Did you pre-order ‘Horus Heresy: The Age of Darkness boxed set’? Have you had a dispatch note to say its shipped? Is it arriving tomorrow eek later today? Did you set yourself a target of painting a tactical squad and transport before the new box arrives? If you answer yes to all these, perhaps you’re in the same boat as me?

Previously I mentioned that I had completely messed up placing a decal on the shoulder of my test marine. I ended up free-handing a tactical marking on the right shoulder pad. This left me pondering if I should now freehand the remaining 9 marines’ shoulder pads, or risk trying the decals again. I procrastinated long and hard over this issue – as is typical for me – to the point where its ‘Heresy Eve’ and my tactical squad isn’t finished! Panic was setting in, a decision needed to be made… freehand work or decal work. The freehand won, so it was time to break out the big guns.

Yep, I used my bestest super duper uber brushes, the Artis Opus Series S – well one of them at least. Do you need uber brushes for a bit of simple freehand? No, but a good quality brush that’ll hold a nice amount of paint and keep a decent point helps a lot. Top right dude was the first freehand using whatever brush was on my desk, the rest were all done fairly quickly with the size 0.

The freehand consisted of a dark grey (VMA German Grey) first pass of the shape. This needed to be neat, but I wasn’t too bothered as long as I didn’t go too thick with the lines. This was because the next step was to add the tactical marking in an off white (VMA White Grey). I was careful here to keep my lines thin and within the dark grey, so the white had a dark border around it. Once I finished this I felt the freehand was a little too dark. So I used pure white (VMA White) to trace the lines, picking out the corners or going over the lines on the upper portion of the pad, highlighting lines.

Now that the freehand was done it was time to get the oil paint out and really darken down that green armour. I used a lamp black oil paint mixed with a little brown. Honestly, I’m not sure if I can see that the brown on the model, so perhaps that isn’t needed. I just felt it would be better than pure black over the red and silver parts.

The bases are the most obvious issue now. My plan, again once I’d stopped thinking about it and actually made a decision, was a simple one.

1. Base with Vallejo Dark Earth texture.
2. Dry brush with khaki – I used VGC Khaki.
3. Light dry brush with bone/off white, such as VGA Bonewhite.
4. Paint rim black.
5. Add grass tufts. (when I work out what brand they are, I’ll edit this bit with a link 😉 )

That was the test base, I spent the rest of my hobby time painting the texture paint onto the marines’ bases. But the texture paint takes a while to dry, its still a bit soft as I type where its applied at its thickest. That’ll be tomorrow morning’s job, finishing dry brushing bases, along with eye lens (damn forgot about those).

While I was waiting for (texture) paint to dry, I dry brushed some khaki onto the lower edges of the tank to add some much needed weathering. It really did look too pristine. However the phone died so photos will have to wait to morning.

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