Salamanders WIP

I see green people...

Salamanders, my current marine project. Which I have been working on for several days now. They are interesting fluff-wise, as well as in painting and figuring out minor conversions or adjustments to make them more unique than you can typically get with just a Battleforce box. Dipping into my bits box I have pulled out some minor variation parts, arms, weapons, etc. But overall this force isn't getting any major conversions on the troops, other than the next 10 which may get some greenstuff work on the armor to make 5 of them sternguard.

As a bit of a change of pace I've been painting them in reverse of my normal blending style. Starting with a basecoat that is the darkest color and working up to the highlights. With green and a few other colors this works out very well, but can be a bit time consuming when you first start doing it.

Their basecoat color is a mix of GW's Jade Green (old paint) and Blood Red. In a 3 Jade Green to 2 Blood Red ratio, then 1 brush full of water. Over that the 'medium' color of the blending is 3 Jade Green to 1 Blood Red plus 1 brush of water and 1 drop of mixing medium. And the highlight is 3 Jade Green + a small amount of blood red + 1 drop ofmixing medium + 2 brushes of water.

Mixing medium is a very nice addition to my supplies, as it extends to use of paints I mix. As well as giving it more consistent flow as I blend. It can be hard to work with at first, but as you deal with it more often it becomes truly useful for a number of painting techniques from blending to washing to fine detail work.

This marine's right arm is magnetized, and has the option of a plasma pistol or bolt pistol.

This is the squad sargeant, his arms are both magnetized, and there are a mix of power weapon, plasma pistols, chain swords, and bolt pistols magnetized for use with him.

A small scout unit done in a similar paint scheme as the marines. In this case I used a lot of washes to get cloth effects on them.

The first half of the tactical squad I'm doing up. The Sargeant has both arms magnetized to allow for a number of weapon options to be swapped. And the special weapons trooper has his left arm magnetized to allow him the option of flamer, meltagun, or bolter. I plan to magnetize another marine in the next batch of 5 to allow for swapping in a heavy weapon or using a bolter.

Sargeant in all his glory. The almost 'glowing' effect on the plasma pistol was not intended, but definitely looks great.

Special weapons grunt hard at work tossing a grenade!

I still have to put chapter markings and squad markings on these marines, as well as work out the basing, but that won't take too long. Then it is on to the next 10 marines, of which 5 will be added to the first 5 to form a full 10-man tac squad. The last 5 will be given a number of minor conversions and done up as sternguard. I plan to modifying/converting their weapons to get several combi-weapon options.

Until next time!