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Painting: Ultramarines - BigJim | |
Step 10Yay! We’re nearly finished now, just a few details to finish off and some unit markings to apply. First off, assemble the models, & touch up any little panels & details you may have missed, in this case I’m using Shining Gold washed with watered down Chestnut Ink to touch up the details. At this point we have to decide whether or not to use transfers for the Tac-Markings or to paint them on. Now, you could write a whole article about freehand, so I won’t spend too much time over the process, but personally I prefer to paint Tactical Markings. The method I use is to build up each shape out of straight lines, and them to block in the colours.  Tactical Squad arrows are the simplest symbol in the world to paint, made up of a solid triangle & a rectangle below it. Water some white paint down to an ink, and use this to paint the outlines. As you draw each line, drag the brush backwards in the direction of the line, it’s easier to handle the brush like this than to try to use it like a pen. In fact, if your paint is as runny as ink, you have much, much more control of the paint than if you were using thicker paint. The Ultras symbols are trickier, personally mine tend to come out looking like Space Hoppers, but the general idea is the same as the arrows on the other pad1.  Break the symbol up into it’s component shapes, & then block in each area once it’s outlined. You have more lee-way than you might at first think, & don’t worry if the symbols vary a little from member to member. They’re not going to astound and amaze anyone, but I was able to get these examples done in under 20 minutes. Personally, I find that 2 coats of very watered down GW gloss varnish (from the pot), followed by a single quick dust with spray matte varnish is perfect for gaming minis, any more can obscure the model, & less won’t give you adequate protection from grubby mitts/war wounds. Finally, just base the model according to the rest of your army, & ready your Bolters!  Of course, these minis won’t win you any Golden Demons any time soon, but certainly they should be good enough for play, & hopefully some of the ideas here will provide some good techniques to work from, & with luck, should help improve other areas of your painting. Best of luck! 1, Yup, I’m aware that the example models bear the Tactical markings on the “wrong” shoulders, one day I decided to teach myself how to paint symbols, starting with a Terminator squad. Since these use a reversed scheme on the shoulders, I carried on in full flow throughout the entire army, only noticing at the end that 99% of all the units had the symbols on the wrong pads, thereby forcing all units to copy the same, incorrect scheme, or risk drawing undue attention to the mistake when with the rest of the army. There’s a lesson here somewhere kids... | |
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