Hi Guys,
So last time I was looking at myinnerdemon I’d got to the point of thinking about what category I wanted to enter and more importantly what miniatures I am going to paint. Well, you’ll be glad to hear that I have been giving this much thought and I have come to some early decisions. I’m not massively indecisive as a person so I am thinking I’ve got this right for me at the moment but ultimately as I have sooo much time between now and Golden Demon 2012 I have plenty of chances to make changes along the way. What I have to get right is to paint something I am really motivated as I need to enjoy this to do my best work. If I am not enjoying a mini I tend to rush and that’s not good believe me.
So firstly lets look at the category. I’m not into any of the Lord of the Rings mini’s so didn’t even consider anything to do with that game which leaves Warhammer and Warhammer 40k in the mix. This is a toughie for me. In the past I have collected Empire, High Elves, and Orks from Warhammer and I had an Orc, Space Marine and Imperial Guard army for 40k.
From the mini’s I’ve painted so far I have enjoyed my Terminator Chaplain and Terminator Captain as well as Althuan. Overall I love painting the space marines so I am going to go with 40k. Something about the Horus Heresey series of books really fascinates me and I love the idea of the all the genetic modifying that goes to make a Space Marine. So category looks like it’ll be Warhammer 40k Squad.
With that decision made, I needed to work out what squad to paint. To cut a long story short I love Ultramarines and I’ve been dying to paint some character models from that range. I have been looking at Non Metallic Metal techniques (NMM) and found this version of Marneus Calgar on coolminiornot and I think this is one of the best miniatures I have ever seen painted. I was so blown away when I saw this I had to have a go at him. The best bit is that he comes with a beautifully modelled Honour Guard making up the full squad.
I think I am going to try to paint this unit using NMM but it’s quite an advanced technique and I’ll only use it if I can get a good grasp of it. If not then I’ll use normal metallic painting. Next post will look at the techniques I need to get a hang of alongside NMM and set out a strategy for the coming months.
Cheers Will
willsinnerdemon 
Ragnar Blackmane
July 10, 2011
Non-metallic metal? I’m guessing this is to do with painting metals without using metallic paints? I imagine it must be possible to get some very slick results — I’ve seen some very impressive metals in flat artwork, after all. But it had never crossed my mind to try it on a miniature, as the reflections tend to be very specific to the setting and angle of view…that said, I’m only guessing at this point, and may have the wrong end of the stick entirely.
I love Space Wolves myself, so I can understand the love for painting Marines, as well as the interest in the back-story behind them. I was never much good with Marines for painting, though; I don’t think I was creative enough to do the best with them, and while I could apply the skills of painting, I always applied them in the wrong order (simple mistake, leads to horrible results).
I liked the angles and plates of the Tyranids, they were pretty easy to work with to add highlights. The same with the cloaks of the Gutter Runners and Deathmaster Snikch from my Skaven, too, it was easy to make them look at least okay because of the way they took to sweeping dark colours enhanced by highlights. But I’m hoping I’ve come on a little bit since then, as the next 40K thing I’ll be painting will definitely be a Marine…
It seems there’s a Marine Chapter for everyone! One of my friends is a die-hard Ultramarine fan; another played Blood Angels, and another of my friends was busy working on his own custom Chapter the last I’d heard from him. For me, it always had to be Space Wolves. That said, every now and then, I do like the entertainment value of controlling an army of relentless teeth and claws, if only because it plays so very, very differently…