1st Tactical Squad

Alright, my first tactical squad is complete. I have mixed feelings about the results. I spent a lot of time looking online for ideas on painting black power armor. I thought about highlighting with Boltgun Metal but changed my mind and went with a scheme I saw in "How to Paint Space Marines".

The method is for painting Black Templar but I thought it would apply to Raven Guard as well.

The book calls for a highlight of Codex Gray and an extreme highlight of Fortress Gray. Instead, I used a lot of Shadow Gray highlights and only used the Codex Gray and Fortress gray very sparingly. The biggest thing I will take away from my first tactical squad, is that highlighting is hard. Straight lines are hard to paint. Still, the practice was good and will hopefully come in handy down the road.

The Black Reach Sgt. was extremely fun to paint. The layers of the pauldron on his extended arm are great. I ended up putting a lot more paint on his face than I wanted as I tried to get the white face mutation correct. I think the washed out faces of the Raven Guard are one of their coolest aspects. Moving forward, I'll have to get this down. Definitely before I paint the scouts.

The biggest inspiration for my Raven Guard came from Aaron Dembski Bowden's "Cadian Blood" novel.

Having completed the Black Reach marines I can't wait to get my hands on tactical squad set so I can mess with the poses a little bit.

Well, there you have it. Next week, it's on to the bike squad.
Victorus aut Mortis!