Friday 3 January 2020

A Christmas Miracle



I know it’s been a while so I wanted to share what I’m working on at the moment!

After being burned out rushing to get my Wolves ready for an event I’ve decided I want to take a change of tact for 2020. The Wolves are good fun but very one dimensional. There’s only one tactic which is ok but I want to see how I can do with an army which is more flexible and presents options to deal with most problems I’ll face.


This may all go horribly wrong but it’ll be a fun year trying.

I’ve decided to plump for the new marines. More specifically a mix of White Scars, Raven Guard and Imperial Fists.

The list is hard hitting but also flexible and presents a different way of playing which has been refreshing.

Anyway, one obvious problem I faced (being a bit of sticky for painting things ‘as they’re meant to be’) is painting such a variety of chapters and making them look like a uniform army.

The trick would come down to the basing and frankly I was stumped for a while until I spoke to Gary who came up with the goods. A Martian rock style base with Vallejo Burnt Umber Pigment on the lower part of the models legs to tie the colours into the base and make everything look coherent.

I loved the idea of this and a bit of searching around led me to the new (to me!) GW technical paint.

Specifically Martian Ironearth.

I have no idea how these paints work but to me they’re a miracle. You literally paste them on and they do their thing!

Here’s an example on a Raven Guard Centurion...


If you’ve not taken a look at these paints then check them out. They make great looking bases a doddle.

The plan moving forwards is to get one of each type of model painted up to the standard I’m aiming for and then base coat the rest of the army.

I’ve an event in mid feb and I’m done chucking out 7 hour painting days to get an army done. Base painted and taking my time is fine for me. I’ll share pictures as I go :)

7 comments:

  1. Top tip, add a base layer of paint first, otherwise when the technical paint cracks you can see the black base beneath. And once dry and cracked, seal with a layer of watered down PVA glue, the large cracks (where you put on thick) have a tendency to peel off with handling. The clear PVA layer prevents that.

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    1. Thanks for the tip :)

      Personally I like the black under the texture but definitely don’t want it flaking off!

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  2. Looks great! I use that approach on my At Titan bases and the Vallejo pigments are great. I had trouble with the ironearth flaking off so I seal mine after fully dry with flat lacquer. Your mileage may vary! Best of luck with the project, it sounds fun.

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  3. Looking good Alex...although it think it would be more of a Christmas miracle if you working on something that wasn't Marines ;-)

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  4. Looking forward to seeing your work mate. Hopefully the different chapters will add variety and help to break the monotony.

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