First Turn

In this inaugural post, I would like to begin with my first and only fully painted Space Marine Tactical Squad!

Baby's First Tac Squad

So as you can see I've decided to go with a Non Metal Metalic approach to painting armor and weapons. As you can also see, they're a lot rougher than most NMM. 

This particular squad has been slowly painted over the last 3+ years. As a result the technique has definitely wandered but my intention has stayed the same. My goal with this army is to get the "feel" of metal without going into the extremes of smooth blending and accurate light planning. I don't think I've quite hit it yet but I've had some successes.

Double Pits to Chesty

I think the gold has worked out pretty well on my sergeant . I think the colors I chose were the right value jumps to nail the material. Also, more subtly, I think his belt grenade also worked out quite well.

Lemme Ax You Sumthin

I think the steel still needs some work. That goofy star burst of light on the top of his shoulder feels totally wrong to me. This is what I get for not using reference when I'm in the dark on how to achieve an effect.

Here's one of my standard marines. I think the values are a lot better on the steel on this fella. Most of it reads right to my eyes with maybe the exception of his elbow plate. It should be noted that this model was painted 3+ years after the sergeant with 3+ years of art school in between. 

Also note my newfound ability to edge highlight kinda.

Dat power plant

Lastly, check out my marine hefting this plasma cannon.

This shit be heavy

This is one of the old metal plasma cannon marines. The only reason it remains upright is the massive hunk of pewter that is his back pack and the glob of superglue barely adhering it to his torso.

Junk in da Trunk

This was a score from a former associate and filthy rotten thief who found he had stolen too many miniatures to ship back home after when his gap year was over. In this case his dick move was totally my gain. This had 7 shades of green stuff and super glue beaten out of it when I got my hands on it. All things considered, I think it came out fairly decent.

So! With my current progress now up for y'all to peep, here are my current hobby/painting goals moving forward:

1. Get a better camera/lighting set up! I can't very well be posting these jenky flicks when I know steve's first picks are going to make these look like dog shit.

2. Get some quality picks up of my Scout Sniper squad. They're done and ready for their close up.

3. Get snow on these bases. The small slate is kinda lame on its own. I'm going to be using Secret Weapon Miniatures' Crushed Glass Bundle to get my snow did. I've used the old baking soda + PVA trick in the past but I've found over the years that handling has cause some discoloration. It kinda looks like they've all thoroughly pissed their bases.

4. Finish assembling, magnetizing,  and start painting my Centurions. This was my little birthday present to me and I plan on going all out with these dudes. Progress picks will be up soon!

On a personal note, I am full stoked to be doing this with my best bro and cannot wait to see where we take the blog! Thanks for reading.