In preparation for the new Blood Angels Codex coming out, I would like to discuss some different methods of painting red on Space Marine armor. There are many ways or methods that I tend to use to paint, but in this Part 1 series, I will start off with the beginner way of painting simple base coats with highlights for an effective table top gaming army.
The first thing you need to do is to assemble your model and clean it. Cleaning the model is what I will use to refer getting rid of mold lines. When you have mold lines, the paint or any washes you throw down on the model will pool up on those lines and you will get uneven coverage.
Prime you model. White or black, it does not matter when you are painting for table top gaming. It will however matter if you are painting for a competition or just a very high quality piece. I will explain why. All paints are opaque and therefore will allow a certain amount of light to pass through each layer (foundation paints are thicker and will allow less light to pass through than normal GW paint). Once the light passes through all the layers of paint, it will tend to bouce off the primer and back out. Using a white primer will allow the overall model to look lighter and brighter because the white primer reflects the light better. Whereas the black primer will absorb more of the light allowing less light to bounce back, making the end result of the model darker.
Paint the model completely from head to toe in either Mechrite Red or a few layers of Red Gore with drying time in between. If you do not allow the paint to dry before painting another layer, you will get streaks and uneven coverage which results in a blotchy (too much paint) look.
Once the paint has completely dried, use either Badab Black ink or Devlan Mud to wash the entire model. Try not to let the ink pool up too much in the recess. Just use the tip of you paint brush to pull some of the ink off if there is too much sitting in a certain area.
Once dry, use a 1:1:1 solution (water:base coat paint: Blood Red) to re-paint the armor sections. You should paint the armor in sections so that the inked areas and washed base coat shows. You can add additional layers by simply adding a little bit more red. You can also experiment with adding a little bit more water as well. Just remember that you MUST let the paint dry before adding another layer.
Use pure Blood Red to finish off the highlights by painting just the edges of the armor followed by line highlighting using Blazing and Fiery Orange while painting . By line highlighting I mean just a single line on the very edge of the armor plate area. The second (Fiery Orange) will be a line hightlight over the Blazing Orange, but in a smaller area. Complete this for the entire mini.
Now that the armor is done you can work on the details such as the eyes, scrolls, eagle chest plate, and even the armor joints behind the knees, hips, and elbow areas. Start by painting these areas Chaos Black with Shadow Grey line highlights. For the detail work that you want light colored (scolls, skull, eagles, etc.) start by painting Scorch Brown. Then paint Bleach Bone with some of the brown showing. The add a little bit of Skull White to the mix of Bleach Bone and highlight. For the eyes, basecoat with Dark Angels Green. Then layer in Snot Green. Lastly, 2:1 Snot Green and SunBurst Yellow. This will make the eyes look as if they are glowing. I know I know.....who in their right mind uses SunBurst Yellow. But to be honest with you, I actually use it alot because it warms up the color alot.
Now all you have to do is paint the bolter Chaos Black and line highlight the edges with Shadow Grey or Fortress Grey. Then paint the magazine and muzzle are Boltgun Metal with a Badab Black wash. Then base to your choosing and there you have a it. A finished Blood Angels Marine.
These are pretty much the steps I used to paint the 10 man squad from AoBR posted in my earlier blog entry. Just remeber that practice, practice, practice will make you better and also cut your time down in painting these minis. Try to block them out into units of 5 and you will have an army done in no time.
Please feel free to leave any comments, opinions, or suggestions. Pictures to follow once I take pics of the step by step.
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