300 Painting Challenge: Space Marines

 These models are a mix of bits and pieces I have picked up over the years. Some of them I thought I would use in an army that never happened, other are for my Deathwatch campaign. With all of these leftovers, I thought it would be fun to paint each of them up in a different chapter color. This would give me practice working with colors and also force me to be more detail oriented than I was on the guardsmen.

 The models were all basecoated black and set to go. Black is my favorite place to start, but if I want something to be brighter when finished, I will paint on a layer of white or tan in order to make it stand out. There is little more frustrating than painting red or yellow over black. You can lay down three coats and never see a difference. Worse, the color will not look right when finished. A light underlay saves tons of time. You can see this on the banner. See how one layer of yellow already stands out?

 Here is my Grief Bringer captain. I think this guy came out of the Battle for Black Reach boxed set. He is an awesome model- I can't believe I didn't do something with him before! He needs a little more work on the face, the banner, and the sword, but I am putting him in the done pile for now.

 My main army back home is Iron Hands. I have all the sergeants sporting quite a bit of wargear and bionics. There just wasn't a place for this guy in that army. I like the Blood Ravens scheme, so I had a go at painting some red. He needs some work done on the face and I need to decorate his shoulder pad, but he is done for now.

 Chief Librarian Tigurius is a sweet model. There are tons of little bits to pick out on the model, so this one was the most challenging. I will come back to him when my skill has come up a bit. He deserves another go but is good enough for now.

 I started a second Chapter a while back. My Iron Hands have tons of Land Raiders and Terminators, so functions mainly as a close assault army. I wanted something different, so I went with an army of Mortifactors. They assault as well but rely more on scout units, Assault Marines, and some long-range firepower. This guy will find a place in a squad pretty easily.

 This is my first yellow model ever. The Imperial Fists are pretty cool and I think they were one of the first 40K armies I ever saw in person. The yellow was tough but I found you can trick the eye by using contrasting colors like red on the shoulder pads and the purple tabard. They make the yellow look brighter and cleaner than it actually is.His axe needs some work and I need to look at shading the joints in his armor.

 Here they are together, ready to go out on a campaign!

I also had time to work on the Deathwatch characters. The guys at the War Store were kind enough to put together a nice bits pack for me and these three guys took shape. There is a Black Templar, A Storm Warden, and an Ultramarine. The guy in the middle is based on the guy from the front cover of the rule book. With a little cutting and repositioning of arms I think I got fairly close. I am not totally happy with his stance, however. If I get a chance I am going to pop off the torso and see how it looks on a pair of legs from the assault sprue.

This brings to basic completion 8 more models, bringing the total to 26. I have a ways to go...

-Maniple