For a little while now Games Workshop have been offering a free miniature in store, as part of their Miniature of the Month promotion. Given the recent release of the incredible Warhammer 40k Leviathan box to launch 10th edition, it was obvious we were going to be seeing some Tyranids and Space Marines given out in stores. We’ve already built and painted our Tyranid Termagants from last month, so now it’s time to burn them down with this month’s Infernus Marine.
As part of our regular friendly challenge, we each headed to a local Warhammer store to build and take home a model, and painted them to compare our different approaches.
Arron (AKA @ajb_minis)
By the time I got into a Warhammer Store last month, all of their free Tyranids had already been claimed. While I’m happy that other hobbyists got their hands on an awesome mini, I was also a little sad that I wouldn’t get to try out the scheme I’d planned out for them – green with strong pink undertones, partially inspired by an incredible scheme from Stephanie Flores (@orionsbeltminis).
After asking a few friends and Instagram followers what chapter might be fun to paint, one of the many suggestions that came through was the Salamanders. I had a bit of a lightbulb moment where I realised I could apply that same green and pink scheme to them. Plus, they are known for their love of flamers.
For this scheme I started by entirely coating the model in Screamer Pink, which would eventually form that warm underlighting. The armour panels were then blocked in with Warpstone Glow, highlighted by mixing in some bright yellow for a really intense colour. With such bold colours I obviously knew I had to go down the ‘stylised’ route, so doubled down with some blocky NMM for the weapon and other metallics.
I think it ended up a super fun scheme, and it’s given me the strong urge to revive my small Space Marine Army.
Ben (AKA @manyotterminis)
Well this one was a rollercoaster.
There’s only one big decision to make when painting a space marine, and that’s what chapter your marine is going to be part of. Unfortunately it was a decision I’d totally failed to make, but unperturbed I started painting.
I decided I could paint the whole model is grey scale. I could focus on getting non-metalic highlights in all the right places, and then when I decided what I wanted to do I’d paint contrast paint over what I’d done. It would tone down the highlights but retain some of them, and I wouldn’t have to do any extra highlighting after the fact.
Unfortunately with the greyscale done I was incredibly happy, but conflicted. I thought it was looking stunning, thanks largely to my first use of reference pictures to place my highlights, and I’d decided I wanted to paint an Imperial Fist so my next step was clear. I was worried though. Given I liked where I was at I didn’t want to risk ruining it with colour, and was considering stopping the armour there with a steel marine.
As is often the case when I’m scared of painting something I took comfort in my firm belief that you can never “ruin” anything by putting paint on it. The act and experience of painting is the reward and no matter what anyone else thinks about the product, for you the end result will be only a small part of the journey. So despite my reservations I soldiered on with my plan, grabbed the Bad Moon Yellow, and headed for the airbrush (after masking a few areas to preserve this chapter of the story).
My concern was not unfounded and I was pretty unhappy once I added the yellow. The greyscale plan might have worked had I used a totally neutral grey, with no hint of colour, but I’d used Mechanics Standard Grey, a cool grey/blue. This combined with the yellow to create sickly green shadows that didn’t suit the metallic effect I was aiming for. In hindsight I should have used a light brown, or even a pink for the basecoat, but now I had to fix things.
I worried for a day but it wasn’t a hard problem to rectify. I washed Feugan Orange into the shading I’d done to add warmth that would overrule the green tone. It was a fair amount of avoidable work, but got me where I wanted to be.
There were a few other problems but the beauty of painting is that everything fixable. I won’t go into them all, maybe you can find them. I am falling a little out of love with contrast paints, the way I’m trying to use them anyway, and there will probably be some changes to my process in the future, but for now I hope you enjoy this battle worn veterans little plastic man.
Matt (AKA @howes_the_painting)
A few months ago I bought some streaking grime, having heard a lot about it from YouTube, but I never had a chance to use it. When this month’s model was announced I knew this was my chance to test it out! And what better paint scheme to see it on than imperial fists.
I primed my model grey seer, then zenithal highlighted with white, before spraying imperial fist yellow all over the model with an airbrush. In retrospect the zenithal doesn’t show in the final version, so you could save time without. I picked out a few details in red, black and silver, but without any shading or definition. This is when I realised I didn’t have any stencils, so had to attempt freehanding the imperial fists logo. Not my best skill.
Then we got to the fun bit! Covering the entire model in streaking grime, leaving it for half an hour, then wiping the prominent parts clean. Following Artis Opus’ guide I used an old glasses cloth, and I’m pretty happy with the results.
This is probably the quickest paint-job I’ve done for one of these mini of the months, and I’m very happy with the result. I’d love to see what other hobby products there are that hack a great effect really quickly!
Did you enjoy this article? You could always tip the author with a coffee (or something stronger). If you fancy getting yourself any of these amazing looking minis, then check out Element Games. They have great deals on a wide range of Warhammer and accessories. Finally, make sure you’re following us on Instagram to stay up to date and get involved in our community!
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