FW Space Marine -Veteran-

[Meph]

As I'm slowly completing a long project, I though I'd share it with you guys. I actually have hundreds of pics on this but i though nót to carpet bomb this forum for once. ^^

It's the large scale Space Marine from Forgeworld and already, many, many hours went into it;
I've got plenty of pics of this guy, from every stage of painting and detailing so if anyone has questions about the material ro techniques used, don't hesitate. I'll gladly post some more pics and explanations.

But without further ado, the current state of the marine:

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0723.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0733.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0735.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0737.JPG

[Meph]

And the updates I painted yesterday!

Slowly but steadily. The near completion of a commission I put in over at Coolminiornot urged me on to get that big marine finished before I start painting the even bigger guy. 'Cassar' over at CMON is sculpting me a Terminator in the same scale as this FW marine, yay! ^^

So, first up, the bolter & scope, almost there on the bolter, the scope's got some work needed still.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2324.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2325.JPG

And second, the base. I've got the feeling that's almost done as well but I feel it still needs something. I think I'll apply some more brybrushing here and there, and maybe some weathering powders and static grass. Any other idea's or suggestions?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2326.JPG
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2327.JPG

[Christian]

Wow this looks really great. I really like the red and the battle damage. And the yellow shoulderpad. Did you do the insigna on it by freehand? What technique did you use for the Battle Damage? Hope you can explain. Keep on the nice work.

Christian

[Meph]

Well, all the detailing on the yellow shoulder pad is actually from the Blood Angel's etched brass from Forgeworld, bent in shape, glued and painted. (never mind the dust on the pics, that was from storage. ^^)

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0679.JPG
http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0681.JPG
http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0712.JPG


As for the weathering, I think that's most easily shown on the leg.
-First a black undercoat, metallic basecoast with some rust patches.
-Then a hefty coat of hairspray to fix some coarse salt, ground down a bit in a mortar & pestle.
-Basecoat of a homebrewn red mix of Vallejo & GW paints
-Highlighted the red
-Rinsed off the salt under cold running water
-Some touch-ups with red.
-sprayed on some heavily thinned black & brown oil paint
-Fixated that with some satin varnish
-More weathering by dry-sponging some metallic paints.
-And finally applied some graphite, straight a pencil, as well as rubbing on some pencil scratchings.

That's the short version. ^^

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/LegProgress.jpg

[Grailkeeper]

Maybe a Skull on the Base? the lightness of the bone would contrast with the dark base

[Meph]

That's a very good idea.
I think I have some large resin skulls somewhere. I'll dig them up and see how they fit, cheers!

[fuzzbuket]

is it finished yet?? i followed the thread on CMON and it is Amazing!!!:D

[Meph]

Cheers man! :D
Well, the marine itself is actually finished, just needs assembly. And for the rest it's just a matter of finishing up the base, bolter, scope. The dagger/bayonet, scabbard and maybe a pouch or grenade or two still need more work. :)

Oh, the helmet needs a touch or two, I still need to finish the front grille and the eyes.

[Force21]

Wow that is just a beautiful model.


I have only seen one at a friends house but that... is quite remarkable.

[Firebird]

That is simply amazing!!!

[wittdooley]

Do they (FW) still sell any of the larger models?

[Meph]

Thanks guys! :D

@wittdooley: Only the big'un me thinks: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Modelling-Supplies/IMPERIAL-SPACE-MARINE.html

[wittdooley]

Very cool. I know they used to have a bust as well. I wish they'd partner with a company like gentle giant again and create some maquettes.

[Meph]

Yeah, they had a few busts I think. If I remember correctly, they had a gobbo, an ork and a Space Wolf terminator bust. Would be very cool if they would do some more large mini's.

[archimbald]

thats bliddy fantastic

[MarneusCalgar]

I love it!!!

[bloodangel 83]

Meth, Great looking model, i would like to see some of your work in progress on this guy. I plan on getting one and doing Rafen from their book Omnibus or the other two books. If you do want to carpet bomb the thread i would like a email with them if that is easier, [email protected]. Great job again. Charlie

[Meph]

I'm glad you're liking it, fellas.

Well, since I already already posted a step-by-step progress on other forae, it's an easy job to start copy/pasting the progress here.
So over the next few days, you can expect a rebuild of the painting steps. Enjoy.;)

Oh, and any questions about the how's and the wise are always welcome. I'd be happy to elaborate.

[Meph]

For those that aren\'t familiar with the model i\'s a large scale Space Marine from Forgeworld. http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/scmarine.htm
Since it\'s a very detailed and expensive model I\'m not taking this lightly. Over the past few weeks I\'ve been slowly prepping the model and the last bits just came today, which are some separate etched brass icons to further enhance the model.
I also did some preliminary paintbrush testing on a piece of cardboard and some advanced weathering tests on a half-painted Dreadnought model that had been gathering dust since 3 or 4 years. I noticed that for future model shots, I\'ll have to set up some sort of light box or just block off any direct sunlight with white paper to allow for translucency but no glare.

