25th anniversary 40K mini

I picked up one of the Warhammer 40K 25th anniversary mini's from my FLGS http://www.ironhavengames.co.uk/ when they were released. Thankfully my finecast sculpt was actually very good, just the usual flash lines to clean up, no malformed parts and no bubbling that I could see.

I want to be able to display the model on its presentation base or on a normal round base for gaming if required. This means magnets. I have drilled to pin holes to guide the mini in and keep it more secure.

On the underside of the mini are also corresponding magnets and the pins.

So the assembled mini sits correctly.

On to getting some paint on him. I have decided to go for an Imperial Fist colour scheme rather than the expected Crimson Fists. I like the challenge of painting yellow and I have in the back of my mind the possibility of building an Imperial Fist list at some point. The only challenge to the mini this means is that I will have to fill in the "Crimson Fists" name on the banner when I come to painting it. No biggy.

The colour scheme. I have undercoated with Vallejo Grey Polyurethane primer. I love this stuff, it goes on silky smooth through the airbrush and preserves all of the details.  I have then airbrushed the whole mini in Vallejo Game Colour Plague Brown. After that I used VGC Sunblast Yellow applied at a 45 degree angle to create the main tone. Then VGC Bald Moon yellow was airbrushed almost vertically to give a stronger highlight. Looking at the resultant finish I think I will go back afterwards and do something I haven't done since I bought my airbrush. I am going to apply an extreme highlight. I think a very light yellow extreme highlight will lift the model a bit and once it has been varnished and then oil washed should settle into a lovely finish.

The base has been PVA'd and a couple of grades of sand applied to fill the whole base out. The same colours have been applied to the damaged helmet and shoulder pad. I will battle damage them more later.