BFG: Space Marine Fleet Part 2

I have finally finished painting my Battle Fleet Gothic Space Marine Fleet. The last few tasks were by far the most time consuming to complete. However I persevered and I am now a proud owner of a fully painted Space Marine battle fleet.

Read on to discover how it turned out.

Edge Highlights

If I was normal I probably would have dry brushed all the ships with a lighter shade of red to create the desired highlights. However I am not normal. I convinced myself that the only way to do them justice was to edge highlight with an extreme detail brush. Not sure if you've noticed but Space Marine ships have a LOT of edges.

With watered down GW Blazing Orange, I edge highlighted all the raised areas by sweeping the side of the brush on the edges in precise and confident strokes. This took ages. However I am very happy of how it turned out. A little bit more orange then red but the ships do pop.

Star Field Base

I've always intended to paint all my BFG ships' bases with star fields. I think this makes them blend in really well with star mats. Given that I have the Gale Force 9 star field mats with red nebulae my bases were going to be painted with the same colour scheme.

Paints used in this process

I started by airbrushing the bases black

I then randomly airbrushed VJ Fire Red followed by VJ Red Fluo followed by VJ Rosey Flesh

Using an old toothbrush, I flicked VJ Rosey Flesh onto the bases

Followed by White and then Fluo Yellow to simulate a field of stars 

I then took the crown needle cap off the airbrush so that I can spray VJ White paint in a small cone to simulate the glow of a nearby star

I then drew thin lines of VJ White in an X pattern to simulate the sparkle

I did the same with my ordnance bases

Here's the finished product ready for the ships to be mounted on

Hand Draw Blood Angels Chapter Symbols

If you've played me at 40k than you would know that my fleet is not just random Red Marines. Rather they are part of the glorious IX Legion, the Blood Angels.

As such, they needed the Blood Angels iconic tear drop and wings Chapter symbol. With the Battle Barge this was easy to achieve as the wing armour was big enough for a generic transfer from the Space Marine Tactical box set. However for the rest of them I had to paint it on by hand. Another task that took ages.

I started with watered down GW Abaddon Black to form a black tear drop down the middle

I then carefully drew the wings. Any mistakes were fixed with VJ Fire Red after

Varnish

Given that some of the ships were pewter and prone to paint chipping of it, I protected all the ships by airbrushing VJ Matt Varnish over them. Twice. Hopefully this will protect them from normal usage as gaming pieces. I'm pretty sure if I dropped them the paint will still explode spectacularly.

The Reveal

My BFG Blood Angels Space Marine fleet is now ready to bring the fight to dirty Xenos and heretics in all four corners of the galaxy...

The combined might of an Adeptus Astartes battle group

Hunter Destroyers

Nova Frigates

Gladius Frigates

Strike Cruisers

Battle Barge

Dark Angels Strike Cruiser

Grey Knights Strike Cruisers

BFFs

Well I hoped that inspired people to finish their own painting projects. Painting and modelling can have its downs but the greatest feeling as a hobbyist is seeing your hard work on the tabletop or display cabinet. Plus I can now move this task to the 'Finish' area on my Kanban board. The first ever!