So here are some pics.

First off: the gathered materials. In the background you can also see my PC used for my 3D madness.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large001.jpg

Second some shots of my test-cardboard, the yellow technique will be used for one shoulder pad, the red for the rest of the marine.

[Meph]

First, an undercoat of black



http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large002.jpg



Then a light coat of boltgun metal, some metallic medium and Klear. This is not meant to cover the metallic parts but rather provide some metallic patches here and there after the salt weathering. The urge to make a Grey Knight is suddenly tempting...




http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large003.jpg



Next a light coat of rust coloured paint, made from mixing various brown paints, inks and Klear. This is also applied irregularly to provide the rust flaking after the salt weathering process.




http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0112.jpg

[Meph]

I stumbled across the same brand of alcohol/gold paint that giganticdark (over at CMON) used for his unsurpassable model and I think I'll emulate his technique of getting rid of the alcohol and using the gold past with acryllic thinner to airbrush. A little pot filled with the alcohol paint has been sitting on a shelf since yesterday and is reducing nicely.


In the mean time, time for an Austin Powers quote...

'mmMMm Shalty!'


http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0116.jpg

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0118.jpg

[Meph]

The red basecoat.

Candy anyone?


http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large004.jpg



First highlights. I gently sprayed two separate and gradual highlights on some parts of the model. Finally I gave some parts a soft touch with pure white to gain soem mroe contrast. As I thought and anticipated, this made the colour a bit faded and pinkish so I gave the model a sprayed red wash to enhance the depth of the red and then finally a gently yellow wash on white-highlighted parts to transform the pink shine in a soft yellow shine. This is a small shortcurt to avoid having to use half a dozen or more red/yellow mixes. Also, because the model is so large id does not need large and harsh highlights. A lot of weathering still to follow.

Then played around a bit with the shutter settings of the camera.


http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large005.jpg


Higlights on the rest, as you can see, some salt blew away during the airbrushing but this doesnt matter, they give some depth to the red as further highlighting and the washes faded them out a bit.



http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large006.jpg
:D

[Meph]

Amazing to see what can happen in one afternoon. :qq:
I\'m quite happy with the effect, but I wonder if i might not touch up some areas with red again...

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large007.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/Large008.jpg

[Meph]

*shh-click*

Some progress on the big 'un. The bolter and scope are almost finished. I kept the dagger's simple on purpose as ot's going to be almost completely covered by the hand holding it. Just need to do the lenzes and a few touch-ups here and there.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2337long.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2340-long.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2345.JPG

[bloodangel 83]

Meth he looks good cannot wait to see him finished. Keep up the great work.

[Meph]

lol Meth... I wouldn't be able to paint a straight line if i did... ^^

And here's some further progress. Roughly three hours worth of work.
First off some liquid mask guyliner, because even the tuffest of the tuff need to look fabulous.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2348.JPG

And then, an afternoon's worth of saliva and a pointy young brushling.

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2352-Long.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2357-Long.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2359-Long.jpg

[bloodangel 83]

Sorry about misspelling your name, got into a rush. The heads looks good. Where did you find the resin skull at? Keep up the great work

[isotope99]

Excellent :cool:, interesting techniques you're using. Never heard of that liquid snot looking stuff but it seems to have done the trick.

When you're done you should definitely send to forgeworld to update their catalogue pic. I reckon they'd sell more of these with this as the example model.

[Meph]

@Bloodangerl83: No offense taken mate, it sounded funny ;) Well, the skull I bought at a movie models/gadgets stand at the FACTS convention here in Belgium, the yearly sci-fi/comic convention. That's actually the main reason I go, there are hundreds of little shop stands and artists and from time to time you can come across little treasures like this. I bought three human skulls and two alien skulls and as you can see, the human ones are almost perfectly sized for this scale marine. When drilling a hole in it to pin it, I found out that they're not from resin but actually a high- denisty plaster.

@Isotope99: Cheers mate! Yeh, I'm definitely thinking of sending FW a few pics when it's finished. I actually did last year and they responded they're always eager to see what people have done with their models.
the liquid mask has been a revelation to be honest. i tried a few brands and this one is the one I like the most. It's from Vallejo and comes in their typical drop-pot thingy. Basically you just squeeze some out on a palette and apply it with a wooden toothpic. Fresh from the pot it's very liquid indeed but it starts to elastify almost immediately so you have to work relatively fast. And to get rid of ir, you just rub it off with your finger. And the stuff in the cracks you can get out with a wooden tootpick. it comes off like a breeze, not leaving any trace or greasiness.


