+ inload: Painting the Blood Angels medic+

 + Medic! +

Upon the seed of the Blood Angels there lies the ancient curse of mutation, a foulness which cannot be seen, which is covered over by the grace, intelligence, and high achievements which are the proud boasts of this most noble of Chapters. Yet the fire that burns behind the eyes of these sons of Sanguinius is bright with a thirst that only the blood of man can slake. Aye, it would be wise to but whisper the name that comes from times heavy with age and fear, a name which echoes in the march of the Blood Angels...

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+ Apothecary Euthan Sansavino (Varchiel 2:06) +

+ The inspiration and build process for this model are covered in this inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]; so as with Techmarine Mirandola, I'll concentrate here on the painting decisions. +

+ I went back and forth on the overall scheme, toying with a vertical red/white split; but ended up plumping for the scheme on the original medic from WD139 – white armour with red shoulder pads. This was mainly because – unlike the techmarine – the base model was very different from the inspiration. The robe, back banner instead of big hand-borne banner, the pose... all broke away from the old model. The paint scheme was therefore important to use to create some consistency. +

+ I tackled most of the equipment in a similar way to avoid the model becoming busy. A nice neutral layer of Charadon Granite was used for the hand flamer, the wrist-mounted narthecium, holster and pouches. The metallics were similarly tackled in a cohesive way, with wet-in-wet washes of Leviathan Purple and Seraphim Sepia over Ironbreaker. +

+ A little bit of freehand detailing on the holster, chainsword and text on the shoulder pad scroll add some interest, as does the blood spatter. The latter was achieved with a mix of brown and red. +

+ The robe didn't come out quite how I wanted – I was aiming for a softer, worn leather effect. I may need to go back with some further glazes of sepia ink. I don't think the result here is bad; but it's a bit busy – almost reminiscent of camouflage, which wasn't the intention. +

+ I am, however, pleased with the reduction of the big banner. Having freehanded all the other material in the army, I thought it'd be a cop-out to do something different for the banner. The key elements are faithfully reproduced, and I've turned the row of nine blood drops into three groups of three – a decision that serendipitously proved to echo the tweak I'd made to the Third company symbol across the army. Sometimes happy accidents turn up! +

+ I changed the banner top blood drop into a blue jewel; symbolising Sanguinius' tears of sorrow. This was mainly to add a contrasting accent and cause the viewer's eye to flick back and forth between here and the marine's eye-lenses, taking in the banner a bit more. + 

+ The white armour came out nicely, I thought. I used a Payne's grey ink wash to build up the shading; in much the same way as I use the purple paint and sepia ink to shade the red [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. +

+ Those who have kept their opticalinput augmitters at full will spot that there's a large blood drop honorific on his shin; something absent in the composite image above. I added this at the last minute at the suggestion of a reader. While I like it in and of itself, I am rather kicking myself that I overlaid the blood spatter, which I was pleased with. The two rather fight here, I think. +

+ One final shot of the apothecary/sanguinary priest/medic... and that leaves just three model to complete: the Chaplain, Librarian and Land Speeder. +

+ inload: Blood Angels apothecary +

+ Apothecary of the Third Host +

+ Following on from the reimagined techmarine [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], here's the army's medic – a Blood Angel apothecary. +

+ Whereas the techmarine was an attempt to copy the pose of a classic as closely as possible, here I've adhered less closely to the original model – though I have aimed to make it clearly reminiscent of the original through details. +

The original

+ There were two core reasons to my decision here. Firstly, that banner. It is lovely; but it always struck me as odd that the medic held it. Secondly as with the techmarine, I wasn't too fond of the original sculpt. In fact, besides the detail on the pads, none of the classic medics really had much that made them scream 'medical officer'. With a different scheme, they could easily be just another soldier in the line. Such aesthetics are great for the real world – after all, you probably don't want officers and specialists standing out – but I like the greebling that 40k adds to figures. +

+ My interpretation saw me keep the chainsword armament, mark VI armour and slightly left-weighted posture. The banner was reduced to a back banner, and I gave him some robes of office along with some apothecary equipment. He's intended to be a halfway house between the current sculpts and the classic one; so he shares details with both. While he has a forearm mounted reductor and belt accessories, his backpack is a standard one, for example. Similarly, his helm has no additional optics like the modern sculpts. I did toy with that, but decided that it overlapped too much with the techmarine. +

+ The pose is relaxed but alert. In losing the banner, I had the option of giving him a hand weapon. I opted not to do this, as I felt it made him look too much like a front-lines fighter. An open hand felt more appropriate, and nods to the original. +

+ Another nod to the original sculpt is the hand flamer. Clipped off to allow the medic to hold the giant banner, I thought it would be a fun detail to return his weapon to him after thirty years! +

+ Dark Angel Master Lazarus was the donor kit for the front of the body. Since I didn't want to include a full cape, it necessitated sculpting the back half of the torso and his arse. The detail is mostly hidden – which is forgiving. My sculpting's not the best, so it's nice to practise on areas like this which are not hugely visible in the finished model. The cape that he originally wore swooped over the leg you can see here, necessitating a bit of repair work on the pistol grip and holster, which is not sculpted in the original. Similarly, I filled in the semi-circles on the corners of the greaves left by the removal of the ankle details. I don't always do this, as I quite like the clean mark it creates, but here it felt right to clean up a bit more than usual. +

+ This detail shows the banner top that I originally had on him. The characters and sergeants have, thus far, all had unique banner tops. A comment from cowboyjesus on Instagram suggested that I match the banner top of the original – and who am I to reject advice from the (rootin' tootin' gunslingin') Son of Man? +

+ I think the suggestion improves the result, tying it closer to the original, so thanks for the idea. The banner top here is still unique – the wings are carved from another banner top and attached to the blood drop from the haloed original. +

+ Theoretical +

+ In losing the big banner, the figure becomes less of a focal point for the army, so one of my first additions will be a dedicated Ancient. These specialist banner bearers didn't exist in the Rogue Trader period in any 'crunch' terms, but since they exist now it seems a fitting addition. Here, the anonymity of the original sculpts should prove a benefit – perhaps I'll create a banner bearer that matches the pose of the original. In this way Tim Prow's model from the GW studio army will prove the seed of two new figures. +