Space Marine Adventures: Painting Progress

"Ultramar Treetrimmers - The Best in the Multiverse!"

At a couple bucks a pop, these figs are a great deal - plus there's a game included!

So, the painting funk has been officially broken - yay! I am enjoying painting the five different Space Marines in five different schemes and learning some new techniques. Here is where they are with straight-up block painting and some drybrushing:

From left, for those who care: Space Wolves, Salamanders, Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, and Ultramarines are all represented. The white pauldron is going to be for a decal that they will all have, to denote their special detached status to other Imperial forces they should encounter along the way.

Front view - this would be what the Necrons may face!

Sgt. Cassius of Ultramarines. Chain sword and...laspistol? Hard to tell, doesn't match any in the codex I have. Lots of details, worth spending some time painting up. The leather apron took longer than I thought it would, but I am happy with the wear and tear look it has. The chainsword needs an eye-catching look - it is so prominently displayed. May go with the yellow "danger stripes" that are so common.

Brother Frostclaw of the Space Wolves. the green eyes are coming along ok. The warm golds are to offset the cool grey of the armor. His combat knife definitely needs an "energized look" as a regular knife isn't going to cut it [no pun intended].

Brother Infernus of the Salamanders Chapter. His back has a little "temple" on his pack, and the flamer cannister, frag and krak grenades came out fine - they don't pop exactly, but right now they are "realistic" and I'll highlight them later.

Bro. Gabriel of the Blood Angels. The red is looking pretty good with a drybrushing. I would like to get depth with a wash and then bring it up with highlighting.

Bro. Grimm of the Imperial Fists has been the biggest challenge - yellow! But his heavy bolter is a nice centerpiece to the model. I'm thinking to match the ammo cannister in the same green as the clips on the hoses, or perhaps something brighter. I don't plan on a lot of yellow models, but enjoying learning this one.

You can just see the contrast between the ochre on the right half of Grimm's pack below, with the yellow that's been applied.

Below, the Gold Standard! Imperial Fists painted by staff at FLGW store. The staffer spent a while talking painting techniques with me and then ran me through a Kill Team demo. I bought a few paints and washes I wanted to try out immediately.

While I don't think KT is for my 12yo son at this point, the game demo showed me the basic mechanics which appear to not only sound, but pretty easily grasped and even intuitive and realistic - unusual for GW rules, but "blind squirrel finds nut"!

We played his lovely tyranids against a SM Assault Team, and it we an interesting assymetric matchup. I wiped out all the hormagaunts but his big fella synapse critter was a beast, and easily dismembered one of my assault squad before we wrapped it up - the guy had work to do.  

As you can see, the game board and terrain are quite amazing - what skirmish gaming is all about, visually. Plan to try this out with an experienced gamer pal soon.

Meanwhile, as I wrap up the painting of the SMs, we will be trying the Labyrinth of the Necrons again, but this time the Necrons will fight back!