So I painted one a long time ago in the colors of my old Space Marines Chapter. It was a great lesson for me as I started some new techniques that I hadn’t used before. Here are some pictures of my original Terminator Chaplain done about 4 years ago. Sorry the pictures are from so far – it’s the best I have.

At the time I was running Marines that were a offshoot of The Imperial Fists. These guys were quartered. Purple and Bleached Bone. Overall I still like the colors – but this time around I went for an established Chapter (albeit one people make fun of) with traditional colors. I ended up selling the model to a friend. I’ll have him bring it over so I can get some better pictures.

So here are the results of my Ultramarines Terminator Chaplain:

Again, not the best pictures, but at least closer this time. Taken with my camera phone. I will get a lightbox set up soon and take some decent pictures once I have more of my Ultramarines completed.

So here I am using a lot of new techniques I have developed over theyears – but in particular techniques that I started learning with the original Terminator Chaplain four years ago. I really wish I had better close ups of the original so you could make out how much smoother the work is now.

Anyway – I still stand by my statement in the last article. “Anyone can paint this stuff.” It just takes a little time and patience.

Carl

What does this guy have to do with painting? Read on!

So how did I get to this point? Easy. I watched lots of tutorials online, I talk to someone who knows more about painting than I do (though I feel that gap is closing and we are now more about sharing ideas), and I am willing to try new things. That’s it. You want to improve your painting? Here are your four steps towards painting success:

1. Research Tutorials Online (Especially YouTube!). There are SO many tutorials for how to paint figures online it is amazing. Even if you don’t want to follow one tutorial exactly, you can mix and match ways that people achieved their various effects. Once you have achieved the “paint by numbers” level, you can then step it up to applying the techniques you have now learned to other projects.
2. Make a plan, but be willing to change it if it isn’t working out. Always approach a miniature with a plan in mind. “I’m going to paint the armor blue, the head and chest white, the affectations silver, the laurels green and the cloth white.” Once you have that in hand, think about how you are going to achieve each of those colors you want to do. “I’m going to prime white, then I’m going to basecoat the model Ultramarine Blue with my airbrush, do a Badab Black wash over the whole thing and then go over the blue areas with Ultramarine Blue again but avoid recesses to represent shadows.” If you have a plan in advance it will make painting a model a WHOLE lot easier – and it will come together much better for you in the end.
3. Find a mentor who knows more about painting than you do. This can be a friend or someone at a local game store who is willing to sit and talk with you, or better yet, even SHOW you how they achieved certain effects. In fact, this doesn’t have to even be local to you as you can now use webcams and Skype to talk about this stuff!
4. Try new techniques, practice and be willing to fail. There are times where things are just NOT coming together as planned. Be willing to step back and start all over again. You won’t have to do this often, but progress towards something you don’t want isn’t really progress at all is it? Be willing to try new things, new ideas, and eventually even combinations of the two!

Pretty close to my original vision!

First I came up with a concept for the guy I wanted to paint. I knew I wanted him to have a military style mohawk, much like the character Soap from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has. I think this is a great look for a Space Marine!

The next thing I did was take a look and talk briefly with Big Jim of Galaxy In Flames fame. Fortunately, he is somewhat local to me, but I just spoke with him over Instant Messenger a bit about it and asked how he approached his faces. He is known for painting them quite well.

Next, I looked for some resources online where I could see the steps involved in doing this. I took a look at an article written by Ron of From The Warp (a great resource that, if you are looking at this blog I am sure you are already aware of!) on how to paint faces and facial stubble. What? You use grey to do stubble? Wow ok!

Finally, I just gave it a go. You can see the results for my FIRST ATTEMPT to really step up my game in painting faces. How close to the original concept art does it look to you? I’m telling you guys it just isn’t that hard.

I hear people all the time say things like “I can’t paint that well…” or “I wish my paintjob could look that good…” I’m here to tell you it really CAN. It just takes a bit of upfront time and a little practice.

I was never what I would consider an artistic kind of guy but with resources at my disposal, I have done a good job of faking it. Heck I have even fooled some of you!

Concept Terminators Front

So once I have my plan together I start painting… ONE model. I go through my entire plan, making adjustments along the way, and most importantly, writing down what I did so I can remember later! Once I completely paint an entire model (usually without the base being complete) and I am satisfied with the result, I will go ahead and replicate the process across the entirity of the army and/or unit.

Ultramarine Concept Right

On the whole I’m not dissatisfied with it – I’m just not ecstatic. That cannot be said for the rest of the model though – which I am a big fan of. The Forge World pieces on the model really make it pop and the Terminators as a whole are pretty nice models in their own right. On the whole I am really enjoying painting this army so far and I anticipate being done well in advance of my April goal date. If things continue at this pace, well in advance of that date. Maybe even going so far as to complete the army by the end of September. My wife and kid are out of town this coming week, so I expect to get a lot of painting done. The following week I am on vacation, so I expect to get even more done then!

