Astonaut Space Marine

A Space Marine painted with an astronaut-like color scheme.

When I first got this mini from a Warhammer magazine, I noticed that under the right foot was a shoe imprint. It gets covered up by the foot, but it got me thinking about the astronauts on the moon leaving behind their foot prints. This inspired me to paint this Space Marine with an astronaut theme.

I tried a new technique for recess shading (or panel lining). Instead of painting the base coat and shading the recesses, I decided to paint the recess color first, then paint the base coat after and avoid the recesses. This technique worked really well, in my opinion, because it gave strong dark lines to break apart the different panels and edges, but took so much longer that I don’t know if I’ll use it very often.

I found a concept art (which I can’t find again unfortunately) where the metal connections where the gloves and helmet attach to the suit were orange anodized metal. I loved this look so I mixed orange and gold paint and painted various parts with it. This paint mixture worked perfectly. I highlighted with more gold, which I think took away from the effect in a few spots unfortunately.

I free-handed some red stripes on the right shoulder, and have blue on the other shoulder. I didn’t have the confidence to add a white star to the blue shoulder, unfortunately. I shaded the blue parts, so if I messed up on the white, I couldn’t easily paint blue over it again. If I ever find a decal or increase my skills, I might update this miniature.

Finally, I tested a new technique wherein you coat with a gloss varnish (or in my case, satin) because it’s more protective, then coat with a matte varnish (because matte looks better).

Overall, I really like how this miniature turned out. It totally looks like an astronaut on the moon while simultaniously still looking a Space Marine.