[Epic] painting marines

From: Andy Skinner <askinner_at_...>
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 1997 10:21:12 -0500

I know there have been postings about this recently, but I only
caught some of 'em.

I'm getting ready to paint some marines, and am trying to decide a
few things.

First, I've decided to use the new bases. This surprised me--I had
assumed I'd use the many old bases I've got. I won't be rebasing
many, I really didn't have that many infantry stands painted. The
ones I did have had three guys on each stand, in various of the five
holes. I've decided to go ahead and use 5 per stand (it's not like
I don't have enough marines), and the look of 5 guys in that same
pattern everywhere isn't as nice as the 5 in a slightly-varying line.
They should also be a little easier to paint. (Only a little easier,
because I never painted them on the stands before. I white-glued
them onto a popsicle stick in a row and painted them on that, painted
the stands green, then glued them in and touched up the stands and
the areas around the guys' feet, and flocked 'em.) I haven't decided
about bikes yet. I hadn't painted any, but I hate reducing the
number of stands I've got because GW said I needed more figures per
stand. I may put two on a wider base than the old infantry stands,
for the sake of enemies trying to close combat them. I don't know.

The marines I've painted so far have not been from any particular
chapter. They start out a pretty bright green, but with washing
(which has never worked well for me) end up darker. I chose it
because it seemed to make more sense on the battlefield than bright
red or whatever, but was still not a strict camouflage kind of color.
I find that green miniatures don't look all that great on the green
grass mat, though.

I'm not sure whether I'll reuse the painted marines I've already
got. Some are painted and flocked (though 3 to a stand--I have
already wondered about how to clean out the clear coat, flocking,
glue, paint, and primer to glue more painted figures into the
wholes), some are painted and still on the popsicle sticks. If
I stick with the same color (not sure now), I may reuse them. But
I had painted one shoulder pad on each marine so that they were
grouped by colors into 2nd edition detachments. I had three colors,
making up one company. I never really liked those colors, and the
organization has changed, so I'll either be painting over the
shoulders with green or some other color, or just starting from
scratch. I do want to try a different washing technique, so that
wouldn't be too bad.

Do you paint the trim on the marines' shoulder pads? If so, how?
I'm sure I couldn't do it for that many marines without messing up
quite a few of 'em.

Finally, I do need to pick a different color scheme for a different
project. I'm starting my army of individually based epic figures for
use in an "epic scale" skirmish level game. (I'll probably start
with Critter Commandos, since it is simple and I already have the
rules, but if I like it, I may move to Stargrunt II or something.)
These guys must be a different color scheme--I might lose some of
them at that size! I'm thinking of a bone look. Ivory for the main
color, a brown for a wash, and white for highlights. Some black
trim. What do you think? I'm gluing infantry to very small bronze
washers. (The smallest I could find at Home Depot without being
lock washers.) Robots and dreadnaughts (just one of each kind for
now) are being glued to a slightly larger, much cheaper (a lot more
in a 75 cent bag) zinc washer. I'll dedicate a few vehicles to the
cause.

andy
askinner_at_...
Received on Fri Jun 06 1997 - 15:21:12 UTC