I finished another Space Marine as part of my first Tray. This one is another model that I got stuck on for years – a Techmarine of the Dark Angels that I started on ….well, it was a long time ago. Now I’m not entirely one for the colour-coding of Marine Specialist Officers. Well, I’m good with Chaplains having black armour, and Apothecaries being (mostly) white, but after that it gets hazy. I’m ok with some of my Techmarines being Red, because Adeptus Mechanicus, but sometimes a metallic on the red spectrum just feels better to me. In this case a deep slightly-coppery brown for the Dark Angels just feels good against the green armour of the Chapter. (And just forget about blue armour for Librarians!)
The main thing that made this model take so long to complete was simply the sheer number of tiny little fiddly details. They weren’t even hard to paint, but they were mentally difficult to do. This is why the Tray concept is working for me right now. After smashing through all of the easy winds, I’m stuck with these harder models to go, and just have to suck it up amd make myself do them. I’m struggling on a pair of Dark Elves right now that I’m really not enjoying much, but I am getting through the work on them – which isn’t something I could have said before, as they just sat on the desk, ignored for years.
He’s armed with a combi-plasma, that seemed a good choice for him when I began working on him again early in 8th edition. Dunno how well it’ll fare in 9th, but bad luck. The final detail to complete him was a resin Dark Angels Legion shoulder pad from Forge World. The extra blinginess really works on models like this who are a step or five above the standard marines.
Group shots are always a nice way to finish these posts. They look good, and they also provide some visual reference and context for the readers who aren’t especially familiar with the faction or lore. And yeah, they look good!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Excellent work on your techmarine, may not be codex colours, but that doesn’t matter as long as you like it. I myself change the colours to what I want for my army, Yours look great as a unit
LikeLiked by 4 people
Good for you, Dave! 🙂 I went the same way with my Warmachine armies i.e. they’re my armies so I’ll paint them how I want to! I quite like Azazel bending the rules here and no doubt producing a much nicer mini!
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s my army, and I’ll cry if I want to….
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Dave – I”ve always done the same. Take what I like and change or skip the rest. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
As a long time Dark Angels player and hobbyist I love to see these older models get some love. Great work!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Cheers mate – I do need to keep on actually trying to get my own DA models finished! 😀
LikeLike
Very nice! 🙂 The copper tone works really well!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks John – always liked the way that copper tones and deep greens work with one another.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree about group shots and this is an excellent one of them all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, TIM – I’ve got so many more o fthese guys on the go. Just need to motivate myself and I’ll have one hell of an army ready for the table or photos or whatever else.. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not into to 40K at all, but these are awesome, almost made me think of getting some.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You could always get a few cheap models from the Conquest magazine/starter sets and do them up for a painting project. I’m looking forward to the new rules for smaller games so I can hopefully get Marouda playing in them and get some happening. I’d relearn the rules and teach/co-learn/play against IRO, but we’re not allowed near each other anymore…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have got them, and got my lad some for Christmas… even painted some up, more into Fantasy than
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looks great tom my non-codex eyes. One of the things i disliked about GW was their need to enforce colour schemes on people, it’s fantasy for gods sake.
When we used to have the business, I can remember one chap saying to me on the stall, “Is there an official painting guide for these figures?”, to which I replied “No sorry, but you can paint then any colour you like”.
Sorry rant over, lovely painting Azazal.
Cheers Roger.
LikeLiked by 2 people
To be fair, that’s not *exactly* GW’s doing or intent. While it’s true that they did create the various “rules” inherent int he organisation of the Codex Astartes, they’ve always gone to great pains to show armies that only follow it partially, barely or not at all. The codex stuff simply adds to the depth of background, in the same way that when you’re painting some WWII models you can find the correct markings for your Paras and then work out which vehicles served alongside them and paint them in the historically correct schemes…. or just paint them green and be good with it.
But of course, people crave order and like to know the “proper” way to paint things, and if there is an official scheme and how the markings all work.
My main issue with the GW schemes is that over the years their graphic design department has really goten so good at their jobs (and to be fair, they were pretty fucking good even in the RT days) so their existing schemes even make someone like me want to have a few that look pretty close to the ones on the box! 🙂
LikeLike
Love that metallic dark copper colour.
Cheers,
Pete.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Pete! It took me forever to get this guiy painted (much like replying to the second half of these comments!) but I’m happy with how it came out!
LikeLike
Always loved the dark angel models, lore and paint scheme (well the green), it’s why my home brew chapter looks surprisingly similar. That’s a quality techmarine. Love the detail you’ve lavished on it. As I’ve only been collecting marines over the last few years (I was always fantasy through and through), I never paid any attention to these older models
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you! I need to get some more marines finished sometime soon. I haven’t enjoyed how 8th and then 9th just got so bloated so quickly, so I really haven’t had as much of an impetus to paint more of my 409k models for awhile, sadly…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I cannot agree with you more about blue armour for Librarians. Sometimes I’ll see a group/unit shot of some Blood Angels or whatever and think, “Why is there an Ultramarine in there… oh, it’s the Librarian.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haha yeah. I think I’ll always paint my librarians in a more chapter-specific colour. 🙂
LikeLike
Picking a color scheme to make him stand out from the other Dark Angels seems really smart to me because it is a unique model in your army. The metallic colors you chose look great with the Dark Angel palette as well so I’d say job well done 🙂 Congrats on getting another difficult mini finished. All hail The Tray! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
A little late on the reply here! 😮
Appreciate the comment, though – I always thought that dark coppers and bronzes and the like would look better againsty the green than the “official” bright red of the typical Techmarines.
LikeLiked by 1 person