This squad is somewhat of a departure in style for me. I originally intended to a full squad of Marines for eBay, in my usual style of clean crispness and multiple layered highlights. But after a less-than-perfect primer coat, and experimentation with dry brushing techniques for a quick rank-and-file quality finish with a spare marine (in a Raptors scheme), I decided I would try the whole squad in such a fashion. It would also save me a lot of time and get me back to painting some character models and individual pieces, which is much less tedious work.
So, by using dry brushing properly (most folks think they are dry brushing and still have WAY too much paint on the brush), a very, very soft set of makeup brushes, and a few dilute glazes, I achieved a respectable tabletop-quality squad. Sure, it won't win any Demons, but it's a far sight better than an unpainted or block-colored squad!
Not only did I add depth in new and unusual ways for me, but I also decided to go with a worn, battle-damaged look as well, which I normally don't go for, but seemed appropriate for this style, as well as adding a bit more character to the unconverted, basic tactical squad. First were paint chips, painted in convincing patterns in Boltgun Metal straight onto the finished armor. This was followed by some dust and mud, drybrushed onto legs, feet, and elbows, in a "reverse highlighting" sort of way, where I began and covered the most area with the lightest color, and ended and covered the least surface area with the darkest color.
The squad has been given the "new style" Ultramarines markings for Version 4 of Warhammer 40,00, as shown in the sneak peaks of the upcoming Ultramarines models. They sport gold shoulder pad trim, and the new squad designation style left pad.
To the left are thumbnails that will take you to 1000-pixel-wide pictures of the entire squad, followed by individual shots of the Sergeant and a basic trooper. At the bottom, the group shots take you to full-size, way too big, 2000+ pixel views!
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