then tidied up the Blood Red areas before adding some highlights in Blazing Orange and then Fiery Orange (I believe this is discontinued but I had an old pot left that was still good).

I approached the weapons and chest eagle in similar fashion, starting with a Foundation basecoat and working up through the shades. The eagle wings were painted Calthan Brown, working up to Bleached Bone and using a Gryphonne Sepia wash before applying more Bleached bone to the raised areas and repeating the wash. The weapons were painted Iyanden Darksun working up through Golden Yellow and Sunburst Yellow. I think the Gryphonne Sepia and Badab Black made a reappearance for shading. Both ended up with some pure white highlights at the very end.

The face also began with a Foundation basecoat of Tallarn Flesh working up through another flesh tone (I think Elf Flesh) and a little Bleached Bone, rinsing and repeating with Ogryn Flesh.

The base just got a few drybrush coats of white. I haven't decided what look I'm going for on the bases of the army yet so this just helped finish it for now. Eventually they'll all be unified in some way.

That's about it. Overall I was quite happy with the results although I paid for it in shoulder tension and eye-strain. It took ages, and my lighting setup wasn't ideal. I'd also managed to smudge off some paint at one point from holding him by the base and head instead of attachiing his base to a paint pot or somesuch. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and kept going back and touching bits up all the way which added extra time.

I did enjoy process though and it was quite rewarding. I feel it was one of my better pieces, superior to anything I'd done when I was younger. I think having some years of reflection helps and I was just starting to get decent when I stopped.

It's clear that I can't spend this long on everything if I'm going to get an army done so I've been thinking about how to approach them and reading around a bit. From some further experiments on other tactical squad marines I've found that the shading on the armour has more impact than the highlighting and so I think I'm going to go with something like the following:

• Black undercoat
• Quick coat of Mechrite Red avoiding recesses
• Blood Red coat
• Baal Red and Badab Black for shading
• Tidy up with Blood Red
• Stop

With this approach I can batch paint a few at a time and get a good amount of units in a decent starting state. I can then go back and add more detail and highlights if I wish, I just don't want that to get in the way of progress.

We'll see how it goes anyway, I might completely change my mind and get drawn into something else. I'm already thinking I'll start with something that isn't even red but that is a topic for another post.

Meanwhile, I've decided to use this sergeant as my avatar :)