Warhammer 40,000 - Space Marine Primaris Hellblasters

I’ve been meaning to pick up some Hellblasters for a little while now to grow my burgeoning Primaris Space Wolves force. Well, I finally got my hands on some and they were pretty simple to put together. Between the various patterns of Plasma Incinerator I think the guns might have been more complex to put together than the marines were. I chose the rapid fire Incinerators as it meant not having to deal with backpack cables and the scopes on the other variant looked a bit goofy. As far as other options went, I gave the Sergeant a plasma pistol before the bionic arm looked cool and I made sure to set aside the head with scarring for him as well. In any case, I got the models assembled, leaving them separate from the bases and leaving the heads separate too for easier painting. 

For the actual painting, I started by priming them black then painting the armour with Fenrisian Grey. Which took not much time at all with an airbrush, plus the armour came out super smooth too. After that it was onto the whirlwind of tedium that is recess shading, which honestly took longer than I can intended. But once I got that done I could move onto painting the casing of the weapons and left shoulder pad with Khorne Red. After that I did the metallics, painting all the silver parts with Leadbelcher and the gold areas with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. A quick change of painting water I did all the bits that needed to be white, the plasma coils on the Incinerators and the right shoulder pads. In hindsight, I should have done a base coat in a near white like Skeleton Bone first because it took more than a few coats of Ceramite White to get a mostly smooth coat. Lastly all the leather pouches needed a couple of coats of Skrag Brown. 

Once I was done with the base colours I did the washes. Fortunately, there wasn’t much to do; just Nuln Oil on the silver parts, Strong Tone on the gold and leather parts, and Reikland Fleshshade on the bare heads. Once that quick step was done I could do all the edge highlighting. For the armour I used Vallejo Wolf Grey, which is actually the colour that my Firstborn Space Wolves are painted in. For the red areas like the weapons and shoulder pads I used Mephiston Red. And finally, for all the silver details I used Runefang Steel. For the plasma coils, I gave them a nice even coat of Talassar Blue contrast paint. The very last bits I needed to do were the lens, which I used a small amount of Caliban Green. 

At this point they were looking nearly finished, with one exception: the sergeant’s head. I’m not sure what I did but you couldn’t see any of the detail and somehow there were a bunch of dog hairs under the layers of paint. And so, for the first time I decided that I actually couldn’t stand how it looked and stripped the paint off to start again. This time I applied the primer with an airbrush, rattle cans can lay down a rather thick layer of paint if you’re not careful. Which might be what happened to me the first time round. For the skin I gave it a couple of thin coats of Cadian Fleshtone, then “washed” it with Guilliman Flesh contrast. I used it over Reikland Fleshshade because it gave a much deeper colour that was perfect for the burns on the side of his head. Once the contrast was dry I layered with Cadian Fleshtone on the raised areas and highlighted with Kislev Flesh. For the hair, I decided to make him a classic ginger and painted it with Jokaero Orange. 

With the models themselves done I could get started on the bases. And for my Space Wolves I try to go for a tundra-like theme. I start, as usual, by glooping some Stirland Mud texture paint and once that was dry I washed the bases with Strong Tone. And once that was dry, they got a cheeky drybrush of Tyrant Skull. To turn them from mud bases to something resembling tundra bases, I dolloped on some PVA glue in patches and sprinkled on some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Patchy Plains, added a few patches of Valhallan Blizzard texture paint and some Army Painter Swamp Tufts. The very last thing they needed was some Steel Legion Drab around the rims. 

Overall I’m pleased with how they turned out but man oh man, recess shading and highlighting power armour is one of the most tedious and mind numbing things I’ve done. I don’t mind it in small batches but a full squad of ten is basically torture. Damn if they don’t end up looking good though.