PART 1: PLANNING & COLOR TESTING

EDIT:New, clearer pics of the Test model up!


I've been telling myself since I started that I wouldn't make a Space Marine army, but damned if I didn't get inspiration for an awesome Chapter! (Not to mention I'm tired of being at a disadvantage with Tau and Chaos Marines because of their old codices...)

This will most likely be a counts-as White Scars or Ravenwing force, with lots of high-speed units. Devastators/heavy weapon teams will be few and far between. Also, all armor will be light-no Vindicators or Land Raiders here, but lots of small, fast Razorbacks, Predators, and Land Speeders. This army's all about hunting down the enemy, breaking off before they can consolidate, and then repeating, constantly striking critical areas and leaving troops in disarray.

Right now, I don't have much done in the modelling or painting department; only two Battle for Macragge marines, and one of them is currently sporting his new colors as a test model. Ladies and Genetlemen, I give you the Vulpes Astartes!

(NOTE: This figure is VERY rough; he's simply a test model so I can decide where I like the color placement, as well as testing my new mix of 1/2 Vermin Brown/Fiery Orange)

Concept pattern:


Test Pattern:

Canot say much as those pictures as not too clear, but as long as i can see, it looks really pink!

As you know, your pictures are blurry. I realize your camera has no macro option, but taking pictures up close and being blurry as a result does little to show off any detail of the figure. May I suggest taking the picture from farther back? That's how I took a few with my webcam and it worked a lot better. Sure it is smaller but you can't see detail with the fuzz anyway.

The poor guy definitely looks pink from here! Once you figure out your mixture I wish you luck as I'm sure orange is almost as difficult a colour as yellow to paint smoothly.

Interesting- I think you might want to consider a Vermin Brown wash or base color that's highlighted up to the darker edge of orange. The work with the helmet is very nicely done- excellent style there- did this perhaps get inspired by certain chicken-themed Marines? If not, I suggest hitting Bolter & Chainsword to look them up- I think the easiest picture to find is in the tutorial for the Marine painter.

I think I'd skip the white on the swimsuit region, as that feels out of place. You might want to either go with the original design, or consider a broad vertical stripe the width of the helm down the front. That might be uniform enough to work without seeming a bit odd. I'm assuming you'll be going with modified Space Wolf iconography for the chapter symbol?

I know they're blurry, but they still look orange on my screen But yeah, over white primer, this is actually a fairly easy mix to paint; even though it only makes up 1/3 of the mix, the Vermin Brown really added the opacity and spread-ability to handle marine armor, and perhaps even light armor like Bikes or Land Speeders. Also, if you look closely in the concept, that area is white there as well...also, look carefully at his rump; that white extend on his undercarriage and ends below a bit of orange, a sort of throw to a white-tipped tail And yes, Space Wolves iconography will probably do, but not a bunch of furs and skulls and junk dangling everywhere; these guys respect the animal they were named after, and they're bright enough without a bunch of noisy add-ons

New, clearer pics here and in first post!

PART 2.1: CHARACTERS - TECHMARINE


After plenty of thinking and bitz box-raiding, I started throwing together an idea-and a miniature-for a Techmarine character. He'll probably be more for fluff/looking at, but that's not gonna stop me!






C&C is welcome, and-in fact-encouraged!

As it is, that looks fairly Chaotic. You may want to consider snipping the ends off some of those tendrils and adding bits to resemble mechanical tools, such as clamps, wrenches, arc welders, and so forth.

Any specific bits in mine? the tips are supposed to be contained within the tendrils until needed,a nd when opened there's be long, VERY skinny "fingers", a la Ghost in the Shell. Each one also has a different computer hooked into it, each one acting as an extension of his consciousness-each almost with it's own "will". I may place something through the curled-up tendril, and then the others would look like they're probing/"feeling" the object

I was thinking things like you find on the various Techmarine and Techpriest models, both for 40k and Inquisitor. Drills, arc welders, clamps, probes, snips, pliers, mechanical screwdrivers, and so on.

Well, my friend, he already has a welder/cutter in his right hand that also counts as the flamer, and he's going to be getting muuuuch more

Also, update time!

Modeling and basing complete! And he also has a name now: Cirranos (Sur-AHN-ohs)

From what I can tell, nice green stuffing! As some of the other posters have said, the tentacles look a little chaotic - but if you paint them up silver or something, I think it'll be all ok!

Ok Orpheus, I totally see where your going, and love the idea that it is inspired by Ghost in the Shell. While I don't believe they look "chaotic" so much, instead they look too organic. However, this is an easy fix with GStuff, and to finish them off you could add tips, a la those "breaching drill" type end pieces. This would indicate that they are mechanical and also give them a WYSIWYG(ie power weapons) purpose. Or alternatively, GStuff the gaps, paint them some shade of silver and add some NMM rusting to them. Either way, you just need to avoid them looking like worms instead of metal probing tentacles.

Well, I have no bits small enough, and my sculpting skills are nowhere NEAR good enough...but here's a WIP painting pic, so let's see if that opinion still stands:

To make the tendrils more mechanical, i would add little three clawed robotic hands to the end, for no other reason than to be Brother Octavius.

If only I had the sculpting skills...where is the almighty Tael when you need him?

If it helps any, here is how I do orange:

Vallejo Model Color:
981 Orange Brown
956 Light Orange
910 Orange Red
851 Deep Orange
911 Light Orange

This is all over a black primer coat and comes out like so:
Vultures Casualty

Chaplain Thiel

....WOW. That type of painting would save me a lot of trouble, seeing as White primer/sprays never seen to want to cooperate with me...could ya give me a rough estimate as to how much it would cost to get those paints, as well as anything that'd help with white?

I do my whites as follows (again over black primer):

GW Space Wolf Grey
GW Ghost Grey (Vallejo Game Colors has this color these days, GW does not)
2 parts Ghost Grey/1 part GW Skull White
1 part Ghost Grey/1 part Skull White
1 part Ghost Grey/2 parts Skull White

As for getting Vallejo Model Colors, there are several shops Stateside that carry them:
Brookhurst Hobbies
TheWarstore.com

and Warweb.com

I usually buy 3 or 4 bottles of each color and put them in these Ironwind Metals M.T. paint pots