Marines! .............. But not the HH kind

This is a bit of a catch up post given I got these figures years ago when we were all getting into pirate games. These figures were never painted by me and there is a chance they could see use in one of the random game systems that I keep picking up and I fancied something a bit different to paint, so here they are.

I actually did some historical research for these too! The Royal Navy itself has a page on uniforms throughout the ages.  They appear to be a mix of a couple of periods, so I stayed with the colours that looked pretty standard - white trousers and cross belts and red coats.  Did you know e redcoats weren't because they didn't show the blood, as popular myth would have it, but because red was the cheapest material available at the time? And that's straight from the horses mouth too.

The officer gets a natty blue coat to help his stand out.

These chaps may face off against my pirates at some point if I run a game, but don't hold your breath!

Now with added colour!

Work in progress on the Praetors and Mechanicum stuff. I'm trying to keep up with regular blogs to maintain the discipline of doing a little each day.

TTFN!

Next Please!

I'm trying to keep disciplined with my painting so on Friday I started the next batch of figures for the Horus Heresy. A Magos and two Castellaxs for the Mechanicum and two Praetors for my Iron Hands.

I've been unmotivated to start my Iron Hands and I think the colour scheme was part of what was holding me back. After seeing the scarlet and red on the titans I just wanted to continue with that. So I am going to!

Yup, my IH watched Ferrus fall and leaderless they turned to their comrades in arms for leadership in service to the Emperor. They'll be carrying both IH and mechanicum iconography to show their allegiance.

First off these guys got the Bronze then Brass and then finally Gold dry brush treatment and today I started with the thinned down scarlet. I took a photo of that but the red isn't bold enough to show properly yet.

TTFN.

FINISHED!!!

It has been an absolute delight painting these and now that they are finished I must, once again, thank the Silverback for his encouragement to get stuck in with the weathering.

These have to be some of the best painted miniatures I have done and a lot of that is down to the final effect that the weathering gives. I'm immensely stoked and ready for more hobbying as these beauties have given me a real boost in morale and motivation.

A shout out to Vallejo as well for their awesome acrylic liquid matt varnish that is really good and coupled with Micro-set fixing agent, it has merged the decals into the figure really well to the point where it is hard to tell if some of them are actually transfers.

First up the Knight Titan. A nice model and it being plastic did make it easier to paint than the Castigator.

Next is the Thanatar. I've started thinking of it a 'the little model' as I've been working on it at the same time as the titans.......however it is far from small as evidenced by the dead marine at its feet. ;-)

Last but by no means least.....the totally mean looking Castigator. A great model and I can't wait to see it striding across the battlefield!

TTFN!!!

HOT STABBY DEATH STICK!!

Well that's what it is!

I'd had a mind to perhaps go with a nice eerie green glow for the sword but I saw someone else had done a heat effect on theirs and I thought it was better suited to go with the rest of the paint scheme.

Not much to do now. Just the base and dirt weathering on the legs and a varnish.

Ho Ho! Nearly there. Now the question is what to start next? I should really make inroads in the mountain of HH infantry that I've got in pieces under my desk before I treat myself to painting another big thing. However I think I'm going to paint the two castellax and the magos I've got hanging around and then I'll move on to the infantry.

It might be good to actually finish some of these bits and get them shipped home. ;-)

TTFN

Mechanicum troops

with me finishing my first burst of death guard, I wanted to go back and work up my mechanicum forces.

20 thralls with las locks and 10 with mitra-locks, supported by a thanatar.

Can I also say my heat gun from hobycraft is invaluable at helping straighten, wiggle and bend forge world resin that doesn't always meet up perfectly.

...and a little more.

Just a few tweaks today and some blackening on the exhaust stacks. I just used a darkish brown dry-brushed on first followed by some black. Quick, simple and I think quite effective.

 TTFN