Tactical Squad

Every Space Marine army has to start with a tactical squad. This was my first, as well as my first go at airbrushing troops. 

This was the first squad I painted for the army. The colour scheme was still a work in progress at this stage, and I gave these an all over wash to give them a more battle-worn, dirty appearance. This was a mix of brown, purple and a little red I think. Whilst I was really pleased with how the was turned out, it didn't give the look I really wanted for the army, so I haven't done it on any other squads.

The shading was a little light on here too, as it was for a while until I found more of my groove with the airbrush. I was also having a lot of grief with the VGA Burnt Umber. I've since added a load of flow improver to the bottle and it's a lot better now.

You can see here, particularly on the missile launcher guy that I have a running battle with the shoulder pad transfers. Micro-sol, Micro-set, gloss varnish, etc, they just don't like going over the curve of the shoulder. I have since had better results putting a couple of small cuts into the transfer as well.

These guys also got a little weathering, probably a little more than most of my later squads. I aimed to have a mix of weathering throughout the army. Most units have some, a couple have none at all.