Space Marine Scout

First miniature for 2016. Actually, I just didn't quite get his last coat of varnish done last year! This guy sums up so much of the glorious silliness of 40k.

First there's the colours. A scout, a sniper at that, in bright yellow. I thought about painting this guy as part of the Dark Angels chapter - sober, sensible dark green. But everything I've been painting has been green lately: green soldiers, green cultists, green walls. I wanted this guy to stand out on the table (perfect for a sniper). So bright yellow it is!

It took a while for me to get going: yellow is not for the faint-hearted. However, I found a couple of useful painting tutorials: Dave Taylor's and this one. I started with a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Scrofulous Brown (well, more like eight base coats because  decided to undercoat in black. Once that was done, I painted most of the yellow areas with VGC Sun Yellow. Sepia wash in the recesses, then Sun Yellow plus white for the highlights.

The other gloriously silly thing is a strapping, fearsome, aspiring superhuman with a loveheart emblazoned on his DayGlo armour. I was casting around for a space marine chapter with an interesting back-story and an emblem easy enough to free-hand. Enter the Lamenters.

The Lamenters appear to be the pathetic sad-sacks of the space marines. Every major campaign takes them to the brink of extinction: pummeled by chaos, tyranids, loyalist marines, psychic cyclones. They are shunned by other marines - shady genetics, questionable alliances. Perfect for what I have in mind!

I'm happy with the way he turned out, especially the yellow. The rifle could have done with some bolder highlights: it ends up being a bit of a black blob in his middle. But, he's ready for action.