From the Painting Table: Warhammer 40K Shadowspear Vanguard Space Marines

I’ve long been interested in having a small Space Marine army. Several years ago, at the urging of a local gaming buddy, I obtained a small used army, and spent some time stripping/cleaning/fixing/priming it. My buddy moved away before we ever got a game in, and the Space Marines sat in a box for several years.

Last summer, when I saw the latest 40K boxed set featuring some gorgeous new models, and it was on sale… well, I figured why not? I assembled the minis and again, they sat in a box for several months. However, with the lock-in, I’ve had time to finally get this set all painted up.

This is the Vanguard Space Marine half of the Shadowspear boxed set. I used contrast paints extensively. The arms and backpacks were painted using Skeleton Horde, with the rest of the armor in Ultramarine Blue. Some Blood Angels Red was used for accent color, and most guns and other equipment was done using Black Templar. Remaining details were in various P3 and Citadel colors.

Overall, I’m fairly pleased with the results. I’m finding that contrast paints give good results in a short amount of time. These Space Marines may not win any painting awards, but they are Battle Ready. It gives me quite a bit of satisfaction to see my “primed” pile shrinking and the “painted” pile growing.