Friday, January 17, 2020

Astral Claws test minis

o/


I had hoped to have this post out both earlier and with at least a combat squad of marines done...but Real Life (TM) happened. That said, I am rather pleased with these three and true to the memory of the handful I painted some years ago, they were fairly quick, easy and painless to paint, a good thing considering I still have this to do: 

((((gulp!)))

GW's Leadbelcher, Macragge Blue, Agrax Earthshade along with Vallejo's Glorious Gold and Flat Earth for the base and...umm yeah. That's it. Easy peasy.


I opted to go with different colored tactical arrows to tell the squads apart. I made some in red, yellow and black years ago for some long, forgotten project that never went anywhere...apparently, as I never used any of them. Without a white backing, the red is kinda dark rendering the yellow tactical arrows a lost cause. Additionally I also have the standard GW white ones too. 

Of course only one out of these three is actually sporting said red decal so its not the best plan, but the reinforcement stud pauldrons aren't too common as I recall so it should work...I think. I also made assault, devastator and veteran squad markings in black as well. 

I ordered these chapter icons from grimfritter.com's ebay page. Check em out, they've got good stuff. 

Astral Claws aside, I have been working on some 15mm terrain for that project which this one sorta derailed, but you know me...I can't stay on any given project for too long before-SQUIRREL!!

So there ya have it, not much to say other than here I go...and go, and go, and g...

8 comments:

Kushial said...

They're looking good. I'm glad some people can do decals. It's a skill I've never managed to acquire.

Siph_Horridus said...

They look great. I like the idea of different coloured decals but I personally prefer white with squad numbers on the white arrow. The new Primaris sheets have plenty of small numbers for that purpose. As for decals, I swear by Micro Sol and after application and smoothing down, seal with Ardcoat to complete the painted on look.

Da Masta Cheef said...

Thanks guys!

@Kushial: Perhaps you never applied the proper amount of profanity during the application process?

@Siph: I've never done to well when applying decals atop decals, and with so many to do, I'm aiming to keep em simple as I rarely get too far when I over complicate things. And yes, I swear by the ard coat/microsol pairing as well. Though that one lion icon looks a little rough...but oh well, 'table top' quality and all that. I'm sure it'll get lost in the masses...

Monkeychuka said...

I'm trying to limit my colours on a batch of troops at the moment so that it doesn't drive me mental (30 Skitarii to paint). I should take a leaf out of your book (5 colours!). Picking out spot colours all across the model really tricks the eye into thinking there's more.

neverness said...

I am envious of your progress! Seriously, they look great!

Oh look, Kushial lives! I hope he sticks around, it's been too long since I snuffed out any Lions... 😉

...to be fair, it's been about 6 months since I have played anything! Damn that Real Life (TM)!

Da Masta Cheef said...

Thanks! In looking back over my older marine armies, I found those with ‘limited palettes’ were by far the most easily painted. As opposed to my Rainbow Warriors for example which had all of the colors if the rainbow on each pauldron, PLUS everything else. They were doomed to fail from the start.

Da Masta Cheef said...


Woohoo! Three minis is ‘winning’!! Lol, thanks though, and I’m hoping the rest go as smoothly as these first few did. Been scrounging thru my bits and have enough rhino parts to replace all of the Templar icons in at least one rhino. Have also spent some time repositioning model poses, altering equipment etc.

Miss gaming with ya, are you ever getting on that supposed new schedule?

Kushial does live yes, currently he’s trapped in your nightmare of the hour-ish commute which is killing his free time as well.

Kushial said...

Plus my normal days off are Sunday and Wednesday which makes for bad opportunities to game.