I’ve completed the Mark IV marines I was busy assembling in my previous entry – I ended up building them as generic tactical marines, as I’m still unsettled as to whether I want to go with Blackshields or Raven Guard. I figured both armies could always use some bolter-armed marines, so I went ahead and painted them up and figured the decision could wait until later.
A couple more pics and the painting recipe after the break! Continue reading “Painted: Blackshields/Raven Guard Tactical Marines”
More than fifteen years ago, my parents and I went on a trip to Park Royal mall in North Vancouver, BC, Canada. Beckoned by a yellow and red sign that said “Games Workshop”, and knowing nothing of the worlds of wargaming or modelling or painting, I stepped into the tiny store and was initially drawn by the miniatures of valiant knights fighting nasty looking orcs – perhaps due to the obsession with Warcraft II I had at the time. But after wandering around the store, I came across miniatures of futuristic super soldiers armored in colorful plated suits and armed with guns and chainsaw/sword hybrids. They were labelled “Space Marines.” My dad bought me a combat squad of five marines – a box full of plastic from which these heroic warriors could be built.
Space Marines have been a large part of my life ever since.
Every couple of months, tired of painting my two thousand three hundred and sixty third Marine, my thoughts will turn towards starting a non-Marine army. A dig through my hobby area will find Tau, Ork, and Eldar models and bits, all in varying stages of completion. But the roughly 1500 points of 6th Edition Eldar were as far as I got towards building a non-Marine army; my hobbying heart has, and perhaps always will, rest with the heroic warriors of the Adeptus Astartes.
And so when the Mark IV marines were released separate from the Betrayal at Calth box, I bought them almost on instinct, despite having already bought two Betrayal at Calth boxes and having already built two Heresy armies – Luna Wolves and Ultramarines.
The Tau Start Collecting box I had been working on was put on the back burner. As was the case more than fifteen years ago, I had another box of plastic; Space Marines waiting to be brought to life.
Forgive the recent dearth of entries lately – the hobbying hasn’t slowed down at all, however, and has actually increased over the past couple of months. Been too busy to blog!
Forge World recently released their Blackshields decal sheets, and had a painted example of a Blackshield in their advertisement. I liked the paint scheme and decided to shoot Forge World an email to see if they were willing to divulge their secrets; they were more than happy to oblige. Below is their recipe:
I added a second wash of Nuln Oil to further darken the armor and help blend the Dawnstone highlights into the rest of the mini. I’m absolutely in love with the results; it certainly looks more realistic than simply edge highlighting a black undercoat with grey. It’s also very quick, with the five marines above taking little more than an hour or so from start to finish to paint, and that was counting drying time for the washes. Assembling and painting an entire ten-man squad suddenly looks like it could be an evening project, instead of a week-long slog.
I’m so pleased with the results that perhaps a Blackshields army is in my near future…
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