Assault Termies Complete!

Just completed my Assault Terminators and I'm very happy with the results.  Maybe in my next post I'll compare the progress I've made since the (standard) Terminator squad a year ago, but even I was amazed.

These represent some of the first models that I've painted that weren't originally bought years ago, but instead purchased much later on ebay to fill in my 'classic' Rogue Trader era collection.  They're all done (note the lead picture was taken just before the final step of adding silver highlights after the dullcoat - forgot to retake that picture, will fix later).

I do have a Terminator Chaplain (hint as to next project) which is a bit beyond the classics but fills in my all termie HQs, and so these models were picked up to go with him and also be a practice run.

Thus explains the color scheme.  However, just like my red Ultramarine Terminator squad, these black Assault Termies are veterans who get to adorn their armor with an alternate color (says me).  I was never a fan of the very rigid color schemes that they pushed people into.  Anyway, there's examples of this with Deathwing, and I came up with this plan way before there were such in-depth codices, its just taken this long to implement it.

So I wanted to get black power armor practice which means it was time to learn a new skill: edge painting.  I found the Giovanni Di Lena tutorial and went to work.  Also, I needed upgrades which I posted about earlier - the improved brushes, wet palette, and most importantly, the magnifying glasses.  It really helped to be able to see the details.  While the steady hand and figuring out how to work with the various colors is always a constant struggle that you can really only learn through experience, just seeing what your doing is surprisingly important!

Also, the excel spreadsheet really helped me to focus on getting work done every night rather than sitting around for half the time (no joke) trying to remember the plan.  I highly recommend these things.  It took almost exactly 75 hours to paint all 10 (doesn't include assembly or priming).  For comparison, the Librarian was 12.6 hours, so adding models as you might expect can increase efficiency a bit.

I didn't have a pot of Dark Reaper, so I used 50/50 VMC Basalt Gray and VMC Black, it worked fine I think, but we'll see next time (I got some of the Dark Reaper now).

Also, this was the first time I was successful at lettering and the text on the purity seals with paint on a brush rather than using the micropoint pen.  Again quite a step up.  I lucked out here and got all 3 letters on the first try.

In a continuation post I'll show some WIP pictures as they progressed through various stages.  To get the extra white backgrounds I bumped up the exposure on the pictures a bit, which looks more washed out on the PC as compared to the phone screen.  I'll have to play around with it more.