Painted BA Veteran Sergeant

As predicted I couldn't simply sit and look at my latest conversion unpainted. This has been a very enjoyable model to paint, but not without its ups and downs.

Since the work in progress shots prior to undercoating I have added a chain to attach the crux to his belt, a blood drop icon to the pistol and of course given the guy some hair! Needless to say I didn't hang about once the undercoat was dry.

The red armour follows the scheme demonstrated in a previous post, but this time I highlighted the model more – extending the coverage of orange and the final yellow highlight. The kneepads were looking over done until I added another wash of Baal Red to calm it all down.

The black has a mid-highlight that goes beyond the edges of the armour, to add a subtle two-tone depth to the black areas. Again, a black wash had to be used to calm down this highlight before the final light grey edging was applied.

The yellow…hmmm. I found that trying to paint any yellow over black undercoat is painful, in a similar way to red, so I gave these areas an initial coat of Bestial Brown to act as a base and this seemed to help. Iyanden Sun followed by Golden Yellow was next (though the yellow has to go on in very thin coats to get an even coverage). I washed it with Sepia before highlighting with yellow then white. I gave the whole area a final wash of watered down yellow to make it a richer colour.

I was looking forward to painting the face. This is by far the best plastic marine head GW have produced so far, and in true GW style it is no longer available – replaced by mannequin-like heads. There was no way that I would not paint the eyes on this guy (I skipped them on the other two vet sergeants I painted recently). Just got to finish adding a few bits to his jump pack and then that can be painted to complete my next painting point.

I'd like to think I have answered the challenge I laid out in my last 'ranting' post about dynamic postures and marine heroes fighting with conviction and emotion. This is something I intend to continue through the rest of the assault troops as there is much more scope and excuse for action-packed posturing than with a regular tactical bod.

No more characters or semi-characters now until the remaining rank and file dudes are finished. However, I did spend some of my xmas vouchers on a Drop Pod, which is now built and even has Forgeworld brass BA icons on it…can't wait!!