Heavy Bolter part 2: Painting

Once the Heavy Bolter was finished is was time for painting. This was the part I was dreading the most. Sure a few coats of black and silver here and there and she would have looked the part but to get the model to really pop I knew that I was going to have to go mad on the detail to give it the proper worn metallic feel to it. I started off simple with a few coast of primer and a black base coat.

Then silver was use to high-light the barrel, breach and the handles. I through gold would work well on the grips to give them the right Warhammer 40K feel. Then came the problem with working on such a large scale model. Flat colours. This is where internet research came in really handy. Reading some other other prop masters blogs I learned about speckling to give models a use metal look.

So I got the most beat up looking brush I had and using a mix of silver, black and blue, when to town on the Bolter. From what I had read inconsistency was the best way to make the effect look real. It was weird at first painting the model like this. It felt like I was just making a mess but over the course of the painting it all seem to fit together and when I stepped back the over all look fitted. Now this was the first time I had done anything like this so I was not expecting it to be a master piece when I'd finished, but I was happy with it. Once the was done there came the second stage of detailing to give it a rough worn look. White paint was used along the edges to give the impression of scraps and ware on the Bolter.

The barrel and breach needed blacking to show gun fire and the releasing of the shells. This was done along the same lines as the scraps marks on the edges of the Bolter. Again I had the feel that I was messing it up the hole it I was doing this until I stepped away and I could take in the whole effect.

I was at a loss as to what I would paint the raised detail at the back here as most of the pictures I'd see just had then plain silver but that didn't feel right to me so I added some more gold, a spot of red and yellow strips to show that these are all working parts of the Bolter.

And with those done the Heavy Bolter was finished. I added alot most scrap marks to the back of the Bolter as that would be pressing up against the armor of a Space Marine so it would ware more.

And (almost) finished. I say almost because there is still two piece of detail I want to add to the model. The crest of the Deathwatch and a purity seal. Because I moved house during the last stages of the build I never got around to making either of them. But now that I'm settled in I have the time and space to get them made. I'm setting a deadline of the middle of October to have these done, painted and attached as Gaelcon is on that bank holiday weekend and I want to have it on display for that convention.

And here we have one of the chaps down at my local Gamer Workshop ready to fight the good fight for the God-Emperor.