'Pre' Shaded Basecoat

After all the frenetic work on my Necron army, it was easy to forget the box of new Tactical Marines I had purchased way back in October last year during a tax free splurge while down in Oregon. I had tucked them away in a cupboard for a Christmas present, and actually spent most of January 1st gluing them together, marveling at the precise details, near invisible mold lines, and multitude of useful weapon options.

Being my first ever squad of Tactical Marines, all my Blood Angels are equipped with pistols and swords, I was on the tipping point of painting them in a new chapter, but stuck with the notion of growing my collection rather than starting fresh with another new army.

You can see above my very rough work on the undercoat, which I hoped would show through once the spray can colour was applied over the top. I have had bad luck with sandy particles, possibly even dust, getting caught in the base coat and then causing a rough surface which is difficult to paint on afterwards. To this end I brushed on the bone colour, drybrushed the white and added a touch of black ink to add some depth, rather than the black spray, white spray shading I have tried in the past.

After a few thin coats of Army Painter Pure Red my camera had a lot of trouble focusing on the models! It is difficult to see the light/dark shaded areas but they are there, and make it much easier for the eye to pick up the raised elements, especially on a mono-colour model. Raising the feet with some sections of sprue allowed for spraying of the lower sections much more easily without letting the model rest on its side.

On the reverse you can see the shaded areas on the backpacks and shoulder guards more clearly. These will be enhanced with some glazing, weathering and chipped paint after highlights have been started. I am hoping a lot of small applications of different colours and shades will bring more depth than just shading down and highlighting up using one colour. The bright red as it stands currently is also a crowd pleaser!

On a larger model the pre-shading shows more clearly, even if the brushed undercoat took a long time! Here the lower hull sections and areas around the exhaust were painted with very heavy glazes of black paint, and the areas which will be painted in metal were masked off. On a side note I have started to drill a lot of my barrels, and this looks great especially on a larger calibre sponson weapon.

With a can of bright red paint half finished and a Mephiston model on the painting table I have re-ignited my passion for the Blood Angels along side my current Necron project, and discovered a neat way to add depth to a model with very simple materials. I look forward to adding the details to these guys soon.