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3rd Edition Space Hulk - Painting Project

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SamuelF –

Here's a couple of minis from the 3rd Edition of Space Hulk that I've been painting up. I've managed to do one squad of Marines, the Librarian and a hand-full of Gene Stealers.

I've chosen to use quite a popular method that I had never tried before: The Stain Dip

That's right. Dipping those gorgeously sculpted collectors pieces into a pot of gloopy crap. I must be mad.

^ Genestealer number one. Classy.

^ Librarian. Before and after dipping in "gloop".

Many of you will have encountered this before. I chose this method firstly because it was said to be really fast (and I don't have loads of time for painting unfortunately), secondly because I curiously quite liked the look of the minis it produces, and thirdly it incorporates a protective coating into the process, which is great if the minis are getting a lot of use.

Painting

The Genestealer:
These guys come off the sprue a dark blue already, so it just got a rough dry-brush with regal blue before highlighting the edges of the armour with hawk turquoise. The flesh areas got a lich purple base, dry-drushed with mixes of purple and skull white. Claws black. Done.

The Librarian:
These guys also come off the sprue the colour I want them; bright red

. This chap got a rough dry-brush with blazing orange before doing the details. All the bone, parchments and flesh tones are done in bone white. The pads are regal blue highlighted with the hawk turquoise (an inversion of normal librarian colours), with codex grey for the crux terminus. The loin cloth is bestial brown, anything silver is mithril, and the gold is shining gold.

Dipping

The "dip" I use is Homebase Walnut glossy-interior-varnish. One important thing to note is that I tried literally dipping a scrap mini in the pot and shaking off the excess, and the result was very poor. I therefore use a brush to thinly apply the stain, making sure to mop up any large drops before leaving to dry. I also found that the gloss looks a little shiny in places so I applied a little clear matt varnish to areas of the marines armour and he stealers body.

I must say that after the first coat on the first marine dried I was pretty relieved.

I don't know whether or not I'd use this method again, but I would say that I'm really quite happy with the result for the Space Hulk minis. I'm not a great painter, the best you could say is that I'm 'neat', so I think things are turning out quite well for the inhabitants of 'the Hulk' all things considered..

Cheers.

ps- I'll see if I can get round to taking pics of the rest of the squad.

3 Comments

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Marchomer

Re: 3rd Edition Space Hulk - Painting Project

Nice work!
I think the dip method is very useful and very very fast! (Specially for those miniatures that are already coloured in part, like in your case) I admit, the final result isn't like the classical painting, but is cool.
I never use this method (I'm a traditionalist) but I would to try it sometime, I have a lot of LOTR miniatures I wish to paint as quick as possible!

A suggestion for you I've read on the web: spray on the miniatures the transparent matt protective coating, it partially removes the glossy effect and it creates uniformity on them

+ Other planes lie beyond the reach Of normal sense and common roads But they are no less real Than what we see or touch or feel. +

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: 3rd Edition Space Hulk - Painting Project

In reply to this post by SamuelF

Great!
I gotta say I'm surprised 'the dip method' can produce such good results, especially over partly raw-plastic. Some areas have come out really well, like the Librarian's armour and head, while in others like the Axe head and shaft it hasn't worked quite so well, but over all very good results.

As you'll all probably know like Marchomer, I'm a traditionalist and unlikely to ever use this kind of technique but I feel I must give this method some due credit and say your miniatures look very good, keep it up and I'll look forward to seeing more.

Also, you might be interested to know a company called Army Painters do tins of 'dip' in several different shades and colours especially designed for this and you can pick some up from our friends at Triple Helix

PS are you carving a tomb-stone or something?

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Umboman

Re: 3rd Edition Space Hulk - Painting Project

In reply to this post by SamuelF

I have never heard of this technique before & I really like the colours you have 'preserved'-why change it if you are happy?The blue & red are very nice shades.I have painted some outdoor garden goblins,frogs,etc for my wife & did finish them off with outdoor varnish to protect the paint;but with wind,sun & rain the varnish only lasts about 18 months & I now have to repaint the figures again on the tops-they need to be out of the rain & sun.However in your case,it should protect the miniatures from heavy wargame use.Great idea....................& please tell us about the stone carving under the blue figure.

The Prodigal son

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