And to continue the resurrection of the progress history; here goes:

I got a good solution for the perfect gold colour, the idea came from giganticdark over here at Coolminiornot.
Vallejo has a gold pigment is an alcohol sollution. Alcohol's not too friendly to the airbrush so to be able to use I poured some into a tiny cup so it could settle and let the alcohol evaporate over the course of a day or two.
Then I scooped the gold sludge into an airbrush jar, mixed it with acryllic thinner and voilà, almost true gold colour. I used it for the helmet and will be used for other detailing too. The cool thing is that you can actually polish the stuf by gently rubbing it. One I removed the salt I'll up some more pics.

The gold paint came out a bit too thick though on the first run, hence the odd texture the helmet has now. I'll rub that down and add some more thinned layers of gold to lessen the contrast from the chipped weathering. The shine is also very difficult to capture on camera. It really has a very nice shine and feel to it to see in person.

I'm currently still updating the red a bit too, the top of the shoulder pad was a bit too peppered indeed.
I got a full way ahead of me for weathering. Dry-sponged chips, oil paints for rust, panel lines and oil stains, weathering powders, graphite weathering (pencil)...

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0190.jpg
http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0192.jpg
http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0205.jpg

[Meph]

[Retro-Post]

The Helmet after some extra sponged on weathering, followed by a misted on, thin coat of gold again and then a prayed on wash of some Burnt Umber-like briwn ink wash, heavily thinned with Klear and some light touches of a similarly thinned yellow/brown ink. One this is dry, it\'s ready for some subtle highlighting and then it\'ll be time for thinned oil paints and some weathering powder.


http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0213-Long.jpg


The rest of the model received some sponged on weathering with a dull metal mixed colour as well as some Bolt Gun chipping. The paints were put in a very small porcelain tray I use as palette and was only used when decently dried to an almost sticky consistency, then I used some small sponge, actually, just the little sponge/foam thingy you find in each model blister, cut to size a bit. then dip it slightly and dab it off on some cloth untill almost fully dry and the I went to work.


http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0223-Long.jpg

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0239-Long.jpg


I especially like this photo, taken with a very short shutter time, looks almost like you might find in a display case in a dark exhibit somewhere...

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0236.jpg

[Meph]

[Retro-Post]

Here's some progress on the marine. I don't want to take it too fast as I'm waiting for some clear waterslide print paper I've ordered do I can add some custom made decals to the armour so they can get covered by further weathering.

What's happed since last time:
-I highlighted the bottom edge of almost every chip on the armour, adding a very suble sense of more depth.
-Coated the model with light coat of sating varnish to provide a smooth layer for the oil paints. The coat also helps to tie the highlighting colour graduations together, smoothing the overall effect.
-Then I mixed some black oil paint with a good amount of thinner, in this case modeling odourless turpentine; and I carefully applied it to the armour lines and details. The cool thing with the oil paint is that you can casually and carfully wipe away and smooth and smudges you make. The thinned oil paint is incredible when applied to grooves as the oil/turpentine mix on the varnish undercoat literally draws itself into the grooves like an alien symbiote.
Sadly I overmixed the black with just a little too much turpentine so the pigment is not 100% evenly spread.
That can easilly be rectified though with just a second pass with a different mix.
Also, some detailing needs to be smoothed out a bit.(the chest eagle for instance). Luckily oil paint is great at that. I painted the model yesterday evening and now it\'s been tough-dry since a long while and I can still easily manipulate the paint with some cloth or a dry drybrush. Hard parts can always be softened up by first gently misting on some turpentine with the airbrush.

The use of the oil paint also gave a very soft sheen to the surfaces but that will be gone after the next steps.

Once I receive the decal paper I'll seal the oil paint with another light coat of varnish to be able to work with the decals and water-based materials instead of oil-. After the decals have been placed and sealed I can continue with further weathering, adding rust and oil stains/smears.

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0258-Long.jpg

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0269-Long.jpg

http://www.postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_0278-Long.jpg

[Lord Korven]

WOW. That is impressive.
I've always wanted to get this model but I don't know if I could handle it. :o
Cant wait to see this bad boy all finished!

Fantastic Job. Lord Korven

[Meph]

Cheers mate!

Well, actually a large model like this is actually way easier to paint then a small one. You have a lot more leeway in terms of technique and accuracy. They only ingredient it really needs is patience. The urge to rush is strong but must be held back. :D

[bloodangel 83]

Meph, looks great cannot wait to see this finished. I will see if i can find some around England when i start traveling. I plan to get one soon and do my BA for it. Thanks for the wip pics.

[Meph]

Well.... Tadaaa!

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2365-Long.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2368-Long.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/IMG_2375-Long.jpg

I actually pinned and assembled him yesterday. :)
There's still a hiatus in the posted WIP pics and the finished one but I'll gladly post the rest WIP parts.

