Swearing a Vow of Completion to the Emperor! Assist me!

[Rhyos]

By the Divine Grace of the Immortal Emperor of Man, I hereby avow that I will strip the entirety of my current Space Marine army, and assemble and paint a proper Chapter Master by the end of this month.

Stripping is relatively easy, but I need to go get a whole new set of paints and brushes, and order the specific bits I need from BWB for the commander. Hence why I'm allowing time for a single model. (Aim low and you're almost guaranteed to hit the mark! ) This is the beginning of the coalescing and rebirth of the Highwind Chapter! Let the Las and Plasma be the Emperor's Lightning, and the untold millions of bolts be the Drowning Rain of His Glory! :aquila:

As you can see, I'm still getting used to handling the camera in any way. Not pictured are the new bits I got, as the picture was blurry as hell and I can't be assed to take another after recovering after a water spill inside of my computer. Don't ask.


Here, we start with the before! Well, part of the before. These are some plastic bits I still need to finish stripping. Chemical burn from all of that pine-sol is clearing up now.


Here are a few pewter casualties of the Simple Green stripping. As you can see, they are heavily discolored, and feel quite rough to the touch. I'm not sure if they're still usable, but I'll try.
Never mind the Hobbits' feet.


Here are a few of the wounded. The stormtrooper isn't mine, but was in the batch. As you can see, they're partially discolored, but most likely still usable.


Althgough not done yet, these are amongst the best of the batch. Most of the paint came off just from pulling them out of the Simple Green, leaving them nice and shiny.


And in my flaking, peeling, chemical-coated hand, is the bolt I got a while ago from Black Library. This is the good side of it. Constant use has scratched the other side all to hell. The Emperor Protects.


Once I get my Force Commander assembled, or at the very least primed, I'll toss another picture up. I finally update, and am therfore committed. The Commissar is going to be so pissed for having to waste a bolt.  

[Rhyos]

Here's two in-progress shots, counting as the before for the painting.


I'm testing my skills on a Chaplain, and being a slow painter decided to take a break. The good news: my camera skills have improved. The bad news: My painting skills haven't. I still can't think of a good scheme! I'm trying to go for a sort of stormcloud motif, with the front units being more grey and the core of the force being closer to black. Though the Chaplain will be primarily black with silver highlights, the Force Commander, on the other hand, I'm thinking about making primarily silver, ensuring he stands out. Can anyone suggest a good mix?  

[[.Psycho.Doughboy.]]

Hmmmm...

Emporer knows I'm no painter here, but an idea struck me for your stormcloud motif. Why not a 2:1 or maybe 3:2/3:1 mix of Codex and/or Fortress Gray and Ultramarines Blue?

The blue if you can manage to dull it down enough, should add kind of a zephyr feel to your paint job. Maybe a bit of Skull White detailing on the armor? I don't know, it's your army, but I have a picture in my head and I thought it might be cool.  

[Rhyos]

I'm using Vallejo paints, which I'm very impressed with. The colors are very similar. Something I've actually been considering is somehow using Photoshop to try and test the colors before actually painting them, if only to give me something to work toward, but I've got 0 skill on that end.

Also, updates!


 

[Reddemon]

Next time use a knife to remove the paint. Slow as hell, but looks good as battle damage if you goof