In which a champion is selected for single combat
Rather than try to paint all three miniatures in parallel, I'm going to take my time and attack them one-by-one. First up, this fella:
Handily, there's a Citadel painting guide for Ultramarine Intercessors here; it's the "classic" method - no new-fangled contrast paints for me. I'm going to (try to) follow this guide, and post update shots as I go.
Lesson 1: watch the tutorial before you undercoat... the tutorial doesn't suggest black or grey - in fact it doesn't seem to suggest undercoating the Intercessors at all, instead leaving them the nice blue they came in. Never mind...
My first step was to paint in the base colours - blue* for the armour, black for the bolter and armour joints, silver for the metallic parts, yellow for the wing motifs and shoulder pad edges, red for the eyes and wax seal, cream for the equipment pouches. This is the result:
Next step is shading with a darker wash, and I hit my first issue; I don't have any suitable colours in my set for the blue armour. The earth-shade wash actually works quite well for the eagles and metallic parts, but looks terrible on the armour. Time for some mixing...
Some basic colour theory says a dark red or purple wash would be better than blue+black (in the absence of a dedicated dark blue), so that's what I mix up. Some trial and error and I eventually get a result I'm happy with.
Next up is re-applying the base colours. This isn't something I'd have done in my previous hobby life, going straight on to the highlighting - but the tutorial says this is the way to go and who am I to argue with authority?
Things are starting to look a bit more space-marine-ish now with some depth to the colours. The next step is the one I'm most nervous about - highlighting and detail. Detail requires a steady hand, and the highlighting/blending technique is another I'm unfamiliar with. I drive onwards, and add decals and a base colour for completeness (I'll add texture to the base at another time).
There we have my first painted miniature in a couple of decades. Not too bad for a first go, but with one important caveat: this model took me hours to finish - like 6 or 7 hours. At that rate, and with the spare time I have available, painting a whole Blood Bowl team will take me the best part of 6 months. Hopefully practice will improve the speed as well as the quality of my painting.
A few other lessons I learned:
Lesson 2: small hexagonal jam jars make excellent handles for painting minatures - easy to hold, and with flat surfaces to hold steady against a table for the really detailed bits when you need complete stability.
Lesson 3: it's possible to make many different colours by mixing paints, but it's slow and it doesn't really work for metallics. Buying the right colours up front will save time and make my life easier.
Lesson 4: It's still hard to apply decals to the dome-shaped shoulder pads on marines. I need to find a good tutorial on how to do it properly.
Lesson 5: I still hate the way the Citadel Colour paint pots open.
Next up - painting the next marine using my lessons-learned, which means buying a decent gold paint, a dark blue wash and a lighter blue for highlighting.
* No, I am not going to use the silly Citadel names.