[Meph]

Here's the reworked Skully. I just gave it a light wash of devlan mud+gryphonne sepia+water. Next I played around a bit some weathering powders, which I applied with just Vallejo acryllic thinner.
Looking better, innit?

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Terminator/IMG_2417.JPG

[Nosmo75]

Salt? To replicate weathering? Where did you get this fan-*tast*-ic idea from?! <8O

[Meph]

Hmmm, Don't know where from exactly, I stumbled across it somewhere on the Interweb and thought: Woah, thís I have to try! The way it adds real depth to the 'chips' is amazing...

[Meph]

Finished! :D

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/Marine/FWMarine.jpg

[FastEd]

I was thinking about it, but with some experience with it do you think that the salt weathering would work on the smaller scale models we are all used to? Possibly finer grains of salt? The concerns I had would be getting the right rough shape from smaller grains along with the fact that the smaller, more uniform grains possibly not being as easily removed. Thoughts?

[Meph]

Hmmm, I haven't tried it myself on smaller mini's but I think your concerns might be right.
It should be doable but will probably need careful preparations and very controlled sprinkling. Regular kitchen salt is too fine in any case so you'll have to grind down rock salt with a mortal & pestle to the right size. The thing is, if you just take the salt straight from the mortar, you'll invariably pick up too much of very small grain and that just tends to clump together and thus cover a rather large surface. So you'd have to find the right sieve or filter to shake off the too small stuff.

And to sprinkle it, you'd have to be careful as even the right sized salt tends to stick together, which after the painting and washing off creates patches of underlying coat which might be too large. The goal is to have chips in the 'right' places of recesses and areas where parts overlap. If it's just everywhere it tends to create a too peppered look. I had to touch up most parts on the large marine as well after the salting.
But my guess its that if you do it with just a pinch at a time and and work your way around the model, it should work. Fastest would be to have a supply of ground- and sieved salt at the ready and do the hairspray coat one model at a time and sprinkle immediately.

I wouldn't worry about the rinsing. It just takes time and some patience. The salt will melt but invariably you'll have to use your fingers or an old toothbrush to gently rub off the salt. Because you have to use cold water not to damage the paint, the melting/rubbing might take a few minutes per mini easily. And even when the grain is gone, you'll have to continue rinsing/rubbing because any salt residue will produce white salt rings when dried out...

I'd suggest to do a tryout on a small set of test models, like five or so, just to get a feel for the smoothness of the workflow and the feel for time, touch-up, and quality of it.

[Meph]

As a request from someone over at DakkaDakka, I made two 1920x1080 backgrounds, threw 'm together in an hour. :)

http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/MarineBackground01.jpg
http://postwarvandal.com/Meph/Physical/MarineBackground02.jpg

I actually managed to get second place in the GW Lowlands Painting Competition in Amsterdam, even got a mistyped mention/listing on the GW site, yay me!

Article 1 (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=16200029a)
Article2 - Listing (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=300003&aId=16200045a)

I didn't attend the Amsterdam session myself sadly. With the fuel costs these days it would've cost me around 140 EUR for fuel and parking and that was a bit steep to go just show a model for a competition with nothing to win. So the GW folks of GW Antwerp were kind enough to take the mini along for judging. the winner was actually the same guy that also got 1st place in the Antwerp heats, where I also got 2nd place.

[FastEd]

Congratulations! Personally I prefer the large scale marine over the Skaven Bell. I feel yours has more character.

That bolter round wouldn't happen to be an airsoft launcher "grenade" would it?

[Meph]

*Cough cough* But Sir,why would you say such a thing?
lol :D

Indeed it is! Actually I just did some google searches on 40mm grenades and regular grenades were a bit too smooth and bland and this looked more interesting. I had no idea it was an airsoft grenade though. ^^ Strangely enough, almost every American spotted that thing from a mile away (it's on more than one forum), while the Europeans didn't notice it. Seems like you US'ers like to cranck it up a notch when running around with replica weaponry. :D

I think I'll make a mk2 for that background. I've also been toying around with the idea to put in a background of some sorts to make a more battlefield look. At the same time I can photoshop a more decent bolt round as well. ;)

[FastEd]

Actually I really don't like the launcher grenades for Airsoft. They fire in a manner more akin to a shotgun then anything else. Always seemed silly to me.

As for other bolt rounds, besides the couple of books there are some images in you may want to see if you can grab a screen shot or two from the Ultramarines movie. There were a few close in shots of bolt shells in it.

[Nosmo75]

Hmmm, Don't know where from exactly, I stumbled across it somewhere on the Interweb and thought: Woah, thís I have to try! The way it adds real depth to the 'chips' is amazing...


And now all of us can try it as well. Thank you! ^-^