Chief Apothecary Hulm Singa Complete!

 Chief Apothecary Hulm Singa:

It is a 1991 miniature (catalogue #070133/63) but as with my techmarine, I decided to go with a 2nd edition backpack to give him the iconic Apothecary silhouette (lamps etc).  For a long time GW published lists that gave bolters to Apothecaries as an option to support these miniatures.  At some point though they gave up and now only pistols and chainswords are on the wargear list.  So, because wysiwyg is important to me, I stuck a chainsword on the backpack too.  The pistol was already holstered on the sculpt.

White is tricky, but I feel I did alright with it.  I experimented with a little contrast in some areas like the shoulder insignias and studs.

Also I am fairly pleased with how the vials/IVs on the backpack turned out as posted before.  To finalize the glass look I put 'ard coat on them and it really made the difference.  Looking at the pictures now though I might go back and apply a bit more shading to the IV lines and some 'ard coat on them too.

Pinning the backpack was quite a pain, even though it is plastic (while the miniature is probably lead, or maybe pewter) the join tab didn't line up very well, and the older sculpts really had weird designs anyway.  Figuring out where exactly the backpack wanted to sit most securely and then figure out where the pin holes should go took almost +++redacted+++ [an embarrassing amount of time].  But now that it's on I feel like it's fairly well connected.  I mean obviously it still has a bunch of fiddly bits with the camera, lamp, and chainsword, but its on there.

Yay friends:

Appy 'n Teckie (WIP) Update 4

All of the detail is done!  And I've applied a base coat of brush on varnish.  I think I will do that from now on (at least for important models) to add extra protection.  I've read that Testors Dullcoat spray doesn't protect very well.  I'll still use it for the finish, but I think the extra varnish under might be a good idea.

I still need to pin the backpacks on, finish the bases, and spray on the dullcoat.  And then also apply the final metallic highlights.

I finished the liquid vials on the backpack - the last step was to apply the blue colors for the upper part of the glass.  I think overall it was a success.

I just found some old references to post heresy Ultramarine Chief Apothecary and Master of the Forge names in an old White Dwarf (WD97).  Guess who now has names?

While I like using my own names for my models, and would never use 'Named' Character datasheets (well maybe someday I might get a Robby G...) but I will use a 'known' name that isn't attached to a datasheet, especially if its a really obscure and retro reference!  

But some of those names though, oh man, Christopher Columbus (basically) - right up there with Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau ;)

Appy 'n Teckie (WIP) Update 3

 Making more progress, and I've also been learning some new things!

First, I found a glazing tutorial by Dana Howl (aka @dana_howl) were I learned something useful that I hadn't heard before.  The main new thing was to wet a towel and unload 'most' of the glaze/paint from the brush before going in to paint.  'Most' still takes practice and experience, but the goal is to prevent flooding the area on the miniature.  This small bit of information which I had never heard before was huge!  It was the missing piece that I didn't know I didn't know.  I had always struggled with paint pooling/ponding and then creating marks at the edges of the pool if it dried even a little as I was trying to move it around.  I always thought it was a consistency problem or something and this finally gave me the answer!

She recommended using glaze medium rather than water which I had heard before, but I tried it again, and with the above information it was helpful in differentiating more for me in my mind the difference between a wash and a glaze.

Anyway, with that, I have made progress on several areas which directly benefitted from this new information and gave really good results.  For example, the Techmarine's helm lens/visor looks really good after applying some blended glazes from green to a slight lemon lime blend with yellow.

And of course, I started in on the green liquid in the Apothecary's backpack.  I'm following Louise Sugden's (aka @Savage_ork_guy) Citadel Colour Master Class Glass Bottles technique which was a huge help and so far it's turning out great.

Appy 'n Teckie (WIP) Update 2

 More progress with Appy 'n Teckie:

I've finished all of the base coats and most of the shading.  I think the white is turning out well.  I'm using the same formula I worked out on the Assault Terminator helms but have been applying even thinner coats and it's going well.  This is Vallejo Sky Gray (it comes through pretty white due to the photo).  Most of the shading is just the Vallejo Basalt Grey underneath rather than a shade.  I brought the Sky Grey down to a glaze for the last few layers over the shoulder studs, still needs some work I think.  For the Apothecary badge on the other shoulder I got as close as I dare could with the white, but I did want to leave a bit of darker gray to outline the badge.  There were a few spots that were just too small so I used some Apothecary White Contrast paint and it worked pretty well in those areas.

I figured out that with a ton more blue tac I could get the heavy metal Techmarine backpack to sit upright on the pin.  Now its a bit easier to paint.  Its going pretty well, I opted to use Basilicanum Grey Contrast (mixed with contrast medium) to shade rather than Blood Angels Red Contrast because it gives a bit more of a grimy/oily look that a Techmarine would probably have.  I did use some Blood Angels Red to shade larger patches of armor on the under side of arms and legs though.  I also used some Ork Flesh Contrast to tint the toolbox after first highlighting it with Vallejo Silver.  It turned out pretty well actually, was exactly the look I was going for.

I'm having fun with the glass vials on the Apothecary backpack.  I'm following a masterclass guide from GW.  I didn't have many of the colors they indicated in GW paint, but luckily it seems I had most of the equivalents in Vallejo.  For the glass its a 70/30 mx of Vallejo Deep Sky Blue and Vallejo Prussian Blue.  For the green liquid its 50/50 Caliban and Vallejo Intermediate Green, and the red liquid is Khorne Red.  I've also shaded the red with Blood Angels Red and the blue and green with Gryph-Charger Grey.

Appy 'n Teckie (WIP)

Continuing with the nicknames we have a new project in the works: a pair of early edition support marines.  A Techmarine with a toolbox (070133/74) and an Apothecary with a bolter (070133/63).  It's interesting that for a long time the Apothecary with bolter loadout was supported, but it seems recently they stopped with that.  Because WYSIWYG is important to me, I'm going to attach a chainsword to his backpack, and the sculpt already has a bolt pistol on his hip, so it should be fine.

Both of these are from the 1991 catalogue so I think they are safely considered Rogue Trader era.  Traditionally these models came with standard Space Marine backpacks, but I wanted to make sure that they had silhouettes and loadouts that are close to the modern datasheets, so I'm going to use 2nd edition backpacks for both.  These slightly newer but still very old backpacks give a better approximation of what modern models look like, but still have a very classic look.  Really the main thing was the servo-arm, making sure that was on the Techmarine was important since its an iconic thing that has been there since 2nd edition and is a special weapon unique to the datasheet.  I can probably get away saying the toolbox has some other weapon/thingy.

I'm excited to work on these, I've found some great examples online of these models and gives a good guide to shoot for.