So finally I can reveal my benchmark Dark Templar marine. He is actually my third test piece, the first being an original RTB01 plastic and the second being a rogue trader metal marine. I'm pretty happy with this guy, given the brief amount of time spent painting him (compared to my recent Blood Angels). The purple is a little shiny at the moment – went a little crazy with the ink wash – but hopefully a matt varnish will resolve that issue.
As you can see the basis for the armour is purple body and black shoulders and helmet. The idea is that the more experienced you become the more black armour you are allowed to wear. Therefore scouts will be almost exclusively purple whilst Terminators will be almost exclusively black. White/Bone colouring will be used as a contrast and will be used very sparingly.
These colours were actually inspired by several sources but primarily the Flesh Tearers scheme. Other influences are my original DT scheme which was in turn inspired by the original Salamanders green/black. I wanted something akin to the Eldar Dark Reapers scheme that just signified death and foreboding, without looking like Slaanesh (well maybe a hint but definitely not pink!).
I'll go into the background in a future post, but the idea is that the Dark Templar have had an internal civil war – some turned to chaos, some stayed loyal – so faith is a big issue. The Chapter Master is such a solitary and intense individual, nobody's quite sure which side he is on. I have something big planned for his conversion model – keep watching!
WHAT'S NEXT...
I have a couple more test models on the board right now. I need to sculpt a master shoulder pad too so that can be duplicated. I also have a handful of models purchased a few years ago, intended to be part of this new DT army, that I would like to finish building and paint. This will involve no cash outlays for a few months, hopefully well past Christmas, which will keep my wife happy too!
See you next time...
Looking great so far! The matte varnish should handle the glare.
ReplyDeleteI really like the scheme, not many people use purple for marine armies, so it is pretty unique.
Thanks Jim!
ReplyDeleteI did my Eldar a purple version of Saim Hann which looked good, so subconsciously they probably influenced things too.
Plus there is a purple scheme inside the back cover of the marine painting guide (by Chris Blair I think) that caught my eye years previous which I always thought was cool.
Agreed. I wasn't expecting this color scheme, but I think you've managed it beautifully. There's something really quite menacing about it.
ReplyDeleteHaha, there's been a hint about the colour all along with the purple in the blog banner, but I'm glad it was unexpected. I do like creating armies that nobody else has :)
ReplyDelete