Space Hulk - 2nd edition - Blood Angels Terminators

Ever since I've Gone Pro, I fooled around with some forty kay Terminators. A couple of years ago I bought a 2nd edition Space Hulk boxset. I figured those Terminators would be easy airbrush practise and guess what, that's exactly what I got.

Initiatly, I just wanted something to spray paint on and be done quickly, but as the project progressed I realised I couldn't and I ended up doing the whole ensalada.

I started out with one squat of terminators and used the Space Hulk Mission Book for inspiration. I thought the Blood Angels would be the easiest to paint up.

As it turns out, red isn't the easiest of colors to start with. I cannot exactly remember what I did with the red, as I did three different attempts on them trying to follow this YouTube movie.

I used other colors than shown in the video. I don't have many red in the Air Color range, so I mostly used thinned down Vallejo Game Colors. I remember using 70911 Light Orange for the final highlight and brown for the shadows.

The highlights applied with the airbrush are very thin. To get good coverage with red or orange on a darker base color you'll need to apply more than one layer. Eventually I worked the other way around, starting with the middle or lightest color and working my way to the darkest color. For the final highlights I first sprayed with white before covering it with the orange; otherwise I would need to spray way too much orange to get good coverage. The airbrush I used isn't very precise. It's smallest radius lies around 5 mm. This makes it hard to get that final highlight without covering the other layers. I think a better airbrush should make a difference.

I also gave the red an oil wash of Burned Umber. I sealed the miniature with a gloss coat before applying the oil wash; otherwise the thinner eats through the paint. It takes longer for the thinner to reach the underlying color with a gloss coat applied. By the time it reaches the underlying color the thinner should have dried up already. So far, I experienced no problems with White Spirit. It takes about 15 - 20 minutes to dry, after which you seal it again and continue painting with acrylics.

I really like how the oil wash easlily flows in all the crevices. It also seems to have a smoother transition between the underlying color.

The clean-up is a bit messy either with oil or acrylics washes. I'm using cotton buds to clean the large surface parts, but they tend to ravel and leave little pieces of cotton behind. Maybe it's the quality of the cotton buds I'm using. Still looking for a good alternative.

I'm using an oil brush and a platic palette wrapped in aluminium foil. I fill two wells with White Thinner, one mixed with the oil paint and the other without. After applying the oil wash I use the unmixed thinner to clean-up the miniature and brush. When done I soak up the remaining thinner with kitchen paper.

The power sword was quite easy. First, I covered the miniature so I wouldn't accidentally paint over the parts that didn't need painting. I used a little plastic bag, covered the mini, sticked the sword through it and sealed it with tape.

I used four colors in total. A base color of Vallejo Air Color 71004 Blue, 3/4 of the sword with Vallejo Game Color 70844 Deep Sky Blue, 2/4 of the sword with Vallejo Game Color 70961 Sky Blue, 1/4 of the sword with Vallejo Air Color 71001 White.

The bases are from http://www.drakkar-models.com and are made out of resin.

First sprayed the bases with black. Taped the lines with tape and sprayed with white. Repainted the black parts and corrected some of the lines. Painted the white lines yellow. Painted the black parts with bolt gun metal. Washed the base with "Vallejo Model Wash for Rust Effects" and applied some green wash, umber shade wash, and fleshtone wash and red wash. I also splattered some black ink on the bases by using a toothbrush.

I'm still wainting for the banner to arrive. I'll retake the pictures as soon as it arrives. I'm now preparing another squat of five terminators. I want to paint a squat of Ultramarines, just like how they're depicted in the Space Hulk Mission Book. I'm hoping things will go faster this time, as I now know how to go about painting them.

Oh yeah, for what its worth, I love the airbrush and want to include it in my painting projects as much as possible.