Color Test

Hey look, Space Marines!

So let's look at what I've got here for my Steel Dragons. First, I'll throw in the disclaimer: These are a rush job. We'll discuss the first two in more detail after this, so let's focus a little more on the heads.

I'm thinking the bronze helmets will be Tactical Marines. The blue helmets will be Devastators like in Blood Angels. I think I'll change the bronze side bits on the helmet to blue as well, or at least to Boltgun. The bronze feels awkward. So that leaves the silver helmet which is the Sergeant indicator. I'm thinking of making it mark Veterans as well, so my Terminator "honor guard" will have silver helmets.

Here I've got the front view to compare Bolters. The guy on the right is a model I did a while back. The biggest problem I have with it is it's too bland. I'll probably revisit it and bronze up the scope and magazine along with the bluing of the side panel. On the left model, I completely forgot I had decided on bronze gauntlets. Simply adding the blue to the body of the Bolter seems to add enough life to the color scheme in my mind. Plain grey boltguns work on Marines that are not predominately grey.

Again, the Marine on the right is the original Steel Dragons color test. I'll say first off that I definitely prefer the way I did the body of the backpack on the original test. The blue spread is much better with the grey around the skull. I am, however, a bit torn on the exhaust ports. The lower ports I'm pretty sure I'll end up with as bronze, but those top ball ports I don't know. I think I'll keep them bronze. With the Marine on the left you can't really tell from these pictures, but the actual vents on the upper ports have some bronzing applied, and I think it looks good on them. I'll have to think on it.

One thing I've changed since the original test model is the application of a darker tin metallic as a base before adding the bronze. For some reason the Dwarf Bronze I have simply doesn't coat well on its own. It does well on a tin base coat, however. I learned this with the bronze I used on the Stormraven. This weekend I'm thinking of making a Terminator color test.