42 - Chaos Marauder

Here's a brief intermission from the Blood Ravens Sternguard tutorials by continuing with my unofficial series of painting also-ran models from the first poll I set up way back in post 31 - I present to you a Chaos Marauder!

Quite an enjoyable figure to paint. The large skin surface allowed me to continue refining my work with skintones and shading. This marauder's skin was done very similarly to the Cadian/ Catachan Heavy Weapons Team I posted a few weeks back - a basecoat of Skin Tone (about 4 thin layers) over Black primer, followed by a generous wash of Ogryn Flesh, then finishing up with bringing the Skin Tone back up while avoiding the deeper recesses and adding some Skin Tone mixed with White along the upper curves of the muscles.

I worked on this figure in between putting together the tutorial on the Blood Ravens Sternguard. The motivation level to paint is still high. I still get a kick out of seeing the figure come together from dull gray plastic to something colorful and characterful and three dimensional. Again, I really have no plans on putting together a Warriors of Chaos army, but the very act of painting a varied amount of models keeps the hobby fresh for me. Of course, it's quite a hit to my wallet, but leisure is costly in our world, I guess.

I think I'm starting to develop a personal style, which is great. In my brief journey through this hobby, I've seen many beautifully painted models, all with their own personality and technique. For instance, the European style and its emphasis on subtle blending, non-metallic metals, and realism looks drastically different from the more "traditional" Games Workshop style of exaggerated highlights and cartoonish super-heroism. Both are excellent examples of how to paint models, neither better than the other. I guess at the moment, I'm more working in the traditional style than the more modern European (Spanish and French, in particular) methods. It seems like the Europeans include a greater degree of advanced techniques into their miniatures. Of course, it also seems like the European style is more geared towards display models (what with their emphasis on elaborate and completely non-pragmatic decorative bases) rather than table-top ready models. Hmm, you know you're dealing with an art form when an individual trained as an English Literature academic is able to talk mumbo-jumbo and mentally masturbate over it!

The next post will resume with your regularly scheduled tutorial on the Blood Ravens Sternguard. I believe there will be 2 more installments in that tutorial before I put it to bed.

For more pics, click here.