Falling From Table painting

Space marines Devastators

Blood Ravens

There was a box of space marines devastators in my cupboard for some time and recently I found some nice pictures of Blood Ravens and made a decision to paint the devastators in Blood Ravens theme. Which I like a lot, I think they have nice colour scheme, interesting backround and I love the name of they venerable battlebarge, Litany of Fury.

Because I usualy dont build any army lists, just models for my entertainment and collection, I decided to build one of each heavy weapon, powerfist, chainsword and whatever came under my hand (and I was kinda thinking on you, my dear readers). Thus one missile launcher, one heavy melta, heavy bolter, plasma cannon and squad leader.

First of all - model assembly. I have noticed that devastators are very "rich" on gaps between parts. On some parts it looked especially bad (Melta backpack, heavy bolter and plasma cannon backpacks too). Because these parts are very visible (they are on top of the model on flat part), I have decided to fill them with putty.

"Oh my god! So much work! Putty, sanding, cleaning, more sanding... I´m not going to do that!" You can say. That would be a mistake. The amount of work is minimal in comparison to final effect and not hard to perform. Look:

I used Revel putty "Plasto" To avoid unnecesary mess, you can put tape around the gap. The putty will only go into the "wound" and the rest of the model i protected. Well, putty doesn´t hurt your model at all, but the sanding and cleaining is easier. As you can see I have used like 3 grams of putty, really noothing at all.

Let the putty dry for at least about two hours (if there is only small amount like here), but the longer the better. I often let it dry for like day or even few days.

When the putty is hard take some sanding paper or sanding stick. Depending on the amount you will go from rougher sandpaper to finer one. I started with like 800, when I started to reach miniature surface I switched to 1200 and when I was comfortable with the look, I finished it with 2000. Important is to sand under water - the water flows sanded material away and your sandpaper will last for much much longer. The finish is also much finer. Especialy with fine sandpapers always use water. And do a rotating move, not linear! Put paper on surface and move it in circles - again, the finish is much nicer.

As you can see, I "fixed" the hole in multimelta too - same procedure as abovementioned.

Here you can see the models after priming:

Nice, isn´t it.

The models are now assembled - well, the weapons are not glued to the torsos, because they are huge and painting would be almost impossible. I have used Gunzes Mr. Surfacer 1200, in my opinion one of the best surfacers/primers on market. The only "problem" is, that it isnt water soluble. But it is primer with very very fine putty and thus excellent for covering little schratches from sanding and it is possible to sand the surfacer like any other putty and thus have more control over the surface. Like cutting and sandinf the mould lines you will find after surfacing.

Now I primed the models black with Vallejo black primer. Both with airbrush.

I like black backround for models, because it "preshades" them. Well, as long as you go for "dark" look and dark color scheme.

Nothing to see here, black primed devastators.

Now we start layering the reds. Yes, reds. First is Vallejo "black red" 70.859. Dilute with whatever you use for diluting and spray from top:

The receses should remain black but everything that isnt in complete shadow should be going red. Now is time for second layer - I have added some vallejo "red" into "black red" - like 1:1 ratio - and airbrushed it on the models. Compare before and "after":

Now only "red" (sorry for photo, I have no better):

Now I added Vallejo "Dark vermilion" into the "red" and made final highlight - in the middle of the photo you can compare "before and "after":

As you can see, I painted all the parts and details with their specific colours, detailed the weapons and made some details - like black knees of some devastators, white helm of squad leader marking him as "veteran", painting the lenses, plasma cannon... Then comes time for washes. That means few layers of gloss varnish for the start. I´ll only repeat: it serves as a protection of your work and helps the wash to "flow".

Also I have painted the faces. Well, guys dont have eyes on the photo and some drybrush over their hair will be added, but the skin is basically done. Just start with "dark fleshtone" and then, as you go with another layers, let the bottom dark and on raised parts of face or noticeable parts go with lighet colours (I have used mix with "basic skintone" and "basic skintone" alone). Put a little bit of very diluted sephia wash over to "erase" edges between layrs and point out receses.

Here you have our squad after washes, faces completed, some detailing on scrolls, knee protectors, lenses, Imperial Aquillas, skulls and most importantly, protected with few layers of satin varnish. It covers the washes and keeps them in place and of course adds another protection of model before gluing in the shoulderpads and weapons.

Yeah, shoulderpads. Do you guys hate decals as I do? I really don´t get along with them for two reasons: First, they are very touchy and sensitive to handling. Second: after putting them in, I almost always can see the edge of it whatever varnish covered them. Maybe I´m just not good with them, whatever. Third reason I dont use them is masochist... I mean I want to improve my brush skills so I challenged myself to paint all the chapter symbols freehand.

Soooo... after priming black with other pieces, I painted the inner part of shoulderpads grey. Then bonewhite and then white. Not pure white, but little paled - like old furniture white. I really cant remember the name of color and am too lazy to go downstairs to check. Sorry. And then you pick black and draw the raven. It is not that hard if you know how.

Excuse my PC painting skills, but I´m sure you got the idea. You have to found parts in the symbol and then add them one after another. Start with "bone" - spine first, tail second, wings third. Then head, then feathers and then jus add something in between.

And blood drop in the middle. With the right hand shoulder pads I made some customization. I dont like the "hollow" devastator "V". As I see lore, space marines are proud and they love proclamations, worships, signs and stuff. They want others to look at them and think "Respect man!". Veterans will be proud to show it. To make my squad little original I´ve decided, to add little bit of signs, symbols, litanies, honours...

Members of second company, veterans of several campaigns, two of them earned the "terminator honours", all members of the devastators squad.

Now bases. Nothing fancy. I bought some extremely cheap putty some time ago. Not good enough to put on models, but more then good for basing sculpting. Mix with some sand, rocks and put on the bases. Let dry for some time, prime, base color, drybrush.

Primed black, base colour is dark sea blue if I remeber correctly. Important note: The models are black from "bottom" - they have very deep shadows painted. Shiny base would be unbelievable because of this. No, base has to be dark too. Thus black primer and dark blue. Blue is obvious choice, because it makes good contrast to red and they are in space. Dont mind the Dark angels, they just scan for Fallen. Nothing to see here.

To make it little more intersting, lets add some contrast to the base. Little bit of yelow in form of pigments. Mixture: Pigments, add water, shake.

By mixing it with water you´ll get mix, that will easily go into receses and also everywhere it touches, there will be pigments left. Thats ideal for making "dirty feets". The more important is, that whent it goes dry, you can "reactivate" the pigments with water and clean the parts you dont want be dirty - compare the amount of "sand" on first and second photo: