The Warhammer 40,000 action figures from McFarlane Toys, some of which we previewed last year, are a great way to enjoy a piece of your favourite hobby at a much larger scale than regular miniatures. Due to their size, they’re also a perfect canvas for really flexing your painting skills, just like Louise Sugden did with her Space Marine. Once we’d seen the fantastic job she did, we couldn’t help but ask for a few words about how she went about it.
Louise: The decision to paint the McFarlane Toys Space Marine action figure was more a case of ‘love at first sight’ than something I had planned in advance. I was visiting Warhammer World to pick up some of my usual supplies and saw him on the shelf. He was so awesome, I had to bring him home.
It didn’t take very long before the familiar hobby itch kicked in and I brought him to my painting table. My initial intention was just to give him a 'quick once-over' which would involve deepening some of the recesses with a wash and maybe adding an occasional small highlight. However, after finishing off the Space Marine’s helmet and shield, painting the model was proving to be far too much fun, and I decided to commit to the whole thing.
It is important to point out that this is not a full repaint of the model. I picked up the Space Marine with the Ultramarines scheme and decided to essentially top it up instead of buying the grey version, priming it, and painting it like one would with a Citadel miniature.
For this reason, paint doesn’t quite respond the same way as on a fully primed miniature. But don’t worry, it’s easy enough to get around! For some areas, I employed a method of ‘patting down’ the first layer of paint onto the model (sometimes with a sponge and sometimes with my finger) as this helped it adhere to the plastic. For others, I just used a slightly thicker layer of paint, which also worked fine. Once the first layer of paint has dried onto the plastic, painting on top of it is business as usual.
The process I used to paint the model is simple, quick and messy – not my usual painting style at all, but a lot of fun!
The first stage was about adding contrast to the figure. I used a sponge with a slightly darker blue mix of Kantor Blue and Abaddon Black to plot in some of the darker shades. I then loaded my brush with that same dark blue paint and started to add it to the recesses of the miniature to give the model what is essentially a classic wash!
Once this stage was done, it was time to add weathering to the model. I used Rhinox Hide for most of this process, first adding a more watered-down mix with a brush to some of the deeper recesses of the miniature, then dragging that mix down in areas to create dirty drips.
I then got a thicker Rhinox Hide mix on a dry piece of sponge (the stuff from your carrying cases works great for this) and dabbed it on a tissue until it produced lovely sporadic specks of paint, which resemble chipping. I applied this where chipping would naturally occur in battle, like the sharp edges, the very bottom of the mini, and a little bit on the main body.
Scratches can be added at this stage with the same colour – for deeper scratches, I just added a small amount of Abbadon Black to the very centre of the damage.
When adding chipping to one of the painted decal areas like the shield, shoulder, or knee, I applied the same ‘dry sponge’ method, but instead of Rhinox Hide I used some Macragge Blue, as this is the colour of the base plastic and will give the effect of exposed ceramite under the decal.
The next stage was to break up the very solid blue colour of the original paint job by adding some mottling to the armour. Using a dry sponge again, I made a mix of Temple Guard Blue and Macragge Blue, which was quite a lot lighter than the original plastic, and stippled this colour over the armour quite sparsely.
This effect should be quite subtle but effective, but don’t worry if you end up putting on too much – just use your finger to pat it down and soften the effect or use some Macragge Blue to tone it back.
The final step was highlighting and adding fine scratches. I edge highlighted the model in a similar way to how I would any other miniature. I applied a lighter mix of Blue Horror and Macragge Blue to the edges and sharper details, then finished off with an almost-white mix of paint applied to the sharpest corners to really make them pop.
I also used Blue Horror to add a very crisp highlight directly underneath some of the areas of weathering I did earlier. This is especially effective on the scratches, as it makes them look very deep and 3D.
Thanks, Louise! Have you painted one of your own Space Marines, Necrons, or Battle Sisters? Make sure to show us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can bask in the majesty of your work.