Space Marines: Raptors

A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn.

After being suitably impressed with the First Strike starter boxed set for Warhammer 40,000, I decided that some of the models in the set might be a good place to experiment with painting. Aside from painting the majority of Dreadwhisper for the Curse of the Alabaster games last winter, I have not painted another model in my entire long history of being involved in the hobby, letting that all fall on Adam’s shoulders. Having no particular use for the push-fit Primaris Space Marines that I assembled from First Strike, they seemed like the ideal place to start to learn the particulars of painting. I also had an extra cast of our True-scale Space Marine, and figured his large size would also be a good way to ease into the process. After some consideration, I selected the Raptors Space Marine Chapter to paint my first models as. I always loved the drab military look of their chapter, reminding me of Sherman tanks from WWII. Conveniently, I also had most of the colors that I thought I would need from a Vallejo Model Air paint set for German/Allied WWII models.

I used white to make the eyes of the Raptor stand out, and fit with his shoulderpad markings.

I used Vallejo pigments to add some texture and rust effects to the bases of the Raptors.

Painting both the Primaris and the true-scale Space Marine both started with the airbrush, laying down a primer coat and then a layer of black. This was followed by a thorough coat of Vallejo’s Model Air Dark Green RLM71 (71.015), before airbrushing on a more sparing coat of Russian Green 4BO (71.017) on the more open, exposed areas. Finally, I airbrushed an even more controlled layer of 1:1 Russian Green and Tank Ochre 1943 (71.081). This created a nice, depth-filled green for the Space Marines. Athonian Camoshade was used sparingly in shaded areas, and Tank Ochre was used for highlights on the armours’ edges. To add some extra interest to the armor, I painted chipping by carefully spotting on Vallejo Model Air Armour Brown (71.041) in areas I predicted would suffer the most wear. I added a touch of Tank Ochre to the lower edge of most of the brown chips so that they look more three dimensional. Other than green, the other primary color on the Raptors is silver. It was done with two Vallejo Game Air colors, Gunmetal  (72.754) for the base and Chainmail Silver (72.753) for the highlights, after a coat of Nuln Oil.

The Primaris armour has very defined curves, which makes airbrushing easy, allowing the darker hues to stay in the recesses upon successive highlights.

Although not perfect, I think the smaller conventional bolter looks better on the Primaris Space Marine.

Having finished these first two Space Marines, I am pretty pleased how they turned out. It was a good learning experience, allowing me to come to terms with an airbrush, but also try my hands at edge highlighting and freehand work on the shoulderpads. Next, I plan to finish the other Primaris marines from the First Strike boxed set, and then move on to the other models that come in the box. It is exciting to be finally painting after all of these years involved in the hobby, and something that I hope to continue for many years to come!

- Eric Wier