Tactical Painting, Part 3

The second combat squad of my first tactical squad is starting to take shape, I'm painting all five models in one go, applying the individual stages to all five models before proceeding. My paint guide is up to 5 stages with 4-5 steps in each, the guide is based on the Dark Angels painting guide, tips from Painting Tips for the Dark Angels and some of my own ideas.

I've also been working on some bases, my own tries didn't turn out too well and they were quite comprehensive, instead I turned to this article, in particular the Obsidian Lava Field. My plan is to use it plain for the troopers, and do something special with lava and such on the special models. Before trying it on a painted model I'm making a test base to try out the guide - if all goes well the test base can be use for a character later on.

I had to do some work on the bone-coloured robes of the veterans marines, I find it difficult to paint the lighter tones without loosing all the shadow and highlights, especially when the colour I'm aiming for is so close to white. I tried out a few guides, but they didn't really pan out, the one based on Bleached Bone and a Devlan Mud wash was especially bad - perhaps I'll never really get a hang of using washes :).

I went back to the Painting Tips for the Dark Angels and tried it out, so far it looks ok - perhaps a bit too much on the bone/skin tone but hopefully that will be fixed with the final highlights.