We’re not sure if you noticed, but last week Warhammer quietly launched a new product. Entitled Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan, it pits two factions – called ‘the Space Marines’ and ‘the Tyranids’ – against one another in a struggle for the fate of the galaxy. It sounds pretty exciting if you ask us!
Anyway, to promote this obscure little game, members of the Warhammer Community website have painted a few of the fantastic models you get in the box. As you’ll see, some of them are better at that than the others!
Joel: Raven Guard
I decided to create my interpretation of Aethon Shaan’s 1st Company Raven Guard. I started with the Captain himself, using a head swap from the Forge World upgrade set, which significantly changes the dynamic of the miniature.
To help them stand out as more elite Space Marines I added some gold, but kept it quite muted by using Liberator Gold. For cloaks and tabards I used Dark Reaper. I also couldn’t resist scattering a few beaky helms around the rest of the miniatures as they are so iconic for the Raven Guard Chapter.
After painting the main colours I always enjoy adding details to the armour. This is mostly custom warpaint, a few bits of script, and on some of the bigger models I paint some feathers. These little details always make a big difference to my Space Marines, giving them each some extra character.*
Darcy: Imperial Fists
The Terminators are wonderful to paint – big, chunky and really solid in hand. They also took Contrast paints really well as I went with my tried and tested – and relatively easy – method of painting yellow.
It all starts with a base coat of Zandri Dust Spray and a heavy drybrush of Morghast Bone. Following that I use Agrax Earthshade to do a recess shade before highlighting every edge I can reach with White Scar. The model is then covered with a heavily thinned layer of Iyanden Yellow Contrast applied using the biggest brush I can fit in the pot. Once dry, I apply another White Scar highlight, only hitting the forward facing edges this time, before again drenching the model in thinned Iyanden Yellow. A last highlight of White Scar, focused on the most prominent points of the armour and a third and final layer of Iyanden Yellow finishes the job, and gives a wonderfully smooth yellow.
Gadge: Mantis Warriors
Using mainly an olive green and yellow colour scheme for the squad, I opted to add an accent colour of deep red, both for the Sergeant’s helmet stripe and for personal heraldry on the powerfists. As we currently don’t make transfers for the Mantis Warriors Chapter, I had to freehand the insignia and opted for the older (easier to paint) emblem – which seems perfectly fitting for 1st Company veterans of the Badab War.
The main colours were Elysian Green shaded with Athonian Camoshade and highlighted with more Elysian Green and a very light touch of Ogryn Camo. For the black undersuits and weapons I used Black Legion Contrast paint (which goes on smoothly into the recessed areas) highlighted with Dawnstone for the suits and Iron Warriors for the guns. Yellow areas were a base of Averland Sunset brought up to Yriel Yellow with some mixing, then edge highlighted by adding White Scar to the mix. Red accents, heraldry and helmet lenses were Mephiston Red highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The skull and eagle chest and arm emblems were Gehenna’s Gold, shaded with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with Liberator Gold, while the Sgt’s sword and the Crux Argentum were Runefang Steel shaded with a 1:2 mix of Drakenhof Nightshade and Nuln Oil.
The other Terminator’s icons were painted with Dawnstone, shaded with Ratling Grime and then highlighted with Administratum Grey. Target camera lenses and helmet lights were painted as if they were ‘off’ and I used Briar Queen Chill over White Scar. Lastly purity seals were painted using Blood Angels Red Contrast paint over White Scar for the wax seal and Wraithbone shaded with Agrax Earthshade for the scrolls – with a few squiggles applied in thinned down Abaddon Black to represent devotional litanies.
Luke: Knights Ophidian
I decided to request just a handful of solo miniatures for our painting challenge, to see how far I could push myself. These are the Knights Ophidian, a Chapter of my own creation, For the armour I base coated with Sotek Green and glazed with Stegadon Scale Green and Abaddon Black to add interest to the armour panels, and did my best to try and emulate the laser-sharp highlights of ’Eavy Metal with Temple Guard Blue and Baharroth Blue (and some Blue Horror for the two characters).
I’m not quite there yet, but I am happy with the results. I applied this scheme in a simpler fashion to my Terminators– though I had to skip some details to get them in for the deadline! Luckily it was just small things – mainly highlighting metallics – so I can go back and finish them off easily.
Rob: Salamanders
Even before I saw the Space Marines from the Leviathan boxed set, I knew I was going to paint mine as Salamanders – objectively the best Chapter of them all – so you can probably imagine how enthusiastic I was to build an Infernus Squad. Since I had piles of the Salamanders Primaris Upgrades lying around, I did a spot of surgery to replace their shoulder pads, and used several heads and accessories from the pack to enhance my boys from Nocturne.
