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| Finally... the set is complete |
This week I finally came to the end of my journey to
completely paint my Space Hulk set. For those of you who have been following
this blog for a while, you’ll know the story already: I obtained Space Hulk
when I worked for Games Workshop in 2009, and even though I opened it and
played it a few times with my mate Dave, I never got around to painting it. The
reason for this is that I played the vast majority of war games in what was
then Games Workshop, and what is now the Warhammer stores (though I’ve yet to
play a game in one of those!) where there is a certain expectation for your
models to be painted, or at least have some sign of progression, if you use
them in the shop. The problem is that Games Workshop stopped supporting Space
Hulk after the month it was released, so as I wasn’t going to play any games in
the shop, it wasn’t a priority to paint them – not at the point where I
perpetually had a tonne of Chaos Space Marines, Empire and Haradrim (one army
from the three core game systems that it was expected I would have as a member
of staff) that I needed to be painting! Dave, of course, didn’t mind the models
not being painted, so even though we’ve really enjoyed playing the game in the
past, the models remained unpainted for eleven years.
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| All the Terminators were very highly detailed... |
That all changed when Lockdown began, and I found myself
with a little (though surprisingly not much) more than the usual amount of
spare time on my hands. I’d painted all the Chaos Space Marine Raptors I had
for the Black Legion army I was working on, and while I did get some more
eventually, I didn’t see any sense in going to any of the hobby shops to buy
them while we were in lockdown. I had some of the old boxed sets in the loft of
the flat I used to live in and decided to get the Space Hulk set down and paint
them. I started with one squad of Terminators, then painted the twelve
Genestealers that looked the most straightforward to paint. Both appeared in
previous editions of the blog. I then painted the remaining squad of
Terminators – including the dead one – and the leftover Genestealers, these
didn’t make it on to the blog because I didn’t know what to say about them
without repeating myself.
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| ...and the Broodlord was a lot of fun! |
Moving on, I painted the Librarian and the Broodlord. Both
presented an additional challenge for me: As most folks who play 40K know, a
Librarian’s armour is always blue no matter what chapter they’re attached to so
that was a break from the red I’d been painting hitherto. I also went into a
lot more detail with the weapons, face and armour than I did with the other
models, as this was the “centrepiece” of the Terminator force in Space Hulk.
With the Broodlord, this was much the same as the Genestealers I’d been
painting up to that point but with an extra layer of colour on the flesh and
carapace. There was also a lot more than the usual number of skulls and
Terminator helmets that needed painting, and it took me a while, but I’m
pleased with the result.
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| The finishing touches. |
Finally, I painted the last little bits – the Artefact and
the C.A.T. I didn’t spend a huge amount of time on these, but it was a lot of
fun doing the jewels on the Artefact.
I’ve bought quite a few “build and paint” games in the last
10-12 years and this is the first time I’ve managed to do both with a complete
set, so I’m pleased with that. Both factions presented a fresh challenge: The
colour I painted the Blood Angels Terminators was the same as the colours I’d
been painting my Word Bearers, but with more of an emphasis on the gold than
the silver. The Genestealers were an altogether different experience, as I haven’t
painted Tyranids many times before, and when I have, it’s never been in any
significant numbers. Space Hulk is a great set, and I’m glad to have completed
it.
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