Sparky’s Salamanders Terminator Captain
Today it is time to throw the page over to Sparky and learn about Sparky’s Salamanders terminator captain. He will tell us about his inspiration for choosing Salamanders and how he went about painting his challenge model last month. So, over to you Sparky.
When I threw out the idea of a throwback conversation I never thought it would turn into a painting competition. As soon as we all realised that we had the exact same miniature though it was an easy decision. So for this challenge, I faced a few tough choices. The first, what chapter?
Choosing A Chapter
The first thought was to go for a Dark Angels captain. I have a Dark Angel army from way back in the day. Still mostly unpainted! So it could have been a good way to get me moving on that force again. As the original model in White Dwarf was a Deathwing captain it was fitting too. However, my plan is to make most of my Dark Angels now out of new models. So the more I thought about it I didn’t actually see myself using this model next to any of the current Dark Angel models. He would just look too out of place.
I didn’t want to paint a model and not use it. So where exactly would this model fit? Next to Horus Heresy era models was where I thought it would fit best. I have a large amount of Horus Heresy miniatures planned as a Salamanders force. The choice was made. Salamanders it was.
Learning new Techniques
At first, this seemed like a friendly little affair. After about a week though it became clear that Fury was taking this very seriously. Hearing that he was doing test models made me think the guys were going all out for this so I figured I should put in some effort. Admittedly I spent much of the month researching new techniques and left the painting until the last two days but the effort went into learning.
I decided to do something a little different for this model. I wanted to have a go at some new things. Doing some non-metallic metal colours and also doing some object source lighting. Not having tried either one before I went where everyone goes to learn new things these days, the internet and YouTube.
There are a lot of great resources and guides out there. So I spent the first couple of weeks watching videos from all around the world on both these topics. I ended up absorbing as much info as I could and set out to have a go.
From The Ground Up
My grand plan was to do a lava base and apply some object source lighting all the way up the rocks and onto the model. So I started with the base. I intentionally went for the 40mm base so I could put some detail on it. Using some corkboard for the rock and green stuff for the lava bubbles I had a solid foundation.
Painting wise I spent more time on the base than some parts of the model as I wanted to blend as many colours through the lava as I could. The object source lighting technique turned out ok on the rocks but after I had finished the model and glued it on I was too scared to do any more than a tiny part of the foot. As it was the last day and the model was due there was no time to fix it if I made a mistake.
You Need A Model For That Base
The base itself took about a week of spare time. During that time I was testing a few different colours and techniques for the green on some Horus Heresy plastics. I was looking for a nice bright green so they stood apart from my Dark Angels but I didn’t want them too over the top bright. They still needed some grim darkness to them. Part of the testing was to find a way to do the line troopers quickly as well. A variety of paints and shades of green were used along with trying some different highlight and shade techniques with various inks and contrast paint.
In the end, I pretty much went with the same colours that the legendary Duncan Rhodes recommended. After the base and all the decisions with colours, it left only 2 days to get the model done. Looking back I wish I had dedicated more time to the miniature. Mainly as it may have given me a chance to beat Fairy. Most of the month was spent trying to get the Adeptus Custodes done only to abandon them in the last week anyway. I should have made this model my main focus like the other guys.
With colours decided and the base coat complete the time came for the second new technique. One particular video I watched on object source lighting stood out amongst the many. For the life of me, I couldn’t find it again to credit it here though. I have a feeling that Fairy may have watched the same video. When I saw his model in person I noticed our Aquila’s are almost identical. Following the guide gave a really good non-metallic gold anyway.
Freehand Chapter Symbols
The final new technique I tried was to do the freehand Salamanders icon on the shoulder pad. After sketching it out and practising it over and over as basic shapes I thought I had it. Only to go to the shoulder pad and realise it was not a centred shoulder pad the top arch and bottom curve were both off centre. The non-symmetrical shape of the shoulder pad caused a lot of grief! Marking out the emblem in basic shapes and then painting over it gave me a result I was reasonably happy with. I think with more time I could have done better but for a first go, I was happy. The fact I was running very short on time by this point didn’t help either.
With the chapter symbol done it was just a matter of completing the details. Overall I was pretty happy with how this model turned out. The only regrets are leaving it until the last few days. With some more time, I possibly would have gone for a non-metallic silver as well. The only other things I would change would be if we had of allowed conversions. I would have given it some scales on the shoulder pad with green stuff and covered the scabbard with scales instead of the skulls. One thing that I really wanted to change was to get rid of his hair. With the Salamanders black skin, I just don’t think the hair works as it takes away from the eyes. Those changes would mean changing a classic miniature though. Probably best we didn’t allow conversions.
Same Same But Different
Personally, the best thing about this painting competition was being pushed to try something different. I learned a lot during the month and plan to use a lot of it on my Heresy era Salamanders now. The big surprise for me was seeing that we had all done different chapters and all taken a slightly different approach with the models. Seeing how smooth Fairy’s highlights turned out with his airbrush has also made me want to spend some time refining my airbrushing skills. I’m looking forward to the next challenge. Now, where did I put my airbrush?
Thanks Sparky! Great to hear you’re not too old to learn new tricks still. We will try and track down Fairy for a winners point of view next.
Follow us & join the conversation with
#40kHeresy
