Thirteen Plague Marines and The Tallyman

 

I'd been painting my Death Guard Plague Marines and characters individually. To be honest, that's the way I'd always painted models. But with 62 Poxwalkers to paint (I love that nice round number!) and another 46 still to do, I had begun to think about batch painting. This made sense, as most of the work on the Poxwalkers I had already painted had shown me that successive washes was the best way to get the results I was after.  And as washes take a really long time to dry, I knew I had spent a lot of time twiddling my thumbs between washes, waiting to apply the next colour. 

So I gave it a go. And wrote aout it in this blog. And basking in the glow of that success, I began to wonder about trying a batch painting method on my remaining 13 Plague Marines.

By this point I'd painted a number of their fellow Marines individually. I was definitely aware of the order with which I had gone about the painting. I knew what I'd learned. 

But there was one problem. I don't use much by way of washes on my Plague Marines. So I wouldn't be wasting much time doing things individually rather than in batch. And in fact there was a bigger issue at the centre of this all...

Wet blending. Shading up from a darker colour on the models without applying washes. You can't do each colour in turn. You work the paint while it's wet. You use multiple thin coats of paint, mixing up from shade to highlight as you go. You can't batch paint that...

Or can you?

What if you just accept that when it comes to wet blending from shade to highlight, you do that on one model for one colour (say the armour panels) and then do that again.on the next model?  It's still painting by batch. It's still in stages. It's just that some of the stages will take a long time. 

And then there's that big problem...

...would I lose the will to carry on if I did that? Spending ages wet blending one area, and then go onto another similar model and do exactly the same all over again? Without the promise of painting something else to break the monotony? Is that even possible? 

Well, I decided to give it a go anyway. And sure, there were times I felt bogged down for an age. But you know what? I was actually encouraged seeing so many models come together. 

I have to be honest. I work long hours, and often seven days a week. Finding time to paint isn't always easy. But everything you can see in this post was painted in my free time. And it only took 15 days from start to finish. 

That, for me, is frankly an incredible turnaround.  Anyhoo, I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

Undercoat 

I began by painting my models black.  Once this was completely dry, I then added a second undercoat of Vallejo Model Colour (VMC) 70884 Stone Grey to paint all the tentacles, bones, parchment, and any pale fabric, and VMC 70907 Pale Grey Blue to base coat any smoke.

Armour

I began with a mix of Citadel's Death Guard Green and Vallejo Model Colour (VMC) 70889 USA Olive Drab, roughly 70% Death Guard Green to Olive Drab. I then start adding more Death Guard Green to the mix, working to a final layer of pure Death Guard Green.

This was the point I went on to do another colour on my models, for the sake of sanity. 

When I returned to the armour, I took some VMC 70881 Yellow Green and added a little water to it.  This was then applied to the armour, adding a highlight to the main panels, and allowing it to catch the bottom of those decaying holes.  I deliberately ignore any recessed areas of armour.  Makes the rest pop.  And then I do this stage again, but don't paint as far down to the edge of where I painted last time.  Makes a nice gentle gradient that way.  

And then, because I clearly like to torture myself, I get some VMC 70978 Dark Yellow.  This is my edge highlight on the armour panels, down the middle of the knee pads, and on the bottom lip of those holes int he armour.  And sometimes, to really emphasise it, I'll apply it more sparingly on extreme edges. 

Gold Armour

These sections are base coated with Citadel Retributor Armour shaded with Army Painter Soft Tone Wash. I then reapply the Citadel Retributor Armour as a highlight.  And then, just for fun, I add a dab of VMC 70997 Silver to the Retributor Armour and apply it as an extreme highlight. 

Tentacles

I base coat these with Vallejo Game Colour (VGC) Squid Pink.  When dry, I apply Army Painter Red Tone Wash (sometimes called inks). I'll then add a second coat of this as a targeted wash to the areas I want darker.

Smoke

I take some Vallejo Game Colour Gold Yellow and add it to my Flow Medium (which you can read all about here.) This goes to the top third of the smoke.  This is where you want the palest colour.  And then, with a quick clean of the brush, I add some Citadel Technical Hexwraith Flame and applied it to  the rest of the flame, blending it into the yellow. After another clean of the brush I take a small amount of Citadel Technical Nighthaunt Gloom and add it to the the deepest recesses of the smoke. If it isn't mixing, I add a little pure flow medium to help it wet blend together. And if it happens to dry with a hit of a shine, you can apply some acrylic medium over the smoke when it has dried.   

Bones, Teeth 'n' Stuff Like That

With the bones already base coated in the undercoat stage, all I did to these was apply an Army Painter Light Tone Wash to them. When they are dry, you can go in and reinstate some VMC 70884 Stone Grey as a highlight. Or, if you want to save yourself from that bother, simply apply some Flow Medium to the tip of the bones, and then apply that first wash to the deepest recesses and brush towards the flow medium. You'll get a lovely fade out of the shade colour as a result, and you may not need to apply the Stone Grey as a highlight.

Rusting Metal

These areas were all base coated with VMC 70863 Gunmetal.  When dried, I get a ruined old brush whose bristles resemble more of a hedgehog than a brush.  I dip the ends into into some VGC 72044 Dark Fleshtone, wipe off the excess and stipple in as random a way as I can over parts of the gunmetal.  Then I take some VGC Orange Fire and do the same, focusing over where I have placed the Dark Fleshtone.  You want to use less of this than the fleshtone.  And it doesn't matter if the two colours mix a bit.  In fact, I rather prefer it if it does.  When all this is dry, I apply Army Painter Soft Tone Wash over it all.  And when that is also dry, I pick out some edge highlights with VMC 70864 Natural Steel. 

As always, thanks for stopping by!