My paint scheme aims to mitigate my two biggest weaknesses as a painter – edge highlights, and a complete inability to glaze – by making extensive use of drybrushing. The armour base is a layer of Warpstone Glow shaded with a 2:1 mix of water and Dark Angels Green Contrast paint, this is then drybrushed all over with Warpstone Glow again to get the vibrant green shade back up to snuff. A light drybrush of Moot Green going solely top-to-bottom gives the impression of sunlight catching the most raised edges.
Most of the bronze is a simple base of Brass Scorpion shaded with Agrax Earthshade, while the gunmetal is Leadbelcher shaded with Nuln Oil and drybrushed with Ironbreaker. With a splash of Abaddon Black for the shoulders and backpack and various spots of Wraithbone, Rhinox Hide, Seraphim Sepia, and Magos Purple for details, it’s a comparatively easy and quick way to get plenty of miniatures onto the tabletop.
Easy and quick for normal people, anyway. I still finished within a hair’s breadth of the deadline.
Tom: Mentor Legion
I am an indifferent painter at best, so the obvious choice was a Chapter featuring a lot of white, the hardest colour for Space Marine armour. The Mentor Legion have not historically mustered in strength, being too busy swanning around the galaxy teaching other Imperial forces how to shoot straight and so forth, but the Leviathan threat is clearly so enormous that they’re now deploying as an army.
My recipe** for white is actually surprisingly simple: White Scar Spray undercoat, followed by a liberal wash of Soulblight Grey Shade. Once that’s dried, drybrush it heavily – first with Corax White then with White Scar. For the green, I used Caliban Green – which for this scheme you really need to water down, even if you think you’re bad at painting and would prefer not to – shaded with Nuln Oil and brightened back up with a heavy drybrush of Warpstone Glow. The gold trim is Retributor Armour followed by shading with Nuln Oil and then a quick highlight of Liberator Gold. The red accents are Mephiston Red shaded with Nuln Oil, while scrollwork is one coat of Skeleton Horde and nothing else. The power sword was Pylar Glacier glazed over Leadbelcher. I refuse to drill my barrels.
Chris: Crimson Fists
I decided to paint my Sternguard as Crimson Fists as I love their classic Rogue Trader era aesthetic. To this end, I kept the paint recipe simple and finished the look with a retro brown base rim.
I first sprayed them with Mechanicus Standard Grey and used a zenithal highlight of Grey Seer Spray before base coating all of the armour panels in Kantor Blue, I then used Calgar Blue and Fenrisian Grey for highlights. The helmets were then painted with Khorne Red, and I used Evil Sunz Scarlet and Wild Rider Red for the highlights, before finishing off with either a centre stripe of Abaddon Black or Ulthuan Grey. Ulthian Grey was also used for purity seals and highlights on the Dorn Yellow eye lenses.
For the leather tabards, I base-coated them in Rhinox Hide and then used Mournfang Brown to highlight raised areas before washing with Agrax Earthshade. Weapons and other silver parts were painted with Stormhost Silver and then washed with Basilicanum Grey thinned down 2:1 with Contrast Medium. Retributor Armour was used for the final gold details before the whole models – bar the tabards – were washed with Nuln Oil.
Nick: Ultramarines
Brother Mortis is armed and ready for war! This mighty Ballistus Dreadnought joins the ranks of my Ultramarines 2nd Company to purge the enemies of mankind from afar.
I had great fun painting this, working in three pieces – the body and the two arms – made it easier to get to all those hard-to-reach places. I undercoated it with Leadbelcher, as the metal areas were a bit harder to reach, with the glorious blue of the XIII Legion being added carefully after all the metal was fully painted – using Macragge Blue as a basecoat, Basilicanum Grey as a shade, and then three successive highlights of Altdorf Guard Blue, Calgar Blue, and finally Fenrisian Grey.
Ed: Dark Angels
This is the first Warhammer 40,000 vehicle I've painted in the 21st Century! It began with a base of Leadbelcher Spray, followed by two layers of Dark Angels Green on the armour plates, I then edge-highlighted it with Waaagh! Flesh. I used Basilicanum Grey and Ratling Grime on the metals, with Iron Hands Steel as a highlight. For the classic red weaponry, I used Flesh Tearers Red and Baal Red Contrast, highlighted with Wild Rider Red. Retributor Gold shaded with Agrax Earthshade worked for the gold elements, and I had Baneblade Brown with Seraphim Sepia applied to the scrollwork and purity seals.
Thanks guys, those look amazing. Sound off on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter about whose work you think is best, and why not share some of your own when the Leviathan box arrives on the 24th of June? Next week, we’ll be showing you our Tyranids – just as soon as certain people finish painting them! And remember, if you missed the pre-orders, more copies will be arriving at Warhammer Stores and independent stockists on the same day.
* Joel’s Raven Guard force will be on display at the Leeds Warhammer store at some point in the near future. Pop in and see them!
** Technically it’s Darcy’s recipe, but he only paints yellow.