Blade guards

This week I offer you some Smurfy Blade Guards. I love these models!, even though they are monopose. The three models form the Dark Imperium box are all different so there is no repeat and I do not think it would be possible to do these as anything other than mono pose as the tabard connects the legs to the torso and then it is only the arms that would be posable within some range. And as the legs and torso is sculpted in a dynamic pose I do not see great variability by repositioning the arms either. So all in all, fantastic sculpts, in limited numbers (unless they do more sculpts). I am looking forward to doing the ancient and the lieutenant to complete the group.

The colour scheme is the same (I think) as for most of my Ultra Marines, i.e. a dark blue metallic. Painting it this way almost feels like it could be for real. The base metallic is basically metallic marines that is then lightly washed in blue, like a marine painting the bare plates in the chapter colours. This technique is very simple and at the same time very difficult. The base metallic is dry brushed on over a black base in four shades. This stage is very straightforward, and one could leave it at that and go for the details if one want silver/metallic marines. The next stage is also simple but also very hard to get really good. Using watered down base paints I paint over the sections of armour that I want coloured. That basically is just filling in the fields and will give a ok result as is. However, if one is careful with the direction of application and has just the right water to paint ratio it is possible at this stage to shade the plates with a smooth gradient, but it require practice. And since I do not paint these to often it is a bit hit and miss if I manage the last stage, and in this case I was off. The plates turned out a bit to even and I hade to try to sort this by using other shades of blue and some black wash.

The gold details also did not get the depth I wanted, which is strange as I more or less followed my basic recipe for this... I must have been un focused.

Apart from this I am happy with the result, they look good and go well together with the rest of the collection. Some part of me is really looking forward to seeing all the marines form the last three starter boxes painted up in this scheme (if I ever manage that).