Something unrelated to painting challenges today – some Proof of concept models for the Minotaurs Chapter that I’ve been wanting to get around to painting sometime for the last several years. One of quite a few Space Marine projects that I’ve had percolating in my head in various ways for the last decade or so: Legion of the Damned, Mentor Legion, Iron Warriors, 30k Iron Warriors, Rogue Trader-style Crimson Fists, Space Wolves, Flesh Tearers, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Deathwatch. A couple of those have been started in some form or another (LotD, Mentors, Iron Warriors, Space Wolves, Flesh Tearers) while others have had a lot of parts gathered (the started ones, the rest, plus more).
So anyway – Minotaurs!
Minotaurs Space Marines – 2nd Edition and 5th Edition starter Marines.
I wanted to try a reasonably quick “wash based” scheme inspired by Sasa0mg’s Minotaurs over on Dakka. I’ve been going with a spray black, spray silver, zenithal spray of a brighter silver, 2 coats of Seraphim Sepia wash, and then a highlight of Vallejo Model Air Brassy brass. Later on, I’ve given them a subtle wash of watered down Coelia Greenshade for a subtle verdigris wash based on the Forge World Badab War books’ artwork. I went with Silver/Iron for the chest eagles and such, along with red for eye lenses and gems. I wanted to minimise colours other than brass/bronze, red, black and “steel”, so leather straps and bags are done in a red-brown, and only rarely green appear on lenses or on specific things like wreaths in green, or (some) skulls in bone.
Minotaurs Space Marines showing off their decals.
I used a pair of Marines from the 5th Edition starter “Assault on Black Reach”, though they seem near-identical to the 4th Edition starter models from “Battle for Macraggae”. Clearly I wasn’t paying a lot of attention when various Space Marines got dumped into figure boxes. The other two are from the 2nd Edition 40k starter. I’m actually not especially fond of them as models, but as cannon fodder/squad filler they’ll be fine. This is why I decided that these guys would be V squad (also, fitting the transfer onto the embossed tactical arrows). Mino transfers are from Forge World and the squad number markings are from some very old (90’s era) Ultras transfer sheets. Obviously everything has been rebased on 32mm round bases.
Anywho, I’m pretty happy with them and will continue with the same scheme. I’ve selected the rest of a squad worth and have started on a pair of them – using one of the many, many 2nd ed metal captains as the squad sergeant, and a metal 2nd edition flamer marine. The others will probably be additional plastic starter marines.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Looking good dude, I like the colour scheme… how long did it take to crank these out using this approach?
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Thanks Alex – the initial armour stages are pretty quick and easy. Much faster than most things I’ve been painting and blending in recent years. Doing the little details slows it down a little/lot, but even so I’m not sure how much time it takes since I paint in smaller or longer bursts, then do some internets, play some games, and of course, wait for stuff to dry.
That seems to be the longest thing. Waiting for the 3 sprays to dry, the 4 washes to dry, the pva/sand to dry, and the black base coat on the bases to dry…
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I have to say – concept proved. These look great!
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Thanks Dave. Just to hoping I can crank out at least close to a legal army’s worth of them before I run out of steam or get distracted by a passing shiny object…
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They look outstanding, great work! I don’t blame you for having a head full of Space Marine projects, there are loads that I’m wanting to try myself! Look forward to seeing more of the Minotaurs 🙂
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Thanks mate. I’ve got two more from this squad about half done, and because distractions, have started on 4 more from a second Tac Squad using sculpted pads. (Well, I repurposed some second hand part-assembled marines that I spotted sitting around, but now they’re on the go as well…)
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Ah good idea, it’s always a bonus to find that you have some semi-built marines kicking about. Look forward to seeing the rest! Apologies for the double post btw, for some reason my comment disappeared and then reappeared after I posted again… Bloody WordPress! Haha
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Not a worry at all, mate! I just wish I could hire someone to clean up plastic kits and do the boring parts of assembly. And the boring parts of the prep and painting too, for that matter. 😉
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Haha good god the scraping of mould lines and all that other prep is starting to drive me crazy too!
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These guys are fantastic, man. And I look forward to seeing some Flesh Tearers in the future!
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Thank you. I’ve got some sort of squad that I started years and years ago part-done in a case somewhere. I’ll try to resurrect and complete them this year once I’m past the Minos phase. 😉
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I admire your skills. Also, please note I have finally managed to figure out how to approve your comments on my blog. I found one of yours in my Spam for some reason. Frustrating. Anyway, should be all good now.
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Thanks for the compliment! Excellent on the comments as well. If you’re able to, have a look deep in your spam folder, there might be more. I know the default setting on WordPress seems to be that someone needs to comment and be approved 4? or more times before it’s an auto-publish.
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Very effective! Which silver sprays did you use?
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Just the two that I had sitting in the shed. One (Dulux) turned out to be a fair bit brighter than the other (White Knight Squirts) so I decided to use it as a highlight. Both just from the local hardware warehouse over the last few years. I think I originally bought them to to Grey Knights with.
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Great looking squad, and interesting technique. Taking the extra time for the markings is really paying off, as usual your detailing is superb.
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Thank you! I’m working on bits of two more squads now. I got distracted and started repurposing some secondhand marines I got recently before getting onto the rest of the squad. I really should put things that might distract me out of sight!
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Really like the colour scheme. The True Metal approach works well and the bronze looks excellent.
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Thanks. The main armour is relatively quick and easy on them. The Black Numenorians and Castellans of Dol Amroth were my “test” of this technique to see if it worked, and these guys were the test for it on large flat armour pieces. True metal will be much, much faster than trying to NMM an army of Space Marines, and give a result that I much prefer.
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Using NMM on an entire army sounds indeed like a nightmare. I actually tried this back in the day with my Confrontation Alahan Minis. Never really finished them as it took me to long o get the NMM to a level I was happy with. I think for Space Marines TM works much better anyway.
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