Blood Angel Vanguard Marine WIP

[Micha]

Hello. This will be my first WIP so I hope i will not mess it up. I am not the greatest painter but I believe sharing my work with you will benefit both myself and others.
My local GW shop (GW Berlin I) has calloud out a small competition to mark the appearence of the beautiful new blood angels. As always, I have gladly accepted the challenge. As it was simply required to paint a blood angel model, I decided against buying anything new and instead painting up a model I alredy own. After some consideration I chose the Games Day marine with thunder hammer. I know it´s not an original blood angel model, so the chapter will only be visible for color choice and freehand insignia; I also decided not to convert anything(something I am not very good at anyway).
First, we have the model primed and ready for painting. It will be painted in four parts - body, head, arm with hammer and backpack with banner.
As you see, I have alredy done all the drybrushing on the base - a messy task I always like to have finished before the actual painting starts.

 

[Micha]

Next thing I did is the face. Yes you may think there are other parts to paint first, but as the ehad is to be done seperately anyway I did not see a reason to finish tha part first.
Halfway through:
View attachment 1818
Here we have the skin finished:
View attachment 1819
And here - the head is done:
View attachment 1820

Comments? I will probably have pics of the armor plates soon. By the way - should I post the pics here or make a link to photobucket? What do you prefer?

 

[COG]

very nice skin.
so the running thunderhammer guy. never really got sold on this one but i think you have a great start
with just the head it looks like hes about to get some teeth work done

 

[A Luna]

Can't wait what you're going to to diwh the armor. I'd love to paint up one of those marines.

 

[Micha]

Hi There.
I can not claim to have a lot of experience in painting red armor, especially not over white primer. I settled with a color palette of scorched brown (shadow) dark flesh (mid-shadow) blood red (main tone) and bronzed flesh (highlight). For the beginning, I have painted the left arm - what do you think? does it need more contrast? I will maybe add battle damage later, I have not decided yet. I have also made some simple iconography on the shoulderpad, as there was not enough space for a complete chapter symbol. The model will be carrying a back banner son the will be yet enough space for freehand. Started the torso - you can see the base color and the first, rough shading.

View attachment 1874
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More on the torso and maybe some metal on the hammer to follow.
Micha

 

[cheelfy]

Cool skin and I like your red.

 

[JMR]

Looks smooth so far. Keep it up!

 

[COG]

the arm looks good a little light be very nice

 

[Micha]

Hi out there. Well the fact you have not heared anything does not meen I´ve been idle, at least not the whole time. Here the newest updates: torse almost done, head attached, some metallics added. I have also tried out same battle damage on the back where it won´t be visible, as I am yet unsure wethere to put any on the model, so I wanted to see what it is going to look like. What do you think? The eagle on the shoulderpad will be bone-colored, I have just done the first layer and put on some ink.
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Next: more red on the legs, the shoulder eagle, and the belt.

Micha

 

[cheelfy]

Nice guy. Your damages are nicely done.

 

[IronKobra]

oh man, this guy is looking awesome so far!

 

[GTherk]

this is seriously good. i really like the smoothness of the paint and your contrasts and highlights. keep it up.

 

[Micha]

A little update here. I have done the shoulderpad ornament. As I jad intended, I chose a bone color to represent some sort of ceramic or even actual bone carving. For some reason it was really hard to get a decent pic - this is the best one:
View attachment 1931
The little gem is set in gold, which unfortunately gives a rather poor contrast to the bone on the pic. I decided to make the gem green, I know this may not be the traditional color for this chapter but as I have got green laurels on the left shoulder and green wax on the seals I decided this should be the gem color too.
By the way, I would like to thank everyone you has commented so far, if you have any questions or proposals I´d be happy to hear them.

 

[Ocelot]

Very nice red, the skin is good as well! Gonna be a good mini when it's done

 

[davefromwy]

This is going to look great cant wait to see the finished piece.

 

[mattsterbenz]

Looks great Micha. That red is really impressive. Very smooth.

The battle damage you tried out looks good. Personally I don't like to paint damage on Space Marines, I don't think it really fits their fluff. If you do put it on, I'd say to keep it rather minimal.

The bone shoulder looks great. I think though that some people may think it's nmm gold.

I think the red could go for one more highlight on the very edges, but that could just be me (I like edge highlighting!!)

-Matt

 

[jahminis]

coming along nicely...

i agree with most of what Matt said, aside from the battle damage not fitting the fluff...
for me, rust and corrosion don't work on the good guys, as they maintain their armour religiously...
yet, i see Marines as wading through heavy fire to close with the enemy, shrugging off hits...
this would obviously chip the paintwork...
i try to emphasize the damage to the front, with a few stray shots on the back...

the red could definitely benefit from some more depth, which some more highlights would do if you don't want extreme shadows...
the bone shoulder doesn't look like bone, but i guess nothing is finished yet, so we'll see...

i like green gems on Blood Angels...
if their helmet lenses are green, why not the gems...
purple is alright, but doesn't have to be the law...

keep up the good work...

cheers
jah

 

[Micha]

Well, once again an update. Before I move on I would like to thank evryone who has contributed to this thread. I am very thinkful to you and I appreciate you taking your time to look through my work.
Now to the project: I have almost finished the armor, it just need some tidying up, looks good, I have decided I will add some battle damage, just maybe a dozen scratches or paint chips on strategic locations. I have also thought about giving more depth to the armor, but I fear to make it look dirty or shabby so I shall maybe give it some radical edge highlights with pure bronzed flesh. In fact, i have done so on the right arm.
I have also done the first steps on the hammer. I have the feeling it is a bit too rusty yet, maybe I should soften that up a bit - a lean marine wielding a rusty rod would look awkward I fear.
View attachment 2027
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Next time: the finished armor, finished armor ornaments, finished metal hammer (hopefully).

 

[Micha]

Quick update before the day ends : got the hammer head finished, I reduced the rust slightly but kept quite a bit of it still, I just like painting metal that way so I just did not have the heart to do it clean even if it is slightly at odds with the rest of the mini. Looking forward to gloing the arm into place to see what the whole thing will look like.
One side View attachment 2037
Other side View attachment 2038

 

[Edimasta]

nice looking, love the rust

can you tell me which colors you used for the armour? did you highlight it only with bronzed flesh?