Plans on a Primaris Scale

Today I'm taking stock of my Space Marine projects and where I'm going with the Primaris models:

 

I had picked up the 40K starter box, and began working on the marines. My plans were to build the Primaris scale marines as Imperial Fists– the father chapter of my Black Templars. I assembled an Intercessor squad and a Hellblaster squad to start with.

For their iconography, I sculpted Imperial Fist icons on a pair of shoulder pads, and made press molds that I could use to transfer them onto the figures themselves.

 

 

 

As I was working on these, however, GW released an Imperial Fist army box that contained a Primaris upgrade sprue for the Imperial Fists. I wasn't terribly happy with the icons I was sculpting, so I put the brakes on, and decided to use the fancy new Primaris shoulder pads once they were released separately (which, for more than a year, GW seemed determined not to do).

 

 

With so many other chapters getting Primaris upgrade sprues, I knew it would only be a matter of time before GW put the Imperial Fists sprue in its own pack. I had plenty of other projects to work on, so I shelved my marines for a while.

This year, the new Space Marine codices dropped, and GW began releasing new packs for the Raven Guard, Salamanders, White Scars, and –finally– the Imperial Fists. So I've been cutting away the shoulder pads and replacing them with the new Primaris upgrade pads. (It's a little more difficult because the starter set marines have their shoulder pads molded-on.)

 

 

 

 

My Primaris Dreadnought has also been languishing on the island of partially-constructed toys. My plan is to modify the torso and arms to convert it into a Primaris-scale "normal" dreadnought. I've always been more a fan of the classic boxy dreadnought design. I've taken its assembly about as far as I can without getting into plastic-card reconstructive surgery.

 

 

 

When it comes to painting the army, yellow is notoriously tedious, so I've been considering a few options to speed up the process–

My initial plan was to prime the models white and spray them with Tamiya Camel Yellow, then wash the whole thing with Citadel Casandora Yellow shade. In theory, that should take care of the yellow mid-tone and shade, just leaving the black-lining and edge highlighting.

 

 

Now, GW has released Contrast paints as another shortcut option. I've heard (and seen) some nice results with straight Iyanden Yellow over the Wraithbone primer, but after using the Contrast yellow on a few other projects, I'm not convinced that I can get a smooth tone. Contrast paints benefit from lots of texture and small shapes, and the marine armor just has too many large, flat panels where it can pool and become patchy. I could run into this problem with the Casandora Yellow too, though. I'll have to play around on a text model and see what kind of results I can get.

My plan for the basing is to use Skull Forge Scenics industrial bases, to give them nice "rusted metal" bases with caution stripes to compliment the yellow and black of the miniatures and match aesthetically on most "Sector Mechanicus" and "Zone Mortalis" themed battlefields.

 

 

 

But this is all on hold until next year. At the moment, I'm still focusing on my Nighthaunt, and I've got to finish of the remaining projects for my Wargame Hobby Bingo card.

'Til next time!