I started hacking up my marines to get the basic pose down. Only Blutacked at the moment, as I’m still ironing out some positioning problems, but here’s what I’ve got so far…
Brother Gabriel:
Brother Hazael:
Now it’s time to start glueing my fingers together! Yay!
(While tiling the base, I managed to superglue my lamp to the desk.)
>>>>>Warning: The following images may be upsetting to Space Wolf players…<<<<<
Take one SM helmet, and one Space Wolf head with all his hair shaved off (Mwahahaha)…
Then, using a 3mm drill bit, a hobby knife, and a fair amount of obscene language, you hollow out the helmet…
Then, with careful application of a hobby knife, a nice gaping rent is torn down the side of the helmet, so that when it is placed on Gabriel’s head, thusly…
…you can see his forehead and one eye through the hole… Unfortunately, my camera just isn’t up to producing pics good enough for you to see it. Hopefully it will show up better once I get some paint in there…
Next: Painting Gabriel
I now have the greater part of Gabriel ready to go, with his head, left arm, backpack and shoulder pauldrons to be painted seperately. Slapped him ’round with a pot of rather watery Chaos Black…
and then followed up with an equally watery Dark Angels Green…
As you can see, I’ve started for real on his right leg.. just testing out my highlights so far.
Coming along nicely now, with most of his body done…
..not that you can really tell a lot from these crappy pics… There is actually a lot of battle scarring on the armour, carved in along the edges of the plating, plus a couple of bullet craters hacked in with a drill, then roughened up with the knife..
The armour started off as Dark Angels Green, with Goblin Green mixed in progressively for highlights. Got one greave done and decided this was giving far too rough an effect, so started over. Now using DA Green with Snot Green mixed in, and then a final highlight of Goblin Green on corners and sticky-outie bits.
The battle scarring (which you probably can’t see) was then re-undercoated in black, and painted with Boltgun metal. Eventually I’ll add a highlight of silver.
The chest eagle was painted with Vomit Brown, and then drybrushed with Bleached Bone. Again, this needs a final highlight yet, (Skull White), which I’ll get to at the end.
I generally paint marine shoulder pauldrons seperately from the model, so that you can get all the inner surfaces. (Avoid unsightly grey patches) A neat little trick to make this easier: Bluetack it to an old paintbrush, thusly:
Works well for heads and backpacks as well…
And on with our regular scheduled program:
Now have all the basic work done on Gabriel. There’s still quite a bit of detail to be added, but I’m kind of playing it by ear to see how much time I have. At this point, I can get his head put together, plonk him in place, and then see how Brother Hazael has to go together to fit in…
So, in all his blurry glory, here’s where he’s at…
Painted Gabriel’s Head, once again using the “Bluetack it to a stick” method… Probably spent a little more time on it then it deserved, seeing as how it’s going to be mostly hidden under a helmet, but hey, if you’re going to do a job…
Undercoat with Chaos Black, then Bestial Brown over the flesh bits. First layer with Vomit Brown with a little Bestial mixed in, then slowly adding Elf Flesh for the final Highlight.
The neck guard was re-undercoated black, then the band around the back of the head painted with Boltgun Metal. The black was then highlighted (highlit?) with Shadow Grey.
Teeth and eyes spotted in with Skull White. Eyes were then added with a dot of DA Green, and then a teeny little dot of black… Add on some black eyebrows, and then all that’s left is to bash him around a little.
Thin strip of Blood Red/Red Gore/Bestial Brown mix down the side of the nose, and a splash from the eyebrow back along his head, where it should show nicely through the tear in the helmet…
So, with head in place, he looks like this…
Finished off Gabriel’s helmet… Green done the same as the rest. Eyepieces done in Red Gore, then highlit with Blood Red and Fiery Orange mix. Metal bits and battle scarring picked out in Boltgun Metal… The inside of the helmet is painted black…
Then I put it on his head, and nearly fell off my chair….
It was hard to tell, unpainted, how well this was going to work… but now with all the paint on, there’s this eye peering out from behind a shattered lens…You can see his head, complete with nasty bloody bits, through the rent. It looks far better than I expected…
Unfortunately, you’ll have to settle for this pic:
Next: Brother Hazael.