Blood Angels Tactical Marine (Test Paint Scheme)

After a few more games under my belt, including a very close one against traitor guard (blob infantry in a Spartan Land Raider!) I am starting to paint up the models I know I will be taking to the tournament at the end of February. Following some advice on photography thanks to Tale of Painters and the limited settings on my Nokia 1020 I was able to snap some much crisper shots of my test model. These are all simply cropped, as I have no editing skills at all!

The palette is quite darker than I was originally planning, but really captured the "grimdark" I was looking for. The return to metallic paints after about two years is also enjoyable and much quicker than the layering/glazing/blending on some of my recent projects. I also used washes for my darkest shadows rather than glazes, as I am able to crate quick smooth shadows using two brush blending with regular paint and then crisp lines with washes and edge highlighting. Speed is certainly a goal with this project, and this guy took less than two hours to finish after airbrushed basecoat, which makes an army size project much more achievable.

I really like how the use of a green-grey colour on the boltgun and the base tie the model together, while complementing both the red armour and greens of the eyes and shrubbery. No squad markings yet, I am still playtesting the weapon configurations so I may move some models between squads. The Heavy Flamer has been much more useful than I was anticipating!

I stuck to a very basic freehand for the chapter symbol, this is an army rather than a display model, and you can see where I have left some of the overspray from the airbrushed grey rocks on the bottom of the feet. A crisp red/gray line would have been more time-consuming and difficult to paint without it looking like he is 'floating' as red can sometimes 'pull forward' when viewed against a cool background. I think it looks dusty rather than lazy, and shouldn't detract too much once there are a few more models around him.

I highly recommend you read the Tale of Painters photography guide I mentioned earlier, even if you've read hundreds of similar guides before. Above you can see the earlier photo I took before applying some of the tips Garfy outlines, and the blurry legs are much crisper along with less shadows. I would love to try taking some photos with an SLR one day, but I'll have to paint a lot more to make it worthwhile borrowing one. I hope all your new year projects are going well and you're all trying something new to stretch yourselves (even if it's just better photos)!