Crimson Fists - Sternguard Veterans - Alpha Squad

The Assembling Process
So I started painting my first squad of my custom build Sternguard Veterans, and like the rest of my Marines are painted in the colours of the Crimson Fist Chapter, and so will these veterans.

I build them using all sorts of assorted parts I had laying around and some of them I purchased of Ebay, and I guess these 10 figures cost me roughly the same as 5 Games Workshop Sternguards would have cost. But since I wanted 10 figures and GW only make 5 different Sternguards, I decided to just convert my own using some normal Space Marines spiced up with all sorts of fancy parts.

Painting

For starters I just want to say that I use a mix of GW, Vallejo and Tamiya paints, but I suppose you would be able to find all the colours needed in one of the ranges, don't know about Tamiya (only use that for priming the figures black, since I don't really like the way they brush paint.) but Vallejo got a fantasy range too where you should be able to find all the colors, and they will be alot cheaper than buying GW paints.

I started by priming all the figures black and then giving them a coat of Regal Blue (or some other dark blue if you don't wanna buy the ridiculously expensive GW paints).
Then I painted all the metal parts Gunmetal.

Next I gave them a heavy wash of Badab Black (GW washes) which I use simply because it's ready to apply straight out of the bottle and just dries nicely for this purpose, I also got a Vallejo balck ink (or Negro Black as it is actually called o.o) which I guess could probably be used aswell if you diluted it abit more.

I applied the wash and left them overnight, so they were nice a dry. Next up is painting all the red things with a Dark Red (Scab Red for me, again GW line, but seriously any dark'ish red would do fine).

As you can see the wash as dried up nicely (A few touch ups might be needed, but still a good result and a thousand times quicker than applying shadows by hand, which I did for some of my first Space Marines.).

And thats how far I've gotten so far, red paint is drying as i'm writing this.

Stay tuned... next up red shadows and then Power Armour highlight madness...

*Update*

So I finished painting the red things, atleast for now, some might change as I go along.

Next up is the armour highlighting...which is just pure pain, but atleast only 5 figures, so hopefully won't be to bad.

Finished the Highlighting of the power armour, the colors seem abit lighter because of the flash, but you get the idea. I also started painting some of the other gear they are carrying around and the eyes, but for now only the base colour.

Next up is the rest of the gear, eyes, guns and whatever is left.

*Update - 02/03 - 23:03*

Just a small update before I go to bed.

Did abit of work on the purity seals, the leather pouches and probably something else that I can't remember, still quite alot of work to do.

The cloth was base coloured with buff then giving a brown wash (In my case Vallejo Buff and MIG Brown Wash) and then highlighted with buff again.

Purity Seals was base coloured with a light sand (Vallejo Pale sand) and again same Brown Wash and then highlight with light sand. Just need to paint the text and stuff now, but that is for another day.

*Update - 03/03 - 10:15*

Had to get up early today since it is my fathers B-Day and I'm visiting, but I just managed to get abit of work done on these babies.

Added text to the purity seals and a stripe on the sergeants helmet for added pimpness.

Yes memes will still exist in the future :D

I still need to add more detail on the cloth some of the others got on their shoulders, but think about maybe adding the Crimson Fist logo on there, since I won't be able to make it on the shoulders (Can maybe freehand it on one or two, but lets see).

*Update - 07/03 - 22:02*

So with two sickdays I managed to get abit of work done, not as much as I had hoped, but got hooked on the new Spartacus season so that have taken abit of my time :)

But I'm glad to report that the 5 figures are almost done, pretty much only missing banner, weapons and varnish, so a few more hours and they should be done.

*Update - 11/03*

Well they are finished, atleast I can't think of anything else to add at the moment. They do still need a spray of matt varnish, which will be done next time I'm paying my parents a visit.

And here is a picture of my current painted forces. As might be able to see, the Sternguards shade of blue is not the same as the others, but this should be corrected once they have been given some matt varnish.

Enjoy.