A DNFer's Lament

[Bexley]

So, my company Xmas party is this Friday. We are all bringing various games to play, and I volunteered to go to my storage unit tonight and pull out my old, worn first edition copy of Space Hulk.

It occurred to me, though, that only about half the figures are painted, and that ones that are done are painted poorly. Well, not poorly, but... uh... "efficiently." The marines were sprayed black and drybrushed Boltgun Metal. I may have also painted in the eyes, I don't really remember. The few stealers I painted were all painted in crazy colors, like zebra stripes and polka dots. I painted one in the traditional colors, but that took forever, so the rest got wacky schemes.

So, my goal (maybe too much for a known DNFer) is to repaint the entire set by Friday. Actually, Thursday evening, since the party is Friday after work.

Of course, speed painting techniques are key. I found a Rustoleum color that's close to my marine chapter (the Booze Angels) color, so I can use that as a primer on the (ten) termies. All I would need to do then is a Brown Ink wash, pick out the trim and weapons in black, and drybrush the weapons bronze for a fairly quick paintjob. I have a set of decals I had custom made for the chapter badge, a winged scotch bottle, which I can apply.

The really tough bit is the stealers- there's twenty of them, and the old schooler in me really wants them in the traditional purple and blue. I'm thinking that I can prime them a medium blue, then pick out the purple bits in pink, and then apply a heavy dark blue wash. After that, just pick out the claws in beige, drybrush them white, and dot the eyes.

Can I do it in time? Probably not, but I feel the need to somehow redeem my IP DNF. I intend to document the process here, for the no particular reason.

Wish me luck! Or not.

[supervike]

Good luck to you!!

I'd say to just dip your stealers, as folks seem to have incredible and fast results there.

[Bexley]

That's sort of the idea, but with a bluish "dip" instead of brown. I'll do one as a test first, if it doesn't look too good, I'll try a brown stain.

[Hinton]

Good luck, Bex! It'll be interesting to see how they turn out.

[Bexley]

Aw, lame. Somehow, I seem to have lost one of the crappy plastic marines that came with the game. I have an unpainted metal terminator that I can donate to the cause, but I don't want to speed paint it as part of this set.

Bleah. I guess I'll have to. Lamelamelame.

[Bexley]

PROJECT SPACE HULK: THE BEGINENING

Prior to priming. One interesting note: as far as I can remember, those figures are painted with the original style Citadel paints (actually, I know that for a fact) and varnished with a coat or two of Glosscote followed by Dullcote. They soaked for five hours in Simple Green, and it didn't make a dent in the paint. Normally, a few minutes is enough to start loosening the paint. Maybe I used something else instead of Testor's as a varnish, but I can't recall ever having used anything else.

Anyway. The key here will be priming with the base color- a dullish beige-y brown color for the marines. The chapter color is based on a bottle of 15y.o. Bowmore. Off the top of my head, it's some Snakebite Leather, Golden Yellow, Fiery Orange, and Skull White. Actually...

That'd be what I'm going for. I have a spray paint that's a reasonable match- I'm not being too picky, as these termies aren't going to be mixed in with my regular units, so they don't have to match. I designed the color scheme to be quick to paint, so that helps.

As I noted before, my plan for the stealers is to prime them with a medium blue, pick out the fleshy bits in a pinkish purple, then wash the whole figure with a dark blue.

[Bexley]

I ended up tossing the marines into brake fluid over night. Hopefully, that'll eat the paint off. I'd just spray ove rthem, but they were painted and re-painted a few times, and so the paint is on there pretty thick. The stealers can just get re-sprayed, as they've all (well, the half that are painted) only got one coat of primer and paint on them. I'll prime them and the unpainted half of the termies at lunchtime, so that I can start painting them tonight.

[YoungWolf7]

Ack.

Brake fluid will slag most plastics. I hope you don't find a pile of sludge when you return...

[Bexley]

My experience is that it only ruins PVC type plastics, like a lot of pre-paint stuff. Styrene seems to hold up just fine.

At any rate, there was an old old 80's era Space Marine backpack in my jar of brake fluid. I took it out, cleaned off the brake fluid with Simple Green, and it was fine. The backpack had to have been in there at least six months or so.

I did a lot of tests before ever trying it myself. I had several pieces of sprue from various Citadel eras ( a piece from the RTB-01 marines, some from early 90's weapon sprues, and some current version weapon sprues) soaking for over a month, in case they used different plastic formulations over time- I could easily see one type of plastic being fine, and another turning to goo. All of the citadel stuff was fine. The only thing that gave me a problem was Rackham's AT-43 Tiamat, which developed a stickiness that never went away, causing me to do something else for my OSL IP entry.

[Bexley]

Last night, I finished cleaning up the old termies (@YoungWolf7- they came out of the brake fluid just fine- in fact, while all the paint slid right off, whatever cheap can of flat white spray paint I used as a primer sixteen years ago remained untouched and pristine) and started spraying the stealers. I brought them to work today, so I can finish priming the everything today at lunch, and then start painting the details tonight.

[Bexley]

No internet ta home last night, so I couldn't update.

The stealers are nearly done- I just have to paint the claws white.

The first squad of terminators got dipped, but the stain/sealer ate the paint off. I cleaned them up with turps and re-sprayed them. The second squad got an inks wash. I'll wash the other squad tonight, then drybrush, pick out the details, and seal. WIP pictures will be posted later today, and hopefully a finished shot late tonight.l

[Bexley]

...aaaaaand done. 30 minis painted... uh... adequately) in three evenings. Dullcote is drying; I'm going to bed. Buncha pictures tomorrow.

[Wren]

That's some definite iron Bexley, congrats! I hope you all have fun playing the game too!

[callumrice]

Got lucky with the brake fluid id say, Ive lost 2 minis to the sludge that comes out of that stuff sometimes.

[Bexley]

@ Wren: I will, if I get to play the stealers. I'm dragging this out for nostalgia reasons; it's one of the most unbalanced games I've ever played. The general tactic with marines isn't "to win," it's to see how close you can actually get.

@ callumrice: Really? Huh. I usually use Simple Green first, and if that doesn't work, I go for the brake fluid. If I have a piece of the sprue the minis were on, I'll test that first to be safe, but have only had a problem with Rackham stuff.

[DrEvilmonki]

Actually completely disagree with you. Space Hulk is an extremely balanced game if the Marines are played by someone who knows what they are doing.

Most people I play against complain how hard it is for the stealers to win, but again if played by someone who knows the tactics the stealers are effective.

Just make sure you use as much cross fire as you can in overwatch, be patient and protect your flamers. Flamers are mainly used to block map sections, killing stealers is a bonus,

[Bexley]

First or second edition? I've heard that second is a little better.

Though, it could just be that I was really young and a noob when I started playing.

The game will be put through it's paces tonight, though, as a few of our developers wanted to play - I'm really kinda looking forward to the designer of Descent likely trouncing me.