Crimson Fists Sternguard test mini

Good evening, another productive week on the painting front and hopefully I'll have a squad of my new Sternguard to field at gaming club tomorrow.  I intend to airbrush the basecoat on the Sternguard because it's a lot quicker and I'm starting to feel more confident using the airbrush.  However I painted up one 'test' piece this evening using brushes to check it all hangs together.  I've gone for a white helmet on my veteran, which seems different to the consensus when it comes to Crimson Fists- just do a Google image search of CF Veterans and you'll see for yourself.  I've made the call to give my vet's white helmets, because it looks cool and will help set them apart from their comrades in the battle companies, and of course the Crimson Fists are adherents of the Codex Astartes too (more or less)...

A little added bling in the form of gold edging on the pauldrons and a splash of gold on the weapons will help bridge the gap between my standard troops and the much, much blinging Master Pedro and Captain Jorge.

The whole helmet off thing strikes me as a little crazy fluff wise since it makes a 8 foot tall walking tank into a soft target.  If I was a chapter master then any marine taking his helmet off during battle would be busted back to the scout company.  That said, artistic licence and all, I get to paint a cool beard and the odd bare headed marine looks good on the table, maybe his autosenses have gone wrong and the adeptus mechanicus are too busy figuring out how to wire a plug.

I'm waiting on my Forgeworld transfer sheet, my first tactical squad and my terminators have freehand insignia that look ok, but they were done at serious cost to my sanity.  My previous endeavours with transfers are mixed, so I've ordered some stuff called Micro-Sol which apparently will make life a lot easier and the transfers will look good... we will see.

I also need to find a new lacquer after having a minor disaster with Testors Dullcote, which started dissolving the paint on my newly completed drop pod, luckily i noticed quickly and was able to fix the damage but I'm trying to get to the bottom of the Dullcote issue which prior to the Drop Pod debacle has been excellent for protecting my minis.... I've got two pots of Vallejo acrylic varnish on order, varnish is not as durable as lacquer but i think also less likely to dissolve my paintwork.