Here is a test model for my Blood Raven (planned) army.

I used GW Water Effects on the base for the murky/muddy 'puddles'

Heres a few shots:





Ok, a few questions:

Firstly, does the Marine look good? do you like the freehand on the shoulders? Pretty much my first attempt at freehand with more than 1 colour. Its not super-neat, but I have to do 60+ of them.

Secondly, does the Base of the model look good? have I got the right colour for slimey mud-water?

Cheers,

Tom

jeese mate these look really nice.

cant wait to see the finished army.

base looks great, compliments the model nicely.

Agreed, it looks tops.

Only thing i'd fault you on, is using GW Water effects, try using a two part epoxy resin instead. Its cheaper, and most importantly; not GW!

Looks tops though, and army of them would really rock.

as a single work of art its a little on the ho hum side...

but thats like all your work...

its clean, neat, even the free hand isnt too messy, and as a whole army, it will look fine

the purity seal is a little strange as green, try the brown you used on the pouches instead

also, the freehand number on the arrow... did you try to paint the white over the black? If so try instead painting the black leaving a gap in the middle for the number, might be easier.

The red highlights look a little thick, perhaps a transition... maybe 2 stages of highlight, gore.. then gore + blood... then blood

but maybe that would be too much work... i mean we are talking about 70+ marines right?

As stock standard troops, great

I agree with some of what Banes saying, but when your talking 60 marines your scheme and style is great. The 3 foot rule will apply nicely

The only thing to recommend would be neaten the highlights, but like I said, the three foot rule will make these guys look alot better

Nice work man!

Cheers

Tony

the base looks exelent, and youve got a good colour scheme, which should translate to vehicles well

only thing i can see to do beter, try squaring the ends of the lettering.

Post pics of the first assembled squad!

Looks good Tom, although it would be easier to critique the base if we had a closer view of it

The colour scheme is ace and if you had 70 models painted to that standard that is an awesome effort. Top job!!!

Really nice job Buds, keep it going. I'm no perfectionist when I paint and i'm hardly talented, but you've done some good work. I'd be more than happy with your effort mate.

Cheers fellas.

The highlighting will be neater on the next lot, this was certainly a bit of a rush job.

Bane, the numeral on the Tactical symbol was pretty easy, I painted grey over black and then white over that, fairly simple stuff.

The way I painted the red was a bit different:
-Chaos Black spray
-Bestial Brown undercoat
-Red Gore over the top
-Paint the highlight with Blood Red
and the final step, which is neccesary, otherwise they look Pink with Orange highlights is:
-Paint all the Red even the highlights with Red Ink

Its pretty quick, good results which I am happy with.

Cheers guys, might start an army diary, hopefully I will push the first squad out by the end of the week.

Ill also get some close ups of the actual base.

Cheers,

Tom

Pretty decent, and as has been said, would look good as an army.

Perhaps if you want to make them look a bit better on a model by model basis:
I probably wouldn't highlight the raven symbol, I think it's small enough that it either needs a much thinner highlight, or none at all.
Thin the bllod red more. I use a lot of red (dark flesh, red gore, blood red) and find that blood red makes a great highlight colour because it's very transparent. Just use a really thin coat (I generally don't even need to add water) as a highlight, and it's nice and subtle, 2 quick coats gives a nice transition from red gore, to a lighter red then to blood red.

Other than that, it's a good tabletop standard

the only thing i can add is make the shading on the shoulder pad a bit thinner, looks like the bone has a brown outline.

other than that, looking good.

jod

He looks really cool in the top shot.

I'd suggest thinning your blood red more, too. Make those highlights on the armour a little neater and less harsh.

The cream on the shoulder pads looks a tiny bit chunky, for lack of a better word. Either that or im seeing some undercoat through it in parts and it needs more thin coats.

You did a real good job on his eyes

The water on the base is a nice touch. Though you will probably get people saying they pee'd their pants... or maybe that's just me

Thanks guys, some really good help from people I know can paint.

So I guess to summarise I will try to:
-thin down Blood Red, go for multiple highlights
-thin down Bleached Bone, get more coverage

[quote]You did a real good job on his eyes

The water on the base is a nice touch. Though you will probably get people saying they pee'd their pants... or maybe that's just me [/quote]

Thanks,

and peeing there pants was not the desired effect, but I guess if I set the army up in front of 50 Tyranid Monstrous Creatures it might look appropriate :-D

Tom

As a very cheap, yet effective, alternative to Water Effects is simple PVA Glue. Granted, it'll take 3 or 4 coats, but you still get the same effect.

Painting wise, they remind me a lot of my Dark Angels, which I was doing a good 3 years back. I think if you just toned the highlight down a bit, and added a single, sharp, thin, bright highlight to the raised edges, the models would really pop off the table (not literally!) Other than that, your freehand and eye detailing is much much better than mine was at that stage! I think that over 60 odd marines, your army will look really, really nice

Syn.

Thanks,

Ive tried PVA and have seen the Epoxy Resin in action, but after seeing Dave Millar's Chaos army with bases done using Water Effect, and after Dave telling me how easy it is to do, I couldnt resist.

I dont mind if its a bit pricey, but you get mor than enough in the bottle fo multile armies if your usin it on a small scale, and its so easy to use, just straight out of the bottle, paint on a think coat and done! magic :-D

Cheers,

Tom

Eh, I'm tight with cash, so PVA was an obvious choice. Just like using Spakfilla for snow (which oddly enough is very, very good, if hard to protect from damage).

Now paint some more!

I bought some of the gw water effects recently too, purely because I couldnt figure out where to get the woodland scenics realistic water from.

Plus it saves me time waiting for the pva to dry. Its pretty standard stuff though. Nothing spectacular.

I want to buy some of the ws water effects.

I think the local model shop here stocks it Zord, I will check it next time I am in there.