this is my librarian that i have painted up ready for space hulk. I have always liked terminators, and have around 4000pts of blood angels anyways, and i thought why the hell not. I used a lot of techniques from the masterclasses on the GW website, and i really used a lot of patience. everything has at least 4 colours on, even the wax on the purity seals! probably my best painted miniature yet, and i hope to keep the standard up with the models that come in the space hulk box!
this is him fighting off some gene stealers from hive fleet leviathan
the reds were done using mechrite as a base building up to blood, then shading with gore and highlighting with an orange. I didnt have all the colours at hand i wanted, but they look better on the kneepad and right pad than on the left where i am also a little dissapointed. I might fix this when i get more paints. Its the same with the blues i didnt have the ones i wanted but i managed to get them to turn out ok. I actually did a much better job on the purity seals, as i had access to a lot more paints and better lighting doing them, although they are darker with lighter highlights to make them look a bit waxy.
The crux terminatus is done exactly as the guide in this months white dwarf, more of a stone colour. I thought it was odd because i was sure it was supposed to be bone as well, looks better in real life, slightly boney, as it looks less creamy.
Yeah i got a bit stuck on the staff handle too, not sure what went wrong really, i wanted to do it ivory but make the squiggles stand out. This is another bit i might re-do if i get any good ideas.
Im quite happy with the gold, its not too shiny, and is highlighted with chainmail to give it a gleam in matching points all over the model. I also used the guide in this months white dwarf for this. Im finding the GW masterclasses online and getting lots of tips.
SOunds like a lot of the problem is in the photography then
For the staff try painting it Kommando Khaki over a base of Deneb Stone with a Bleached Bone then Skull White drubrush, then use Delvan Mud washes to add depth to the colour.
Good looking librarian, have to say he is one of my favourite 40k models, I hope that he smites many gene stealers in the name of the god emperor, the dase looks ace
slev - i dont have most of those colours, my collection of paints is a bit random right now as im replacing most citadel with vallejos (when they run out, of course) pretty much because they are cheaper and the dropper bottle makes mixing easier. I have no problems with the quality of citadel paint but the pots are only really ok if you dont intend to mix.
that being said ive just ordered some new vallejos which should do nicely for when the genestealers come, and gory red which i didnt have for the shoulder pad, probably a better darkening tone.
I also noticed you posting on the boardgamegeek space hulk page - have you ordered this game as well? if so id love to see your progress on the minis involved.
loki - the base is a resin copy i made, pretty much stuck plasticard sheet onto a base and used a dremel saw to cut lines in that are supposed to be tile like. some rivets later and its done. the base is painted the foundation paint grey, then drybrushed all over boltgun, then washed with a very watered down black ink, then brown ink used in the joins to make it look a bit dirty and nasty.
Ill probably see them on geek but links here would be nice, as im not actually registered there otherwise id spend all my time posting on there lol. same with warseer. If i dont join i cant spend all day talking on forums.
I took your advice, and gave the staff a wash with watered down smokey ink. it is not a lot more tonally similar to the rest of the miniature, and the squiggles stand out a bit better now.
The first thing i have wanted to paint since opening the set is the door bases. This is because i dont want to damage the dors by taking them in and out of the bases to paint. I know the card is a lot thicker than hero quest doors but i remember what happened to those. I still havent decided if i am to glue the doors in or not, as the fit is pretty tight anyway.
Basically the first stage is to undercoat with chaos black, and then paint the whole thing over with adeptus battlegrey. One thing i noticed was that the plastic was very greasy and needed a thorough clean in soapy warm water to hold the paint.
To help with this painting i came up with a good idea, to cut a piece of the card ‘sprue’ to be used as a holder, so your fingers dont smudge the bits you have painted by touching it.
I plan on using the same colour scheme as on the librarians base, so next will be a light drybrush and highlight with boltgun metal, and then some dirty washes to bring them to life a bit.
AT first i used blue tack onto a spare base, but it kept falling off because there is a massive recess underneath and you would need a massive piece of blu-tack. As the spare card will just end up in the bin anyway (unless i can think of other uses for it) i didnt see a problem with cutting a chunk off and using that.
I did find after putting all 20 bases on my little bit of card twice each they card had folded up on itself the way old heroquest furniture used to. I do think the edges on the doors are bound a bit stronger than the edge of the sheet, but i still think the less they are removed the better it would be for them.
Played my first games! Mission I, i played stealers first and thoroughly killed the marines, as his sergeant failed his close assault guarding, and his flamer marine was right behind and got smashed.
Then i played as the marines, i actually got my flamer marine near the room, but my tactical terminator guarding him finally failed all his overwatch shots (he must have killed 15 stealers himself) and let a route through to the flamer guy who was left all on his own. If he had survived that turn he could have shot down the door letting the flamer shoot it and i could have won next turn. My sergeant did pretty good managing to win about 5 close assaults before being taken down himself.
I was very suprised at how nice and easy everything played, there were next to no rules arguments, and only one query came up during the game, which isnt bad since we had only had 1 look through the rulebook each.
Painting shall commence on the C.A.T, the chalice, sergeant gideon and 1 genetealer on a girder over the next 2 days, just doing 1 termie and 1 stealer to get the colour scheme right before trying to paint more than 1 at once. Im fairly sure they are lying on the side of the box when they say they did the stealer skin warlock purple . . . .
