Dark Angels - Devastator squad marking

Day 1 of the loft conversion [last Thursday] brings with it all the scaffolding and having taken the day off to be 'on site' I do get to spend the rest of the day painting. I don't think I'll be able to justify that every day I'm home but it's nice to get something done considering it's preventing Armies on Parade. This is only a micro blog but it'll do considering the upheaval. The Devastators have get the most of my attention and having created a wonderfully dark blend on this marine I'm now going to cover it up with the Devastator blast symbol. First things first was to pencil in the shape. Later on I didn't bother as it's relatively simple [although I didn't take anymore pictures :( ]

With outline in place I painted an inverted T shape using Mechrite Red [still have my supply] and then ran diagonal lines off the bottom of the T, then filled in the spikes. Black washes at the base gave it a bit of depth and then Vallejo Bloody red edges. Subsequently I decided there was too much black in the 'blast' so toned the spikes down with Mechrite red, making more of a linear gradient than an offset inner one. Interestingly I kept on finding all sorts of brown marks on the leg greaves after painting these. I couldn't figure it out as they weren't like that when I started. Then I realised I'd been using latex gloves I'd used when sculpting Milliput months ago and somehow it was still transferring to the model! Lesson learned - wear different/clean gloves.

The Missile Launcher guys have slightly smaller right shoulders and some have discs on which will render the blast symbol impossible. For these marines I will paint the 5th Company symbol on the disc and paint the blast symbol on their right leg. Where possible I'll also paint the 5th Company Roman numeral and various litanies painted on their armour.

And to prove I'm not just scamming you all on the abandonment of Armies on Parade, this is the morning of day 4 of the loft conversion. The dormer is up and by the end of the day was roofed and boxed in. The builder is hoping to finish in 3 weeks, instead of the 4-6 originally quoted so who knows where we'll be at the end of it, there may yet be time for AoP.

But at least we'll have a kick-a$$ view ;)