u/maxinstuff

The detachment grows

My IF terminators with combibolters and solarite power gauntlets.

Another five coming soon 😎

First full tactical squad is finished - tried to stick close to the box art scheme for these Imperial Fists. I had a bit of a time trying to figure out how to do the seargent stripe on these mk3 helmets… finally settled on each side of the trim on top.

This squad will eventually fall in with another mk6 squad to form a 20-man, so I made this seargent to be able to be either seargent or just a cool gunline veteran. He’s too old and grumpy to promote 😎

Sick of every tutorial starting with pink? Do you check out as soon as the person teaching gets the airbrush out?

Want a battle-ready recipe that doesn’t require a degree in colour theory?

Look no further - I present to you, the method we all seem to perform unnatural acts to avoid - straightforward and simple yellow, the “slow” way (though I would argue the multi-coloured preparation many seem to do take just as long), and without the need for an airbrush or for 13 different colored rattle cans.

Procedure = Prime white + three thin coats of your favourite yellow. That’s it.

Full recipe for these minis is below - this is what I use, but substitute for your own favorites - it all works!

Step 1: Prime white (Vallejo White Primer)

Step 2: A thin coat of yellow (Vallejo Sun Yellow)

Step 3: A thin coat of yellow (Vallejo Sun Yellow)

Step 4: A thin coat of yellow (Vallejo Sun Yellow)

Step 5: Black in details and hit the Metallics (I use 50:50 mix of Vallejo Black and Sombre Grey)

Step 6: A single thin coat of gloss varnish, followed by decals, and shade wash if your choice. Use a damp brush to wick away the flat areas and anywhere it pools too much

Step 7: highlights, details, optional matte varnish, basing - your done.

Tips:

- the coats need to be thin, and thin pain can pool, so be sure to look over anywhere paint looks to be pooling and brush over it to keep the coat thin. If you see colour, the paint is on there. It WILL look like crap until the third coat when the magic happens.

- blacking in the details can result in accidents/mistakes. Just take your time, and any errors are easily repaired by going over first with a bone color like Vallejo bonewhite, and then the yellow.

- the wash step also hides many sins where lines between might not be quite perfect

- my main highlight colors for these ones are Vallejo Moon Yellow and Sombre Grey

- you CAN skip the varnish step, it’s mostly to help with decals, but it also helps the wash run off of the flat areas, but the main thing is to use regardless is wash with something that doesn’t dry too quickly so you can come back and work/clean it a bit. I personally use a little Vallejo Smoky Ink with a lot of Vallejo Glaze medium (maybe 1:5) and then water that down.

First 5 tac marines of my HH force - took a few tests to get the yellow how I wanted, but I’m pretty happy with them - maybe looking a bit too dirty in places but I think the tone is right.

The yellow recipe - all Vallejo, no airbrush:
- prime white
- basecoat sun yellow (3 thin coats)
- shade wash with 1 part smoky ink, 5 parts glaze medium, watered down till it behaved itself
- highlights with moon yellow