Had some more games, today. 2 games of suicide mission, we took turns, and both won as the marines, although i claim a greater victory as i didnt lose a single marine, whereas my opponent lost his sergeant and another tactical marine in the process. We then tried the same mission but using gideon’s squad instead of lorenzo’s. The main difference being gideon despite being great in combat has no storm bolter so isnt much use in the long corridors, and the assault cannon is a little more useful than the flamer, as it can go on overwatch. I managed to win this in much less turns with no casualties.
We then did mission II, which i think is called exterminate. I played the stealers, and taking a few risks, taking my time, and getting into position before attacking i managed to kill 4 marines and put my opponent into this position.
despite the amount of stealers i had there (all my blips had run out at this point) my opponent still won. Overwatch on that corridor was impossible to get down, and even when he jammed he always had at least 1 command point to unjam. That one marine must have killed at least half the stealers in that corridor himself. I was a bit dissapoint that there was nothing other i could do than charge down the corridor. Even stopping halfway and letting the rest go down without being shot didnt make any difference as on his go he would kill 1 or 2 and go on overwatch and id be back to the start.
It was still really fun and very tense up until that point.
I have also painted sergeant gideon. I decided to start with the marine i thought i would least like to paint, just to get him over with. I think all the extra detail makes it look good, but it does suffer from places where the plastic is stretched for the moulding process, and thats a bit crap. give me metal mini’s any day!
he isnt perfect, a few mistakes, but i want to get them all done within a few weeks, and then after i can touch them up a bit if i want.
I tried all of those tactics, and none worked. Statistically you can only go 3 spaces up the corridor before you are dead. I think i managed 5 and moved the rest in behind. Then on his turn he killed him, so i wasnt really much better off. The door was really too far away to be much use.
I read your blog the other day, (was linked on warseer for sprue cutting tips) and just read your stealer painting there. Ive finished one and used the same techniques but different colours, As i did the carapce necron abyss and the skin hormagaunt purple, then watered down purple wash, then highlights. I usually paint tyranids as leviathan but the hulk stealers are gonna be classicly styled
Also the guy who is saying about painting the chalice, ive started mine, black, snakebite leather, dark gold leaving recesses, then light gold highlight, silver extreme highlight. Makes it look not too shiny.
Just played mission III rescue (the one where you have to get the C.A.T off the other side of the board).
played first as the marines, and using sound tactics really quickly got my marines into good overwatch positions, then things turned bad in the middle section. I didnt defend one corner very well and lost sergeant gideon and brother leon to the same stealer! good use of the flamer let me block corridors to get the C.A.T out to safety.
playing as the stealers i had a good early start, getting into positions to slow the marines down but keeping away to not waste my resources. After quite a few turns i had the marines pinned, and eventually they made a mistake, letting me kill 3 and them dropping the C.A.T. this let me swarm through ready to take down 2 more marines in the back next turn, but the unexpected happened. Brother leon went into attack mode with his assault cannon, using all his ammo (and command points) he wiped out my stealers that had broken through, picked up the C.A.T and then overwatched the corridor. i was back to square 1! sergeant gideon won the man of the match by blocking an intersection on guard, i must have sacraficed about 10 stealers to him trying to break through, and if it wasnt for his courage (and lucky dice rolling) i would definately have got through and made a mess of the marines.
It was a very good game, the mission was tactically challenging for both sides and a lot more fun than mission II which was a bit stale by comparison. It shows how good mission objectives really make the game. It was also the first mission with 10 marines, and although we never ran out of time the pressure was certainly on! i think my opponent managed to get down to 6 seconds left one turn.
I have also painted a stealer (as mentioned above) and brother noctis. here is a pic
I also want to point out that the website bits and kits are selling space hulk pieces separately, i think most of the miniatures are sold out, but if you want just a couple of extra board tiles or doors they arent too expensive (a door and a base is 10p each so 10 ten doors with bases £2). Also you can get the counters and blips pack for £5 which is a fantastic deal if you have an old set and want to upgrade parts like that for harder wearing ones.
Ok so far now i have played missions 1 - 4, and it is looking increasingly like i am not very good at being the marines, but i can be very devious and nasty as the genestealer. Mission 4 turned out to be a loss for me both ways. I made very big mistakes as the marine player and lost after about 20 minutes by losing my 2 heavies. Playing as the stealers i nearly took them down many times, but luck was on the marines side, with me only drawing 1 blips at the worst times, the marine player managing to roll 6’s and kill nearly every stealer he shot first time when he was halfway past the board, and out of about 12 turns drawing the 6 CP token 7 times!
The game was good fun though, and im kinda glad the marines got a win because that means we can go onto mission 5.
I have also painted another marine, brother valencio.
i started as the marines this time, and thoght i was only doing really badly, only escaping with 3 marines and losing a lot of men to bad dice rolls (leon rolled a treble 2 and blew himself up etc), but it wasnt too bad. I was still uwfully unlucky with the sergeants in close combat even on guard.
My opponent on the other hand looked like he was walking away with it until an unlucky flamer shot failed to kill a stealer, who managed to take the risk out of the fire into a room full of terminators, slaying zael and lorenzo. The terminators were a bit hard pressed here as leon was low on ammo. Gideon tried to lead the blood angels out but the sneaky tactics of the genestealers eventually brough him and his battle brother down, with only brother goriel making a quick dash for the exit.
I have to say im really enjoying this game, it is like a much more pressured game of blood bowl, with more skill and less luck involved. If you make a mistake in space hulk you will be severely punished for it!
what we are looking for now is more people in my area (north east england) who would fancy a game!
