Friday 23 July 2021

Dark Angels - Macragge Tactical Squad - TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Dark Angels Macragge tactical squad. I don't recall how long I've had these for... actually, I have a way to find out [the search function in this very blog!] - October 2013! I bought the Macragge box for £14 so I could have some extra Space Marines and ironically they appear to be the last thing in the box to be painted [I think the fuel cell might still need completing].


8 years on and they're TO DONE! I didn't know it had been that long! I specifically wanted to put these on 32mm bases, just to see what they looked like. 


I'm now looking at my 25mm based marines and they do seem tiny, like those ridiculously small Star Wars Legion bases.


So I'm still debating whether to get 32mm adaptors, but the slate on these bases fill them out really well and add height, which makes the proportions work. 


I'm not sure adding to the diameter of my existing models will work as well, if they're flat to the ground. They'll just come across as Subbuteo players...


On the plus side, I think these bases really help enhance what are thoroughly mundane figures. They're monopose snap-fit. 


I've added some bits and doodads here and there to try and differentiate them a little but I think the basing does most of the hard work - they're taller and more substantial because of it.


But there are some varied characters in there too and I have two heavy weapons guys to choose from to complete the unit. 


I think I have just enough variety to decide how to Combat Squad them - the ones with targetters on their helms and bolter will be the 3 standard marines to join the squad leader [with the banner] and heavy weapons marine.


The rest will join the Flamer and Sergeant. I spent quite a while trying to think what honour badge I'd give this dude - it was just a disk of sprue I stuck on. Then it came to me and it was so obvious - he has the Watchmen honour badge! 🙂


A bayonet attachment, targeting scope and some dangly scrolls help add individual character to repeated poses. Luckily they're such a generic poses it only takes little touches like these to add variety.


I swear I cannot do those knife blades. I was trying to recreate a Japanese Hamon blade pattern, but it looked awful so I just added some more black in the end to cover it up.


Once again I was a little disappointed with the finished pictures, in fact in the heat my phone started to malfunction as I was taking them! Also, I rushed adding my Army Painter Anti-Shine, which was at the end of the bottle. So it went on a bit frothy, which meant that it did dry with frosty bits in recesses, not unlike the AK interactive fiasco. I was understandably disappointed after all this effort, but I'll cover that more in the white pics as I was able to fix most of the problems in the end. Until then, here's the Great Big Granite Stamp of Approval.


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