Painted: Lion Guard Captain – GW Store Birthday Model

I was lucky enough to snag one of the Primaris Captain models from the local GW Store Birthday, and decided to paint it up in the colors of my newest Chapter – tentatively named the Lion Guard (I’ve decided to abandon the Dawn Guard for now as I’m not entirely satisfied with their color scheme). This is definitely one of my favorite Primaris models so far, and I am more than satisfied with what I was able to accomplish with the paint job. More pics after the jump!

The Lion Guard feature a predominantly blue color scheme (blue being my favorite color and the color that I have the most experience painting in), along with cream/ivory shoulder pads and gold trim. It’s a scheme not unlike GW/Forge World’s Angels Revenant, but I’m not really a fan of the Angels Revenant lore or emblem so I decided to make up my own.

It’s hard to make out from the above picture, but I’ve named this model Captain Kaarawan – ‘kaarawan’ meaning birthday in Filipino, where my parents are from (I was born and raised in Canada). So I think it’s a fitting name, considering this is the store birthday model and all.

I’m quite proud of the way his cape turned out. The “blending,” if you can call it that, was accomplished with successive layers of a 50/50 Evil Sunz Skarlet and Lahmian Medium mix over a Mephiston Red basecoat, with additional layers painted on the higher folds. This created a nice layering effect with a very subtle, smooth blend. Kudos to the almighty Duncan at GW for teaching me that technique.

On the models’ left shoulder pad is the Chapter emblem – a red lion rampant, holding a sword. These emblems were 3D printed, and purchased from Pop Goes the Monkey on Shapeways. The emblems are crisp and detailed, and nicely pre-contoured so they go right onto shoulder pads with no further work required – the fact that they are separate from the pad means you can paint the shoulder pad and the rest of the model separately, then paint and glue on the emblem at the very end. It’s a nice little touch that makes the models stand out from other marine models that only have decals or painted-on emblems. If you’re looking for an emblem for your marines (whether your chapter is a GW one or not – there’s a huge selection of emblems to choose from), I can’t recommend Shapeways enough.

Captain Kaarawan leads his troops into battle.

All things considered, this is definitely one of my favorite Primaris models, if not one of my favorite space marine models in recent years. The pose is simple but still epic, and the detail and bling don’t go too overboard. I’m very happy with the color scheme for my new Chapter, and am looking forward to painting more models in a scheme that I am comfortable with and enjoy painting.

As you can see from the above picture I’ve already got some Intercessors painted up, along with a bunch of Hellblasters and a small group of Reivers. I’ve also unfortunately been ill and stuck at home, but the silver lining is that it’s allowed me to spend some time painting – keen eyes will notice a certain Primaris tank in the background of the above pic, which I’ll be featuring here soon…