28 Challenge: Female Dark Angel Space Marine

Two of the mightiest female warriors ready to purge heretics in the name of the Emperor!

A little while back, we converted a female Space Marine out of an original Rogue Trader plastic model for 28’s most recent challenge. Although the announcement of the challenge was largely well received, as anticipated there was a vocal minority who were upset by it, decrying cancel culture and other inane criticisms. Some “clever” commenters thought they were educating the 28 team by telling them that female Space Marines would look nigh identical to male ones, due to their bulky power armor. This point is self-evident, and to emphasize it, I thought it would be worthwhile to paint one of the Dark Angels I converted years back out of Primaris Space Marines for the challenge!

The basic green was done by glazing over a zenithally primed model with thinned Caliban Green.

Very little was done to convert this Primaris Space Marine into a regular one, aside from replacing the Bolter, helmet, and backpack, and removing the kneepad fins.

The painting process was quite straightforward. I primed the model black, followed by a zenithal spray of grey and white with an airbrush. This allowed me to use an airbrush to glaze on Citadel Air Caliban Green to give the model a good green basecoat. Using a brush, I darkened some of the recesses with a glaze of Caliban Green darkened with some black. I highlighted areas in a similar way, by mixing some Vallejo Game Color Glacier Blue (72.095) into the Caliban Green and glazing it over the raised areas. The gold on the chest eagle and Dark Angel icon was painted initially with a coat of Vallejo Metal Color Copper (77.710), before it was washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade, and a final highlight with Vallejo Metal Color Gold (77.725) was done. The skulls on the model’s backpack were initially painted with Vallejo Model Color Chocolate (70.872), followed by progressively light highlights glazed and lightly stippled on in the following color: Citadel Air Steel Legion drab -> Citadel Air Karak Stone -> Citadel Air Ushabti Bone -> Pro Acryl Bright Ivory -> Pro Acryl Bold Titanium White.

Skulls were added to her backpack to mimic some of the iconic Dark Angels artwork created by Games Workshop over the years.

From left to right: Sister of Battle, Dark Angel Space Marine, Arco-flagellant.

The Dark Angel is quite a bit larger than this diminutive halfling!

Despite being a Dark Angels player my entire time in the hobby, this was actually the first one I have ever painted! It is great to have finally tried my hand at it, and I am excited for the prospect of trying to paint a few more and hone the scheme. Perhaps I can even finish enough for a Kill Team for the upcoming edition?! Time will tell. Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

- Eric Wier