Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Eight Stages of a Brazen Claws Space Marine


For fun I decided to take pictures of a model from start to finish.

1. Assembled: Model cut from the sprue and stuck on the base.
2. Cleaned/Based: Flash lines cleaned up, glued sand and some modeling gravel to the base.
3. Primed: Primed the model with white spray paint (see reasoning below)
4. Basecoat 1:

  • Armor: Red Gore/Regal Blue
  • Head: Tanned Flesh
  • Metal bits/loincloth: Chaos Black
  • Parchment: Snakebite Leather
  • Base: Goblin Green, Scorched Brown, Dark Codex Grey (50% Chaos Black, 50% Codex Grey--a special pot I mixed up).
  • Various wires, etc., Regal Blue, Dark Angels Green, Scab Red.

Obviously the coverage wasn't so great, so that led to:
5. Basecoat 2: Same a Basecoat 1, but with:

  • Loincloth: Tin Bitz
  • Aquila, Back Banner Eagle, Terminator Honors chain & medallion: Brazen Brass

6. Highlights 1:

  • Armor Plates: 50/50 mix of Red Gore/Blood Red and a 50/50 mix of Regal Blue/Enchanted Blue. I thinned the mix down a bit and applied it mostly towards the edges of the plates, but not to the extent of an extreme highlight.
  • Parchment: Bleached Bone. I didn't worry about the coverage too much, as the parchment is supposed to look old.
  • Face: Dwarf Flesh over most of the face except for the most recessed parts.
  • Chainsword Blade/Armor Joints: Boltgun Metal
  • Chainsword, Grenade, etc. Dark Codex Grey on the edges.
  • Loincloth: Brazen Brass on most of it except for the most recessed areas.
  • Aquilas, skulls, chain/medallion: Drybrushed Shining Gold.

7. Highlights 2:

  • Armor Plates: Pure Blood Red and Enchanted Blue on the edges of the plates.
  • Loincloth: Shining Gold on more raised areas.
  • Aquilas, skulls, chain/medallion: Dry brushed Burnished Gold.
  • Face: Painted a 50/50 mix of Dwarf Flesh/Elf Flesh on the most raised areas (eyebrow ridges/nose, cheekbones.

8. Final Details:

  • Head: Drybrushed some Chaos Black on the skull to give the impression of stubble, then toned it down a little with a thin wash of 50/50 Dwarf Flesh/Elf Flesh.
  • Eyes: Painted the Eyes with Chaos Black, then two Skull White dots on either side of a pupil.
  • Teeth: Bleached Bone.
  • Loincloth: Burnished Gold on the most raised areas.
  • Medallion Gem: Painted the gem Blood Red, shaded the top portion with Red Gore, then put a single Skull White reflection dot near the top.
  • Chapter Symbol: Painted the Brazen Claws Symbol on the left shoulder pad with Mechrite Red. Then painted it again with a 50/50 mix of Blood Red/Red Gore. Finally cleaned it up by painting over the mistakes with Regal Blue.


After some experimentation, I decided that painting over a white undercoat gave me brighter colors than painting over a black undercoat, so I think that for all my brazen claws going forward I'll paint them with a white undercoat.


White undercoat on the left, black on the right

6 comments:

The Inner Geek said...

Pretty good method you have there! My problem is I have to jot down all my paint colors for a particular type of model or I forget exactly what colors I used.

Jack Badelaire said...

I definitely see what you mean about the difference in end product between the white and black basecoats.

I typically base in black, but my Orks and Necrons have a dark paint scheme to begin with, and for me its just easier to pick out the details and work with them with a black base coat.

Since your Brazen Claws are supposed to be, well...brazen...going with the lighter, more vibrant color scheme seems like the way to go. But making your Orks darker (as opposed to your very bright-hued shoota boyz) seems like a good idea.

Darkwing said...

Yes, I'll definitely be going with black primer for my boyz from now on. Black is easier to work with in that missing a spot isn't as glaringly obvious, but the colors definitely come out more vibrant with the white primer.

Faolain said...

Not to mention, I can't find black primer anywhere in California. I could spend $15 for the GW stuff or spend $4 at the hardware store for a can of white primer...my paint schemes now reflect that situation.

Faolain said...

But yes, the Brazen Claws do look a ton better with the white primer than the black.

The 25mm Warrior said...

You make it look so easy! That is one of the best tutorials I've seen! Great job mate!

-come over to www.the25mmwarrior.blogspot.com and vote for what you want me to do next!-