Tactical Painting, Part 1

The tactical squad is coming along nicely, the first five models are almost done, while the rest have been primed and basecoated. The paint scheme is fairly standard Dark Angels, I'm planning to do something special about the bases to make the army stand out as a whole - I'm thinking a lava / ash theme but I'll have to experiment a bit before committing to it.

The first of the Command Squad marines is going to be a test for the cloak (and Deathwing Terminator) paint scheme, I haven't been able to find a guide that gives the look I'm going for so I'm improvising, basicly working from a bestial brown up to bleached bone mixed with some skull white. I am using G.W. paints exclusively, not because I think they are the best (I wouldn't know, never tried anything else), but rather because I got an almost complete set for no money at all in the E.B. Games sale.

As shown in the picture I will paint the inner-cloak in a red hue, making it stand distinctly out from the dark green marine and the very light cloak. I find that keeping a simple colour scheme makes the models look better and the army will seem more coherent when lined up. For my Dark Angels only the following colours are allowed: Dark Green (armour), Red (weapon casing, inner cloak, some details), Bone-white (Cloaks, Deathwing terminators and vechicles). I hope the lava / ash bases will compliment this scheme but only time will tell.

I also found a use for the Army Painter Spray that gave me troubles when I primed the tactical squad, I will use it for priming terrain pieces, if I get the rough coat there it will be useful for drybrushing effects. The first terrain I will paint is the crashed shuttle from the Battle for MacRagge box, I just primed the first piece today.

Completely unrelated to anything Warhammer I went to the dentist today with a chipped tooth, unfortunately it cannot be fixed easily so I have to get it crowned, setting me back 7000 DKK. This is a hard blow to my dreams of rhinos, razorbacks and dreads - but perhaps I can still afford some vehicles for the army (if we eat pasta for a few months anyway..).