Two bits that came together in a post today - I recently picked up one of the excellent Macromat background sets from Tablewar and got a chance to test it out with an SLR camera rather than my standard mobile phone approach.
As one of the mats (there are 3 included in the kit) is a gradation from white to blue... it also seemed fitting that the first test subject as a 'showcase' would be my old tactical squad from ~1993 that I found in the cupboard over Christmas.
These are literally the first marines that I painted, more than 20 years ago. While the paint job isn't brilliant, it definitely reflects the paint style of the day. Blood red whacked everywhere, block colours, minimal highlights on chest, weapon, etc. The one thing that I'm ok with after all this time is that I did at least fade the highlights on the armour. Granted, it was highlighting basically an orange basecoat up with yellow... but the blend is better than a pure edge-highlight often seen now.
Mini-studio Kit
The photo setup for test run looks something like this... the macromat set includes 2 other rubber sheets; both with a dark mottled rocky look, one cool/grey and one warm/brown. These clip onto a collapsible stand which can be raised/lowered, and as the back of the matt is rubberised, it will kind of stick to a flat surface which allows it to be a more gentle curve if desired. Pretty happy with the set.
The little lamps are relatively crappy ones, which is why I'm trying to bounce the light with the white paper sheets at the side. These aren't great, nor was having a daylight source over the shoulder as it's given a slightly orange tone. I might try this again at night and see how they go.
Now - take one on getting some photo skills up.
Tactical marine shots... actually, I might need to double check the focus on some of these... Ironically that probably makes it look even more like box art from 2nd Edition 40k :-)
Goblin Green. Base of champions. The default base colour for about a decade, including my ~50 odd Eldar. Loosely added over the top of beach-sand.
The white blood drop isn't terrible - but we've come a long way since adding decals. At the time I couldn't stretch to the $8 for Blood Angels decal blister. Which is also why there is no chapter logo on the left side.
Group shot of combat squad. There was definitely a paper-banner on the sergeant at some point, but this seems to have been lost in the mists of time (or wardrobe at least).
Party shot of 10. There were 2x sets of these that came with the 2nd Edition box (I may even have the other intact sprue somewhere), and look pretty much textbook on the blue/white background :-)
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