Ultramarine Concept Left

So now, as I mentioned before, I intend to push through my first squad of Terminators, and then knock out all my vehicles. Once that is completed I will hit the troops. Normally I would advocate for doing the least interesting of the models first, but I can’t help myself this go around. I am REALLY looking forward to painting the vehicles with the Forge World pieces on them.

Love the Ultramarine Forge World door details!

First let me just say that I am really happy with the color blue. It has always been one of my favorite colors and the blue/white and blue/gold combinations of The Ultramarines 1st and 2nd Company are just so sharp and clear.

These colors are very appealing to me and as I have said on The Podcast, Ultramarines are often considered “uncool”, and they are called “The Posterboys of 40k” as if that is a deragatory thing. But I am here to say – they ARE cool and I’m going to prove it!

Anyway you can see a few things I am working on in this post. The more I do the more excited about this project I get!

With Forge World shoulder pads and an awesome tabard he is ready to rock!

At the rate I am going I may finish this whole project way in advance of my April goal date. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Battle of The Fang really wet my appetite for the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons again. It’s likey that once I finish this army I will move on to doing my Thousand Sons, since I have everything already for them…

But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Carl

With the success of The Independent Characters Warhammer 40k Podcast, most of my time that I was using for updates here has gone by the wayside and the site has become a test bed of sorts for updates that I might make to The IC’s site. So that I break it here – but not there – where we get a TON more traffic.

However, I am now moving into uber-build/paint mode for the Hobby Progress Challenge that we have announced and are doing on The IC’s.

If you are a listener of the show, and let’s be honest, you probably wouldn’t be here if you weren’t listening there, then you know I am currently working on an Ultramarines Army. You can find out all of the details as to why (Ultramarines) in Episode 31. Which is going to launch tomorrow actually…

I have been looking at this site for quite some time now and trying to figure out what to do with it – and I think I will continue to keep it live and use it to track my progress (mainly for myself) of my work on the Ultramarine, the upcoming Space Wolves, and the Thousand Sons army. Not to mention my Chaos Warhound Titan!

Space Wolves you say? Carl, I thought you were selling those!?

This book rocks my socks!

So I have pulled my Space Wolves off the market, though I really only sold a couple of pieces before getting too lazy to put them up on Ebay, and I will be investing in them, likely later in the year.

Anyway – I think you can probably expect some more information to come up here from time to time (if you are really interested), but The Independent Characters will continue to be my main outlet for hobby and gaming informtion. This will be much more of a personal blog and update on thoughts I have that are separate from the show going forward. You may notice (though doubtful!) that a couple of posts have disappeared. These were posts testing features that we either decided to put into The IC’s site – or just not pursue. So if your comments were there and removed – I apologize!

Carry on the fight!

Carl

For those who don’t listen to the show – here are some pictures of my completed Khorne Army.

Entire Army

Greater Summoned Daemon & Friends

Khorne Lords Land Raider

Terminatore Lord & Retinue

Kharn & The Boys!

Obliterators & Objective Markers

Soulgrinder 'counts as' Defiler

World Eaters Sacraficial Squad

World Eaters Rhino

Kharns Land Raider

Kharns Land Raider

I tied for 2nd place for Painting at Dundracon – my Nurgle Death Guard force, played by Geoff, came in second as well. If I had a display board for this army I would have been slightly higher than my Death Guard. So at least I know my painting has improved!

With a couple modifications I think I will do even better at Kubla Con.

So in looking through the hard bound version of the 40k Rulebook I drew inspiration from Pages 238 and 239. Research Station B8400761 is a pretty neat looking piece. However, I am not nearly skilled enough with creating my own terrain to think I could replicate it. But I did like the size and shape of the building represented there.

So with that in mind I set out to build my second piece of terrain ever with foamcore board. So far this is what I have created – the framework for all the other decorations and such to take a hold on. I wanted a multi level piece that offered some unique play AND (most importantly) blocked some damn LoS!

Obviously it still has a way to go – but I am really pleased with how it has come out so far. The colored dots you see are simply the pins holding it in place while it dries tonight.

I plan on offering some textures and other design elements to it tomorrow. Look for updates soon!

Geoff brought over his copy and he, Gary, Steve and myself played two games simultaneously.

Now I have to tell you I have never played Space Hulk before – any version of it. But man this was a great game! I can see why people liked it so much. I am looking forward to breaking it out again and playing through more missions beyond the first two now!

Tuttle out!